Why You Need Discipline to Achieve the Good Life

Why You Need Discipline to Achieve the Good Life

By Jim Rohn

What’s at the core of achieving the good life? It is not learning how to set goals. It is not learning how to better manage your time. It is not mastering the attributes of leadership.

Every day in a thousand different ways, we are trying to improve ourselves by learning how to do things. We spend a lifetime gathering knowledge—in classrooms, in textbooks, in experiences. And if knowledge is power, if knowledge is the forerunner to success, why do we fall short of our objectives? Why, in spite of all our knowledge and collected experiences, do we find ourselves aimlessly wandering? Settling in for a life of existence rather than a life of substance?

There might be many answers to this question. Your answer might be different from everyone else you know. Although there might be many answers to this question, the ultimate answer might be the absence of discipline in applying our knowledge. The key word is discipline, as in self-discipline.

It doesn’t really matter how smart you are if you don’t use your knowledge. It doesn’t really matter that you graduated magna cum laude if you’re stuck in a low-paying job. It doesn’t really matter that you attend every seminar that comes to town if you don’t apply what you’ve learned.

  We spend our lives gathering: gathering knowledge, gathering skills, gathering experiences. But we must also apply the knowledge, skills and experiences we gather in the realms of life and business. We must learn to use what we’ve learned.  And once we’ve applied our knowledge, we must study the results of that process and refine our approach.

Finally, by trying and observing and refining and trying again, our knowledge will inevitably produce worthy, admirable results. And with the joy and results of our efforts, we continue to fuel our ambition with the positive reinforcement of continued progress. Pretty soon, we’ll find that we’re swept into a spiral of achievement, a vertical rise to success. And the ecstasy of that total experience makes for a life triumphant over tragedy, dullness and mediocrity.

But for this whole process to work for us, we must first master the art of consistent self-discipline. It takes consistent self-discipline to master the art of setting goals, time management, leadership, parenting and relationships. If we don’t make consistent self-discipline part of our daily lives, the results we seek will be sporadic and elusive.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.success.com/rohn-why-you-need-discipline-to-achieve-the-good-life/

Reflections On Money And The Needs It Meets

Reflections On Money And The Needs It Meets: I Bought A Lamborghini

Leo Widrich

Last week I turned 30 and as a present, I bought myself this Lamborghini. I posted a picture about it on my social channels this last week and the hundreds and hundreds of reactions to it got me thinking. There were more reactions to this picture than anything I’d ever posted before. They went into all different kinds of emotional directions, 95% sharing in with my excitement and celebrations, including many comments about my shoes. And some reactions that I interpreted as more irritated, hurt, or envious.

The exposure of wealth seems to often trigger something to a lot of us, no matter our personal circumstances. It brings out vulnerable, forgotten, dreamy, and sometimes irritated and hurt fragments in us that are touched and want to come out.

I began pondering about my own relationship to money like I have done so a few times before in articles. The more time I spent pondering and researching my own inner questions that I have about money, the less scary the topic has become.

How an over-emphasis on money stopped me from paying attention to other needs in the past

I started wondering about a list that helps me see which human needs money is good for in meeting or can contribute to meeting very significantly:

Shelter   Food   Fun   Contribution/Support   Security (some)

I was surprised that the list was actually this short. Then I wondered about human needs that although money can play a role in, are often further removed from that:

Authenticity   Belonging   Integrity   Creativity   Self-Expression   Hope   Understanding   To Matter   Warmth   Trust    To Know And to Be Known Acceptance   Affection    Empathy    Love    Intimacy   Awareness 

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://leowid.com/reflections-on-money-and-the-needs-it-meets-i-bought-a-lamborghini/

13 Characteristics of the Most Influential People

13 Characteristics of the Most Influential People

By YEC | August 10, 2020

Everyone has people in their life who have influenced their journey and their success. Whether it’s parents, teachers or mentors—they motivate you to keep pushing forward and achieve your dreams.

