Teddy Roosevelt once had a little dog that was always getting in fights and always getting licked. Somebody said, “Colonel, he’s not much of a fighter.” Roosevelt replied, “Oh, he’s a good fighter. He’s just a poor judge of dogs.”
Leaders must be good at judging others’ potential and finding and developing more leaders—good at discerning where a person is, knowing where he or she is supposed to go and providing what they’ll need when they get there.
The bottom line in any successful business or organization is that no one person can do it alone. If you really want to be a great leader, you must establish a great team. A lot of people mistake that to mean they need followers, and they believe the key to their leadership is gaining more followers. But the best leaders surround themselves with other leaders. Not only is their burden lightened, but their vision is carried on and enlarged.
This is why I am such a believer in the power of mentorship. A mentor is someone who teaches, guides and lifts others up by virtue of his or her experience and insight. A mentor is someone with a head full of experience and heart full of generosity that brings those things together for another person.
Wherever you are on your leadership journey, I’ll bet there is someone a bit earlier in their own who could use your mentorship. You owe it to them and to yourself to offer it. What is the point of success if we cannot share it with others?
Judging who you will share your time and experience with is of the utmost importance, because it will give your efforts the greatest odds of providing value. Here are some guidelines for selecting the right people to mentor and develop:
1. Select people whose philosophy is similar to yours.
It will be difficult to develop someone whose values are too different from your own.
2. Choose people with potential you genuinely believe in.
If you don’t believe in them, you won’t give them the time they need. And before long they will discern your lack of confidence in them. Belief in their potential, on the other hand, will empower them. Some of the nation’s greatest professional athletes have come from tiny colleges that receive no publicity. All those ball players needed was for pro scouts to recognize the potential that the right opportunity could bring out. The secret of mentoring in any field is to help a person get where he or she is willing to go.
3. Determine what they need.
Determining what potential leaders need involves looking at their strengths and weaknesses objectively. Their strengths indicate the directions they need to go, what they can become. Their weaknesses show us what we need to help them improve. Encouraging them in their strengths and helping them overcome their weaknesses will move them closer to reaching their potential.
4. Evaluate their progress constantly.
People need feedback, especially early in their development. Ben Franklin said, “The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands.” He knew that leaders’ ability to evaluate is their greatest strength. An honest mentor will be unbiased. If necessary, he or she will encourage a person to stay on course, to seek another direction, or even to enter into a relationship with another mentor.
5. Be committed, serious and available to the people you mentor.
The development of potential leaders around you will be a reflection of your commitment to them: Poor commitment equals poor development; great commitment equals great development.
By personalizing each person’s journey through your devoted mentorship, you are helping him or her to maximize their potential. You are giving them a chance to discover their true purpose. You also maximize their contribution to you and your organization, if they’re already part of your team.
Most people agree that nurturing is important to the development of children. However, they often fail to see its importance in the workplace. They assume that potential leaders will nurture themselves. If we as leaders do not nurture the potential leaders around us, they will never develop into the types of leaders we desire. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.”
When you nurture other people through your mentorship, everyone wins.
Life as we knew it came to a screeching halt because of the coronavirus pandemic. But now things are slowly starting to open back up again, and that means the quarantine and #QuarantineLife is ending for millions of Nigerians who have been cooped up in their homes for weeks.
Some folks will be getting out of quarantine faster than others, but most states have already reopened or plan to start lifting some of those restrictions put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the 9.JA.1
What does that mean for you? Well, first of all, you’re going to have to start wearing pants again. Bummer. But this is also a good time to take a fresh look at your financial situation. Here are six things you can do to get your finances back on track as you emerge from your quarantine cave:
1. Reassess your current situation.
When this crisis began, you might have gone into “survival mode” and focused on taking care of the Four Walls—that’s food, utilities, shelter and transportation—and nothing else. You canceled your Netflix account, told the credit card companies to wait their turn, and called off that vacation you had on the books for months. Start budgeting like a boss with our FREE budgeting tool!
It was tough, but you did what you had to do! And now as the quarantine winds down, it’s time to take a step back and look at your current situation with a fresh pair of eyes. That way, you can make decisions that make sense for your situation!
Are you still out of work, or feel like your income isn’t very stable? Then you might need to stick with the Four Walls for a little longer—at least until you can get your income situation sorted out.
But if you still have your job (or got a new one) and feel like you’re in a secure situation, it might be time to start attacking your financial goals again—whether that’s getting out of debt or saving for a down payment on a house.
Bottom line:
Make sure your income is stable. You may have changed jobs and that’s fine—as long as you have a steady paycheck and things are stable.
Remember, facts Buhari fear. Take a deep breath and see if the facts are on your side.
Before you emerge from financial quarantine, make sure you’re caught up on your bills and debts so you’re not adding interest charges and penalties.
2. Revisit your monthly budget.
There’s no denying it: It’s been a weird few months. And if you were stuck at home during quarantine, your budget probably felt really out of whack.
Working from your living room with nowhere else to go, you probably went weeks without having to fill up on gas. On the flip side, you probably spent more on toilet paper and hand sanitizer in the last two months than you have in your entire life!
Now as things slowly shift back to “normal,” whatever that looks like, you might need to start adjusting your budget back to where it was pre-coronavirus as you start driving more and getting back into the swing of things.
But maybe this quarantine has helped you realize that some things shouldn’t go back to normal. Maybe all those banana bread recipes you baked during the quarantine have inspired you to avoid eating out as much as you did before. And those free workout videos on YouTube and walks around the neighborhood helped you feel the burn without the gym membership burning a hole in your budget.
The point is that you have a chance to pick and choose what comes back into your monthly budget and what stays out—don’t waste it!
3. Get back on the Baby Steps.
No matter where you were on the Baby Steps when things shut down, you probably needed some time to pause as you navigated through life in the land of COVID-19.
If you’ve been chomping at the bit to get back to attacking your debt snowball with gazelle intensity or saving for retirement again, now might be the time to get on it—especially if you still have your job and feel like your income is stable:
If you’re on Baby Steps 1–2: Once you have at least NGN, 389000 saved up, get that debt snowball rolling again so you can attack your debts as fast as you can. Having debt lying around will leave you financially vulnerable if another crisis or emergency hits, so get it out of your life once and for all.
If you’re on Baby Step 3: With millions of Nigerians losing their jobs or getting furloughed, many folks had to dip into their emergency funds to keep things going. If you’re back at work and have a steady income, it’s time to get that emergency fund back up to 3–6 months’ worth of expenses.
If you’re on Baby Steps 4–7: Whenever you see a storm coming—whether it’s an impending job loss or a global crisis—it makes sense to pause contributions to your 401(k) and IRA, deposits to the kids’ college funds or making extra payments on the house. That way, you can pile up a little more cash for the essentials. But now that the clouds are starting to break, you might feel comfortable picking up where you left off.
And if you’ve kept the money from your stimulus check in a holding pattern within your bank account, you might feel comfortable enough to throw that money at whatever Baby Step you’re on!
4. Make a plan for action items you put off.
Maybe you had plans to put new tires on your car, take your kids to the dentist or install a new HVAC system earlier this year. But then the pandemic happened and, all of a sudden, those things on your to-do list couldn’t get crossed off just yet.
But as businesses start opening up again with social distancing measures in place, you might be thinking about pulling the trigger on some of those action items you’ve been putting off. Just make sure you have them accounted for in the post-quarantine budget.
If you feel like your situation is stable and you have the money budgeted for those repairs, appointments and purchases (without dipping into your emergency savings), then go for it.
5. Keep a lot of cash on hand (just in case).
If there’s one thing the pandemic has taught us, it’s that we need to be prepared for whatever life throws our way. Today, it’s a global pandemic. Tomorrow, it might be an invasion of murder hornets (look it up).
