Hint: You gotta lift the weights …
Want to build financial muscle mass? Want to become financially fit? Then let me tell you the secret … you gotta lift the weights.
To get a feel for what I’m talking about, check out this ridiculous situation …
Which guy gets strong?
A scrawny guy walks up to a physical fitness trainer and asks, “Can you train me so I can have big muscles like you?”
“Yes,” replied the physical fitness trainer, “follow me.”
They go to the gym and the trainer says,”OK, sit on this bench, here’s a bag of Cheetos, if you finish it, I got plenty more where that came from; and here’s a coke, there’s more in the fridge, help yourself. Now, I want you to sit here and watch me work out. Don’t do any exercise, just watch. Go ahead and have all the food and drink you want, but remember, no working out, OK?”
The trainer goes off and lifts weights, jogs on the treadmill, does push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and then, after an an hour of working out, visits his Cheetos eating understudy and says, “We’re done. That’s all for today. Meet back here tomorrow, same time for another workout.”
In this scenario, who’s getting stronger, the Cheetos eating understudy or the weight lifting physical fitness trainer? How is the understudy going to gain muscle mass by sitting on the sidelines? Not going to happen. He’ll remain a weakling.
That’s why welfare doesn’t work …
The scenario I just described is the physical parallel to the government welfare system, ‘You sit down, here’s some money, don’t do anything, and we’ll do it all again tomorrow.’ How are you going to build financial muscle mass if someone else lifts the financial weights for you? Not going to happen. You have to do it. If you let someone else do your work out routine, they’ll get strong, not you. Make sense? I hope so.
A dollar earned is worth three given to you …
I’ve heard it said, ‘A dollar earned is worth three dollars given to you.’ I agree. The earned dollar is pure gold. It’s worth more than gold because of what you learn from your ‘earn.’ It’s all in the learning. And, gainful, productive, hard-fought, learning is how you lift weights financially. The more you learn, the more you earn. The better you get at the money game, the smarter and stronger you become - financially. Until one day, you look in the mirror - I mean your bank book - and see a financially muscle bound man or women.
Get in the game; get on the playing field; take hits
So, you want to build financial muscle mass? Then get in the game. Get in the financial gym, lift the weights, get strong. Then get on the economic, financial and/or business playing field and begin taking hits. I guarantee, you’ll take hits. You better or I’ll be very disappointed, ’cause I took a lot … I’m still taking them.
Players get hit. So what? That’s where the action is, the fun, where all the opportunity lies. There’s no opportunity in the stands. Spectators aren’t in the game, so yes, they can’t lose, but they can’t win either. We already have plenty of spectators. Be a player.
The first thing you need to learn is how to take a hit. Then learn to get up. And then learn to repeat this process until you get used to it, it ain’t no thing .. .why? ‘Cause you’re tough. You toughened up. You show me someone who’s learned to take and bounce back from financial hits and I’ll show you a ‘muscle bound financial tough guy.’
Play hard but have fun too …
Who am I to talk about financial fitness? Am I financially strong? I think so. I left the JOB (Just Over Broke) world in July 2009 and haven’t looked back. I am not dependent on a job, a boss, and/or a government paycheck for my livelihood. I’m financially independent. I achieved financial independence through property investing. Property investing is how I did it; it’s how I got strong financially. You do it your way. You’ll probably find a better and faster way. Great. I don’t want to impede your progress. Therefore let me encourage you to get in the gym, lift weights, get strong and then get on the field, start playing the game. Play hard but have fun too. Why not? Life is short.
You can read about my ‘hit taking’ journey in my book Working my BUT Off! Reflections of a Property Investor.
The more hits you take, the tougher you get …
You want to get strong, you have to lift the weights. Whether it’s weights in the gym or financial weights, you have to do the lifting. You let someone else do the lifting; they get strong, not you. If you want to get money strong, get in the financial gym, and lift the weight. Then get on the financial playing field and take the hits. The more hits you take the tougher you get. The more you get knocked down the more you learn how to avoid getting knocked down. The more you get knocked down the more you begin to realize it’s only temporary and you can get back up.
You make the rules …
You can pick up the ball again and run with it. You can run when nobody’s looking, catch them while they’re sleeping. Because in the real world there’s no whistle, there’s no waiting for the other players to get ready, there’s no asking the coach. You make the rules … you decide when to run, you decide when to work out, you decide what play to call, you decide who you want on your team and/or what team you want to play for.
It’s all you. And that’s good. You are responsible for you. Why would you let anyone else take responsibility for you? Why would you let a boss, a co-worker, a politician, a family member … anyone, be the boss over you? Yes, you can have a boss at work, but you’re the boss over your life. Don’t delegate that responsibility to your boss, don’t give the boss that much power.
The financial gym is always open …
The great thing about the USA and other countries where ‘free-enterprise’ still exists to a reasonable degree*(it’s slipping further and further left towards government control - socialism - every day, but that’s another story) you have many examples of folks ‘making it.’ Wow! If there are folks out there achieving financial muscle mass, then you can do it too. They went to the financial gym, they lifted the weights, they bulked up. And so, if you lift the weights, you’ll bulk up too. You’ll get tough too, tough enough to take the hits. The more hits you take the tougher you get. And, it’s all about getting tougher. Build financial muscle mass and get tough. More good news, the financial gym is always open and encompasses virtually the entire planet. Your financial gym is planet earth. Get lifting.
*Note: Under socialism, this article has no meaning. Under socialism, the financial gym would be closed. We’d all be reduced to pawns of the government and individual freedom would be something you remember from a bygone time.
