“What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.” Bob Dylan
Life isn’t about being a millionaire.
Sure, if that’s what you want, you can get there.
But it’s about so much more (or … less) than that.
It’s about figuring out what will TRULY make you happy. It’s about about helping you figure our your life’s dreams and then getting there.
Money is certainly a tool in your arsenal, and a great one. It’s gonna take money to do a lot of the things you want to do in this physical world.
Money is not the root of all evil. The LOVE of money is the root of all evil. Big difference.
You shouldn’t love money in and of itself. You should love money for what it can do for you.
Money is just a tool. Money is ammunition. Money is a resource that, properly managed, can get you more of it. Money can help you accomplish your dreams and live your ideal lifestyle.
But before you make money, you should learn to manage it – otherwise you could spend it before you even realize it’s all gone.
Living a great life isn’t about acquiring a whole bunch of money. It’s about how to control your finances so that you don’t NEED a ton of money.
You don’t need to live like a monk, but then again you don’t need to spend like most rich people do either.
Master your money or it will master you. And by mastering this resource you can control your life and have the freedom you crave.
Once you master money, everything else falls into place. Do you want to work remotely? Do you want to own your own business, or to go freelance? Then kill off your debt and save up enough money to last a year.
A year’s worth of money can be your “runway” to success and freedom.
Scrimp and save and cut every corner you can save up that freedom bundle of money. Maybe get a second job to keep adding to your income. You’ll be really surprised once you start seeing your savings grow at how positive you’ll be and how much harder you’ll work towards your goals. What initially seemed like it was impossible feels inevitable.
Once you’ve amassed enough money to last you for a year, go ahead and make that leap of faith! Quit that day job without fear of regret. Heck, if you leave on good terms you could always go back to that job if you wanted to.
Not that you’d ever really want to, but it’s something to tell yourself; a way to trick your mind that it’s ok to quit your job. It’s scary at first to leave the nest, to strike out on your own with no sure way of making money.
But trust me, if you’re committed to this course of action (and by reading this site, I know you are!) then you will have success.
Work your butt off all year. At the end of that year, if you’ve been putting in the work, I can guarantee you that you’ll have at least some amount of success.
And even if EVERYTHING fails (which it won’t) you could repeat the process: get a job, save up enough for a year and then try again.
You’ll have all the knowledge and experience from the failures and successes of the past and can even learn form your new employment. Maybe the job you get temporarily is something completely different than what your past experiences were. It might give you an entirely new skillset or outlook on life that helps you be more successful in the future.
Look at everything, even the failure (ESPECIALLY the failure) as a learning experience. Everything happens for a reason, and while you might not understand why things aren’t working out exactly as you’d hoped, years later as you look back you’ll see why things shook out as they did.
As Steve Jobs once famously said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
But it all starts with money mastery. Figure out where all of your ammunition (i.e. dollars) are going and then make them work for you instead of against you.
Each dollar bill is a pawn in your army that can help you make an even bigger army.
Here’s the rundown again – the very basics of how you can achieve freedom from the grind and live the life of your dreams:
- Pay off debt
- Amass savings
- Learn from failures
- Stay positive
- (Most importantly) Keep at it, be persistent, DON’T GIVE UP – ever! Believe that it will happen and it will.
You’ve got this.