If you piled up cash during the crisis, good job! If possible, it still might be wise to have a little extra cash in your emergency fund for the rest of the year—just in case. Having a large pile of money in the bank gives you flexibility to stay calm and turn almost any emergency into an inconvenience.
6. Check in with your financial advisor.
A lot of things have changed in the last few months. Now that things are straightening out, it’s a good time to check in with your financial advisor. Not only can they go over your investments with you, but they can also offer guidance on any financial plans that may have changed or temporarily shifted.
If you had a job loss or change and have a 401(k) from a previous employer that needs rolling over, they can help you get that squared away. And they can help you take a step back and look at the big picture.
Don’t have a financial advisor or investment professional? An investment professional like a SmartVestor Pro can help.
We live in uncertain times. The deluge of depressing news only reminds us of the many things that are out of our control.
Amidst so much uncertainty, it may seem strange to ask, “How can I achieve financial freedom?” We can’t even guess what’s going to happen in the next week, so how could we possibly predict 30 or 40 years from now when many of us will retire?
In reality, your financial future is as much within your grasp now as it always has been. The first step toward achieving financial freedom is accepting what you can control instead of worrying too much about what you can’t—although worry is perfectly normal during a time like this.
Set aside pressing concerns about the pandemic for a moment, though, and consider the many factors that always seem to threaten your financial freedom. Taxes, the markets, interest rates—there are plenty, and you have very little control over most of them. It’s easy to spin your wheels worrying about these unknowns, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.
What you can control is your plan for the future, your habits and the steps you will take to achieve financial freedom. These are the things that should hold your attention rather than the fluctuating circumstances of your life.
Recognize the Obstacles
While the COVID-19 pandemic represents a unique challenge, the truth is that there are always obstacles in our way and excuses at the ready. There are many ways to achieve financial freedom, but they all start with recognizing and responding to the things that tempt us to throw in the towel.
There are plenty of things fighting to pull our attention away from long-term goals. The Instagram culture, for example, creates an insatiable hunger to keep up with everyone else, and this desire has pushed 40% of millennials into debt. Our smart devices make instant gratification seem reasonable all the time, so much so that 41% of respondents to a 2017 poll said technology made them more impatient than they were five years prior.
Often, though, the easiest excuse is simply the fact that retirement—a time when you need true financial freedom—seems so far away. It’s tempting to think that you’ll have a bit more to put away next year or that your home remodel is more urgent than saving. No matter the justification, these distractions are pulling you away from your financial freedom goals.
Ways to Achieve Financial Freedom
Ultimately, there will always be things you cannot control, but you can take specific steps to achieve financial freedom—regardless of your situation or what’s happening in the world—by taking control of your budget. Here are three ways to do just that:
1. Put your goals first.
The best path to financial freedom, as with any other dream, begins with concrete goals. What are your financial objectives five, 10, 20 and 30 years out? Where do you hope to send your kids to school? When do you want to retire? Get these goals on paper, writing out the approximate time in which you’d like to achieve them and how much they’re projected to cost.
As you start to plan for your goals, you’ll need to have a good handle on your budget. Instead of pinpointing where every dollar goes each month, I’ve found it’s easier to set up a reverse budget. For this kind of budget, you’ll need to determine how much you need to save for your goals and then set those savings on autopilot. Once your savings are set up, whatever money is left can be spent however you’d like—housing, food, going out, etc.
Once you’ve planned your goals and budget, you can build a saving and investing strategy around them. If your goal falls within the next three to five years, for example, consider setting aside those funds in something very liquid (e.g., a money market account). If your goal is five to 10 years away, however, you could consider a moderate investment allocation such as 50% in stocks and 50% in bonds. Finally, if your goal is 10 to 15 (or more) years away, you could potentially take more risk and invest 70% in stocks and 30% in bonds—or even 80% in stocks and 20% in bonds. Note that you’ll want to make more conservative investments as you get closer to your goal date.
Determining how much to save for long-term goals can be daunting and challenging, which is why it might be helpful to meet with a financial advisor. A financial advisor can help you decide how much of your assets to put into stocks and bonds in addition to developing guiding principles for how you invest. When you have a set strategy in place, it’s easier to stay the course and reach your goals—even during difficult times.
2. Have a safety net for emergencies.
The COVID crisis is a poignant reminder of the importance of an emergency fund. You can’t control what happens, but you can plan ahead and be ready for anything. For everyone who has received or will receive a stimulus check from the government, I would suggest using that money to take care of basic needs like rent, utilities, groceries, etc. If you have any money left over, keep it in cash for emergencies. Even though it’s a great time to buy into the market, you shouldn’t invest that money if there’s any chance you’ll need it in the next couple of years.
Aim to build up enough savings in your emergency fund for three to six months of living expenses (or more, if your income is variable), which will allow you to weather a bout of unemployment or other unforeseen circumstances.
Emergency funds should be very liquid and safe, so keep them in a secure account like an online money market. Even better, an online money market account will earn a little more than if you kept the money in a savings account at a brick-and-mortar bank. The process of building an emergency fund will differ depending on your stage of life and current assets. When you’re just starting out, it may not be possible to have six months of expenses on hand. An excellent way to build your fund up is to designate a certain amount from your paycheck each month that goes into whatever separate account you choose.
By the time you retire, it’s best to have as much as 18 to 24 months of net expenses on hand. For example, say your expenses are $150,000 a year during retirement; if you get $30,000 from Social Security and $50,000 from a pension each year, you’d have $70,000 of net expenses. In this scenario, a target cash reserve of $105,000 to $140,000 during retirement would be a great buffer. This approach also helps prevent the need to sell stocks when the market takes a nosedive.
3. Allocate for your future.
Saving for retirement should always be a significant part of your financial freedom plan, so you need to account for it in your budget. Contributing to a company retirement plan—such as a 401(k) or 403(b)—an IRA, or a Roth IRA is a great place to start. It’s important to note that traditional 401(k) and IRA account contributions are tax-deductible. Since you get an upfront tax deduction, you must pay taxes on anything you withdraw during retirement. Conversely, Roth 401(k) and Roth IRA contributions are made with after-tax money and thus can be withdrawn tax-free during retirement.
Now might be a great time to make those contributions. Doing so while the market is in flux means you can potentially buy more shares with your dollars. Be sure to choose low-cost ways to invest (such as index funds or ETFs) while maintaining a diversified portfolio to help you manage risk.
To do this, your portfolio should include both large and small U.S. companies as well as those outside the U.S. You might also add short-term, high-quality bond funds. These are a good buffer in portfolios and can help reduce risk. It’s much better—and will have a higher payoff—to take risks on the stock side.
And remember that you can start with baby steps. I worked with one client who was just starting out and feeling overwhelmed with the thought of investing. I helped her set up a small deduction from her bank account that was invested into a Roth IRA. While the amount was minimal, she realized she was able to live without that money and slowly increased it each year. Starting small, as my client did, and celebrating wins along the way gives you the boost to keep track of your spending and save for the future.
Start Planning Early
Don’t put off your finances until you feel like you finally make enough money to create a plan. If you start the habit of planning and budgeting when you’re young, you’ll be able to expand your savings rapidly as your income grows. And there are so many great resources that can help, like BrightPlan, Mint and EveryDollar.
The question, “How can I achieve financial freedom?” is as relevant now as it ever has been. If you find yourself struggling to come up with an answer, shift your focus to what you can control. You might be surprised by how far you can get with your attention in the right place.
Whatever your definition of financial education, it’s clear that there’s one thing we can all agree on—financial education is nearly non-existent in our schools.
