When it comes to success, sometimes quitting is for winners.
I’m willing to bet there are a number of poor money habits and bad philosophies that held you back in the past year.
What if you resolved to give them up once and for all?
No counting calories or cutting out cookies required, just quitting the things that are holding you back in life.
Stick with me for a few minutes and I’ll show you five things that those struggling to achieve financial freedom need to quit, to make 2018 a game-changing year.
Settle in and grab a cookie or two…because, hey, you can!
Stop wingin’ it
Most people drift thru life financially. They never get serious about wealth building, and no surprise, they don’t build wealth. In my experience, wealth building is an “all or nothing” thing. You’re either committed to it or you’re not.
Here’s some million dollar advice – Do the opposite of most people. Most people struggle financially, so if you just do the opposite of most people, you’ll get ahead in life.
While you’re at it, get ahead of the game in 2018 and plan out your finances to guide you month to month. As you already know, some months are busy and some are slow. In either case, it’s best to have an idea of what you’re going to spend, save and invest, instead of addressing those important tasks at the last minute.
Only you know what really matters to you in this life. Never settle by doing an amateur’s job pursuing your goals. You owe it to yourself. Don’t look back knowing that you didn’t give it your all.
Once you fully commit, you’ll make the sacrifices necessary to pursue your dreams. It won’t matter what others will think, do or say. What will matter is that you’re doing what you were meant to do.
Quit saving inconsistently
Make 2018 the year you finally establish a consistent plan to save and invest. When you save at the same time every paycheck or every month, you build a routine and routines turn into habits. And good habits turn into the ability to live the good life.
Don’t leave saving money to the whims of the moment or some future time when you may or may not have the discipline to do the right thing. I always say that money should have a purpose, because money without a purpose will find its way into someone else’s wallet –the shoe store owner’s wallet, the boat dealer’s wallet, and the electronic store’s wallet. You get the idea.
Nothing is more important to the growth of your net worth than saving money. Saved money can be used for investment capital, and investment capital is how you turn an income into a fortune. So, savings is literally the mother of financial freedom.
And, if you invest the time to create, and stick to, a savings plan you can get on with your day without the nagging feeling that you should be putting money away. I can’t imagine that anyone who wants to be financially free could somehow not feel guilty about random spending on things, without having gotten their savings in order first. Free your mind and free yourself – save regularly this year.
Stop blaming everything on others
At times, life will test you beyond your limits. You’ll be left wondering what prompted things to go so far south. And when you’re standing there amidst the ashes, you’ll have the opportunity to either play the victim of your circumstances or rise above it. Whether it be politicians, the economy or just a stupid boss, others may in fact make things difficult for you. But, what good does it do to focus your attention on the scapegoats of this world? Instead, decide what’s worth focusing on and what’s worth forgetting.
Successful people know that they are responsible for their life, no matter their starting point, weaknesses, and past failures and also what’s currently happening “out there”.
Realizing that you are responsible for what happens next in your life is both frightening and exciting. And when you do, that becomes the only way you can become successful, because excuses limit and prevent us from growing personally and professionally.
Own your life; no one else will.
Stop being “invisible” to wealth and success.
It’s a lot easier to play it safe and not to make the necessary changes required of success. It’s a lot easier to just stay on the sidelines. But a funny thing happens to people who do this – they stay invisible to wealth.
Give up on playing small in life. Playing small does not serve the world or you. If you never try and take great opportunities, or allow your dreams to become realities, you will never unleash your true potential. That is to say, that when you don’t make changes to grow in the direction of your dreams, you’ll never know what you could have been. And the world will never benefit from what you could have achieved.
So build a voice for your ideas and what you want to achieve, don’t be afraid to fail, and certainly don’t be afraid to succeed. “Think you are weak, think you lack what it takes, think you will lose, think you are second class – think this way and you are doomed to mediocrity. Those who believe they can move mountains, do. Those who believe they can’t, cannot. Belief triggers the power to do.” ― David J. Schwartz, Magic of Thinking Big
Stop believing in fairy tales
The question I’m most asked is “what’s the one thing I can do to become wealthy?” One thing? If only it were that simple. My answer is always the same – “Magic bullet success is a myth. So is overnight success. So is get rich quick.”
It seems like every day there’s someone arriving onto the wealth-building scene and are talking a fast storm of nonsense, with their personalities, products, seminars, books, whatever – all with one goal in mind – to make you famously rich overnight.
But here is something they rarely talk about: Patience.
We live in a time of almost instant information. There’s really no need to break a sweat to learn something. It’s at your fingertips, 24×7, 365 days a year. Look, just because we can do things much faster than our forefathers, thanks to the tools and technology at hand, doesn’t mean that there’s somehow a super-fast highway, Autobahn-type of road, now for success. It’s a daydream to believe that the steps required of success can be skipped, where you can just jump in line to the front, based on some talking head trying to sell you something, that will only make him rich.
To build wealth takes time and hard work (a lot of it). This isn’t meant to discourage, but actually quite the opposite.
Sure, there are stories about “overnight success”, but I’d argue that those (if they really, truly are an overnight success) are the extreme exceptions to the rule.
If you dig a little deeper, you might realize that these overnight successes were years in the making. There is more than meets the eye.
Patience isn’t an excuse to wait for it to come to you like some “secret manifestation” where you think of money and it just magically appears. You have to work your butt off. Those that want it will go get it. Those that don’t, won’t.
Successful people know that making small continual improvement every day, compounded over time, is the path to success. The work is the way. That is why you should plan for the future, but focus on the day that’s ahead of you, and improve just 1% every day.
Researchers tell us that mid-January is when most people abandon their resolutions and by Valentine’s Day, most people have totally forgotten that they even made resolutions! So instead of making resolutions that you won’t adhere to, try leaving a few of the things mentioned above behind in 2017 Here’s to a prosperous and financially free 2018!
Be free. Nothing else is worth it.
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P.S.S. What’s this got to do with you? If you don’t take action, absolutely nothing. But remember this – most people fail to achieve what they want in life simply because they never start. There’s nothing for sale on this blog or in my newsletter. I just provide actionable advice for free. Lastly, if your definition of achieving success cannot tolerate even the slightest inconvenience, then you are not cut-out for success. What do you have to lose? Subscribe today.
Ready for more tips on how to achieve the free life? Check-out more articles from the blog archives below:
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You Only Harvest What You Plant. What Seeds Have You Planted?
