Just imagine yourself as a young child standing at the end of a diving board hanging over the deep end of a swimming pool. Your heart is thumping in your chest. You’re terrified because you’ve never been in water over your head.
You think the worst is going to happen and your body will suddenly plummet to the bottom as soon as you hit the water.
Your swimming instructor is standing at the side of the pool reassuring you and urging you to take the plunge.
You have a decision to make. Will you allow fear to prevent you from being successful at something new? Or will you listen to the ‘voice by the side of the pool’ and jump in feet first?
That is exactly the determination I had to make when I was seven years old. It taught me a valuable lesson which was:
Sometimes the best way to face and, ultimately, conquer our fear is to ‘get wet’.
As you are thinking about this story, ask yourself what is preventing you from ‘taking the plunge’ to financial freedom?
• Are you forty years old, married with kids and still living paycheck to paycheck because of poor financial planning?
• Are you cemented to a job that is paying you less than you’re worth because it’s easier than searching for a new opportunity?
I look at Fear as an acronym for: Feelings and Energy Activating Responses™. In other words, fear isn’t negative or bad. It is simply a reaction to a stimulus brought on by the anticipation of events.
We don’t fear what happened yesterday because that was in the past. But we might be afraid of a repetition.
As you are thinking about financial planning for 2008, ask yourself how fear might be causing you to reduce wealth.
• Creating a spending plan could feel overwhelming if you’ve never formulated one before.
• Converting to a cash-only household is probably frightening if you’ve always relied on credit cards (and paid the interest that accompanies that debt).
• Communicating with your spouse or significant other about financial planning issues might seem like a daunting task if that hasn’t been the norm in your relationship.
There are those of us whose lives are ruled by fear. We are constantly running away from something or sprinting toward another.
Sometimes fear is a byproduct of changes yet to come.
Sometimes change is the only way to achieve financial freedom.
Some of you reading this will continue to do the same things the same way in 2008 and wonder why you didn’t get different results. Others will acknowledge their fear and begin their journey anyway.
To which group do you belong? Admission is free to both; only the rules are different for each club. The good news is you have a choice of membership.
And for those of you who are ready to start on your path to financial freedom, I’ll see you in the deep end of the pool.
Own the power of your personal finances and retire a millionaire!
Marc Woolf
Blog Posts Copyright © Marc S. Woolf 2007 All rights reserved.
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