A recent survey by Ipsos shows that only 13% of Americans were taught about investing in school. The same people surveyed believe overwhelmingly that financial literacy should be taught in school (87%), and that it should start as early as Middle School (72%).
This begs the question, what would it look like to teach financial education in our schools?
As a financial educator, if I ran the school system, I would begin by creating a financial literacy program that included the following 17 financial lessons. Even if you’re not in school anymore, these would be valuable lessons to study and learn on your own as part of your financial education.
Financial literacy for beginners
Lesson 1: The history of money
It’s important to understand how money works, and part of doing that is by studying how it’s worked in the past. Money has progressed over the centuries from something pretty simple, like bartering, to something pretty complicated, like derivatives. It’s gone from being an object to an idea, so it’s not tangible and intuitive. It’s important to study money to grow rich. Some dates that are important:
1903 – Rockefeller’s General Education Board takes over the U.S. education system
1913 – The Federal Reserve is formed
1929 – The Great Depression
1944 – The Bretton Woods agreement
1971 – Nixon takes the dollar off the gold standard
1974 – Congress passes the Employee Retirement Income Security Act
If you want to learn more about how these the history of money is impacting your life, check out this post about fake money.
Lesson 2: Understanding your personal financial statement
My rich dad often said, “Your banker never asks to see your report card. A banker wants to see your financial statement—your report card when you leave school.”
One of the foundational elements of financial literacy is understanding how to read and understand a personal financial statement.
Lesson 3: Know the difference between an asset and a liability
One reason many people are in financial trouble is because they confuse liabilities with assets. For instance, many people think their house is an asset when it’s really a liability. A simple definition of an asset is anything that puts money in your pocket. A simple definition of a liability is anything that takes money out of your pocket.
Many people invest for capital gains, meaning they’re betting on the price of something to go up. Unfortunately, today, many people aren’t winning on those bets. Investing for capital gains is akin to gambling, only not as much fun. Instead of investing for capital gains, the wealthy invest for cash flow and capital gains are icing on the cake, if they do happen.
Not everyone earns money through a paycheck. In fact, my rich dad taught me that there are three types of income: earned, portfolio, and passive.
If you have a job and receive a paycheck, you make money through earned income. If you make money through the sale of capital gains, you make money through portfolio income. The third type of income, passive, is when you make money regardless of whether you work or not.
According to my rich dad, there are two types of people, those who view the world through the two different sides of Rich Dad’s CASHFLOW Quadrant.
To summarize, on the left side of the quadrant are Es and Ss. They pay the most in taxes and trade their time for money. And each has a different mindset.
On the right side, however, are the Bs and is. They pay far less in taxes but create (or invest) in assets that make money for them even when they’re sleeping.
In 1971, President Nixon changed the rules of money. That year, he closed the gold window instantly turning our dollar (which was backed by gold) into a currency. This was one of the most important monetary shifts to happen in modern history, yet few people understand why.
The reason savers are losers is because of this change. The value of the dollar continues to lose its value because of inflation. Basically, what your money can buy in the future is less than it can purchase now.
Lesson 9: The difference between fundamental and technical investing
Fundamental investing is the process of analyzing a company’s financial performance, and that begins with understanding a financial statement. Technical investing is measuring the emotions or moods of the markets by using technical indicators. You can invest successfully doing both types of investing, but both take commitment and continued financial education.
There are four asset classes: Business, real estate, paper assets, and commodities. To grow rich, you must study these classes, choose what is best for you, and work towards becoming an expert.
There is no shortage of opportunities in the world of investing. The question then becomes, which investments are worth pursuing? A key component of a full financial education is understanding how to measure whether an asset is strong or not. One of the best ways to do this is to refer to the B-I Triangle, which looks at an asset’s full properties: Team, leadership, mission, cash flow, communication, systems, legal, and product.
Lesson 11: Know how to choose good people
Partners are crucial to business success. My rich dad used to say, “The best way to know a good partner is to have had a bad partner.” You need to learn from every interaction. A good deal can blow up if you have a bad partner. So choosing partners and team members well is crucial.
Lesson 12: Know when to focus and when to diversify
Ideally, you’ll want to be diversified in all four asset classes, but you’ll want to focus on becoming an expert in one at a time. An old adage is that if you try to please everyone, you’ll please no one. The same could be said for investing.
Lesson 13: Minimize your investment risk
In investing and business, there is always an element of risk. A smart investor knows how to minimize risk by hedging. There are a number ways you can do that within each asset class. Study up on ways to minimize risk in your chosen asset class.
My rich dad would always tell me, “It’s not about how much you make, it’s about how much you keep.” Taxes are your biggest expense. That’s why it’s important to your financial education to understand how you can best limit that expense.
Lesson 15: The good, the bad, and the truth about debt
As many of you know, there is good debt and there is bad debt. The key to using debt is knowing how to borrow wisely and how to pay back the money. Without a solid plan to pay back debt, you’ll soon have no credibility. A solid financial education will include understanding debt and how to pay that debt back.
Lesson 16: Know how your wealth is stolen
There are four things that steal your wealth: Taxes, debt, inflation, and retirement. A proper financial education will stress understanding how to use these wealth-stealing forces to make money rather than lose money.
It’s impossible to learn without making mistakes along the way. The key is to learn the lessons of those mistakes, and not let them take you out of the game. Look at failure as a learning opportunity.
How to get a financial education
We covered many of the truths that we hold dear at Rich Dad and I’ve given you many different avenues to increase your financial education.
When we think about a happy life, it can be tempting to think on a grand scale, to consider major events like birthdays, weddings or the birth of a child, but the truth is that days like that come around just once in a great while, maybe making up a week or two of each year. Instead, our weeks, our months and our lives are made up of normal days, distributed across workdays and weekends for the most of us. As a result, the true building blocks of a happy life look a lot more routine.
At this point, enough happiness research has been conducted that we can generalize a bit about some of the ingredients for a happy life. At a basic level, we need connection, a sense of meaning and the energetic support of a healthy body—or, relationships, projects, and sleep, diet and exercise. The good news is that unlike the wild destination weddings or over-the-top baby showers we see on social media, these ingredients are achievable for most people.
While it’s perhaps commonsensical to say that if we want to have a happier life, we should work on creating happier days, some common beliefs can get in our way. First, and most insidious, is the “everybody’s working for the weekend” mindset. With all respect to the band Loverboy, this is a terrible life philosophy. The work hard, play hard strategy that has us locating happiness in the weekend or solely during vacations has bad numbers behind it. After all, in a 52-week year, only 104 days are weekend days; that’s leaving a lot of the days of the year consigned to misery. Over a life, that’s a bad proportion.
The second, related belief that gets in our way is that happiness has to be carved out. While there’s a kind of truth to this, as in the case of taking an enriching art class, it’s also the case that already-existing time chunks can be converted from relatively mundane or even soul-sucking to happiness-inducing.
For example, on a recent episode of her Before Breakfast podcast, time-management expert Laura Vanderkam talks about renovating the lunch hour. After all, as she points out, over the course of a year, five hours a week adds up to 260 hours, the equivalent of over 30 eight-hour workdays. That’s quite a bit of time to invest in building relationships with colleagues, exercising, reading novels or even writing a novel. Any of these activities is more likely to boost an overall sense of having a meaningful and happy life than the typical activity of munching a sandwich while mindlessly scrolling email.
This general principle can be applied to many of our daily routines. For example, people tend to be made unhappy by their commutes in and out of the office, an event that happens 10 times a week. With some forethought, though, this time can be reclaimed. Ride a train or a bus for your commute? Maybe you could set a reading project for the year. Drive a car? What about committing to learning a new skill by listening to podcasts on the topic? Walk? How about a standing phone call with a family member or friend who lives far away?
