If you want to know a key behavioral characteristic of those that accumulate wealth over a lifetime it would be that they have an ability to “EMBRACE THE GRIND” of the process. Many people think, feel, believe, hope, or pray that wealth will be accomplished at the snap of the fingers. It rarely is (unless your strategy is the lottery.)
Rather than instant success, which by default is “the easy way”, wealth building and certainly preservation is about grinding out a lot of little decisions over and over again over very long periods of time (Yeah, like more than a few weeks).
- Can you spend less than your take home paycheck?
- Can you put the difference in some prudent investments?
- Can you do it again, next paycheck? And the next? And the next? And the next?
Success in any long process requires constant commitment to the process and the goal. You don’t get through law school in 3 weeks. You don’t start and build a successful company in a month. You don’t become a professional athlete by throwing the ball in the backyard over the summer.
Success requires constant focus and commitment.
The only way to accomplish that task is if you truly “embrace the grind.”
Wealth building is a grind. It’s not overly exciting while it is happening. It seems like it takes forever. You will have a LOT of distractions, and impulses, and desires along the way. You will constantly be tempted to give up the long term goal for short term satisfaction.
It comes down to what you want more. Do you want the results of constantly caving to immediate gratification (which may have resulted in taking on more and more debt?) Or do you want long term financial security?
Choose wisely.