Category: Financial Health

The Five Principles to help you step away from average and unleash your inner greatness. Principle number Three

There are 5 principles that I believe are critical if you are going to step away from accepting an average existences and unleash your inner greatness. You must learn them and live them. I’ll be sharing each of the five in a series over the next few weeks. Over the last two weeks we covered the first two, as a reminder they are;

1. You are responsible for everything in your life, everything.
2. Continuous learning and personal development are essential in living your life to the fullest.

Principle number three

Action drives change and results


Nothing happens without action. They say knowledge is power but I disagree, knowledge is stored power. knowledge only becomes power when it is applied through action.

Everyone has hopes and dreams, everyone want a fit body, they want money and wealth, well why doesn’t everyone have these things? Why don’t people who say they have dreams and goals achieve those goals and make their dreams a reality? I say the biggest reason is that most people wont take the actions required on a consistent basis. The issue is not in the knowing what to do, but actually doing what you know needs to be done. Everyone knows that if you want a fit healthy body you must eat right and exercise, yet most will not commit to this on a long term consistent basis. Its no different with every other area of your life.

Action drive all change, results, achievement. The problem is not in the knowing what to do, but actually doing what we know needs to be done.

You must accept principle number one understanding you are responsible for your results. you must adhere to principle number two by continually learning and growing your knowledge base, but without action, nothing happens, nothing changes, dreams die.

Often the reason we don’t commit to taking the action required is because we look at the goal or dream as a whole and it seems too daunting so we procrastinate. The pain in the discipline it takes to do the work seems like its to much to handle, especially when sitting on the couch and watching just one more episode of what ever show you are into is much easier. Keep this in mind while you sit there, the actors in that show are pursing their goals and dreams while you are sitting on the couch as time keeps marching on and you are falling further behind. Every day you don’t start is another day you are behind.

We often over estimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a year. Breakdown your goals into small components and milestones and then commit to daily action in achieving the smaller components of the bigger goal. I hear a lot about having to take massive action, I think this sets many up for failure. What if you took small “bite” size actions every day, first for a week, then and month? Soon you start developing the habit of taking action every day, what would you look like a year from today if you developed the daily action habit? If you are thinking, a year out is to far out to try and conceive, ask your self this question, if I don’t start now and take consistent action, will I ever be, do, or achieve what I want in life?

You must be intentional about what you want out of your life, Intention means an act or instance of determining mentally upon some action or result. Be intentional about taking those small actionable steps every day, the compound effect of those small steps will carry you to the realization of you dreams.

Knowledge is the fuel, action is the engine. Get your motor running.

You are in control, dont let anyone derail your dream. 3 Tips to achievment

You are in control, dont let anyone derail your dream. Just wanted to send out a reminder that where ever you are in your life, financially, job, career, business, or relationship, whatever, it does mean you have to stay there. Its a fact that we are all where we are because of the decisions we have made and the actions we either have taken or not taken. But the truth is, those past decisions do not have to dictate your future.

You have the ability to choose the future you want right now. Once you decide what your goals and dreams are you have started the process of changing and shaping the future you want. However, this is the easy part.

The key to making any change and achieving any goal requires action. This is where people stumble and fail. Everyone wants the money but are’nt willing to commit to what it takes. Everybody wants the fit and attractive body but manny are’nt willing to put the work in, to sacrifice. You can achieve your goals and dreams but you must be willing to work and sacrifice. Nothing great comes easy.

Commit goals to paper


Once you decide what it is you really want to accomplish or what you really want to become you must commit it to paper. I know we all have high tech devises but Im telling you to pick up a pen and a sheet of paper and write your goals out. Right out exactly what it is you want to achieve or become. Detail what your plan is and the effort you will put in to achieve your goal. Review those goals every morning and every evening. Hold yourself accountable. For a time tested method for setting and achieving your goals and dreams I highly suggest you read “think and grow rich” by Napolian Hill.

Commit to massive action


Commit to taking consistent massive action. We get fired up starting off while we are all excited about our new goals that will deliver the life we dream of. Once we experience a little friction and that excitement wears down, it gets a little tougher to keep putting out that effort. It can get diffuicult pushing forward without seeing results or at least the results we think we should be seeing. Keep in mind that results follow momentum, keep pushing, cosnsistent effort is always rewarded. The reason why most fail is because they fail to accurately consider the work required to accomplish their goals. Understand up front that what ever your first thoughts are on what action is required, double it, tripple it. Doing this you start to find out if you are actually committed. Grant Cardone author of “The 10X rule” says that what ever goals you have, what ever effort you think it will take multiply that by ten. Its actually a great mindset, I agree with Cardone that we think to small, we must think much bigger and set our goals higher. We set our goals to low and hit them, we should be setting our goals so high it stretches the limits of our potential.

Prepare for the cynics


Prepare yourself for the naysayer, the critics, cynics, and detractors. There will always be naysayers and critics, people who will always find the negative in everything and everyone. When you start stepping out of your comfort zone, you’ll be putting your self out there for the world to see. You are going to be vulnerable, again, here is where you find out how committed you are. Some will criticize and try to ridicule, they do this mainly because you are a threat. You by your actions are challenging them to question their own abilities and commiment to pursuing their own potential, some cant handle this. Rather than re-evaluate themselves they feel better criticizing you. You must get your friends and family on board also, share with them what your trying to accomplish and the effort it will take. You’ll need them to understand that you must block out the time required to acieve your dreams, Its in their best interest as well. Make sure you commit special time for them as well. You need them on your side, on your team.