The same idea can be applied to chores. What about creating a family tradition that laundry folding involves singing show tunes together? Maybe every Friday is new recipe night, with each season of the year involving mastering a new national cuisine.
There’s also something to be said for intentionally committing new time to a more ambitious happiness-building project. Weeknights can tend to take on a same-y quality of dinner and television before bed, and Sunday night is particularly dread inducing. In fact, in a Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology article,the researchers found an overall sense of better well-being among their subjects on weekend days. Making the decision to take a class, form a monthly book club or join a recreational sports league is not going to overwhelm most people’s schedules, and a meaningful social or learning commitment can create a midweek bright spot or transform a Sunday evening into a favorite time of the week.
Making better choices about how we spend the days that make up the bulk of our adult lives is a way of taking back autonomy, which itself is a happiness-inducing practice. Given the choice between days that blur together and days that increase our sense of agency and overall happiness, who wouldn’t choose the latter?
Paying off debt can be frustrating and confusing if you don’t have the right plan. For more than 25 years, Dave Ramsey has taught people a step-by-step approach to slashing their debt called the 7 Baby Steps.
On Baby Step 1, you save $1,000 in a starter emergency fund, and on Baby Step 2, you pay off all your debt (except the house) using a method called the debt snowball.
How to Pay Off Debt: The Debt Snowball Method
List your debts from smallest to largest regardless of interest rate.
Attack the smallest debt with a vengeance while making minimum payments on the rest of your debts.
Repeat this method as you plow your way through debt.
Look, Baby Step 2 takes a few months to finish for some people and a few years for others. So if you’re on this step and laser focused on paying off that last debt, it’s possible the grind is starting to become . . . well, a grind. Maybe you’re exhausted and feel like it’s going to take forever to become debt-free.Hold that thought, because we’re here to give you our top 25 ways to get out of debt so you can be debt-free even sooner.
How to Get Out of Debt With Frugal Living and Smart Shopping
1. Start couponing.
You’ve probably heard this a thousand times—but are you doing it? You can save a ton of money just by showing a coupon to the cashier. Just be sure you’re using coupons for products you already buy, otherwise you could end up overspending on items you’ll never even use. That’s how you end up with 10 bottles of spicy mustard sitting in your pantry.
2. Try consignment shopping.
Kids grow out of clothes at the speed of light (or so it seems). And let’s be real: It’s not worth it to go into debt for your 2-year-old’s ever-changing wardrobe. Check out your local consignment stores that sell pre-loved outfits in good condition. If you’d rather shop online, no problem. Sites like thredUP and Swap.com are great resources to get adult and children’s clothing at a fraction of the cost.
3. Cut the cable.
Welcome to this millennium, where you can watch most of your favorite shows online. If you haven’t cut the cord yet, do it! Put that $100 cable bill toward your debt each month and watch just how quickly your debt snowball starts rolling.
4. Stop going out to eat.
We get it. Going to a restaurant or hitting up the drive-thru is so much easier than making meals at home. But while you’re enjoying the freedom of not having to cook for those picky eaters, you’re spending way more eating out than you would by eating in. Want a creative way to socialize and share a meal? Invite friends over for taco night instead of meeting up at a restaurant. And hey—if you want to splurge for guac, we’re not judging.
5. Break up with your barista.
If you don’t know where all your money’s going each month, we’re pretty sure your favorite coffee shop can find it for you. Brewing your own coffee at home is a simple way to save money fast.
6. Visit the library.
Remember libraries? They have plenty of books and movies you can check out—for free! Your wallet has never loved movie night more than it does now.
7. Plan your grocery trips.
Make a list and stick to it! Use the calculator app on your phone while you browse the aisles to make sure you’re sticking to your budget. Do impulse items always end up in your cart? Try ordering your groceries online and then picking them up curbside at the store. Oh, and don’t ever shop on an empty stomach!
8. Avoid expensive hobbies.
Do you really have $200 a month to spend on golf? Are you serious? But it’s not just the golfers out there who need to rethink their club dues. Do you spend a ton at craft stores but never get around to starting your project? Home improvement stores can also cost you several Benjamins in one visit.
9. Ditch the gym membership.
You can still go for a run outside—for free. Gather some friends and start a running club. Or do those fancy HIIT workouts at your local park. Listen, it’s a free country. Well . . . mostly.
10. Find free entertainment.
Put a spending freeze on your entertainment costs for a little while. This means no going out to the movies, concerts, mini golf, bowling or whatever you do for fun that costs money. Instead, challenge yourself to find free ways to stay entertained. Take the kids to the park, go for a walk or a hike, enjoy a free concert, or look for a free event in your community.
Dave Ramsey’s Basic Tips for Getting Out of Debt
11. Start a side gig.
Starting your own business has never been easier! Do you have a knack for making things? Sell your products online. Are you an animal lover? Take up dog walking or pet sitting. Do you have a good eye and a nice camera? Start taking on clients for photo sessions. Christy Wright’s Business Boutique is a great resource to show you how you can turn that hobby into a serious money-making machine!
12. Get a part-time job.
Not into starting your own business? Then consider becoming a driver for Lyft or Uber. A pizza delivery job at night could also bring in extra money. You can even deliver other types of food in your spare time by working for places like Uber Eats or Grubhub. Sure, you’ll have to put aside your pride and give up some nights and weekends of downtime. But that’s a small sacrifice for extra cash in your pocket.
13. Sell the car!
The average monthly payment for a new car is $554.1 That’s just outrageous! Think about how much faster your debt snowball could move if you threw that $550 at it every single month.
14. Cut up your credit cards.
Shred ’em. Burn ’em. Shoot ’em. You’ll never get out of debt until you stop making debt a way of life.
15. Use the envelope system.
When you pay with cash, you actually feel your money leaving your hands. Ouch! Nobody likes that. People tend to spend less when paying in cold, hard cash. With the envelope system, you’ll see that cash going down so you can keep track of how much you’re spending.
16. Stop investing.
Yep, you read that right. And yes, we even mean stop contributing to your 401(k). Right now, you want all your income to go toward getting out of debt. Once you’re debt-free and have saved three to six months of expenses in an emergency fund, then you can resume your contributions. By then you’ll be on Baby Step 4 and can start putting 15% of your income toward retirement.
17. Ignore your broke friends.
Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses! Remember, you’re living like no one else now so that later you can live and give like no one else. In 20 years, you won’t have a financial worry in the world while everyone else will still have car loans, mortgages and credit card bills.
18. Make a budget!
Budgeting should be easy and—dare we say it—fun! Use our free budgeting app, EveryDollar, and focus your money on what matters: day-to-day spending, those pesky debts and wealth building.
19. Tell the kids you’re on a budget.
When it comes to money, the kids can be a worse guide than your stomach. Be open with them about what you do and don’t have room for in the budget. And remember: Never be afraid to use that magic word no.
20. Listen to The Dave Ramsey Show.
Listening to the show will encourage you when you feel like you aren’t making progress. Every day, Dave helps millions of people across the country find hope and make a plan for their money. Their successes will inspire you to keep moving forward.
Other Creative Ideas to Get Out of Debt
21. Ask for a raise.
What do you have to lose? Michael Jordan always says, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Thanks, Mike.
22. Learn to say no.
Make it a new part of your vocabulary. Love it. Embrace it. Because when it comes to spending money, you’ll be saying it quite often.
23. Sell items on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist.
One person’s trash is another person’s treasure. Dig through your kids’ rooms and the abyss of your closet to find things you can part with to make some quick cash.
24. Give more.
Wait a minute—give? Yes! Giving changes you. It changes your spirit. Make giving a priority in your budget, no matter what your income is, and you’ll feel like a million bucks.
