I’ve talked about how important a positive attitude can be in reaching your goals. But another important part of your financial freedom journey is developing resiliency or a way to recover from setbacks.
In addition to your support structure, it’s important to create your own system that allows you to deal with all of the stumbling blocks and inevitable setbacks you’ll face in life.
And believe me. I know what I’m talking about when it comes to setbacks! In 1985, I was broke and homeless, living in my car for a short period.
I’ve had to deal with lawsuits, bad partners and press, people stealing from me, people cheating me, and of course, the hundreds of mistakes and mishaps I’ve experienced along the way. But guess what? I’m still standing… and you will too.
As I say in my book, “It’s Rising Time!” there are two things I tell myself when disaster strikes. First, I remind myself, “This too shall pass.” The next thing I say is, “Something good will come from this.” And I cannot say I’m always smiling when I repeat these words, but I say them until I actually believe them.
Both statements are true because here I am today, still standing and happy. And my setbacks have made me, my marriage, and our company stronger and better because of them.
When mistakes happen, stay positive
A setback may be a small mistake, a disappointment, a problem, or a failure. A mistake points out something you don’t know so the key is figuring out what you need to learn from your mistakes, so they don’t occur again.
Read also: Three big financial education that will speed up your financial freedom
If you sit around and feel sorry for yourself, blame others, and have a negative attitude, then you don’t learn, you make no money and your dreams of financial freedom get farther and farther away.
You need to change your mindset so that you look at your mistakes as opportunities to learn, grow and be more successful in all areas of your life.
When you do that, you’ll get the lesson and be able to move forward. Of course, this may be easier said than done.
For help, turn to your support structure, write in your journal, increase your financial education, and seek out information and answers. Take action!
Even though the Thanksgiving holiday is now behind us, it’s still the perfect time to reflect and change a negative attitude into an attitude of gratitude. Make a list of all the things you are thankful for, including people, places, things, health, lessons you’ve learned from your mistakes, and anything else you can think of. Soon, you’ll have a list that will help give you the drive to move forward.
Most importantly, your list is something you can use each day as a positive reinforcement to make your journey to financial freedom a little smoother.
3 things that need to change if you want change
If you’re struggling to harness your attitude of gratitude or focus on the things you are grateful for, it may be a sign that you need to make some changes in your life.
I meet a lot of women who want to change what they have in life. Often, however, they haven’t counted the cost of what it means to achieve this change.
Change is tough for anyone because it requires us to move from what is comfortable to what is not. Even if change means something healthy, it still feels uncomfortable.
For instance, if you are overweight and want to get healthy, you have to stop eating bad foods and start exercising. As you know, this is much easier said than done.
Eating healthy foods is hard mentally (if you don’t know how to shop for and prepare healthy foods) and physically (if you’re used to feeling fuller than you need to be), and exercising has real physical pain associated with it. It’s much easier to stay in your routine than to change it.
But the reality is that if you want to really change what you have in life, you have to change who you are and what you do.
