Is it just a dream?

So many of us feel like we are stuck. We feel like we are on the proverbial treadmill, running as fast as we can, yet staying in the same place, or maybe even falling behind.

There is so much to do everyday. We are trying to meet the demands of our boss, our spouse, our kids, and society at large. We are in the rat-race.

We say to ourselves “If only I had more time”

I know exactly how that feels. Our busy lives don’t leave us much time to think about the big picture or what more we could do to ease the pressure. We fantasise about winning the lottery or receiving a large inheritance from a long lost uncle we never knew about. Then, we think, if we had money we would then have the freedom to think about our actual dreams and goals. We think that if we had no money worries, we could sit on a beach somewhere, sipping piña coladas and think about the existential ideals that are the luxury of the privileged few.

It can be different

If you are one of the blessed few who are contented and happy with your life and really don’t know what I am talking about, then bully for you. You are living the dream. I am sincerely happy for you and I am glad we have met. Now go away.

If you are reading this and saying to yourself,

“Yes! That’s me! I am glad I’m not the only one who feels that way!” , then we can have a chat. I want to plant a few seeds in your mind that just might grow into full blown ideas. These ideas can be the difference between a life of “quiet desperation” and a life where you feel powerful and in control of your own destiny. I want to convince you that there is a way forward, that you can choose, that will give you back the feeling that you are really the master of your life.

Imagine choosing whether you want to work or not. Imagine living where you really want to live, what to do with your day, and whom you spend your time with. This is actually a reality for many people and it is something that is possible for everyone, if they are given the right tools.

I always say,

“Every job is easy if you have the right tools”

This is so true. I have spent many long hours underneath my vehicles trying to fix things that should have only required 20 minutes to repair, only I didn’t have the specialised tools that a real mechanic would have. I wasted time. I even submit that if I had money at the time, that would have been a useful tool as well, since I could have paid a trained mechanic to repair it quickly and properly.

Knowledge is Power

I am always drawn to the idea that knowledge is power. It sounds cliché but it is really true. Ignorance is the genesis of so many issues on this planet, and I believe a commitment to educating people would empower everyone to think critically about things, and ask the right questions.

“You never know what you don’t know, you know?”

We struggle in life due to circumstances, but also because we create our own problems. We don’t do it intentionally. We feel like we are making the right decision at the time, until it comes back to bite us and we wonder how we ended up in this situation. If we had a different intellectual framework to evaluate those decisions against, we might make different decisions, leading to different (and hopefully better) outcomes. Sometimes we don’t think very much at all, and just default to our subconscious conditioning. We just do what we witnessed others doing in our lives because that is all we had access to at the time.

“Just because that is the way it has always been done, doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.”

Our parents and peer group are a valuable reference only to the extent that we observe positive results from their behaviours. If our role models are successful, then they are worth emulating. If the people we look up to are struggling in any area of their life, it may serve us better to find different people to model those particular behaviours after.

Assume Responsibility

To truly be effective in life, we need to develop a very formidable sense of responsibility. We need to take ownership of our decisions, actions and outcomes. Even when crappy things happen “to” us, we need to choose our own reactions. We can always choose how we respond to life’s ups and downs. We need to assume that we are responsible for EVERYTHING that happens in our existence and behave in accordance with that idea. If we want our circumstances to change, we need to be the ones to take ownership and initiate change.

It is a very poor strategy to wait for the universe to take care of us. Waiting to win the lottery or have opportunity strike are bad ways to move forward. If we are wallowing in our despair, assuming “bad luck” put us there and “good luck” will lift us out is just assuming the role of victim. You are only a victim if you choose to be. You always have another choice.

You can choose to assume responsibility for your life and take action. So many people underestimate just how freeing it is to make that one decision. Deciding to be responsible for everything in your life is the first, and most powerful idea you can ever make. If you operate from this mindset, there is a whole world of possibilities available to you. Suddenly life becomes an adventure and things start to happen that you never expected.

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.”
― William Hutchison Murray

Moving forward in your life feels great! The difference between moving backwards or stagnation and moving forward is massive and you will feel the positive effects in your mind, body and spirit. It actually doesn’t even matter how fast you are moving forward, as long as that is the direction you are going. My wife has a mantra that is simple, yet unbelievably empowering that she changed my life with:

“What CAN I do?”

