Financial freedom. It can sound like a nice theory. But the truth is, anyone can achieve it.
Financial freedom. It can sound like a nice theory. But the truth is, anyone can achieve it.
Every week, I talk with friends, followers, colleagues, or even family members who reach out to me to learn how to earn six, seven, or eight figures per annum.
So, what exactly is financial freedom?
Financial freedom means connecting to your deepest values and having enough money in the bank to support those values without worrying about paying the bills.
For many people, true financial freedom seems like a far-fetched dream.
When I was younger, and without a family, my dream life and the idea of financial freedom was far more worldly than it is today.
When I was in my 20’s, it was all about money and owning flashy things in line with my perceived definition of ‘success’.
Much of that came because I was brought up in an environment where more value was placed on material things. After all, we grew up not owning anything and in the “poorer” part of town.
However, I can tell you, after going through two nervous breakdowns in the last decade – the first in 2012 and then the second in 2019 – that money does not buy you happiness.
In my opinion, when you look at what exactly does financial freedom mean to you, try, and look at it from three different contexts:
If you can do that, I have no doubt you will be able to live a more balanced and fulfilled life without going through additional stress and heartache that I have gone through and am very lucky to have come out the other side of!
I break financial freedom into five questions that I ask myself:
Now for you, the concept of financial freedom might be different. For example, it could mean that…
Ultimately, it would be best if you determined what is suitable for you, your family, and your overall goals in life and not be motivated extrinsically or based on what someone else has done or recommended that you do.
Firstly, whatever you choose in life, you must do it for yourself – and you alone!
There truly is no right or wrong here, so please don’t compare yourself to others, do it for yourself.
It needs to be intrinsic, so from a place of fulfilment for you personally, otherwise you will never be happy – and trust me, I talk from previous experience here!
For you, it could be something as simple as having a roof over your head, being able to feed yourself, and being able to spend the weekend wining and dining. Whatever rocks your boat!
I could go on with this, but no doubt, you get my point. As you can see with me, much of what financial freedom means is around my lifestyle and ability to have a greater level of choice within my life.
So how can you achieve greater levels of financial freedom yourself? Please read on below as I break down three key steps you can take immediately to begin your road to financial freedom!
If you want to set yourself up for achieving a level of financial freedom, you need to set parameters on what that looks like. Some goals posts that we measure success by.
However, I think the mistake many people make when it comes to their goals and dreams is that we don’t stop to think about them at length.
We don’t stop to feel what life might look like when we achieve that goal, which for me, combining the two is where the magic happens.
If you can’t feel your visualization when experiencing it, you are not sending the signals your body and mind need to start putting that into action.
From my experience, success in any walk of life – whether that be family, fitness, or finance – is about approaching every day with a set of habits and behaviours that facilitate your end outcome or dream life while accepting that there will be setbacks along the way.
Figure 1 outlines this below.
So how do you go about setting the intention towards building your own dream life?
This is going to be different for everyone, but some practical examples could be:
With all these points above, make sure you do two things:
As I mentioned previously when I have thought and emotionally felt what that achieved goal would be like, it has come to fruition over time, through hard work, repeating habits, and being consistent.
For me, everything I have done in my career has involved both thinking and feeling into that thought, and so far, it has done well by me.
It is all well and good to have a dream life and purpose. However, you need a vehicle to take you from point A to point B.
You know what you want in life, great; now you need to execute on it. That is generally where your career/work will kick in.
So how do you become the best of the best in your chosen field, and why is it important?
Well, results leave clues. So, by results, I am referring to how you have helped people achieve their goals or solved a problem for them in your chosen niche and career path.
My top strategies for mastering your chosen field can be broken down into three simple principles:
Now let’s look at that in context.
You may have heard the saying that it takes 10,000 hours spent on one thing to master it; well, that is closer to the truth than you realise.
Let’s deep dive into that and go through it layer by layer.
If the average person works 40 hours per week 48 weeks of the year, that is 1920 hours per annum.
Now, if they stayed in the same career for 5.3 years, they would have totalled 10,000 hours in their chosen field.
I found in terms of time spent in the trenches doing something 10,000 hours is the minimum; 15,000-20,000 is where the real fun begins!
Quality over quantity matters. Let’s look at an example as shown in figure 2.
As we can see, sales rep one is, simply put, better at his job than sales rep two despite having spent less time in the trenches. So how is this possible?
Various factors can be hard to measure; however, a common theme I see from entrepreneurs or employees who have worked for me is a growth mindset.
Meaning that they:
So, as you can see, just because you work hard doesn’t mean you get results.
The final layer for mastering your craft is dealing with setbacks and turning them into learning experiences.
Rather than having a mindset of ‘What did I do wrong’, change that to ‘How can I improve’ and grow as a human being and businessperson.
Ultimately time will separate the excellent from the great.
So, understand that even if you read every book, attend every seminar, or watch every YouTube expert, you need to build up a track record in the trenches of every industry you’re in to become a true master in your field!
It took me a few years to realise that some of my very own family members were holding me back from achieving my dream life.
My wife one day told me something I will never forget ‘You can’t change where you come from, but you can change where you end up.
Never was a more accurate statement said!
The power and influence that the people within your inner circle in life, your family, friends, partner, and work colleagues can have on your physical, mental, and financial well-being are immense!
Energy exchange in any area of life should be met reciprocally and even in nature; doing it any other way is doing yourself a disservice.
You can choose how much time and energy you put into people who give that same positivity and good vibrations back.
How many times have you had friends, family, and loved ones tell you that you are ‘Crazy, work too hard or will never do that?”.
Now they don’t mean you harm (in most cases), but by making those statements, they project their limitations which is fine.
Figure 3 below will give you some context.
As you can see, two people aligned are more potent than two people that are not.
With pathway 1, two aligned people can accomplish as much as 10, 20, 100, 1000, even a million people if they are aligned within their purpose and have the resources to accomplish things.
Now with pathway 2, this is fine if you want to celebrate mediocrity. It is okay if you don’t want to achieve your life goals.
As a practical example, I am not close with my childhood friends from school anymore, even though I am still grateful for them and my lessons.
However, as I have discovered who I am and what I want, those same people don’t resonate and put out the same type of energy and intention that I do as they value different things.
There is nothing wrong with that, but that is not me, assuming you are not reading this!
So don’t be afraid to spend less time with or, if needed, as an absolute last resort after communicating openly and honestly with them – cut off loved ones if all they do is bring you down and suck the energy out of you.
This is never the desirable outcome, but you also need to protect your household as you grow, have a family etc.
I always try to help coach people and give them the benefit of the doubt, but there is only so much you can do.
Now outside of family, what are you doing to grow your networks and mingle with people who have what you aspire to?
They may have more money, a better job, a happier life, whatever gravitates towards them, appreciate them, and learn from them.
The concept of proximity to power is something that many talk about, such as Tony Robbins and Grant Cardone.
Well, when you know what ‘power’ looks like to you, run towards it!
You want to attend seminars, workshops, eat out at places where these people mingle and socialise.
This is why members of my DM Inner Circle program get so much more of it than just business growth, they also get to grow as people. Click the image below for more information on my Inner Circle program.
Immerse yourself into that future dream life you are working towards, and you will have a greater chance of it becoming a reality.
In closing, I promise that if you follow the three steps outlined in this article, you will be on the right path to achieving a greater level of financial freedom in your life, giving you all the abundance and choice that you deserve and desire!
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