It’s easy to become inspired by someone you view as successful and want to emulate. You look at that person and imagine what it would be like to have their money, or fame, or friends, or experiences. You imagine how easy they have it and how grand their life must be (especially compared to yours). We may look up to actors, or professional athletes, or business moguls, or family and friends and think:
- Well don’t they just have it made in the shade?
- How hard could their life be?
- They don’t know what struggle is.
- They don’t know what sacrifice is?
- They don’t know what defeat is?
- Aren’t they just the lucky ones?
- I am sure they never feel tired, worn out, or at times just want to quit?
When we view others that we consider “top of the food chain” we are probably envious of the money that they have and the goodies they can afford in life. What we don’t see are the countless choices and decisions that they have made to lead up to where they are now or what put them on the trajectory that they are on.
As opposed to world class athletic performance (which naturally fades with physical aging), wealth is an area that should only become easier with age and wisdom. To become an expert at something, one has to have a lot of the right kinds of inputs which lead to eventually successful outputs.
Inputs include some of the following;
- Goals
- Planning
- Decisions
- Choices
- Processes
- Consistency
- Habits
- Discipline
- Determination
- Desire
- Behaviors
- Priorities
- Personal accountability
These inputs are the building blocks that are applicable to so many things in life including wealth building, getting out of debt, living a healthy lifestyle, losing weight and the list can go on and on.
Once a person has established proper inputs, MOMENTUM is achieved by executing more efficiently (as all efforts will be placed only on things that move us towards our goal). We don’t lose time or energy doing things that are not helping (or even hurting us) in pursuit of what it is we seek. Through experience and wisdom, we also master basic skills that eliminate the need for a lot of trial and error. At some point, we learn to zone in on only the most effective items that matter. Imagine a professional football player. They started doing athletics when they were just a kid. They played a lot of football growing up. They worked on speed and strength. They were coached and developed skills and knowledge that matched their physical abilities. They moved up to playing for their junior varsity team. Then varsity. Then starting for varsity. Then college (maybe riding the bench as freshman and sophomore). Then getting playing time in college. Then starting in college. Then maybe All-American in college. Then being drafted. Then maybe riding the bench in the pros while being a back-up to a veteran while learning how to play at the professional level.
But all along the way, they had goals, they did the planning, they made good decisions, they followed processes, executed with very long term consistency, created good habits, and they certainly had their priorities (work hard now and reap the rewards later).
The enjoyable thing about wealth building is that we don’t have the same constraints found in other skills and endeavors that have finite timelines. Once you “figure out” and create a process of wealth accumulation, you can continue that process for a very long time. Those habits, behaviors and principles allow you to keep your wealth, and grow it faster (due to compounding). It’s not the same if you are a mixed martial arts fighter. You can be a martial artist for life, but you can’t be a prize fighter for life. In prize fighting, you have a small time window where your skills, desires, and physical abilities all have to line up. You get in, you get out (hopefully with a brain intact). That’s not the case when being a wealth builder.
Wealth building is about taking a much longer term view of life and building a house brick by brick. As we age, we become wiser which leads to better decisions.