No matter what is going on in your journey forward, and no matter what obstacle life has chosen to put in your way, you always have something that you can do. You are never powerless, if you choose not to be. At the very least, you can choose your thoughts about your circumstances. This is the root of existentialism as exemplified in Victor Frankl’s timeless work, “Man’s search for meaning”. Even a prisoner of war in a nazi concentration camp can choose how to think. This speaks to our inherent human need to have purpose or meaning. We need something to strive for in order to be happy. If you can do anything, even if it is just a positive thought, towards your purpose or goal, you are moving forward.

So what is my first step?

Learning what you don’t know

Ask yourself:

What are my current circumstances? - Be honest. Everyone starts from somewhere. Don’t sugar coat it. Don’t over dramatise it either. Just observe. You are where you are at and that is OK. We can move forward from there.
What do I NOT know? - Figure out what you think you need to learn in order to have the information that is required to move forward. If you want to be fit and healthy, you might need to learn about diet and exercise. If you want to be a veterinarian, you need to look into how to go to vet school.
What resources to I have now? - If you are breathing and can survive in the world you have something. You can appreciate that and use it as a foundation to build upon.
What can I do? - The most important question. Even small victories add up over time. You can seek out information and assistance in a myriad of places. Advancement doesn’t have to cost money. Sometimes it just takes time. Using time a little more efficiently is always a good place to start with. You are busy, I get it. But if you really want to move forward and change your circumstances, then re-prioritizing is going to be nessessary. You have options - you just might have to think outside the box.

The information you need is out there

We live in the information age. Information has never been more ubiquitous or easily accesible. Just about any topic you want to learn about is available in massive quantities on the internet, or if you are old-school, in the library. If you are interested in any subject you can become a “dinner-party expert” in no time at all from watching YouTube videos or reading blogs. There is so much out there. The beauty of this online world is that it can get you started on any quest for basically free and take you to a place where you now know what you need to know. If you are starting from scratch, it is often hard to know what you need to learn as you have no context. Once you seed your mind with all of the free information there is available, you can be better-equipped to make sound decisions when it comes time to invest in more information.

There are many people out there who have taken the opportunity to succeed at their chosen vocation. The old saying goes that if someone out there has done it before, then you just need to do what they did to achieve the same results. This is a pretty straightforward and perhaps simplistic notion, yet it is so true. If we follow in the footsteps of those who have already scaled the mountain and are able to warn us of any potential obstacles or pitfalls, then we are much more likely to reach the summit unscathed.

Therefore, it would serve us well to seek out those people who are successfully doing the thing we want to achieve and learn from them. Not all successful people are accessible or willing to share their secrets, but a huge portion if them are. Contrary to popular belief, not all successful people are ruthless predators. Many derive a great sense of satisfaction from mentoring ambitious beginners. Many feel that is is their Karmic responsibility to give something back and guide the next generation.

The other amazing thing about potential mentors is that you don’t necessarily have to book an appointment with these people or bang on their front door at 3 am. You can gain full access to their minds and strategies through their works. It is quite common for people who have achieved cool things to write a book or develop a training course to teach their strategies and knowledge to others. This is a win/win for everybody. The “already successful" gain the satisfaction of sharing their knowledge with those whom it can help, which is deeply gratifying, and also earns them some additional income, which, the last time I checked, is not inherently evil or subversive. They are often offering far more value than the price of the book or seminar and are usually genuinely invested in the success of their followers.

For the person who invests in this knowledge and implements it, it is often amazing how quickly and easily they gain similar success due to the fact they don’t have to learn it as they go, like their teacher did. They follow the same path on a compressed timeframe, with a lot fewer mistakes and pitfalls to deal with. It is like having a blueprint or map to success. Your destination is always easier to get to if you are shown the way.

Of course, to stick with the metaphor, you have to know where you are going before you embark on the journey. A goal is like a carrot on a stick. You need to strive for something in order to get out of bed in the morning. Sometimes you end up somewhere different than you had planned. Sometimes you fall a little short of your ultimate destination.

This is life.

