HALF of January has evaporated, yet we still have about 95 per cent of this year to pursue — and attain — goals of promise and significance.
What will we do with the time we have? Some of us will squander it, most of us will meander listlessly through its temporal twists and turns, but a few will toil to accomplish great things.
If you're eager to have a breakthrough year, I suggest you ask yourself three questions:
1. Are you willing to work smart and exceptionally hard to earn much more money than ever?
2. Are you eager to refine your key money attitudes to bring them in sync with health and bounty?
3. Will you develop and diligently follow a financial plan to save and invest, spend less than you earn, and aggressively pay down debt?
My questions are simple. But only a tiny fraction of any population will honestly answer "yes" to all three.
WORK HARD AND SMART
Most people consider it "normal" to work 40 to 45 hours a week; yet we have 168 of them. I believe in observing a full Sabbath, which means taking one 24-hour day off from work every seven days to rest and recharge. My personal Sabbath is Sunday, which is why I tell all new clients, "I don't work on Sunday!"
(Note: Most of us go through life sleep- and water-deprived. So do try to sleep eight hours and drink between 1.5 and three litres of water each day. I'll leave it to you to figure out how much hydration you require based on your weight.
The heavier you are, the more you should drink — a common rule-of-thumb is to drink (in litres) 0.033 x your weight in kg if you don't exercise vigorously, and more if you do. However, if you have heart or kidney ailments, seek medical advice before setting any daily hydration target).
Now, circling back to viable working hours a week, as 8 x 7 = 56 hours of sleep a week, plus the 16 non-sleeping hours of your weekly rest day of choice, takes us up to 72 hours a week, leaving 96 hours every seven days to budget for hygiene, exercise, meals, travel, entertainment and WORK.
Are you willing to move up from the 40-hour work week to 50, 60, 70, 80 or even 90 hours for the rest of this year to pursue career, business and financial breakthroughs?
Yes, or no?
REFINE MONEY ATTITUDES
In his book Happy Money, author and speaker Ken Honda explores the effects our attitudes towards money have on us. If you're a Star Wars fan, as I am, you'll be familiar with the "Light" and "Dark" sides of "The Force".
It's great fiction, but fiction nonetheless. Yet, we are all aware of clear demarcations between good traits (like honesty, kindness and acceptance) and bad ones (like greed, corruption and bigotry) in real life.
Interestingly, Honda identifies the same demarcation in our attitudes toward wealth:
"Your money — and hence your life — is a reflection of your beliefs about money. If you believe it is something that can be used for good, that is abundant, and that can be given and received freely, your outer life will begin to reflect that inner change."
But he serves up a warning:
"...if you hold on to negative mind sets and false beliefs about money — that it is evil, that it creates drama, that it is the root cause of all that is bad in your life — you can bet that your outer reality will soon reflect that inner monologue".
Will you improve your attitude towards money? Yes, or no?
DEVELOP AND FOLLOW A FINANCIAL PLAN
In the ninth chapter of The Richest Man in Babylon, author George S. Clason tells the story of a 1930s translator of the Akkadian language used in ancient Babylon.
Alfred H. Shrewsbury of the University of Nottingham's Department of Archaeology translates cuneiform tablets — unearthed in Mesopotamia by a Professor Franklin Caldwell and shipped to England.
To Shrewsbury's surprise, he discovers details of a financial plan developed and followed by a millennia-dead camel trader named Dabasir intent on repaying his many debts while building personal wealth.
It entailed Dabasir saving 10 per cent of all revenue earned from selling captured camels, spending just 70 per cent, and using 20 per cent to steadily pay down his debts.
Since Shrewsbury's own finances are in tatters, he and his wife decide to test out Dabasir's ancient plan. Two years after Shrewsbury had sent back the translations of Dabasir's tablets to Caldwell, he writes again stating:
"…we would like to extend our personal thanks to (Dabasir, long deceased) … whose plan saved us from our 'Hell on Earth'.
"He knew. He had been through it all. He wanted others to benefit from his own bitter experiences. That is why he spent tedious hours carving his message upon the clay."
We can and should learn from others, dead or alive. So, will you formulate and heed a financial plan this year to catapult yourself to financial freedom?
Yes, or no?
Your answers will tell you if you have what it takes to make it big. Will you?
© 2022 Rajen Devadason
The writer is a licensed financial planner, professional speaker and author. Read his free articles at www.FreeCoolArticles.com; he may be connected with on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/rajendevadason, or via [email protected]. You may also follow him on Twitter @Rajen Devadason and on YouTube (Rajen Devadason).
