“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
Benjamin Franklin
It has been a couple of months since my last blog. My goal was to post at least once a month. Things have been kind of crazy for me. I am in the process of selling my condo (my first home) and there are so many things to do to get it ready before I list the place. Therefore, I have been super stressed out. I keep telling myself not to, but it’s so hard not to stress. I am trying to manage a lot of the work for this project with the handyman while I am working my full-time job. So many things to do and so little time, how do you prioritize?
Yesterday, one of my good friend that I have not spoken to in a while reached out to me and mentioned that he always use me as an example of a success story and that he respected me. He wanted to know what does it take to live a quality life without being broke from paying rent and raising his kids. He feels like his whole life this issue has been a vicious cycle that he can’t seem to break out of. He further asked how do you mentally get yourself out of feeling this way. I thought wow this seems like an easy question to answer, but yet its a bit more complex to answer in a text message. I am not in anyway a subject matter expert on this. I think that it starts with you sitting down and being real with yourself. Take out a notebook and jot down notes. First think out loud to yourself:
- What would a quality life look like to you?
- If you could live any life you want, how would you describe it?
- What financial situation is making you stressed?
- Do you have a budget?
- Create one if you don’t have one.
- Once you have a budget, do you see trends in your income or your expenses?
- Do you have daily routines?
- Do you feel positive, energetic and productive daily?
- Do you exercise?
- Do you have access to healthy food options? If so, do you eat healthy food?
- Do you drink 8 glasses of water in one day?
- Do you care a lot about a pair of Jordans or money in your pocket?
- What are your fears in life?
- What are your successes?
- What are you most proud of?
- What makes you insecure?
- What makes you happy?
- What makes you sad?
- What are you grateful for?
- Do you set goals (short and long-term)?
- Do you have personal time to relax without the kids?
- What are your favorite activities?
- If you could travel the world where would you go?
- What is an important cause to you?
- What is your long-term dream?
- If you could do anything for a living/career, what would it be?
- What do you want to change about your life? Be specific.
- Are you a lifelong learner?
- What are you learning now?
- What book are you reading?
These are some of the questions I would ask myself and I would ask others who want to try to establish some plan for their future to think about them. I understand everyone may not have written a plan down before or even thought about these questions out loud, but you should always start somewhere. Success is a result of planning.