But if you were able to at least move away from circumstances that you don’t prefer to got closer to ones you do, then you have realized the purpose of the quest. I like to use hockey as a metaphor due the fact I am Canadian and my armchair philosophising is usually reserved for my hockey-playing sons. I always suggest that in life, like in hockey, if you don’t have a play or any good options, you need to move. When you move, you inevitably gain a different perspective. You can see things from a different angle and new options open up. You will rarely gain good opportunities if you are standing still. If you take the initiative to move forward, you are now the master of your life. You are in the drivers seat and are no longer a victim. You have done what you could.

There is no greater philosophical or practical endeavour than realizing your full potential as a human being. The value is in expressing your individual potential. Don’t compare your results to others, compare them to your own. Ask yourself:

Did you improve?

Did you learn something?

Are you far better equipped now to be more effective in the world? It is not what you achieve in life, but who you become in the achieving of it that makes all the difference. The journey (struggle) is the destination.

So believe that there is hope. Believe that you have choices.

Because you do.

You can move forward.

A recent study investigated the effects of exercise on health. They asked the question: “What is the minimum amount of exercise you need to do to achieve the maximum benefits”. The results were fascinating and supported the Pareto principle or the 80/20 rule. They found that you will achieve 80% of the results by just doing anything. The fitness study showed that the difference between doing nothing and doing something made 80% of the difference! 2 minutes of exercise achieved 80% of the results that a full 30 minutes could achieve. So the difference between doing NOTHING and doing SOMETHING was 80%. This is profound and awe-inspiring to me. You can make a massive impact on your life just by doing SOMETHING rather than NOTHING.

Something different.

Something better.

Something that moves you in the direction of your dreams and goals, no matter how small that something is or how slowly you implement it. You can achieve great things by just making a different choice and by pointing your gaze in the direction you want to go.

Financial Freedom

Most people believe that if they had a ton of money they would be free. It think that this is only partially true. Most people who win the lottery are broke within a couple of years because they don’t understand money. I wrote about this in one of my articles. Another fact is that when polled, lottery winners are not any happier than they were before, and many were less happy. Some even stated that money ruined their lives. So it really isn’t money itself that brings happiness, but the freedom it brings. And freedom means something different to everyone.

I think what people are really striving for when they pursue freedom is time. Ask a 95 year old which they would prefer: 10 million dollars or 100 years more of life and they will typically choose the 100 years. Why? Because time is far more precious than money. With enough time, you can make more money. With enough time, you can learn to prioritise your life properly. You can learn and grow and develop yourself into the person you always dreamed of becoming. You can spend quality time the people you love. You can do most of the things that make life worth living. Time is the true currency and financial freedom is an effective way to purchase time.

Instead of spending your time trying to make ends meet, financial freedom gives you time to spend. You are now free to decide how to spend your time. You are now free to choose your own voluntary struggles instead of the challenges that life chooses for you.

So the difference between spending time and investing time is using the time you have to learn, grow and move forward or continue running on the life treadmill. Reading a book that teaches you how to become financially free is an investment of time. Watching “Friends” from the beginning on Netflix is spending time. There is very little return on investment in the latter. So the first step you can do, if you want to figure out “What can I do?” is learn to invest your time. Work on your knowledge. Learn what you need to know to achieve your goals.

I can offer you a Plan

This website and my products are all dedicated to financial freedom. The information I write about and talk about are there for you to use to create a plan that will get you there. If you need a plan to move you forward, my books and classes are a useful tool. There are many great plans out there and I am perfectly happy to recommend other people’s information (see my top 5 personal finance books). My purpose is to help people realize that there is a way out. There is hope. You CAN rise above your circumstances.

My plan works.

So do others. It is a matter of putting that information in your hands and letting you know that is is really possible. I can’t stand to see people live in dispair. I want you to know that there is a way out. You have the ability to become much more than you realize. You have the ability to lift yourself out of strife and become all that you are capable of becoming. I am happy to be your guide and I will be your most enthusiastic cheerleader as you make your journey towards the financial freedom that you desire.

You can do it.

If you have dreamed of something better or if you have ever thought that you deserve more than you are now experiencing then let me help you. Let me show you how you can live better. Financial freedom is a real possibility for you. You just need to choose it.

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