The Seven Ingredients of Success Ingredient Four: Financial Freedom

The first three ingredients of success are Peace of Mind, Healthy and Energy and Loving Relationships. The fourth is financial freedom.

To be financially free, you must have enough money, so you don’t worry about it continually, as most people do. It is not money that lies at the root of all evil; it is lack of money. Money also causes great anxiety among martial artists. Some feel that martial arts should not be taught for money or personal gain. Still, the major martial arts associations, even the most traditional, have memberships that are based on fees.

The reality is that we live in a society that requires financial focus. It is an exercise in self-delusion to operate as though money is not important. Someone who understands money rarely makes this statement. School owners that have not done well and seek an altruistic justification for their lack of success typically suffer from this self-delusion. The reality is that most people are focused on money all the time, especially if they don’t have enough.

You are a martial artist in the new millennium in a Western society. At age 65, 97% of the population will be dead or dead broke. The only way to be a member of the three-percent that are financially independent is to start to focus on building your business and saving now.

Achieving financial freedom is one of the most important goals and responsibilities of your life. It is far too important to be left to chance. More than 80% of the population is preoccupied with money problems. Those people think and worry about money when they wake in the morning, throughout the day and during the evening. This is not a happy, healthy way to live. This is not conducive to being the best you can be.

Money is very important. While I put it as number four on the list of ingredients of success, it is an essential factor in the achievement of the first three. Most worry, stress, anxiety and lost peace of mind are caused by money worries. Many health problems are caused by stress and worry about money. Many relationships problems are caused by money worries, and arguments over money cause many divorces. You owe it to yourself, therefore, to develop your talents and abilities to earn enough money, so you don’t have to worry about it.

A feeling of freedom is essential to the achievement of any other important goal, and you cannot be free, until and unless you have enough money, so that you are no longer preoccupied with it. One of your main aims in life must be to your financial independence, without self-delusion, procrastination or trusting to luck.

Imagine that you had a magic wand and you could wave it to design your financial life in any way you wanted. What would your life look like if you achieved all your financial goals? What difference would it make in your day-to-day activities? What would you do more or less? How much would you like to be earning one year, five years or ten years from today? What kind of lifestyle would you like to be enjoying? How much money would you like to have in the bank? How much would you like to be worth when you retire?

These are very important questions! Most people never ask and answer them during their entire lives. If you can be perfectly clear about where you want to go financially, then you can learn what you should know to achieve that goal. Many graduates of my seminar have changed their lives from rags to riches. They have become presidents of large corporations. Some have become millionaires. They have started and built successful businesses, but only after they decided what they wanted.

When you decide exactly what you want your financial picture to look like, then there are many resources available to achieve your goals faster than you might have imagined possible. Martial Arts Professional magazine and its Web site are a good start. It all begins with defining your financial future clearly, and then making a plan to realize it. Second, find a good system of operation and savings and put it into action. Everything will follow from that.

Brian Tracy is a Karate Black Belt and a world-renowned expert in the field of human development and motivation. Much of his success is a result of the discipline he learned through martial arts training.