25. Take control of your money with Financial Peace University.
Financial Peace University is the proven plan that will get you out of the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. Financial Peace is the membership that will teach you how to pay off debt, budget, save big, and give like no one else. And right now, you can try it free with a 14-day trial! You’ll get all nine video lessons that break down the proven plan—the 7 Baby Steps, plus other awesome tools and resources to help you get your money on the right track right now! Take control of your money with a FREE trial of a Financial Peace Membership.
But if you’ve already had the opportunity to go through the class, maybe it’s time to lead others through it. It’s one of the best ways to stay gazelle intense (and keep yourself accountable). Take it from us: Watching others change their lives feels pretty darn good.
There you have it—25 ways to get out of debt and breathe fresh air into your debt-free journey. Try a few of these tips and see if they work for you. When you hit a wall and feel like you’ll never figure out how to get out of debt, just keep working the plan! Over time, your dedication will pay off!
Your success, happiness and dreams will happen through the quality of your actions and an abundance mindset. Start with these eight steps, and you’ll begin to construct and see an improved version of yourself.
“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” —Helen Keller
Whether it’s a fitness, business or relationship goal, establishing a vision is key. Your vision serves as your compass and prevents you from getting lost on the path to your ultimate goal. A vision forces you to be specific about what you’re going after, and once you have it, it becomes part of your identity and propels you into action each day.
As you’re establishing a vision, set aside some time to do the “Perfect Day” exercise. Ask yourself these questions and give yourself time to think through the answers.
Motivation comes and goes like the clouds passing through our days. It’s not a dependable resource to propel you into action each day. To develop your talent and upgrade your well-being, you have to show up every day, no matter the circumstances.
As the Japanese proverb reminds us, “Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” Let your vision serve as your compass while your actions propel you to become a better version of yourself.
At the beginning, it’s understandable to feel a little apprehensive about the journey; fear is normal. But taking giant leaps of action and risk isn’t necessary. Tiny steps and small moments of courage are the only requirements.
Make that call, pitch your idea, ask for that raise, post that first video, ask that tough question, do that first workout, and make that first healthy breakfast. This is how remarkability begins.
All great achievements start with one small action.
No one succeeds in this world alone. Players have coaches. Singers have producers and co-writers.
Having support allows you to have someone to be accountable with, to get an unbiased perspective on the development and pursuit of your goals. No one gets immunity from the fear, doubt and uncertainty that pursuing new endeavors presents. It’s pivotal to have a support network to catch you whenever you begin to slip back into your old habits and play small.
Make it a goal today to think of three people who can provide support and accountability for your new journey
Fear is a natural part of life and it’s actually good in certain circumstances. Fear is nothing more than your body trying to protect you. As you’re pursuing a better version of yourself, acknowledge your fear and tell it thanks but no thanks.
Adversity and small failures are nothing but feedback and information for you to use as you proceed along your journey. It’s OK to have butterflies while doing unfamiliar things. But remember, all you need is those 20 seconds of courage to take the leap forward and grow.
That’s great, but it’s only scratching the surface. Dig deeper into why you want to pursue your goals.
If you go deeper with your goals and motivation, you’ll see that it’s more layered than you realized. Tapping into this deeper level of motivation for why you want this thing builds endurance. It cements the goal in your mind and your heart. It keeps you on track when distractions will attempt to veer you off course.
When you quit learning, you are left behind. Adopt a student mentality and develop a growth mindset where you’re always becoming better at your craft. One of the most common traits between successful people is their habit of continuous learning.
Tony Robbins says “motion creates emotion.” The type of exercising doesn’t matter as much as the consistency of doing the habit does.
Your health is the head of an octopus and the tentacles are the other facets of life. Without the head being in an optimal state, the rest of those tentacles aren’t going to operate and function properly. And then you won’t show up as the best version of yourself every day.
Ambition is a double-edged sword. On one end, it motivates you to pursue your goals. On the other end, you never feel good enough or that progress is happening because you’re so fixated on the result, which feels so far away.
Try tracking your progress on a daily basis. This allows you to see daily growth for what’s working and what isn’t. After all, what gets measured gets improved.
Journaling is one of the best ways to manifest success, happiness and growth in all facets of your life. Journaling provides clarity over your objectives while also improving your mindfulness, happiness and self-confidence. Writing down three things you’re grateful for each day can teach your brain to look for positive opportunities and shift into an optimist mindset.
Emergencies—they can hit you out of nowhere. And if you don’t have a buffer of cash between you and all the twists and turns of life, things can get tricky fast. That’s where an emergency fund comes to the rescue—it’s your financial safety net when things go south.
An emergency fund works like a dream if you’ve got enough money saved. But what happens when the emergency is bigger than your savings? What if you wreck your car, lose your job, or have to take a trip to the hospital?
What Is an Emergency?
First off, let’s be clear about what qualifies as an emergency. A sale at your favorite department store is not an emergency. Neither is your summer vacation. Or renovating your kitchen.
No matter what crisis you’re going through, you don’t have to panic. You can be prepared. Here’s what to do for those times your emergency fund isn’t enough to cover your emergency. http://wordpress.com/refer-a-friend/RNlRO6gsz3AkwOnW0Wo3
True emergencies are unexpected, necessary and urgent. Rear-ending someone on the interstate, cutting yourself while chopping veggies, or suddenly getting laid off are actual emergencies. Emergency funds are for when something serious happens, not for when you just want to treat yourself. So, make sure you’ve got a bona fide emergency on your hands before you decide to dip into your savings.
“A crisis becomes an inconvenience when you have an emergency fund.” — Dave Ramsey
How Big Should My Emergency Fund Be?
Great question! Around here, we stick to the 7 Baby Steps. Baby Step 1 is to save $1,000 for your starter emergency fund. Why? Because you need a cushion to keep you from having to borrow money while you tackle Baby Step 2—paying off all debt (except your house) using the debt snowball method.
We know $1,000 won’t cover every emergency, but that’s why it’s called a starter emergency fund. Once you’ve gotten rid of all your debt, you can move on to Baby Step 3—that’s when you save three to six months of expenses in a fully funded emergency fund.
If you’ve already got an emergency fund (no matter how big it is), go ahead and give yourself a high five! You’re doing better than the 78% of Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck.1 But if you find yourself in a situation that your emergency fund won’t cover, there are ways to get through it without putting yourself in debt.
5 Steps to Take When an Emergency Is Bigger Than Your Emergency Fund:
1. Pay only minimum payments on debt.
There are some rare situations where you need to stop your debt snowball altogether and focus on the here and now. We’re talking about really big stuff like losing a job or getting ready for a baby. In those situations, the best thing to do is only make minimum payments on all your debts for a while and focus on covering your Four Walls: food, utilities, shelter and transportation. Just worry about taking care of the essentials. When life gets back to normal, you can get back to paying off your debts with gazelle intensity.
2. Call and negotiate.
If a family member had to go to the hospital and you’re struggling to pay the bill, call the folks in billing. Ask about discounts or get on a payment plan for medical expenses that you can cash flow over the next several months. When in doubt, ask. Just be persistent, patient and kind. And if possible, pay something up front to show you’re serious about repaying your debt. They’ll usually work with you.
And if you’re not the only one dealing with a specific crisis (like a massive layoff, a natural disaster, or a government state of emergency), see if there are any local nonprofits offering financial or physical assistance (like free food, childcare, home repairs or other resources) for those affected.
