We all want to do something new, bigger and better next year. After all we want to stop having the same resolutions year in year out. Many times people give up before they start. Somebody somewhere, and maybe it is you thinks that you have to first have money to make a difference. If we were all to complete this sentence/ ‘If I had more money next year I would …….” The list would be so long right? You believe if something just happened that tripled your salary then you would have a fighting chance of achieving those goals. Or if you just started the year with a million bob in your bank account. You’d approach those resolutions with zeal and confidence. Today I’m scrapping the money excuse. You may have plenty, you may have some, you may have a little or you may have none. There are still things you can do that I can guarantee you will make you sing to a different tune by the end of next year. In other words I’m talking about if money was not the obstacle, what are the things that you would do in the coming year. Here are a few tips to get started. They have absolutely nothing to do with how much money you currently have.
Change your crowd. I wrote an article some time back about the poverty support group. If you are in one of these it is time to ditch them. If we really are the average of the five people we interact with most, then we need to take a deep hard look at these people. The poverty support group may be the crowd that sits together at lunchtime to complain about the boss (no surprises that promotions don’t come their way), the ones that huddle together to complain about how broke they are or how rich people stole. If you want something better for your money, your wealth next year you have got to change your environment. Usually that environment consists of the people we are with and the conversations we are having. This actually leads into the next point. Change your language. You don’t have to have money to speak properly about money or wealth. When you are speaking about how life is hard and how broke you are, guess what will show up? Ahard life and brokenness. Self fulfilling prophecy. You can look at Kshs 1, 000 and declare how broke you are. But you can look at the same amount of money, buy Unga, make mandazis, sell them and double the money. It’s really a matter of perspective. What do you make that Kshs 1, 000 mean to you? Is it brokenness or opportunity? The meaning we give things usually comes out in how we speak so literally watch your tongue!
Get out of your comfort zone. Nothing will change unless you do something differently. The comfort zone is the place where you need to exert no extra effort or thinking. Maybe it’s your job. You can do it in your sleep. You go in and you know exactly what to do and how to do it. Money is is simply not generated in the comfort zone. The rich people we discuss in the poverty support group do not live in a comfort zone. We have to identify specifically what we will do differently. A lot of the times people will state goals as part of their New Year resolutions. For example I want to have paid off my debt, or made a particular investment, bought a house, started a business. Granted you may not have the money in the beginning but you still have to do a certain action you were not doing before. Maybe at the very least you have to stop doing the actions that were getting you into debt in the first place. Maybe you will have to figure out a way to earn extra money, maybe you have to have a conversation with somebody or maybe you simply have to go and place a standing order to make extra payments towards your debt. One of the things that we can definitely do differently is commit to learning. The great thing with learning is that you can do it without a penny in your pocket. Say you would indeed like to make certain investments this year. Take time to learn about them. Nothing stops you from doing research on property. Nothing stops you from talking to somebody who can teach you something. Nothing stops you from reading relevant books, articles, blogs etc. If you can take a program that teaches you about investing. If you are not learning something you can’t grow. You can always choose to use your time differently as well. The similarity between you and the richest person in the world is that you both have 24 hours a day. It is worth evaluating how the people you want to emulate use their time. You’d probably find they dedicate actual time to work on their goals. Things don’t happen if you don’t allocate the time. They may also spend time networking, learning, planning etc. Try and come up with a list and figure out how you spend your time differently in 2016.
Finally create time to think and reflect. We’ve spoken about using time differently but this stands on its own. We all need space to drown out the voices of the world and connect with ourselves and what we want. If you don’t think for yourself people will do the thinking for you and before long you will have lived other people’s lives. If you start our day without having taken time to decide what you want to achieve that day you end up running around in circles with everybody else dictating what you should be doing. If that can happen for a day imagine a year. Before 2016 take time to sit down and think, plan, strategise. What do you want, what will you do differently, what do want to learn, who do you want to have a conversation with this year, where do you want to travel to, what do you want to change in your relationships etc.
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Waceke runs programs on Entrepreneurship. Find her at waceken@centonomy.com| twitter @cekenduati| facebook.com/cekenduati
Great Article and good advice to work with come 2016!