While influential people are all different on an individual level, they share a few common traits that help make them so inspirational. We asked the members of the Young Entrepreneur Council about the most influential people in their life and what characteristics set them apart.

Here’s what they’ve looked for and identified in their role models:

1. They Aim To Help Others Succeed.

Oftentimes, we think influential individuals are the people we gravitate to, but it’s actually the opposite. Truly influential people train, empower, and create businesses and organizations that can operate and run without them—they put others in an opportunity to succeed, and help gravitate energy out instead of toward themselves.—Jason Khoo, Zupo

2. They Are Charismatic.

The most influential people have mastered the art of charisma. They light up the room and automatically command respect from people the moment they walk in. One thing that sets them apart is their tendency to not follow the conventional norms, which can be seen in their body language, tonality and presence.—Kelly Richardson, Infobrandz

3. They Are World-Class Communicators.

While styles and methods may differ, those able to master the arts of mass communication and personal persuasion are the most influential individuals in society. The more effectively you can drive your messaging, the more successful you will be in influencing others.  —Adam Mendler, The Veloz Group

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.success.com/13-characteristics-of-the-most-influential-people/?utm_source=Maropost&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Direct%201&mpweb=574-9035885-743137220

The 7 Things the Most Successful People I Know Struggle with to be Happy

The 7 Things the Most Successful People I Know Struggle with to be Happy

Leo Widrich

“You wouldn’t want to be me.” is the line Elon Musk tells Joe Rogan about his life. Many of us see the successes and the outward experiences people produce and think up. Yet, few of us get to see what it’s like on the inside of that person’s body or day to day life. It may be hard to imagine that it wouldn’t be fun and enjoyable to live Elon Musk’s life for a day. But I do believe him. My experience of working with hundreds of successful and wealthy people over the years as their coach aligns with this. Although likely not to the extreme that Elon Musk experiences this, there are a lot of similarities.

If you’re out there living your life, hoping to get rich, famous, and successful one day, maybe some of these lessons can be of help.  I dug into my memory and notes of having coached hundreds of people, often millionaires, some pro athletes, successful and wealthy entrepreneurs. I wanted to summarize the main points that most of them struggle with to become happy and fulfilled.

This is not to say that you might not want to fulfill your dreams of wealth, success, and fame in whatever way. What I’m hoping to share is that along the way of that journey, taking into accounts some of the points below helps you have both – success AND happiness.

1. Celebration & Gratitude

An underlying reason why most people become successful is their ability to stay laser-focused on solving a particular problem. At first, they may be solving that problem poorly. Over time, they get better and better at it. Eventually, they are so good that their skill in solving that particular problem that it becomes invaluable.

Whether the problem you’re solving is that of writing code, singing a song, skateboarding, playing basketball or helping people search for things on the internet like Google doesn’t really matter. As long as it’s a problem that plenty of others have or find extremely important to be solved for them.

This hyper-focus on problem-solving often leaves little room to take a step back, sit down and relax. Few learn the skill to in fact celebrate and feel grateful for all that you’ve received and achieved in life. Too quickly when successful people attempt to do that kind of celebration and relaxation, their problem-solving mind kicks back in. They need to get back to work to “keep at it”.

Over the years from working with clients and from my own life, I’ve observed that an inability to be able to celebrate and feel gratitude can have a tremendous impact on one’s happiness and enjoyment of life. When we become so tightly wound-up that all we do is solve problems, this tightness translates into a constriction in our bodies and leaves us little room to be relaxed, celebrate and enjoy life.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://leowid.com/the-7-things-the-most-successful-people-i-know-struggle-with-to-be-happy/

It’s Time To Rethink The Hong Kong Dollar

It’s Time To Rethink The Hong Kong Dollar

Notes From The Field By Simon Black August 24, 2020 Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico

In 221 BC, the 38-year-old emperor Qin Shi Huang declared total victory against all of his rivals in northern China. Qin’s ancestors had literally spent centuries invading neighboring states and engaging in complex diplomacy in order to unify China into a single empire.  And Qin Shi Huang was the first Emperor to rule over the unified China that his ancestors had worked so long to build. Talk about having a long-term view.

