So as we embark on this New year of 2019 and many of us apply resolutions to better ourselves and our personal and financial lives it is important to ask ourselves what outside factors stopped us in the previous year from reaching our goals. Was it the dead end job, the holidays, your spouse,or unexpected vehicle expenses? We could go on and on about the variety of challenges that life will undoubtedly throw at you but ultimately and decisively the problem believe it or not is YOU!
Own It!
Taking accountability and ownership for your life and the decisions you make in the personal and financial realm is the only way you can turn things around. We have all heard the old adage “life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it” or something similar and time and time again it proves to be true. If you rely on trying to manipulate external forces into your favor you will lose every time because they are beyond your control. The key is to look within and evaluate the choices you are making or have made and do what is necessary to make sure your response to them in the present and future are favorable to your desired outcome.
I know what you are thinking well I am behind on my bills or my credit is in disarray what does this have to do with anything!? Let’s look into this further and see how the scales have tipped this way. Many of our clients come to us and say “I need help my finances are out of control because I don’t make enough money!” As this may be true in some cases the overwhelming majority of the time the problem is not an income problem it is a poor spending problem and financial education issue. When you begin to ask yourself questions like have I made a budget, what expenses can I cut out, how many books have I read or podcasts have I listened to on the matter, you begin to see that most of the time you haven’t even scratched the surface on exhausting your resources on the matter before you throw your hands in the air and wave the proverbial white flag saying this just isn’t for me I am doomed! The resounding theme is what have you done! This isn’t to point the finger at anyone we are all guilty of this at one time or another but the key is a realization of this and realizing that in this new year it is totally possible to fix this issue and proper.
Turn It Around!
You must begin to hold yourself accountable and place sole blame for the direction your life has headed in and sole responsibility on yourself to fix it. You must educate yourself on areas that you are weak in, seek out better peer groups and networks to support your growth, and cut out all negative thinking that this is the hand that life has dealt you and you are unlucky! If you don’t control your life who does? If you don’t educate yourself on areas that you are weak in and want to prosper in who will? Who are you waiting on to give you permission to start that business or the go ahead that today is the day that you can make that call to that prospective mentor? The point here is you and only you are responsible for your life and the fufillment of it. Make a promise to yourself that in 2019 you will take control of your life and finances and decide how far you will allow yourself to go. There is a saying that goes ” being successful is hard and being a failure is hard…. pick your hard. Let’s make this year the year when we choose the right hard.
