The Process To Financial Freedom

What is Financial Freedom?

According to richdad.com, 

Financial freedom is much more than having money. It’s the freedom to be who you really are and do what you really want in life. 

If you want to be financially-free, you need to become a different person than you are today and let go of whatever has held you back in the past. It’s a process of growth, improvement and gaining spiritual and emotional strength to become the most powerful, happy, and successful “you” possible. That is the true reward of financial freedom.

Let's elaborate more of what richdad.com is saying here.

You need to become a different person than you are today and let go of whatever has held you back in your past.

• If you are going to judge yourself, right now, how would you do it, would the huge percent of it be insults or compliments, or  a fair ratio of both? 
• And if you are going to ask the people around you, like family and friends, who you are that you are unaware of, do you have any idea what they will say? 
• How about this one, please give me the right to ask you, do you  know what God says about you, do you have any idea or glimpse what God is always saying about you?

We can hear in our deep thoughts words like "I am a failure. I am a loser. I am nobody. I am not good enough. I do not matter. I should give up. I am not loved. It's just not for me. I can't "and so on, but these words will never help us build our character, instead these are words fed by the one who is against us. Stop telling yourself these words, because if you are against yourself, you cannot be for yourself. And if ever or whenever a situation arises and you become reminded of these nasty words, you always have a choice to believe whichever. Remember that you always have a choice. And beside along your right choice to believe in yourself are the tools that will support your choice.

According to Rick Warren, there are four principles for winning the battle for your mind, and these are:

1. Don't believe everything you think. 
2. Guard your mind from garbage.
3. Never let up on learning.
4. Let God stretch your imagination.

I suggest you read the full article here as an application for Principle #3 Never let up on learning.

To gain financial freedom, you need a different you, therefore, you need a change. You don't need to change, but you need a change. Examine yourself what do you need to change in yourself. You do not need to change your whole self, because that's not possible, you were created with special gifts and uniqueness. All of us have flaws, but all of us is special and unique in our own ways. We were created differently, and all we need to do is to choose to develop our gifts and uniqueness, and to choose to work on our flaws.

It’s a process of growth, improvement and gaining spiritual and emotional strength.

First part of growing is answering these questions:

• Where are you right now? Answers the questions what do you have and you do not have, what you can do and cannot do with what you have, and what you have can do to you and cannot do to you.
• Where do you want to be? Answers the questions whether you want to have what you do not have or not, whether you want to do more with what you have or keep it as it is for the sake of having it, and whether you want to work for having it all the time or the opposite - to let what you have to work for you sometimes.
• How are you going to do it? You can answer this question by applying Principle #3.
• What is the timeline? A goal is not a goal without a target timeline. If runners do run for the sake of running, it only means they want to stay where they are. they just want to stay healthy. But race runners do run for a reason, and their reason is their goal. Some race runners' goal is to finish the race, and some is to reach the finish line first. You will achieve your goal by working to achieve it. It is the application of what you learned in strict compliance to the timeline.

To track down your improvement is to regularly review where you are right now in between where you were before and where you want to be.  

Also, examine how effective were the methods you learned and applied and how does it fit you and your goal. A method that doesn't seem to fit need not to be removed immediately. Being patient is the key. The risk of waiting is high, but the principle of high risk investment usually brings high return.

Reality check:

In between where you were before and where you want to be are the circumstances that just out of your hands and will make you stagnant or stops you from moving up. Sometimes, you'll just wake up in the morning, feeling very tired or exhausted for no specific reason. All things done were seem to be pointless and were heading nowhere. Sometimes, you will wonder where all the positivity went  or how does it all dried up that you became really weary and worried. 

Reaching your goal is not easy, and it will take a lot of work and time, but as they say, there's no success made overnight. The reality is no matter how you planned your success well, a moment or set of circumstances will come that will make you doubt and just stop. In fact, in a man's view, it is easier to just stop than to keep on trying, because keeping on means working continuously, isn't it easier to rest than to work? But giving up and stopping will not bring you to where you want to be, this is not lottery. But also, achieving your goal is not 100% result of your work.

You can boast of what you did to get there if even once in your life you did not think of stopping, but in reality, everyone of us does. Why? Because we are mere humans. 

In reality, we need an ally greater than ourselves, 

• Not the one who will protect us from unwanted circumstances, but the One who is over all the circumstances.

Because the truth is - good things and bad things happen for both good and bad people. We humans are fallen creatures, living in a fallen world. We - who doesn't want to be fallen all the days of our lives- dream and set goals, and act in order to achieve those. 

• Who are for us.

To help us along side to reach and achieve our goal. The one who - in times we doubt - will believe for us. The one who will sustain us, to keep us from being exhausted.

The battle of the mind is a continuous battle, and we must humbly accept that we cannot win the battle on our own, we need an ally who already won the war, and an ally who wanted us to win every battle set before us.

So, achieving your goal is not 100% result of your work, because in between, your work won't be enough, and you'll be needing an ally greater than you are. You need to believe that your creator is your ally. God created you for a reason. No, He did not create you to suffer, but He created you to prove that you will succeed with Him.

Emotional strength depends on how well we know we are loved. People in our lives will fail to make us feel loved, for at least once. People are imperfect and we cannot blame each other for being imperfect, and for failing to make us feel loved. But if we know how deep and wide God's love is for us, we will be secure with Him, knowing what ever happens He sees it, He knows what is best for us and He is powerful to execute everything according to his time. Emotionally strong people is not easily wavered with the delay of their success, knowing and believing God is in control.