But instead of celebrating his military success and enjoying peace, Qin decided to expand his empire even further. He focused his attention on the fertile, tropical lands south of the Yangtze River… and sent a massive army of 500,000 men to seize the region. Among Qin’s new conquests was a small peninsula where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea.

Today we call this area Hong Kong.  Hong Kong really rose to prominence more than 1,000 years later when invading Mongols ripped through China in 1276 AD.

The imperial family of the Song Dynasty knew they would be executed by the Mongols… so they relocated to Hong Kong’s Lantau Island. Countless refugees followed, fleeing the Mongols for Hong Kong.

So even more than seven centuries ago, Hong Kong was part of people’s Plan B.

This continues to be the case today; Hong Kong has long been among the world’s most prosperous and free jurisdictions. And even people who don’t live, work, or do business in Hong Kong have been able to benefit from its stability and economic freedom.

One of those ways has been through its currency-- the Hong Kong dollar.

Hong Kong’s currency has been ‘pegged’ to the US dollar since 1983 at a rate of 7.80 Hong Kong dollars per US dollar, plus/minus a very tiny range of less than 1%.

This policy has effectively made Hong Kong dollars completely interchangeable with US dollars. And Hong Kong actually has the ability to back it up.

Plenty of other countries have tried (and failed) to peg their currencies to the US dollar. They do this to create stability-- having a currency that’s interchangeable with US dollars makes it easier to attract foreign investment because the peg eliminates currency risk.

Problem is-- most places can’t back it up.

When a government or central bank pegs its currency to the US dollar, they need to be willing and able to exchange US dollars for their currency. And obviously this policy requires having a stockpile of US dollars in reserve.

Most countries that try to peg their currencies do not have this stockpile of US dollar reserves. Argentina, for example, pretended to peg its currency to the US dollar back in the 1990s.

It was a total disaster.

Argentina didn’t have enough dollars in reserve to actually make good on the peg. And before long, the arrangement (along with Argentina’s economy) collapsed.

But Hong Kong actually DOES have the reserves.

Hong Kong’s US dollar reserves are so vast that they could literally buy back every single Hong Kong dollar in circulation, and still have plenty of savings left over.

This is practically unheard of when it comes to pegged currency arrangements. So Hong Kong’s dollar is truly the real deal.

This is one of the reasons why I’ve long favored it, especially as part of a sensible Plan B.

For US dollar-based businesses and individuals, Hong Kong’s dollar represented all the good parts of the US dollar, but none of the downsides.

Think about it: the US dollar is backed by a government that has $26.6 trillion in debt. Hong Kong is practically debt-free. Yet these two currencies are worth almost exactly the same.

So clearly, between the two, the Hong Kong dollar was a safer choice.

But I don’t believe that’s still the case.

In the last few months, we’ve seen a minor trade dispute between the US and China escalate into a full-blow Cold War, resulting in sanctions, arrests, and asset freezes on both sides.

More importantly, China has now squashed any illusion of Hong Kong sovereignty.

Even though Hong Kong is supposed to remain autonomous for several more decades, mainland China’s government has taken over Hong Kong’s political and economic policymaking.

I do not find it coincidental that China began its most aggressive power grab in Hong Kong around the same time that tensions between the US and China began to rise.

So at this point, Hong Kong’s dollar is pegged to the US dollar. China has taken over Hong Kong. And the US and China are quickly becoming bitter enemies.

With these conditions, I don’t believe we can count on the stability we’ve seen over the past several decades when it comes to the Hong Kong dollar peg.

Quite simply, there’s no rational reason for the two currencies to be pegged anymore. Hong Kong is not some frontier market like central Africa that needs the stability of the peg.

Hong Kong is a wealthy, advanced economy. And it’s far more connected to China than the US.

