We spend a major part of our lives chasing money or trying to acquire wealth. But money has strange ways. The more we pursue it, the more it accelerates. And even when we seem to catch up, soon enough, it breaks free from our grasp, and the race begins again. Sometimes, people do this till the end of their lives. They move from one job or gig to another, hoping to make enough money to achieve financial independence. They hope that someday, they can stop chasing after money, relax, and begin to enjoy all they’ve earned for themselves. But getting to this level has more to do with our mindset than our job or employment status. If we don’t approach money and life this way, financial independence might continue to look like a distant dream for us.
1. Be Comfortable With Uncertainty
One type of mindset to develop to achieve financial independence is being comfortable in the face of uncertainty. Amid financial stress and when it seems all is heading south, try not to panic. Stay calm and think things through. Most times, things end up fine. When it does, we begin to blame ourselves for worrying in the first place. We need to train ourselves to always look on the bright side because that helps us to act and make moves rather than stay paralyzed by fear.
2. Connection With Others
The importance of quality connections and relationships can never be overstated. The people we associate with can help elevate and cheer us up in times of distress. Whenever we face financial challenges, we should be with people we trust rather than isolate ourselves from the world. When we share our problems with them, they can help us gain clarity by showing us a different perspective. The right kind of friends can motivate us and even help us achieve our goals.
3. Simple Life
Financial independence may help change how we approach purchasing and acquiring stuff. We might have been conditioned by society to think we need some things when, in fact, they add nothing to our lives. A new house, a third car, the latest iPhone. All these things add to our financial pressures and can force us into making rash decisions. Going for a simpler life is always beneficial.
4. Positivity
When chasing financial freedom, it’s vital to try and stay as positive as possible. This might be hard, especially since we face challenges every day. But staying positive means going into every new challenge with the mindset that something good will come out of it. We look at every opportunity that comes our way as something we can gain from. We don’t self-reject or write ourselves off before even trying.
5. Trust Your Abilities
Some failures might introduce crippling self-doubt into our mind-space, such that we don’t think we’re capable of doing any good. Impostor syndrome kicks in, and just like that, we forget all the amazing things we’ve done in the past. It can be easy to lose sight of where we are headed, but we should always remember that our abilities got us this far and can keep us going. We need to trust the process. If we did it before, we can do it again.
6. Self-advocacy
We should remember that if we don’t speak up and fight for ourselves, no one else will. We are our last line of defense, so we need to be upfront about what we want. Whether it’s for a raise, a promotion, or a bonus, if we stay silent, chances are no one will hand us anything. Sometimes, it takes us speaking up before our needs are met or for people to realize we have those needs in the first place. So it’s always a good idea to discuss what you need rather than hope people figure it out.
7. Personalize Your Journey
Even though it is important to build connections with other people and confide in them, making our own decisions about where we want our lives to go is important. Always allowing the opinions of others to influence us can easily derail us from our path. By yielding to others little by little, we might wake up one morning and find that we’re now living someone else’s life. We need to define our own path and make sure we stay on it.
8. Save for Your Enjoyment
It’s always good to treat yourself to a nice outing or gift once in a while. Ultimately, we’re working to make ourselves happy, so if we don’t set aside some funds for our enjoyment, the purpose is defeated. At least 20% of your income can be put away to take care of yourself and engage in activities that bring you joy. This can improve our mental health in no small ways and give us reasons to keep pushing.
9. Picture the Ideal Life You Want To Live
We need to try as much as possible to visualize the kind of life we want to live. We need to picture this life in detail, like a painting on the wall. We peep at this image whenever we feel we are losing sight of our goal, and it’d help reorient us. We also need to believe that we can get there, no matter the interval between now and then.
10. Draw Inspiration From People Who Are Currently Living Your Ideal Life
Once we picture where we want to be and what our ideal life should look like, we need to find others who have gotten there and draw inspiration from them. This doesn’t mean we should mindlessly try to replicate their lifestyle. Every journey is unique, so everything that worked for them might not work for us. But we look at them and believe that getting there is possible. This can be a strong motivation.
Source: Reddit.