3. Shop around.
If your car is on the fritz, it pays to shop around. Ask friends for reliable mechanic recommendations, and then call about deals, coupons and specials. Be sure the mechanic you pick gives you a quote before you agree to let them do any work. If their price is more than you can afford, ask for the bare-minimum fix that will get you back on the road safely until you can save for a bigger repair or a replacement car. If your vehicle is absolutely not drivable, consider carpooling or taking public transportation.
And if you need to replace an essential item (like a washer or an HVAC unit), start by browsing online. Look for coupon codes, compare prices, and see who offers free shipping. You’d be surprised how much money you can save with just a little bit of research.
4. Make extra money—fast!
Let’s be real: Sometimes, you just need more cash. Car repairs and new roofs aren’t cheap, after all. If you need more money, start by selling everything you don’t use anymore. Clean out your closet, attic or garage. Then hop on Craigslist or eBay to list your old bikes, iPads, DVDs, furniture, clothing and TVs to get some quick cash.
If you still need more money and have a little time, you may need to make some budget cuts. Can you cancel that gym membership? What about all those subscription services? Maybe you need to find ways to shrink that grocery budget. Even if it’s only in a couple of areas, those temporary cuts can add up to some big savings.
And then there’s just plain work! Look for ways to earn cash. Try delivering groceries or takeout, driving for Uber or Lyft, babysitting, walking dogs, or cleaning houses. There are also plenty of ways to boost your income without ever leaving your house—like freelancing, online teaching or bookkeeping. You can grow your financial safety net if you’re willing to get creative and make some sacrifices.
5. Build up your emergency fund again.
Once the dust settles and the storm has passed, it’s time to rebuild your emergency fund as soon as possible. If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s that there will be another emergency at some point. And when that happens, you’ll be thankful you had your emergency fund to help you weather the storm. So go ahead and focus on building that savings back up!
Get Peace of Mind
Wouldn’t it be nice to not have to worry about money when things go haywire? An emergency fund is more than just a financial buffer through hard times—it also gives you peace of mind!
Look, life happens. There’s always going to be something that tries to knock you down. But when you’ve got a fully funded emergency fund in place, you’ll be prepared instead of paranoid. You’ll be like the little pig who built his house out of brick. Having enough in savings lets you breathe and think through your options instead of panicking and making bad decisions.
If you’re ready to stop stressing and finally feel confident with your money, you can start today with Financial Peace University(FPU). It’s a nine-lesson video course you can watch from home that teaches you everything you need to know about saving for emergencies, paying off debt, and investing for your future. And great news: You can try FPU right now with a free 14-day trial of a Financial Peace! You’ll get all nine video lessons, plus tons of extra resources and tools to help you on your journey.
Five frogs are sitting on a log and four decide to jump off. How many are left?
The answer is five, because a decision is not action.
It’s a silly little riddle that author and coach Rich Litvin uses to motivate his readers and clients, but it illustrates one of the central challenges of personal development: We all want to be, do and have more, but how many will pay the price: to act?
Yes, right now going outside is a risk and the global economy is transforming in painful ways. As shut-ins, we’re having trouble finding motivation. Maybe it would be easier to coast?
But how much is sitting on the log costing you? Or, to flip it, what could you gain if you acted now to be, do and have more? The whole world is unraveling, but it turns out a crisis is full of opportunity.
PART I: Why Grow Now?
“The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake.” —Meister Eckhart
For some, hunkering down and waiting for the storm to pass might seem like the best way to meet this crisis. In reality, it’s the most dangerous.
Hope is not a strategy; action is the antidote to almost every challenge. Want to beat this pandemic and thrive? Then it’s time to act. Here’s why.
1. Times of disruption are ripe with opportunity.
“Be greedy only when others are fearful.” —Warren Buffett
Ask a Silicon Valley CEO how to kill a giant, and they’ll tell you that to compete with the likes of Microsoft, Apple and Google, the only game in town is to get disruptive. Startups can’t undercut or out-advertise established players, so a blue-ocean strategy is wisest.
We can do the same in our own lives and careers, whether we run a business or not—and what person is not the CEO of their own “company”? This lockdown is an invitation for us to grow—to seize the opportunities created by radical shifts in business-as-usual.
For you, this might mean finally launching that new health product, or finding a new way to help the boss.
2. Times of disruption are full of danger.
“All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it’s impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth.” —Niccolo Machiavelli
Yes, opportunity abounds, but if nothing else, this pandemic has shown us that nobody’s job is secure. Thought your work was an essential service? Fate has a way of humbling us, doesn’t it?
This warning is not to scare you, but hopefully to get you to see that nobody is entitled to a salary. In the long term, you are only paid for the value you can create.
When you start treating your career as a business, with you as its CEO and captain of the ship, and plan your success accordingly, your financial vitality will grow.
3. We’ve been benched—make the most of it.
“Patience is also a form of action.” — Auguste Rodin
Smart athletes who are sent to the penalty box don’t waste time sniping the referee. The great ones ask how did I put myself here?—then study their opponents for opportunities. They are always learning.
One guarantee in life is that you will be stuck in The Waiting Place more than a few times. Right now, we can’t go have a beer, get a haircut or go on a first date. Prom, graduation and even handshakes are canceled.
The appropriate response here is: Accept it and move forward where you can. Don’t squander this time on the bench with TV, anxiety, stress or fear.
Instead of one more episode of Shark Tank, why not spend that lunch hour reading a life-changing article or book? Working with a coach? Journaling about your goals?
4. If you’re not focused on you, you’re focused on the noise.
“Focus on what only you can do. Give the rest of it away.” —Elise Mitchell
Are we flattening the curve? Has the virus peaked? Is the supply chain broken? (If you’re still eating bananas and drinking coffee, the answer is no.)
For most people the healthiest response is, that’s not my concern. Unless you’re a titan of industry, elected politician, epidemiologist, or own a cargo ship or two, you have little to no influence over those things. “I need to read the news daily so I can be informed!” some say. That’s a valiant notion, but ask whether the news just angers you or moves you to act?
Stop. Every minute of attention that you focus on events outside of your influence is a minute you’re not investing in your personal growth and happiness. Be a Stoic: Focus on what you can control and ignore the rest.
PART II: Create Your Growth Strategy
“It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. Do not mistake activity for achievement.” —Isocrates
2020 will surely be remembered as the most rapidly changing year in our lifetimes. Once you see the opportunity that this shift is laying at our feet, you’ll want to act. But jumping in without a plan is a bad idea.
You can’t hit a target that you can’t see, so it’s important to set your goals, then create a plan that will give you the best chance of reaching them. But how do you actually do that? And what should you focus on? Here are some excellent tools that will help you craft your master plan.
1. REFLECT on your life.
“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” —Carl Gustav Jung
When a CEO or politician first steps into the role, they don’t immediately start barking out commands. They focus their first days and weeks on briefings and key meetings that will allow them to get a lay of the land. When it comes to your own life and personal growth, it would be a bad idea to get busy without having a clear picture of reality.
Reflection means holding a mirror up to a situation (or ourselves) so that we can see reality clearly. And the best way to reflect on ourselves is through a journal. The act of writing down your anxieties and fears, your hopes and dreams, or simply reviewing your day, will bring sharp clarity to your life.
Jim Rohn, one of the founders of the modern personal development movement, knew that daily journaling not only brings clarity to our life but helps us solve problems; you can only write down the same complaints about your life for so many days in a row before the discomfort forces you to change.
Rohn also knew that as we practice the craft of writing, we get better at it. As we improve, so does our communication. Clear writing requires clear thinking, and when our mind is sharper, we not only get better at expressing ourselves, but at articulating our goals and deepest desires.
When we reflect on our lives though the act of journaling we gain the clarity to see where we may be living out of alignment with our highest values and how to fix that.