So with tensions flaring between China and the US, the peg may be a casualty of the Cold War.

Sure, it’s possible that nothing happens. China could decide to leave the Hong Kong dollar alone… or gradually re-peg it to a basket of other currencies.

But China could also decide to re-peg the Hong Kong dollar to its own currency, the renminbi. Or to seize a portion of Hong Kong’s US dollar reserves and devalue the Hong Kong dollar.

And it’s not only China. Just a few weeks ago, the US government threatened to break the Hong Kong dollar peg.

Now, those were just idle (and silly) threats. But the point is that there are several uncertainties today that did not exist even a few weeks ago. And those uncertainties may result in changes to the peg.

Keep this in mind if you hold Hong Kong dollars: you might not be able to count on that stable exchange rate.

To your freedom and prosperity, Simon Black, Founder, SovereignMan.com

https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/its-time-to-rethink-the-hong-kong-dollar-28718/

What Would You Do If You Didn’t Have To Work?

What Would You Do If You Didn’t Have To Work?

by Retirebyforty

What would you do if you didn't have to work?  Have you read Ernie Zelinsky’s How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free. I really like it because he challenges traditional retirement. Most people only think of retirement as the end of a journey. We feel useful when we work and retirement means the end of that usefulness. However, retirement doesn’t have to be that way. Ernie encourages us to think of retirement as an opportunity to find yourself and rekindle your zest for life.

Early in the book, Ernie asks – what would you want to do if work was abolished in this world? That’s a bit extreme so let’s modify it a bit. Work won’t be abolished so let’s take the primary motivation away. My question – what would you do if you don’t need to work for money? Would you keep working in the same job/career? Think about this. The answer will tell you whether or not you’re in the right place.

What would I do?

If you asked me that question 12 years ago, I wouldn’t have a good answer for you. Sure, I knew that I didn’t want to be a computer engineer forever. However, I didn’t really know what I would do for the rest of my life if I quit my job at 35.

Fast forward to 2020. Now that I’ve been a SAHD/blogger for 8 years, I have a much better idea. I am having the best time of my life. Would I keep doing this if money isn’t a problem? (Stay At Home Dad)

The answer is a big YES! I love being a SAHD (for the most part.) It’s great to spend time with RB40Jr and we have a lot of fun together. Sure, we butt heads sometimes, but that’s natural. Everybody fights a bit when they spend a lot of time together. It’s a privilege to be able to raise our son so closely. Most dads never have the chance to do this. I really appreciate my good fortune. My son loves having a parent at home too.

As for blogging, I probably would continue doing this even if it doesn’t make any money. It’s good for me to put my thoughts down and it keeps my brain active. I can’t imagine retiring early to a life of leisure. At this age (46), I still need some challenges. However, it is a lot of work to write 3 times per week and I’d probably cut back a little. Overall, I really enjoy what I do right now and I’m very grateful for it.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://retireby40.org/work/

Don't Feel Like You're 'Good' With Money?

Don't Feel Like You're 'Good' With Money? Here's where to start

 Emily Pandise   August 24, 2020

Let’s face it: It can take a lot to feel like you’re “good” with money. We don’t learn about personal finance in school, going through credit card bills can be a big scary mess and some so-called experts will shame you for simply buying a cup of coffee. But your finances are not something you can ignore forever. If you feel like you’re not good with money, here are some important principles to keep in mind.

Dealing with your finances isn’t about doing math; it’s about knowledge.

For a lot of people, there’s a big misconception that being good with money means being good at math or knowing the ins and outs of the stock market. That’s simply not true. Yes, you may need to whip out a calculator for some basic number crunching, but you didn't need to earn an A in high school algebra to get a handle on your finances.

Face your fears and start writing everything down.

Check your account balances, debts and spending often to make sure you know where your hard-earned cash is going. Don’t like putting pen to paper? Totally fine. There are plenty of free apps that will help you stay on top of your money.

Pay yourself first.

