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The System is the Result

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Goals are useful. A goal points you in the direction you want to go, gives you a metric by which to measure progress, and ideally provides the motivation to get there.

But goals don’t produce results. A behavioral system (including automated behaviors) produce the actual results. Your system of diet and exercise will produce physical and health results. Your system of saving and investing will produce wealth results. Your system of communicating and being kind and generous to people will produce relationship results.

They may not always be great results. That depends on the quality of your system, your compatibility with the system you’ve chosen, and how effectively you implement it.

I’ve managed to overcome health problems by tweaking my diet and supplements, and those system continue to work well for me. I feel pretty good about my saving and investing system too. My chess system, on the other hand, needs a lot of work. I only know a few openings, I fall into simple traps, and I too often impulsively make the first decent move I see without considering other options. But I’m working on it.

Writing, chess, and racquetball are three skills I’m actively developing. Some of the work is just doing the thing a lot. Learning new techniques and practicing those techniques — actively pushing the boundaries of your skill and paying the learning tax — is a big part of getting better. So where does the system part come in? What does that even mean?

What Does Financial Freedom Mean to You?

Not the skylight in my house.

Not the skylight in my house.

As the water poured into my house from two leaky skylights, I had a thought …

What does financial freedom mean for me, personally?

It’s a phrase Tony Robbins uses in Money, Master the Game. I considered the question on my first read through the book, but I wanted to come back to it. I’ve been thinking about how high net worth can limit time, lifestyle, and relationships. This is especially true for expensive possessions which require management and maintenance (houses, cars, boats), but money itself requires management, and a whole lot of money requires a complex network of people and institutions to manage taxes, investments, trusts, insurance, and other aspects of wealth legality and retention.

Net worth can also influence social relationships. It’s harder to form and maintain relationships with people who are in completely different economic territory, especially at the extremes of poverty and wealth.

Possessions, including money, can be a pain in the ass.

How To Get Rich Slowly Without a High-Paying Job

There are many advantages to getting rich slowly.

There are many advantages to getting rich slowly.

Today’s topic is how to get rich slowly, with a little help from Google Sheets.

Why write this post? In college I was just starting to save money from my part-time jobs, but I had no idea what to do with my savings. My parents had some savings and property assets, but no positions in the stock market or bonds, and nothing approaching an investment portfolio. I had no advice from them, nor did I know which questions to ask.

How to Solve Your Money Emotions and Achieve Financial Freedom

You couldn't pay me to own a yacht, but they do look real fancy.

You couldn’t pay me to own a yacht, but they do look real fancy.

I recently read MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom by Tony Robbins. The book shifted my thinking and emotions around money to such an extent that it warrants a post. While the book does get into technical details regarding types of investments, asset allocation, and diversification, the most impactful sections are those that address the big emotional and value questions around money, such as:

  • What is money for, for you?
  • What emotions do you have around money and the accumulation of wealth? Guilt? Anger? Greed?
  • What is enough for you, in terms of a savings/total assets amount? Why?
  • What level of financial security or financial freedom is your ideal?

Getting from Should to Must

Walking my tiger used to be in the "should do" category. Now it's a "must do" ... a pillar of my mental, creative, and cardiovascular health. OK -- I don't own a tiger -- but the walking part is true.

Going on long walks with my tiger used to be in the “should do” category. Now it’s a “must do” … a pillar of my mental, creative, and cardiovascular health. OK — that’s not my tiger — but the walking part is true!

One of the ideas that has stuck with me from Awaken the Giant Within is the subtle but powerful distinction between “should” and “must” when in comes to motivation.

Robbins makes this point many times throughout the book: we make things happen in our lives when we completely commit to them, when we move them out of the “should do” category into the “must do” category.

There’s a huge gap between ideas, hopes, and dreams and sitzfleisch (applying butt to chair, getting it done — and yes this applies even if you work at a standing desk).

How do we close that gap? Robbins would suggest associating massive pleasure with these “must do” activities (a vision of success) and massive pain with inaction (imagining regret, remorse, continued suffering, etc.).

Natural “Must Do” Areas

We don’t “look for motivation” in most areas of our lives. We do things because we have to do them. Our kid is hungry so we feed our kid. Work needs to get done so we do the work. Unless depression or some other mental issue has disrupted the brain, we don’t find a need to “find” motivation. We do things because they need doing.

The “problem” of motivation surfaces in life areas that we might consider “optional.” These might include exercise, artistic practice, meditation, or even playing with our children. These things aren’t necessarily putting money on the table, they can be put off to the next day without devastating consequences.

But if we rationally and carefully consider what is important to us we may find that these activities (you know what they are for yourself) are vitally important to our well-being, and to our future selves.

What belongs on your MUST DO list that currently isn’t?

What would you tell your past self should have been on the “must do” list? Is it too late to start?

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