2. CULTIVATE a growth mindset.
“There are no limits. There are only plateaus.” —Bruce Lee
Habits researcher Carol Dweck says that there are two types of people. Those with a fixed mindset believe that we’re born with a finite amount of talent, and trying to improve ourselves is futile. They believe that the best strategy is to avoid mistakes at all costs in order to look good.
But SUCCESS readers adopt a growth mindset, knowing that the solution to every problem is either within us or in a book, a magazine, an inspiring video or the mind of a mentor. This type of person is constantly questioning his or her limits, knowing that these are self-imposed, and with knowledge, focus and action, can be surpassed again and again.
Deciding to adopt a growth mindset is a powerful component of any strategy to accelerate your personal growth. Why? Because for thousands of years, humanity’s top achievers have known that what you think is what you get. In other words, the thoughts that occupy your mind most of the time will be made manifest. That’s why negative thoughts are dangerous. Afraid of being poor? You’ll struggle financially. Worried about losing your health? There it goes.
But a positive mindset is the fastest way to overcome your limits. Know that you’ll be a success? Then your success is assured. Our mind is a manifesting machine—but it runs on the fuel we put into it.
3. FOCUS on the hustle.
“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” ―Stephen King
There has been no better time in the last century to start a business than now. Millions of companies are closing their doors. Whether you or your loved ones have been directly affected or not, you can’t help but feel heartbroken about this. And yet, it is reality. The economy is reorganizing itself daily before our eyes as old ways of doing things become impossible and new solutions are invented.
If you want to thrive, you will need to adapt yourself to the new world and change the way you work. For many people this means that hanging onto a salaried job—with your fate in the hands of another person or faceless HR department—is a risky strategy. Transitioning fully into entrepreneurship right away might not be the right move for you, but diversifying your income stream with a side hustle (your Plan B) can insulate you from a crisis, like the one we’re living through.
But how do you choose the right side-hustle idea? There’s a newsletter and podcast dedicated to that, but here are some rules of thumb to get you started:
Focus on what you love doing. Starting a business is easy—taking it to profitability is one of the most challenging pursuits you’ll undertake. You should choose a goal that you’ll enjoy chasing for the next five years, minimum, to ensure you’ll follow through.
Play to your strengths. Great on video and know your way around editing software? Then your marketing strategy might focus on growing an engaged YouTube following. Not a great writer? Then starting a blog might not be for you.
Decide on your hedgehog concept. In the classic business book Good to Great, researchers found that the most successful companies got really good at ONE thing, the same way a hedgehog is great at rolling up into a ball to protect itself. Focus on what you can be the best in the world at, and the competition won’t catch you.
4. PARTNER with allies.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” —African Proverb
Building a business without partners is hard. Building a life without partners is practically impossible. How much of a role you give these partners in your life or business depends on your personal style, but know that having someone “on board” with you can more than double your growth (personal or professional). Partners keep us accountable and energized, and ideally, are strong where we’re weak. A great partnership delivers results that are more than the sum of its parts.
When planning your growth strategy, it’s a good idea to leave ample space for the involvement of other people, whether that’s a significant other, a business partner or a mentor. Love is a whole other discussion, but creating the other two types of relationships are not that difficult.
Finding allies in business often starts with joining a mastermind group—a collection of people with similar goals. Facebook is a great place to start your search for your mastermind. And finding a mentor? Don’t assume that this has to involve a two-way exchange; it can be as simple as reading a book or watching a video by personal development experts.
5. MANAGE your time.
“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.’” —Lao Tzu
Many plans fail precisely because we haven’t taken the time to think about how we want to spend our most valuable (and most finite) asset. For most people, this pandemic has radically altered how we spend our days, and maybe even created more free time (probably less if you have kids). Whatever the case, we’re being invited to re-evaluate what’s important in our lives.
This is great! During this forced introspection, take the time to consciously decide how you will use your daily 86,400 seconds. HINT: Write down in your journal how you currently spend your day, minute by minute, then create your ideal daily schedule. As you work to close the gap between the two lifestyles, your time management will gradually improve.
Be mindful not to pack every minute of your day full. As we’ve seen over the last two months, many of the activities and obligations that we thought were important have turned out to be entirely non-essential. Doing Great Work requires a healthy dose of blank space in your calendar—call it solitude, room to breathe, creative space—just make sure you protect this freedom.
PART III: Take Action
When you’ve created your growth plan, it’s time to act. But what are the best tools you can use to execute on that plan and succeed? You’ve likely picked up your favorite strategies and habits along your life path. But personal growth means knowing there’s always more to learn, and who better to learn from than experts in their fields? Here are several areas where you can start growing now, supported by personal development pros.
1. HEALTH.
“The first wealth is health.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every living thing requires energy to grow, from single-celled organisms to humans comprising 30 trillion cells. And the amount of energy we’re able to recruit determines the quality of our growth, not just physically but mentally, emotionally and spiritually. When our bodies are healthy, we’re able to convert food to energy more efficiently, more oxygen gets to our cells, and we’re free of the pain that slows us down—which lets us squeeze out more activity.
Sure, you can achieve great things even if you’re unhealthy, but it’s far more difficult. For most people, maintaining good health is not that complicated: It involves eating healthy and exercising. This does not mean deciding to lose 50 pounds by radically altering your diet, or deciding suddenly to work out two hours each day. As with most progress in life, slow and steady wins the race.
Dr. Mehmet Oz is a cardiothoracic surgeon, Columbia University professor, a regular columnist in SUCCESS magazine and a contributor in the SUCCESS+ program. His advice? Every day should include small steps toward growth. “I don’t take dramatic steps,” he says. “I want to be a little bit better today than I was yesterday.” Which small steps can you take right now to prioritize your health?
Stand up. Sitting is NOT the new smoking, as some claim (puffing is far worse for your health). However, sitting more than eight hours a day “increases the risk of premature death and some chronic diseases by 10-20%.” During this lockdown, try a standing desk, or at least get up every 30 minutes.
Minimize alcohol. Pandemics are boring—why not pass the time blissfully soaked in alcohol? Because even moderate alcohol use is robbing you of your hard-earned cash, early mornings, exercise sessions, mental clarity, years off your life, and making you more difficult for your family to handle. Just be aware of what it’s costing you.
Join a pandemic challenge. Have you heard? Everything’s online now, including group exercise. Search Google or Facebook and you’ll find literally thousands of live group video exercise challenges for every level of fitness. Some are even free. Now’s the time to learn some new workouts in a supportive environment.
2. MINDSET.
“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” —Zig Ziglar
The quality of your thoughts determines the quality of your life, and so in order to grow, you have no choice but to first watch your thoughts closely, then root out negativity and replace it with more productive thinking.
Installing a healthy mindset doesn’t mean never feeling negative emotions like anger or frustration—trying to sweep those under the rug will only intensify them until your subconscious finds a way to get them out. What it does mean is that you take charge of your thoughts.
“I don’t negotiate with my mind, it does what I want, not the other way around,”[JK1][MOU2] says Tony Robbins. He’s taught millions of people over several decades the power of cultivating a mindset that will bring you both achievement and fulfillment. How can you do this? It starts with practicing (i.e. feeling) gratitude regularly. You can’t experience fear, anxiety or other negative emotions when you live in gratitude, says Robbins. Tony regularly graces the pages of SUCCESS magazine and can also be found in the SUCCESS+ program.
Here are other tools you can you use to improve your mindset and grow:
Visualization: After childhood we fall out of the habit of using our imaginations. But like riding a bike, the skill returns quickly. Spend even two minutes each morning making mental movies of your best life—including how you want to feel most of the time, how you spend your day, where you’re living, who you’re with—and you’ll manifest these desires.
