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You work harder than most people.
Yet, despite your hard work, you have financial setbacks. It’s during these setbacks that you question whether you’ll reach financial success.
Because you want what most people are too scared to start, you feel alone. Fortunately, there are people who’ve already achieved the financial success you desire. Even if you can’t meet these people, you can still learn from the habits that contributed to their success.
Are you curious to know what it takes to be successful?
If so, here are some habits that’ll help you on your journey to financial success.
Being Selfish Leads To Financial Success
If you’re not healthy you can’t do anything.
You’ve learned how to be healthy through your parents and at school. You know that you need to eat vegetables, sleep 8 hours, go to the gym, and so on. But, despite knowing this–are you healthy?
Data shows that less than 5% of people are physically active for more than 30 minutes each day. You can put all the excuses for why you don’t have time, but that won’t help you. Instead, focus on your health and set time for it daily.
For example, wake up an hour earlier to go to the gym before going to work. Or, take your gym clothes and go immediately after work. Aim to go at least 2–3 times to the gym per week.
Wealthy people invest a lot of their time and money to maintain their health. They understand they won’t live forever and want to maximize their time to do the things they love. So should you.
Choose Something To Stand For
“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” – Mark Twain
Anyone who’s reached financial success didn’t do so by accident.
They had a purpose.
Take a moment to think about why you want to reach financial success:
Do you want to donate more money to the less fortunate? Do you want to spend more time with your family?
Knowing your purpose is important because it’ll help you stay focused. To avoid losing sight of your purpose create a vision board. Create a collage of pictures that represent your ideal lifestyle.
For example, if you want to travel more, have pictures of different places around the world. If you want to own a business, include pictures of brands that inspire you. Once you finish creating your board put it someplace you’d view it each day.
View your vision board each morning to stay reminded of what you’re working towards to. When you’re tempted to quit this will help you stay committed.
Create Audacious Financial Goals
Despite having a clear purpose with a lot of drive, you need a clear direction.
You wouldn’t walk into the store and demand to buy the best laptop. You’d first review your options and become clear on what you’d be using your laptop for. Like this scenario, you cant set a large goal and hope to achieve it.
You’d need to be intentional and set SMART goals.
Once you’ve set a realistic goal, break this goal into micro-goals (smaller goals.) That’s so you can track your progress daily and gauge if you’re heading in the right direction.
To break down a goal use a tool like Workflowy. For example, if you want to earn $500 from your freelance writing business–your first step would find a client. Then, your next step would be to do email outreach.
You’d repeat this process until you can’t break your goal down further and track it using a journal. Each morning write down which tasks you’d like to complete, and review your progress at the end of your day.
Upgrade Your Environment To Be Productive
It’s not enough to want to be successful.
If you’re distracted you’ll delay reaching your goals.
Take social media for example–how are you currently controlling it? If you’re not disabling notifications, then your attention is being robbed.
On average, people spend over 2 hours on their smartphones. Aside from this, most people consider themselves great multi-taskers. In today’s fast-paced world you need any little advantage you can get.
Here are some ideas to help you get started: 1. Turn off all notifications on your smartphone 2. Prep gym clothes the night before 2. Write down which tasks you’d like to complete the night before 3. Wake up 1–2 hours earlier to work on your most important tasks
Any extra step that makes it easier for you to succeed will make all the difference. When you’re not motivated to go to the gym it’ll be easier to get up knowing you’ve prepared your clothes. And, if you turn off your smartphone’s notifications you’ll get more work done.
Now think about how you can set yourself up for success daily.
Start Giving More Excuses
Instead of doubting for why you won’t be successful, challenge yourself for why you will.
Ruminating doubtful thoughts in your mind will only delay your success. But, the problem isn’t your negative thoughts. After all, it’s near impossible to only have positive thoughts.
The problem is believing your negative thoughts. One way to combat these thoughts is to label them as they come. For example, don’t say “I can’t succeed”, or say “I’m having negative thoughts about not succeeding.”
This helps you isolate your thoughts so that you’re not labeling yourself with them. This way you’ll take things less personally and not dwell on negative experiences.
Learn From The Top Dogs
Don’t surround yourself only with people who think and do the same things you do.
Why?
These people won’t help you grow, although that’s not their intention. Instead, surround yourself with people who are ahead of you. You’ll force yourself to step out of your comfort zone and grow exponentially.
People who’ve reached financial success learned from others ahead of them. Why would you spend years learning something when you could learn it faster from someone else?
Often the people who’ll help you grow won’t come to you–you’ll need to come to them. Attend local meetups or conferences on a topic that interests you. Do a simple Google search for “top conferences for X” and you’ll find ones worth attending.
