12 Forces That Might Be Hindering Your Wealth Building Efforts
How are your wealth building efforts going? Is everything going according to plan? I’m willing to bet that this is not the case. I’ve come to expect that you have, just like me been experiencing ups and downs. There have been days of progress, in addition to days of no progress and frustration.
Please keep on keeping on. Don’t relent! I want you to know that I’m rooting for you. You will succeed in time. It’s important for you to understand that there are many forces trying to stop you from succeeding financially. Now when I mean forces, I’m not trying to sound spiritual. This article is certainly not about witches, wizards, or ancestral spirits. Instead, it refers to several drivers that are pushing you away from financial success.
The word “force” represents the power to influence, affect, or control. In other words, this article is focused on unearthing things which can affect or influence one from becoming wealthy. These forces include:
Fear
Fear is perhaps the foremost force hindering most people’s wealth building efforts. This manifests itself in a fear of the unknown or a fear of failure. Everyone, rich or poor has failed before. The only difference is that the rich push on notwithstanding. In fact, the rich have failed more times than the poor.
Take steps to deal with fear by using affirmations. Read success stories about rich people in Forbes Magazine and conquer your fears. Omilola Oshikoya, Africa’s premier wealth coach hosts a yearly conference tagged, “Do It Afraid“. Go ahead and work towards building wealth even though you’re afraid.
Doubt
Doubt is another equally powerful force limiting people from achieving wealth. It is essentially a lack of belief in your abilities to succeed or do anything meaningful with your life. It’s like a cancer, quickly eroding your self-belief. Doubters are unstable, unsure and unable to make progress.
Deal with doubt by replacing it with faith in your abilities. Stop entertaining doubt about your abilities. Instead, speak faith and affirm your capabilities. You can also move with people who believe in you and solicit the services of a mentor. Don’t give doubt any room in your life.
Procrastination and Inaction
Lack of action. Postponing what can be done today to later. This seems subtle and ordinary but it’s a deadly force hindering wealth building. People desire to build wealth but do not do anything about it. This is commonplace with many people. They make New Year resolutions and forget about them before the year gets halfway. At the end of the year, they achieve nothing tangible.
The only way to eradicate procrastination is by taking action. Start taking steps towards building wealth. Start with small steps and before long you will be able to take much bigger steps.
Envy and Jealousy
Resenting another person’s financial success is a definite no-no if you are serious about building wealth. This sets off an emotional reaction in the jealous party that leads to poverty and lack. Envy and jealousy can even affect your health.
Work hard and be sincerely happy for those who are successfully building wealth. In no time, you will also start succeeding. God has made this world in such a way that one person’s success cannot overshadow another person’s. Focus on your life and efforts and things will start working in your favor.
Lack of knowledge/Ignorance
Wealth is a product of knowledge. Acting on knowledge and insights gathered is what sets you up for financial success. Lack of knowledge means being unaware of the skills, tools and strategies required to build wealth. You can’t amass plenty of what you do not understand.
Defeating this force requires investing time and effort into knowing how to build wealth. Books, CDs, Online seminars and courses must be acquired on wealth building. This knowledge must also be acted upon. It is what you know and apply that can set you free.
Complacency
Complacency rears its ugly head when you get too comfortable with the status quo. You may already have some modest financial achievements and see no need to push yourself further. Therefore you tend to like things just the way they are.
Continually challenging yourself is key to defeating complacency. You can still add more zeros to your bank balance. What is life without a challenge or goals worth striving for? Set new challenging wealth building goals for yourself and rediscover lost form.
Resistance to Change
Change is the only constant in life. We live in a world of constant change. Yesterday’s solutions can quickly become obsolete. The world is constantly on the look out for innovation, better and more improved ways of doing things. Anyone who resists change runs the risk of missing out on latest trends which affect wealth building.
Distrusting Others
Wealth building depends on people. You can’t do everything by yourself, you need others to make it happen. Wealth builders cannot afford to isolate themselves. They must work together with a team to achieve the objective of building wealth.
Two things are required to end the menace of distrusting everyone. First, find and work with people who have proven their trust and loyalty to you. Second, don’t be caught assuming that everyone is disloyal and unworthy of your trust and confidence. You need others just as others need you.
Lack of vision/clarity
“My people perish for lack of vision,” is a common biblical refrain. The inability to be clear as to where you are going or what you want to achieve can derail you. How would you be able to measure progress without a road map as to where you wish to go?
Wealth building demands clear, concise and written out goals and plans. This document must be well thought out and constantly consulted to judge progress. Those who take the time to do this have a ninety percent chance of succeeding than those who don’t. Brian Tracy, a master self development guru has published a lot of material in this regard. Please take the time to develop a clear vision for your life.
Wrong Attitude
One’s attitude towards wealth building can go a long way to determine if you will be successful or otherwise. For instance, if you believe that it’s impossible to become rich without being fraudulent, that becomes a stumbling block. Attitude might be intrinsic but it defines your perspective towards wealth building. It pays to develop a positive mental attitude towards wealth if you desire financial success.
Lack of accountability with money
Those who cannot control or rein in their spending habits cannot build wealth. A lack of accountability with money forces you to spend and spend believing another money is coming. Money is not meant to be spent, but to be invested and multiplied. You put money to work so it can produce more for you.
Working with a budget and curbing emotional spending will set you on the right path to fiscal discipline.
Failure to create value
Serious wealth is the product of value creation. In other words, the more valuable your product or service is, the more people would be willing to exchange their money for it. Closely related to this is the concept of solving problems. The richest people are involved in solving problems for the most number of people. You can’t build wealth if you’re not value driven. Determine to create solutions for people which they’ll willingly pay for.
The final word on wealth building
Using this article as a guide, I’d like for you to go through and identify the forces hindering you from building wealth. Then act on the steps to remove these hindrances from your life. You will need to keep working on these steps for a while. All hindrances will eventually give way. But please take care to ensure that they do not return by constantly reviewing this list every 2 months.
I see you go on to great and lasting wealth, after dealing with the forces holding you back.
Note: This article originally appeared at MoneyTalkNG.
Category: Personal Finance