AFFORMATIONS is a term coined by author and coach Noah St. John. Instead of using traditional mantras like, “I am happy,” he suggests asking helpful questions like, “Why am I so happy?” that will prime your brain to create answers.
Spend time with great people. We are, as Jim Rohn stated, the average of the five people we spend the most time with. Perhaps that’s because scientists have recently discovered “mirror neurons” in our brains; a mechanism that means we copy the beliefs and habits of others around us.
3. KNOWLEDGE.
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” —Benjamin Franklin
The saying goes that knowledge is power, but it’s more accurate to say that applying knowledge through action is power. How do we gather and then use knowledge?
Read, read, read. We tend to think that our challenges are somehow unique, but there’s at least one person in history who faced a situation almost exactly like yours, and wrote about it. Books and magazines contain the knowledge to solve any problem and achieve any goal. This pandemic is a great excuse to grow your library and set a reading goal (try Goodreads). Most used bookstores are happily taking contactless orders now.
What should you read? All books contain some wisdom, but if you want to grow fastest, prioritize those by authors who have spent their lives teaching happiness, wealth and success, like Jim Rohn.
Watch personal development videos. There is more knowledge than you could collect in one lifetime contained in TED Talks, free university lectures and endless YouTube channels. But for every one great video there are 10 filled with low-value or even harmful content. You wouldn’t eat garbage, so don’t feed your mind with the same. Prioritize content from top experts in their field, like Tony Robbins and John C. Maxwell.
4. COACHING.
“One of the greatest values of mentors is the ability to see ahead what others cannot see and to help them navigate a course to their destination.” —John C. Maxwell
No sports team wins a championship without a world-class coach. A coach can bring you to the same heights of achievement. Trying to build a business, excel in your career and make that first $10 million without a coach is like trying to win an Olympic medal without a trainer. Sure, in theory you could do it, but it will be 100 times harder. A good coach will help you see your blind spots, leverage your strengths, improve your mindset and habits, and hold you accountable as long as you work together.
Finding a coach is sometimes as simple as asking a respected superior at work to mentor you, and free. Or it could mean joining a mastermind of other motivated achievers who want to give each other a hand up on the path.
Of course, in life you get what you pay for, and so it can be invaluable to hire a coach to work with you for weeks or months. If they’re skilled and you’re dedicated, you’re almost guaranteed some remarkable personal growth, even a breakthrough or two. Not ready to invest thousands of dollars into your own one-on-one coaching? Live, monthly group coaching is an exceptional alternative.
5. MONEY.
“While money can’t buy happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own form of misery.” —Groucho Marx
Is it possible to lead a happy, fulfilled life without money? There are hermits in caves who have pulled this off, and we know that an obsession with material junk robs us of happiness. But for those of us who choose to remain a part of society, a certain level of financial prosperity does bring us happiness, choice and freedom. On the flipside, money distress is the best way to create anxiety, shame and panic.
Why do so many people struggle with making or keeping money? The root is always a flawed mindset about money. We’re told growing up that money is the root of all evil, that the rich are miserable and so on, and so our subconscious throws up roadblocks to wealth. But money is only a tool, one that can create misery, but also immense good.
The right books and mentors can teach you not only a positive mindset about money, but the habits that will help you create, grow and keep wealth. Tony Robbins, for example, wrote a comprehensive primer on investing. Kindra Hall teaches her followers how to tell captivating stories that win over customers to grow your business. Simon T. Bailey’s books teach readers how to create customers for life through service. Their books are a great start, but the authors are also some of the mentors that will help you grow your financial vitality in the SUCCESS+ program.
6. RELATIONSHIPS.
“The value of a relationship is in direct proportion to the time that you invest in the relationship.” —Brian Tracy
Jim Rohn coined the idea that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. If you want to grow, surround yourself with people who embody the qualities you want to cultivate in yourself. But what’s usually left out of discussions about surrounding ourselves with super-allies is that there’s one person who we spend the most time with: our self!
Unfortunately, we often neglect this most important relationship.
Author and motivational speaker Rachel Hollis invites you to become best friends with you, and it starts with keeping promises to ourselves. Breaking promises like “I will save $1,000” or “I will exercise tomorrow morning” strikes vicious blows to our self-esteem. And failing to appreciate ourselves leads to depression and anxiety, anger, addiction, people-pleasing, and ironically, narcissism. How can you do your best work when you’re dealing with all these demons? You can’t. Prioritize a healthy relationship with yourself and you’ll thrive.
Having a healthy self-image is also extremely attractive to others. It’s the best way to attract these five alliesinto your life, or even the love match that’s been waiting for you all this time. Look, almost everyone is in their 10th or 12th week of social isolation and dying for some social contact. Now is the time to decide who you want as a fixture in your life, then pick up the phone or schedule a video chat and create some new relationships that will help you grow.
Growth Is Life
“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.” —Gail Sheehy
Look at all of nature and you’ll see that everything that is not growing is dying. Now, if you refuse to evolve, you probably won’t expire, but it’s a guarantee that you’ll be missing out on huge parts of life.
Without constant personal growth we can’t experience the richness of life’s joys, and we fail to become the men and women that our potential promises we could be if only we worked at it. And personal growth does require work—the conscious, diligent application of our toil and talents. To what? To whatever goal we set our minds to; that’s your choice.
But here’s what those who are resistant to change fail to see: It can be just as much or more work to stay the same in a world that is rapidly evolving around you.
In the January/February issue of SUCCESS magazine, author and speaker Grant Cardone made a comment that was striking for its simple power: “It’s more work to not succeed than it is to succeed.” For many readers, that will be a wake-up call. Failing to reach your goals, watching your dreams slip through your hands after another year, struggling to make ends meet—all that is far harder than paying the price needed to build a foundation under your castles in the sky.
This pandemic is another wake-up call: that focusing on your personal growth now is more important than ever.
What poor people do that keep them broke, here are 7 mentality that keep people poor.
Don’t hang around poor people, please don’t get it twisted. Poor doesn’t mean they don’t have money, you can be Rich yet very poor.
If you always want to shy away from new ideas, opportunity, you don’t want to take calculated risk, you don’t want to better yourself, you don’t want to explore your ability, you need to be avoided.
You need to check yourself, how many of this mentality do you have, do you experience these behavior from the people around you and what will you do about it to get better.
This article is aimed to x-ray 7 mentally that keep certain people poor and What poor people do that keep them broke.
1. Poor in spirit Most people walk around with it can’t be done mentality, maybe they have been burn once or twice and they have given up on trying and are all out to discourage you at any given instant.
This set of people is poor in spirit and you need to avoid them.
2. Poor in love Most of us don’t love ourselves that much, because they might have been hurt so many times that they don’t believe in love any more. What’s life without love, it’s emptiness because you can’t give what you don’t possess.
3. Poor in wisdom Some people are dumb, some are dumb claiming they are smart, some don’t know they are dumb, while others are smart playing dumb.
Wisdom is not knowledge, knowledge can’t equal wisdom. Knowledge is knowing what to do while wisdom is knowing when to do.
4. Poor in character This set of people lack integrity, can’t be trusted, you can’t rely on their words no matter how rich they are they are poor in character.
5. Poor in habit This set of people enjoy comfort, they take drugs, smoke, lazy, procrastinate you need to stay away from them because human being are product of their environment.
6. Poor in attitude The energy drainers occupy this category, you need to get them out of your circle to stay focused.
7. Poor in finance This category of people don’t believe in savings, investment, they don’t believe in positive ideas to boost finance, they are not prudent when it come to spending, they borrow and don’t put it to work.
These are the 7 mentality that keep people poor you need to avoid and if you look inward and you find out you have these mentality work on yourself and save yourself from poverty.
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