Where ever you come from, lower financial background or status, High school drop out, over weight, what ever it is doesnt matter. What matters now is that you have decided now to make a change,set goals, and chase your dream. Whatever they may be, you want to achieve financial freedom, you are going to become a Senior Poject Manager, or you are going to get in the best shape of your life; whatever you dream of it can become real. You are in control, dont let anyone derails your dream.

Three ways to come out of the Coronavirus pandemic stronger.

Three ways to come out of the coronavirus pandemic stronger. You have to find a way to make it through this pandemic, not just make it through but come out better than before. These are tough trying times for us all, if you’ve lost your job, lost income its even tougher. its sucks but its going to suck even more, its going to get worse before its gets better.
The decisons you make, the actions you take, right now, will determine where you stand six months from now, a year from now, three years from now.

Your future is in your hands
Your future is in your hands, take ownership

Do you want to fetal up on the couch and cry victim or do you want to man up or women up and get going? Are you going to hold yourself accountable for your well being, your families well being? You can’t wait for someone else, the government to solve all your problems. The government or no one else for that matter is going to look out for you, and care for you and your family like you can.

Thats the negative, the tough medicine, now for the opporunity. I believe while its going to get worse before it gets better there will be great opportunity coming out of the coronavirus pandemic. There will great opprotunit for new careers and businesses. The time is now to position yourself for a better job, career, or to start a business.

Now is the time but first you’ve got to stop the bleeding. If you’ve lost your job and your income as been shut off or reduced you have to make some moves.

Stop the Bleeding


Sell what you can, now is not the time to wait for top dollar. Its time for survival of the smartest. We have no idea how long the virus is going to hang out but one thing I can tell you, the financial impact is here to stay for a while. Get rid of what ever liabilities you can.

Generate cash flow


Get cash coming in. Find a way to generate income, go find a job, they are out there. I spoke to a VP of a Site Contracting Company today and he told me something that shocked me, considering 20 million people were put out of work over the last six weeks, not one person has called or walked through his door asking to fill out an application. Im blown away by that. The job you dream of or a job in your line of work may not be available but its time to grind. What is it you did at your job? Couldyou perform that service for folks directly and charge a fee? Start a lawn mowing business, what ever, get creative. Its time to fight and claw to feed yourself and your family.
There are opportunities out there but you have to go get after it. There is the unemployemnt route. Im typically not and unemployment guy. My view is that the only reason you should be unemployed is by your choosing and you can support yourself or you have your own company and you are’nt an employee. Having said that these are unprecedented times. Almost everyone put out of work now are in this position due to no fault of their own. If you do seek and get unemployemnt you must obligate yourself to number three below.

Make yourself more valuable


Use this time to make yourself better. Learn new skills and knowledge to make yourself more valuable. Jim Rohn used to say “you are paid for the value you bring to the market place”. Many think just showing up is the value. Make yourself more valuable, read personal development books. read industry literature and product literature, take online classes or courses. Make yourself the expert of your industry. Get a credential in your industry. This is the time to get better and make yourself more valuable. If your on unemployment you must demand of yourself this requirement as a condition for accepting the payment. If you’ve ever thought of starting a business, put the plan together now, set some goals, big goals, take massive action now. Start a home based busness. Even if you go back to a job keep working that side hustle. You must have more than one stream of income. Wakeup early, do not sleep in. Get yursself cleaned up and pull yourself up to the desk at home or beat the streets, and get after it.

If you’ll do these things you will not only have self respect but you will put yourself in a better position to succeed and come out of this Coronavirus pandemic stronger menatlly and financially.

A CALL TO ACTION TO IMPROVE FINANCIAL HEALTH

Theres a lot of talk about the Government shut down and Government workers not being able to pay bills or buy food after not being paid for thirty days. While I have compassion for thier struggle, we’ve got to use this situation as a wake up call. A call to action to improve our financial health.

I typically like to talk about and focus on leadership and developing better Construction Field Leaders. This subject however impacts us all. This past month its been the government shut down but we in the construction industry know all to well the impact of shut downs, economic down turns, and hard ship.

The financial heath and fitness of Americans is in bad shape, really bad shape. Look at a few of the statistics from Debt.com;

Just how bad is it?

19% have $0 saved
31% have less than $500
39% have less than $1000 saved
Th avaerage American credit card debt is $16,245
44% could not pay for a $400 emrgency out of pocket

How do we fix this?

First of all understand that it is fixable. We’ve got to first recognize the problem, seek out the solutions, then employ some discipline, and take action. The steps needed aren’t any real secret or some amazing strategy. They’ve been the same since the begining of time. Obviously number one is, dont spend more than you make. The old saying is, it isnt how much you make, its how much you keep. Its not a well guarded secret, its that simple. So how do you do that or more importanly, how do you get out of debt and on the road to saving?

I am a big advocate of Dave Ramseys work, full disclosure I am a certified Dave Ramsey financial coach. Ramsey has

After setting up you budget, these are the steps to freedom
transformed the lives of thousands of people struggling with debt. His basic priciples, the 7 baby steps is simple but effective. To start the baby stpes you must have a budget to undertsand whats happening with the money you are earning now. Have you ever wondered, where does all my money go? Most Americans do. To start the baby steps you must have a budget for the following reasons;

1. Understand where your money is going.
2. Identify wastefull spending and habits.
3. Make adjustments and tell your money where to go. Intentional spending.
4. Priorotize and set goals.
5. Track your spending/savings goals

We’ve got to take control of and be responsible for our own financial health. Follow these steps and teachings and you can protect yourself against the next government shutdown, lay off, or economic downturn.