There are many gurus, speakers and authors around the world talking about new magic ways to make money, or improving your financial situation; some of these coaches are actually very good and they give true value in the form of disruptive tips, step by step solutions and some of them even manage to change paradigms you have carried along your whole life.
But there’s no secret that not all of them are the same quality, mediocrity can be found in any business area and financial coaching is not the exception.
If you are the kind of person who reads about personal finances. My guess is that you have practiced all sorts of ideas and insights, to improve your moneymaking skills, but truth to be told not everything one reads about money is true or actually useful.
For that reason, I wanted to write an article including nothing but the best! After visiting lots of websites and hearing some podcasts for inspiration, I managed to churn out some of the best advice I’ve ever read.
1) The habit of teamwork
No one has ever achieved anything truly great alone. When it comes to business there are always a lot of people involved.
If you really want to achieve anything big you’ll need partners, associates, clients, consulters and employees. And also in the personal aspect of life, family’s support and friends who believe in you play an extremely important role in your success.
Personally, I think this is one of the hardest things to do, I’ve always preferred to work alone and do everything by myself, but recently, as I realized this way of thinking was decreasing my odds for succeeding I’ve put a huge amount effort on connecting more with people and also being more accessible to others.
As there are so many tools online that help you improve teamwork, staff management and communication there is actually no reason to be alone in your way to financial freedom.
2) The habit of receiving
It might be hard to believe this idea at first, but actually most of the people don’t get money and abundance because they have serious troubles receiving, and when I say receiving I mean receiving everything, receiving help, money, responsibilities, advice and so on. And this is so common, that once you understand it you can see it every day everywhere.
A person who is too proud to accept a helping or supporting hand is a person who will never have money and abundance in his life.
These are the kind of people who constantly reject good opportunities, advices and support, there’s no surprise these are the same people who constantly envy, criticize and underestimate truly successful individuals by saying: “he just had luck” or “she lacks the talent and the skill it is unfair that she gets everything she wants” and “if I had all the help they got I could have done it ten times better”.
This way of thinking also determines the way of acting, the individuals who have trouble receiving may focus too much on working and studying, and too little on getting paid for it, feeling superior and better than others is more important for them than having wealth.
Technically speaking, when it comes to business these are the kind of beings who are overqualified in a job they don’t like, or a company that has great products or services but lack of a good platform to sell them and receive payments.
3) The habit of giving
Now let’s see the other side of the coin, the ones who only want to receive but don’t want to give, these are a little easier to picture (immediately Ebenezer Scrooge comes to mind).
Being greedy and cold-hearted might save you some money but in the long run it will never create true abundance. And what is the money should be used for, to create happiness in your life.
Even if we look at this in a practical way, avaricious individuals have a harder time on making money and rely more on luck than others when it comes to success, they are always looking for the cheaper/lower quality version of everything, they constantly fight with their associates and employees, they turn down good investment opportunities and fail at understanding the fine line between greed and ambition, taking unnecessary risks trying to save money and obtaining more profit.
Also, don’t ever mistake being miserly and greedy with keeping track of your cash flow and controlling your money.
Now it is easier to actually know how much you can afford to give. In the era of the “Internet of things” everything is connected, from financial planning to invoicing, and from marketing to final customer distribution. Every step of the process can be registered supervised and the different solutions and payment methods integrate with each other more and more every day.
4) The habit of focusing on one thing at the time
This one is highly related with the previous habit, when you’re are greedy sometimes you want to do everything and struggle in the chaos of doing too many things at the same time, working on several projects simultaneously, offering all kind of services and products that may not even be related. Instead of being more selective about what you do and who you work with to charge higher rates.
You can tell a person who never succeeds in business when you see he or she is always looking for the next new big thing, always chasing that shiny new opportunity never focusing on anything really.
There are many books on this subject; since this is a concept that may not only apply to personal and corporate finances, but almost every other area of your life. To be more productive and achieving better results a good focus is the key.
5) The habit of patience
Everything that’s worth it takes time, discipline and diligence; there are no shortcuts to financial success, a slow walk towards success is better than a quick rush to failure, being impatient can cost you a lot of money just because not taking enough time and effort to analyze your choices will result in bad decisions.
This habit is also highly related with the previous one, someone who has no patience will end up wasting time chasing every new moneymaking trend, having a hard time focusing on something or giving up on a great opportunity or investment right before its profits skyrocket.
Being impatient does not even help you do things faster; in fact, a study by the London-based Centre for Economic Policy Research found that impatient people tend to procrastinate more, never finishing important but time-consuming tasks since they don’t have enough patience to complete them.
6) The habit of investing
Saving and investing at least 10% of your income is one of the first things you should do in order to achieve financial freedom. This is a popular advice and maybe you have seen it a thousand times, but as many other good things is never out of fashion. Even though many people have heard this advice I think not everybody applies it.
What could be the reason most people do not save and invest? -The answer is actually really simple-They don’t practice the other 5 habits I mentioned above! If you don’t trust other people, you have a scarcity mindset or you don’t have focus and patience at all, saving and investing will seem impossible.
This sixth habit is the most practical and is actually more related to money making, but as you can probably see now, its execution depends on the other 5 habits mentioned.
Conclusion
At this time maybe you’re thinking, “Wait! is that it?”
Honestly, there’s not much more to it than that. Everybody wants to make more money; and if you read this entire article surely you have the same interest, but the whole point of this posts is that with the right simple key habits financial freedom will look closer and closer every day.