When you get a paycheck, what’s the first thing you do with it? Before you start paying your landlord, your credit card company or the person who owns your local bodega, you have to pay yourself. If you start saving a little bit each paycheck, even if it’s only $20, that money will grow over time. You’re the one doing the work and earning that cash, and future you deserves to reap the benefits.

Start an automatic transfer from your checking to your savings account each time you get paid. If you can, use a high-yield savings account, which will give you a better interest rate. Interest is basically free money, and there’s no reason not to go for it. Many accounts like these will offer upwards of 1% in interest, whereas many typical checking accounts only offer a fraction of that.

Build good credit without taking on a dollar of debt.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/dont-feel-youre-good-money-165910895.html

American Know-How and Never Ever Give Up

American Know-How and Never Ever Give Up

By Anna Von Reitz 

Some years ago, the Father of a large family died suddenly from a heart-attack, leaving his widow, a school teacher, and six kids. The oldest child was only sixteen at the time, but he weighed in and they struggled along. Eventually, however, they couldn't keep up with the house payments and the bank foreclosed. 

They were forced out onto the streets and the kids forced to split up and go live with various relatives, while the Mother took a small apartment and kept the baby with her. It turned out that the local bank president wanted their property for its view, and that the rapid and ruthless foreclosure was no accident. 

He tore down their old farmhouse and built a brand new modern house on the land, tore up the trees, built a zen garden, and settled down behind his iron fence and imposing stone gate. 

Twenty years later, a stranger showed up in town. Hardly anyone recognized him. It was the oldest son of that unfortunate family, and he looked as down-at-heels as ever, just an average working man. He bought the property next to his old home and settled down. 

Nobody was expecting what happened next. He opened a junk yard and recycling center and built a tall fence around the property. Next, he used an old shed as a piggery and got a couple dozen pigs and some chickens. 

Well, just so happens that junk yard and car crusher and other industrial-type activity made a lot of noise from sunrise to sundown, and the smell of those pigs----Ewww!--- drifting downwind over the banker's elegant estate was enough to gag a person, especially when the weather turned warm and humid. 

We all heard the banker ranting and raving and complaining and trying to figure some way out of his dilemma, and believe me, he tried everything, and nothing worked. That eldest son stuck it out, despite all the complaints and legal actions and thuggery the banker could manage. 

Finally, the banker gave up and moved on. His fine house and estate was put up for sale, but owing to the junkyard and pig farm right next door, it wasn't worth much. Nobody with money wanted to live next door to a salvage yard combination pig farm. The eldest son bought the banker's place for a song. 

He moved into the banker's house and shut down the salvage yard and pig farm and cleaned everything up. He was left with a far larger estate and a pile of money. I happened to talk to him one day, having been a friend of his parents. I mentioned the fact that he got the old home place back. 

He just smiled and nodded and said, "I planned that for twenty years, and never gave up." Good people can win against bad people, provided that they never give up. Ways can be found to defeat even the meanest acts and cruelties, if we use our imaginations and our creative power. 

http://www.annavonreitz.com/

My Evolving Relationship from “Money Pay” to “Metapay”

The Money Middle Way: My Evolving Relationship from “Money Pay” to “Metapay”

By Kyle Kowalski

Naval Ravikant, who apparently has a net worth in the tens of millions, says:

“When you’re finally wealthy, you’ll realize it wasn’t what you were seeking in the first place.”

Jim Carrey, who apparently has a net worth in the hundreds of millions, says:

“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”

Over the last decade—and especially the last few years—I’ve noticed an emerging evolution in my relationship with money toward what I describe as the “money middle way.”  I’ve received some questions about my relationship with money, so I figured I’d finally cover this part of my journey.  Each phase below includes an overview of some milestones and highlights to bring it to life.

The Money Middle Way: My Evolving Relationship from “Money Pay” to “Metapay”

Phase 1: A Non-Existent Relationship with Money

This first phase covers the vast majority of my adult life to date (sad, but true). Maybe that’s why so many (now obvious) mistakes were made along the way!

