Develop the right mindset. Working hard is a quality valued by many. But it’s not just enough if you want to become financially independent. If it were, those who spend long, hard hours doing tough, dirty jobs would be wealthy. But unfortunately for them, they are not. Despite all evidence to the contrary, we’re taught that if we want to get anywhere, we have to work hard. And so, we are led to believe there is no other way. Most of us never look beyond being employees, which is why so many continue to sell their time for a monthly salary or an hourly rate. If you work this way for others, you’re dramatically limiting your personal income. And here’s why.
If you work a regular workweek, you’ll sell around 38 hours of your time to an employer, that’s about 165 hours a month. Allowing for holidays over a year gives you about 1,824 hours of earning potential, but your earning potential is capped. The only way you can earn more is for someone to pay you more per hour, offer for you to work more hours. Not even working longer will get you more if you’re on a salary or a fixed contract. So, you’ll be working any extra hours for free. But think of what would happen if what you earned wasn’t connected to how much time you worked.
Your income potentially becomes unlimited. How do you do this?
Firstly, you need to change your employee mentality and replace it with an entirely different mindset and attitude towards earning money. Understandably, when times are tough, many people worry about being short of cash and wonder how they will survive. So, with a limited income, they start to look for ways to save money. They check out the specials and the junk mail, use their Shop Dockets, or look for special deals on the internet. But by doing all this, they’re telling themselves and everyone else one thing that they believe their income is at risk, and the only way to deal with their financial problems is to cut back. Cutting back becomes a way of life instead of living life to the fullest.
On the other hand, people who adopt a wealth-focused mindset concentrate on finding new opportunities to make more money rather than on new ways to cut back. They know if they keep their eyes on the big picture, they’ll avoid the stress and won’t need to scrimp and save. So, rather than looking for opportunities to spend less money, they look for ways to make more money. And that doesn’t mean working longer hours for someone else.
These people look for new business opportunities that offer solutions to other people’s problems or new investment possibilities that earn passive income streams. In other words, sources of income are generated without the need to be there physically. And most importantly, don’t involve them selling their time so, while the lower and middle-class earners might focus on working harder and longer hours, those who are wealthy aim to make the best use of their time by working smarter. And that means changing their ways of thinking.
Here’s what the author of the bestselling book, “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” Robert T. Kiyosaki has to say about escaping from old ways of thinking and having the wrong mindset. “I find so many people struggling, often working harder, simply because they cling to old ideas. They want things to be the way they were; they resist change. I know people who are losing their jobs or houses, and they blame technology, the economy, or their boss. Sadly, they fail to realise they might be the problem. Old ideas are the biggest liability. It is a liability simply because they fail to realise that while an idea or way of doing something was an asset yesterday, yesterday is gone.”
These old ideas are all around us, and those who stick with them severely compromise their future financial independence. While most of us are brought up to consider debt as a bad thing, and therefore are always trying to reduce it, those who are wealth minded believe debt, when used responsibly, is a potent tool. They know that it allows them to make financial progress quicker by helping them build a portfolio of income-generating assets and investments. So, they have no problems with using other people’s money. And when the wealth minded wanting to acquire something that isn’t an income-generating asset, they will look for a money-making strategy, technique or approach that will enable them to afford it. Those who do not have the same mindset will either shrug their shoulders and give up on getting the item or borrow it heavily.
The wealthy also holds on to their assets and investments for as long as they can and don’t sell them unless and until they know they’ll make a good profit that they can reinvest. That way, they are continually adding to their wealth. Many people believe that wealthy people are either just plain lucky or have somehow managed to get it by deceitful and dishonest methods. These people also fail to recognise that the wealthy are far better at identifying opportunities and taking advantage of them. That doesn’t happen by chance but rather as a result of the focused mindset of someone who continues to learn and then apply what they know effectively. This forward-thinking approach also means that even when things go wrong, those with a healthy mindset have the belief that something good can still come out of the situation, while most people would simply dwell and complain about their bad luck.
All of this means that if you’re going to be financially successful and independent, you’re going to have to change the way you think about money. Because the first step on the path to wealth has the right mental attitude, you will need to break down your personal boundaries and shake yourself free from all the negative habits and thoughts that have tied you back each and every day of your life. It’s time to start believing that you can really be successful and have the financial independence you desire. And to do that, the first thing you need to do is imagine yourself living a far richer life than you are now, one where you are in control and making financial decisions that will be of immense benefit to both yourself and your family. If you see yourself doing that, you will immediately sabotage your chances of success because you remain tied up to those old ways of thinking that won’t allow you to break free from your current lifestyle. It will also mean that even if opportunities come knocking at your door, you won’t see them or what they are. And worse still, if problems hit, you won’t have the mental toughness to shrug them off and get beyond the challenges.
Not having the right mindset is one of the primary reasons those who come under through money through inheritance or lottery win will often lose it quickly. Their newfound fortune just slips away through their fingers because they don’t know how to use it effectively to create further wealth and riches for themselves. If you can only see yourself remaining where you are in life and never moving on, then your chances of escaping that place are limited. It will be difficult for you to move forward to the better life you deserve with this mindset.
The wealthy are also willing to do something completely different, even if it means going against others. They have the inner belief and self-confidence to know what they’re doing is correct, ignoring the advice offered by others and blocking out the negative comments of those who aren’t willing to take charge of their financial destiny. Of course, you will have to make the changes in your behaviour and yourself as a person because, as the saying goes, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”
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