People that often consider themselves builders have something “great” in common; they see the future for its reality and don’t allow interventions, incidents, or unexpected issues to come up and discourage them from growing. Life has a funny way of throwing challenges your way, and likes to keep you from overcoming them. This ability is often overlooked but an important one when trying to go from survivor to builder…
One way to look at this is when you think about making a firm decision to save more and after just 2-3 paychecks, you come to realize that suddenly you have a flat tire and now have to empty your entire savings to pay for it, keeping you from buying what you were saving for. You start saving again and suddenly have another unexpected expense and are back to zero again. Most people would now give up on this idea of growing and go back to their old ways as their old ways enabled them to by things that made them happy instead of saving for these emergencies that would usually end up on credit cards or borrowed money.
It’s simply easier to get things you want rather than things you need, unfortunately, the majority of the world follows that model to ensure their happiness rather than their long term growth.
By buying yourself these things you need but not want; many believe themselves to be moving backwards because it is indeed their reality that those with the least amount of luxury material items like cars are the worst off of the group. When in reality it is the exact opposite as those without those luxuries are those without debt in most cases and are often with the least amount of financial baggage keeping them from moving forward. What people cannot see is that financial independence and readiness is one of today’s hardest qualities to find in people and it is often a trait found in those that succeed in accumulating wealth. By always being prepared for issues, you limit yourself of the worries of “what if” situations and handle them quickly as they come, enabling yourself the power of planning and executing on your own future instead of always being set back.
For those that choose to continue saving despite all the set backs, just remember that eventually the rate of growth outdoes the rate of incidents creating a surplus of money which won’t occur right away but will over time.
The way we create change if we are not there yet is by simply doing less spending and not thinking as much about what we want but rather what we need. It is simpler to spend less rather than constantly be seeking to make more, so it takes less effort to be successful as its easier to manage. When getting raises or bonuses, put the majority in savings for your future. When getting a promotion, do not allocate where the money will be spent until 10 months go by. Give yourself time, give yourself options so you are never faced with those decisions you don’t want to make. Focus on what you need to establish a greater outcome for tomorrow, rather than what you see today that will have no relevance tomorrow. Do not give in to different outcomes once you have chosen what the right one looks like for you.
