What is your attitude towards having wealth? Do you believe it is possible to have anything that you want? Or do you believe that wealth and prosperity are reserved only for those other "lucky" people in this world?
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The key to financial freedom is building wealth. The key to building wealth is eliminating all your extra bills so you have money to save. The average consumer's credit report carries quite a burden from these bills as well. Let's start with what hurts the most. Eliminate any habits you currently have. Most habits cost money and if it's a habit it can't be healthy for you in the long run anyway. Smoking, drinking, candy, coffee, collecting junk, etc. You will be surprised how much cash you pocket if you just quit 1 or 2 of the above. By giving up a habit you are not only saving money and maybe even your health, but you are also gaining self-discipline helping you mature financially.
“Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.” ~Lao Tzu Stop being busy and your job is half done. Think about how busy we are, and how it has become a way of bragging: I’m so busy, I must be important. “I have a million things to do! I never have time for anything! I can’t slow down — I’m too busy.” This is thought to be a good thing in a society where we must be productive, active, occupied. But it’s a fool’s game. Busy is simply noise, action without meaning, lots of little unimportant things rather than a few important ones. Stop being busy. Just decide to stop, today. Now you’re halfway done. You’ve decided to slow down, and to focus on what’s important. All of a sudden, your schedule clears up, and your to-to list shrinks down to almost nothing. Now you just have one or two things to do, instead of a million. You clear distractions, and focus. But how can you stop being busy? It’s a simple change of mindset: you say, I’m not going to be busy anymore. Even if you have little control over your schedule, you can decide that you’ll slow down, and pick the important things to work on, and if necessary, talk to your boss about doing this. If you control your schedule, you can drop all the busywork, and just pick the high-impact tasks. It might seem impossible, but once you decide to put an End to Busy, you have taken the biggest step. You can now make time for work you’re passionate about, for work that matters. You can make time for solitude, for creating. You can make time for contemplation, for yourself. Stop being busy, and your job is half done. “Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.” ~Jane Austen
In our day-to-day life, we don’t see debt itself. We see a house. We see a car. We see a meal. We see a job. The only time we interact with our debt is that time once a month when we pay our bills – and sometimes, when the billing is automatic, we don’t even do that.
Instead, every single day, we see the effects of debt. We go to work at the highest-paying job, which is often not the job we would enjoy the most. We live in a location that isn’t where we would necessarily choose. We’re stressed out over our work and our social life and our appearance. The problem is that many people don’t recognize – or don’t want to recognize – the effects of their debt.
Are you mistakenly projecting your value for freedom onto your money?
You know it's true when your internal brain chatter sounds something like, "I'll be happier and start living the way I truly want as soon as I achieve X" (replace X with a specific goal or level of financial security). The underlying belief is that when you achieve the objective then the various causes for your unfulfilled life will be solved. Guess what? It doesn't work that way… The truth is that unless you are living in abject poverty there is little or no relationship between increasing your financial success and your level of happiness. Achieving a goal won't do it because your happiness can never depend on a specific circumstance outside of you. Every study ever conducted on the subject proves this out and my own personal experience confirms the same. Money and achievement are not related to your happiness.
“Do every act of your life as if it were your last.” ~Marcus Aurelius
There’s something so powerfully simple, profoundly beautiful, about the Dalai Lama’s quote: “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.” It’s a philosophy I’ve been exploring for awhile, and though I don’t claim to have even come close to mastering it, it turns out this is a single word that can become the central tenet of your life, if you let it: “kindness”. Kindness can guide every interaction you have with others, can guide your life’s work, can give meaning to your life, can even guide your eating, parenting, marriage, and more. All else will melt away, if you let go of it, and leave only kindness. |
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Advertise on TWF Friday Minute Resources Page Financial Calculators Real Estate FAQs Contact Me Subscribe via Email Who is TWF?The objective of the Thornhill Wealth Forum is to assemble like-minded people interested in wealth creation, to share, learn and prosper through knowledge sharing and networking. Our philosophy is to be supportive of the wealth of others. Share information on self-promotion or help a struggling entrepreneur…even share it with your competition. ArchivesJuly 2013 CategoriesAll |
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