Once you do find these people don’t just ask them to be part of your circle. First show interest, then look for ways to offer value. Eventually, you’ll build a strong network of people who’ll speed up your path to success.
Work On Interesting Projects
“If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” –anonymous
Most successful people have built their wealth doing something they love.
Think about it, if you love to do something, odds are that you’d perform well at it. Do a self-evaluation to see where you stand.
Here are some questions to ask: 1. Do I enjoy going to work each morning? 2. What would I enjoy doing for little to no pay?
If you feel stuck randomly pick something that interests you–be curious. Many entrepreneurs stumbled upon their dream job after trying several they’d hated first.
If you’re working a job you hate, define what your ideal career looks like. And if your perfect job doesn’t exist, go create it. Building a side hustle after you’re finished working your full-time job is a great way to do this.
Most entrepreneurs would agree that building a business is one of the best ways to build wealth.
Set A Limit To Your Options
“You win by working hard, making tough decisions, and building coalitions.”–John Engler
Successful people are decisive.
You won’t build wealth by choosing 10 different things. Instead, focus on one or two options.
For example, don’t try to work on five different businesses at once. You’ll do an average job and won’t commit to anything. But, if you focus on one idea you can fully commit and increase your odds of being successful.
Also, be decisive with your time by saying “no” more often.
Whenever you say “yes” to something, you’re saying “no” to something else. You shouldn’t always say “no” but you need to prioritize your schedule or everyone else will do this for you.
Use tools like Atracker to track your time and set daily goals. This way you’re working towards something important and making better use of your time.
Remove Bad Thoughts From Your Mind
Your journey to reaching financial success is a long one.
Because of this, you’ll need to maintain a positive mindset. You can’t achieve this with willpower alone.
So how can you do this?
By taking time out of your busy schedule each day to meditate.
You don’t need to be an expert at meditating to enjoy its benefit. You’ll gradually see the positive effects as you keep improving. Watch tutorials on Youtube or use apps to guide you.
Building wealth is a stressful goal. That’s why most people settle for an average life. By meditating, your mind will be better equipped to handle the challenges that come your way.
Be A Master Of Your Emotions
Does having a high IQ define your odds at being successful?
To an extent it does, but IQ alone won’t make you successful. You need to master your emotional intelligence. Once you do you’ll interact better with others and handle emotional situations better.
There are countless stories of entrepreneurs who’ve reached financial success, despite not having a college education. These entrepreneurs had the emotional intelligence to build strong relationships and understand themselves better.
To improve your emotional intelligence, write down your thoughts in a journal. This will help you understand your feelings and make improvements where needed. You can also ask others for their honest feedback about their interaction with you.
This isn’t easy since the truth can hurt your ego, but it’s necessary if you hope to improve. To take criticism less personally, value knowing the truth. If you shift your mindset this way you’ll take criticism as feedback to become better.
Avoid Unnecessary Failure At All Costs
“Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.”― Otto von Bismarck
To be successful you need to be an expert at learning from others.
There are no shortcuts to financial success, but learning from others saves you time. You’d avoid fumbling with something others have already found a solution for.
Here are some ways to learn from others: 1. Listening to Podcasts 2. Reading books 3. Buying courses 4. Attending conferences 5. Hiring mentors
Often, you’ll need to invest your money to learn from other people’s mistakes. But, the time you’d spend fumbling yourself is worth the cost.
Never Stop Learning New Things
“Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75.”–Benjamin Franklin
Learning never stops.
Why?
Because your current wealth-building strategies may be obsolete in the next few years–negatively impacting your wealth. To avoid this you need to constantly learn new business and financial strategies.
Learn by reading books and taking action on what you learn. But, don’t settle for reading the “top X” books on a given subject. Go a step further by choosing something that’s currently relevant to your situation.
For example, if you’re looking to reach more customers for your business, read a marketing book. You’ll grasp the material better and can immediately put in place what you’d learn–having a deeper understanding.
Other ways include listening to Podcasts and taking courses on niche subjects. Learning won’t always be sexy, but it’ll help you stay ahead.
Love The Journey More Than Anything
The harsh reality is that most people won’t reach financial success.
Not because they’re not capable but because they quit somewhere along the way.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=PND7QS4dia0%3Ffeature%3Doembed
That’s why it’s important that you love the journey more than anything. Because no matter how many times you fall–you’ll always get back up.
Instead of obsessing over financial success, chose to do things that make you happy. By doing this you’d build wealth faster and enjoy life more. I haven’t reached financial independence, but I’m learning to enjoy my journey more.
Don’t try to build wealth alone, learn from those who are already in the position you’d one day hope to be in. You now know a few strategies to help you along your wealth-building journey. Now go create your version of financial success.