From 2007-2018 I worked in the marketing & advertising industry. It’s hard to believe that as recently as a couple years ago I was the Marketing Director of a global apparel brand. It simultaneously feels like yesterday and a lifetime ago.

My relationship with money evolved fairly expectedly during this time. I was bad with money when I got my first job and blew a good chunk of each paycheck. Then, I grew up a little bit, got married, took new jobs, and started getting better with money over time. I’ve never been primarily motivated by money. For whatever reason (personality type, nature, nurture, some combination?), I’m wired to care more about doing high quality work than I am to care about money. My primary aim was smart, hard work—I moved up the corporate ladder as a byproduct of smart, hard work, and made more money as a byproduct of moving up the ladder. Nothing too out of the ordinary from 2007-2015.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.sloww.co/money-middle-way/#non-relationship-money

How to Curb Emotional Spending

How to Curb Emotional Spending

by Jessica | Aug 17, 2020

Making the decision to work part-time was a hard pill to swallow. I decided to give up 50% of my income to work 3 days/week at a less stressful job.  I was sure that it would greatly improve our lives. Given my mental health challenges, living a happier and healthier life was the highest priority. Speeding up our timeline to reach financial independence was lower on the list.  I had no idea how much this decision would improve our lives.

I went from working 50+ hours/week at a toxic job to 24 hours/week in a great work environment. I cut my commute in half and no longer needed to face traffic, as I started taking public transportation to work.  I now have 30+ hours of my life back every week!

I have been able to: Focus on my mental and physical well-being (including sleeping 8+ hours per night);               Learn to manage my anxiety; Work on passion projects; Focus on my relationships with friends and family; Not feel like I needed to rush through everything just to get onto the next thing; Over the course of a year, I completely recovered from burnout.

I vividly remember having friends over for Thanksgiving and seeing how exhausted and burned out everyone was. I remembered that feeling, where every action felt like a slog. Instead, I was full of energy and happily did most of the cooking and cleaning.

Beyond feeling 100 times happier and more energized, something really surprising happened. We realized that we spent a lot less money.  When I say a lot less, I mean a lot less. We spent $17,000 less in the first year after I quit my toxic job and went back to work part-time. That comes out to be an average of $1,400/month.

Life felt the same. Actually, life felt better. We decided to dig into our spending to figure out how this was possible. We had expected our costs to increase because of my health issues. They had, but we still spend $17,000 less.

We finally dug into our spending to understand what was going on. We realized that we spend significantly less in 4 categories:  Groceries, Restaurants, Travel, and General Merchandise

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://thefioneers.com/emotional-spending/

Take It Slow

Take It Slow

Adam M. Grossman 

ONE DAY BACK in 2012 I received a life-changing windfall. Contrary to what you might imagine, however, that day was not very different from the day before it, or the day after. It went something like this: Woke up. Went to work. Came home. Thought about ways to splurge. Ultimately gave up and went to bed.

In other words, there was no visit to the Ferrari dealership, no trip to Las Vegas, really no dramatic change at all. It was, on the surface, a very ordinary day. And the next day was pretty much the same as well.

Don’t get me wrong: Over time, I have made a few changes. My family moved to a new house, we take nicer vacations and we give more to charity. But on that first day, and even in that first year, we did very little differently.

While I’ve certainly made my fair share of financial mistakes along the way, one thing that worked out well was to take things slow. If you see a windfall on the horizon, here is what I would recommend:

You can dream about quitting your job, but don’t do it. First, you’ll be bored. And with more time on your hands, you’ll also end up spending more. But most important, you’ll lose the valuable social interactions that work provides. Over time, you might consider a career change, but don’t walk in that first day and give your notice.

When your windfall arrives, spend time thinking through how you want to use it. Maybe it’s a new car or debt repayment. Whatever you decide, it’s critical that you have some plan. 

https://humbledollar.com/2017/02/take-it-slow/