Everyone wants to be financially free, but few are able to achieve it. When it comes to financial freedom, most people remain fixated on their present status – their existing income, bank balance, current skillset, awareness, contacts, or resources on hand. At the first sign of an obstacle in their path to financial gains, they give up on their dreams.
As per Napoleon Hill’s famous book ‘Think and Grow Rich’, what we ‘Think’ about all day, every day, becomes our reality. So, before you read further, I want you to think and maybe jot down how you visualize your life with financial freedom:
Will you be doing something different? Maybe pursuing your passions?
I learned from my mentor Bob Proctor that success or financial freedom is 5% strategy and 95% mindset. If Mindset is so important, then what are we doing to sharpen it? How well do you know your own mind?
Is your Mindset about money and success around…
A true achiever’s mindset is hindered by limiting beliefs about money or wealth, some of which have been fed into us since our childhood, like:
Do they sound like your beliefs about money?
Your journey towards financial liberation will continue to be a struggle until you rewire your Mindset and adopt a new belief system, called Paradigms, about money.
Financial Freedom is 95% about Mindset and only 5% about Strategy
Paradigms, simply put, are a multitude of habits deeply rooted in your subconscious that you perform unconsciously even though they don’t serve you. Some common pitfalls directly related to finances are:
Your answers to the above questions will help you greatly to move towards your financial freedom dream. However, if your answers are not encouraging at the moment, don’t fret; you have to work on them to progress to your big goal of financial freedom.
Let’s talk about the three A’s for achieving financial freedom:
Awarness: about your finances is everything. When your passive income exceeds your monthly expenses, you are wealthy and financially free. Passive income is what comes to your bank account from your accumulated assets, created via your job or your business. They can range from real estate, intellectual property (Books, music audios, video courses, etc.), or stocks.
Financial awareness encompasses both your active and passive income. The road to it requires clarity on your passive income goals – the exact or a ballpark amount you want to earn, the timeline to accomplish it, and which passive income vehicle you would like to engage with.
Success is all about 3As: Awareness, Alignment, Actions towards your Goals
Again, if all of this is an unfamiliar territory or seems like a foreign language to you, or seems too insurmountable to accomplish, you can always raise your level of awareness by following a simple rule – ‘specialized knowledge, combined with professional coaching over a reasonable period of time’.
Fortunately, I opted for two of the world’s best mentors – Robert Kiyosaki (writer of ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’), a master teacher about Money and Financial Freedom, and Bob Proctor (of ‘The Secret’ fame) a Mindset and Success mogul. So ask yourself – Do I have a mentor in my life who helps me, guides me, and makes me accountable for my big goals?
Alignment: it refers to lining up your big financial goals with your present belief system, paradigms, and self-image. By bringing together your conscious mind, subconscious mind, and physical body, you can achieve anything you previously believed was impossible.
Alignment bridges the gap between knowledge and action. It is the ‘knowing versus doing’ gap that stops millions from living their dream life, despite having all the knowledge at their disposal. Ask yourself – Am I one of them?
Actions: Finally, the above ruminations are meaningless unless you implement the knowledge with the right actions. Ask yourself – Am I taking new productive actions every day towards my financial goals?
What is your spending pattern?
Robert Kiyosaki teaches a simple lesson – Pay yourself first. Here is how you should do it.
Buy 3 Piggy banks today – Name them as Savings, Investing, & Tithing (Charity). Put a fixed amount of money every day, first thing in the morning. The amount can be as small as $1 or $5, but make sure that it is an amount you can continue to put in.
To start building a Mindset of Prosperity & Abundance is the beginning of a new journey to Financial Freedom. Every day, you are making a choice to pay yourself first.
This isn’t to say that you should default on your payments that you owe to others for which you are obliged and committed. Simply put, when you raise your own income, you also reduce inconvenience and complications for those who form your financial network.
At the end of the day, finances aren’t rocket science – it’s just a way to have your hard-earned money work for you. Using this as a beginner guide, you can demystify wealth and attract it in the right way.
Dipak can be reached at dipak@dipakbhadra.com
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