Your guide to a healthier perspective of life
Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” What we do in practice is how we play during the game. It matters less about what you’re doing for the game than it does how you’ve prepared for it. Treat every day like it has meaning. Treat every practice as if it were a game. Only then, when you are repeatedly practicing excellence, will you become a top performer.
“Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration. Sometimes its built on catastrophe.” –Sumner Redstone
We make the biggest changes, the most meaningful changes, when we suffer from something being broken. If everything was going well, or if there wasn’t enough pain that we had to experience, chances are that we would continue with the status quo. It’s easier not to change. It’s less scary to deal with the known, even if we know that there has to be a easier way to get a consistently better result.
This is exactly what Sumner refers to in the above quote. When you’ve finally had your “I’ve had it moment” and get mad about the results that aren’t meeting your standards, you will make a change. It is the changes made from your frustrations and failures that can lead to your greatest success.
Make sure to put everything into perspective. If you didn’t go through those hardships, if you didn’t have to overcome those trials and tribulations, you would probably just be coasting through life. Build your foundation on the failures that you have learned from and overcome. That is how success is made.
According to Forbes, as of 2019, 78% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. That means that if they lost their income for a month that they would be in trouble. If they lost their income for several months (whether due to job loss or injury), if they don’t have disability insurance, they could be at risk of getting their electric or water turned off, having their car be repossessed, or even having their home foreclosed on.
How can you set yourself up to avoid these scenarios? First, get your expenses under control. Second, make sure you earn more than you spend and bank/invest the rest. Third, take care of yourself mentally and physically by eating the right foods and exercising regularly. And lastly, be helpful to the company that you work for. If you earn the company more money than they’re paying you, they would be smart to keep you.
For today, let’s focus on the first two items listed above, as they are easier to connect the dots to our financial success…
If you live by the principles of paying yourself first (always setting aside money to invest/save before anything else) and living below your means (no, you can’t always get what you want), you will be able to amass wealth and eventually stop living paycheck-to-paycheck.
The truth is that you can probably make due with what you are currently earning. Most people live paycheck-to-paycheck not because they don’t earn enough, but usually, it’s because they are not disciplined with their spending habits. Don’t make excuses that you can’t do “x” (get out of debt, build an emergency fund, or invest for the future) because you don’t earn enough. Get rid of that victim mindset. If you really aren’t earning enough, then do something about it. Ask for a raise and then show why you’ve earned it. Learn a new skill that will improve your job performance. Pick up overtime hours, a second job, or start a side hustle for extra cash. And if none of those work, you can always your profession.
The bottom line is that you should know what your monthly income is and you should have a good idea of what your monthly expenses are. Use those numbers, then live a disciplined lifestyle to save the difference for an emergency. Because life happens to us. Emergencies will come, so when they do, you’ll be prepared. If you have money saved up and aren’t living paycheck-to-paycheck, you won’t feel as much stress (compared to if you had no emergency fund) and can make a better decision when under duress.
One of the keys to being able to build wealth is by NOT thinking like everyone else. Get off of social media, don’t watch tv, and stop going to the store unnecessarily. It’s ok to not have certain luxuries. As Dave Ramsey says, “live like no one else (now) so that later you can live and give like no one else.” If you choose to “sacrifice” a little now, to be different, to be “weird,” it will pay off in the future. Don’t be afraid to be different. Don’t be afraid to live your life in a way that others aren’t willing to. Make decisions based on what you feel is right, instead of doing what you think everyone else is doing/will approve of. You will be better for it in the long run.
“Don’t rejoice when your enemies fall; don’t be happy when they stumble.” – Proverbs 24:17
Life is not a zero sum game – at least not always. For you to win, it doesn’t mean that somebody has to lose. It’s ok that the competition is doing well – it will force you to improve, make better decisions, and provide a better result for your customers. It’s great that your friend is “living the dream.” Instead of being jealous, why don’t you work at improving your situation so that you could live the dream too?
Life is better when you’re trying to find win-win situations.
Well, it’s that time of year again – a time to look back on what you’ve accomplished this past year and to look forward to what you’d like to accomplish next year. It’s an exciting time, a time to get a fresh start.
While I don’t like the terminology of a “New Year’s Resolution,” I am a huge fan of setting goals. It’s basically the same thing, but the goals should be specific and not limited to only setting them up at the beginning of the year, whereas many resolutions are vague and only happen once per year.
There are several categories which you should have goals for. They are goals with your family, your spiritual connection/community involvement, your physical health, intellectual health, career-oriented goals, financial goals, and social goals.
So, if we are setting goals in the seven key areas of our lives, the question now becomes, how do we know what goals to set? And how do we set ourselves up to actually achieve these goals?
1) Start with the end in mind. If you haven’t decided on what you’re working towards or why you’re working towards that goal, you’re going to end up with mediocre results. You have to know what you want and have a strong enough “why” to persevere through the tough times to achieve your goal.
The end goal is like the destination on a map. If you know where you want to go, you can look at the map to see the quickest route to get there, and then take that route. Without knowing where you want to go, the map is useless.
Using another analogy, the end goal is the picture on the box of the 1000 piece puzzle you have to put together. Without seeing what final picture looks like, it’s going to be near impossible to get that desired result.
2) After you’ve determined what your goal is, you’ll probably need to fine-tune it. The next thing that you’ll need to do is make sure that it is specific. If you have a vague goal, you will not be clear on what it takes to achieve your goals.
3) Make sure that your goal is measurable. You should be able to track your progress…if you can’t quantify your goal, it’s probably not a well-written goal.
4) Set up “check-ins” to see how you are progressing towards your goals at least once per quarter (ideally you’ll have weekly or monthly check-ins, while keeping your goals front of mind daily).
If you’re like me, you might be a procrastinator. But if you’ve set the correct yearly goals, it will be too late to hit those goals if you start working towards them in November. If you are able to hit those goals in a month, then you know two things: a) that you’re capable of anything if you set your mind to it; and b) that you didn’t set lofty enough yearly goals if you can achieve them within one month of focused attention.
5) Have an accountability partner. Tell someone your goals. Or split it up where you tell a different person a goal from one of your spokes on the wheel of life and ask them if they are willing to hold you accountable to reaching those goals. Let them know how important it is for you to reach those goals, why it is important, and give them permission to call you out if you’re off track from hitting those goals.
That’s basic goal-setting in a nutshell. Now go out there, set up some goals, and figure out how you’re going to achieve them to make 2020 your best year yet!