I am surprised how many people I know and read about are barely getting by financially. Ok, well majority of students are in this position but let’s look into it from “How do I get out of barely getting by?” & “Where do I start, I have no idea?” perspective.

These are the questions that are very hard to answer because every and each of you have your own unique lives. The truth is, one approach for everyone does not work. But I wanted to share some things that are very well known to help you go in the right direction.

Practicing the Delayed Gratification 

You must of heard of it but in case you haven’t, then it means making short-term sacrifices for a better long-term return or goal.

The great example of this would be is to work as hard as you can, finding a side gig (but don’t burn out) for a few months and pay your bills and everything which will most likely fix some part of your financial situation, if not all. Then as you finish, consider why in the first place you got in that situation and avoid it like a plague. Good thing about this is the fact that we are as humans are programmed to avoid making the same mistake (touching the hot pot and burning yourself the first time will prevent you from touching it again).

Another great example is Stanford Marshmallow Experiment. Professor Walter Mischel conducted a study that studied six-year old children. In experiment children were given a marshmallow to eat now or get two marshmallows after 15 minutes of waiting. The result? some waited to eat the marshmallow and others ate it without waiting.

This study didn’t just finish there, researchers continued to study these children. It was found that children that were able to delay the gratification were much more dependable overall, psychologically adjusted, and more motivated as individuals. They also had much better grades in school than those that ate marshmallows right away.

This experiment shows that it is rather a choice of a person. You always have a choice to choose something right now or wait for something better or bigger later.

Buying iPhone as soon as it launches? Well this is a great example of a common technological influence on you. You want to pay a full price now than sticking to your older phone and buy this device later when it is cheaper.

You can apply this principle to almost everything in your life, but in the end think of everything as in terms of depreciation and its value that it can bring to your life.

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Changing Your Mindset

Definitely one of the hardest things to do because this is actually all up to you if you want a change. We are humans and we compete against each other, whether it is having a fancy car, house, traveling lifestyles, etc…

We live in the world where we tend to follow what the rest of society is following. Because in reality we all want the same things in the end (fame, wealth, great family relationships, more friends to name a few).

One thing you need to learn is that you don’t have to follow everybody else, set YOUR OWN goals in life and follow them – this is what makes you unique and ordinary, and will make you stand out from the rest of the people.

If you want to be just like everybody else, go to school, get good grades, get a good job and live the rest of your life that way then that’s what is called normal and there’s nothing wrong with that. But for bigger and better things you will have to change your mindset and make it different from everybody else. Accept that you have to be different in order to get things done.

Here’s a great example: I am sure you hear so much from people around you complain about typical things like the fact that they can’t afford or get a certain car, vacation, and other things that people know they cannot do or buy, but in the end this is all their fault. Anything is possible with all of the tools at out hands in this modern age.

This is hard, but by not trying new things or doing things that you love, you are only affecting yourself.

In my case, my life is not perfect right now or everything what I want to do is just sliding into my life just like that. Over the past year I have set goals in life and found that I can gladly say that I am so much happier than ever before because I am taking all the steps necessary – maybe just one at a time, but it is only getting me closer to the life I want to be living, but it makes me so happy to see the progress!

I will take being a nerd, weird every day over being stressed out every day about my financial life.

“I would never call money a good or evil, it is an accessory that helps you build a life you desire”

Become More Confident

Next thing is becoming more confident. This has many factors similar to the mindset change above but without one you can’t have another. Becoming confident I believe is one of the best skills you can have in life, you are able to make goals or choices and actually follow them and be unstoppable.

Here are some tips:

• Make a goal and follow it and don’t wait to start on it, in fact start NOW. If you want to earn more, then find another side gig, get education, change jobs
• Keep Learning – read news on daily basis about the subjects you are interested in, this will help you in so many ways and will also help you to engage in conversations with friends and great conversation starter with strangers
• Stop wasting your time with people that you think are bringing you down or suggesting you not to do something, instead start spending more time with people that actually cheer you up on choices you are making
• Set smaller goals, knock them one-by-one, this will help you build a confidence little by little and then eventually taking over the bigger goals.

You need to learn that confidence is not “if they like me”, confidence is “I will be fine if they don’t”. Don’t waste your time comparing yourself to others, instead focus on yourself and accept who you are. Don’t like who you are right now? Then improve yourself!

Surround Yourself With Right People

You are the average of five people you spend the most time with. Have you heard of this? We are greatly influenced by people that we surround ourselves with. In order to increase any win, you need to increase your losses as well. Why? When you are becoming more successful you will be facing more enemies, it’s just our human nature.

Who do you turn to when you have a decision to make? Your close friends? Family? Internet? Well, remember that all three choices are people. You must be wondering about internet? Well, who writes the articles or runs the internet for whatever question you got? Yep, we are.

The point I am trying to make here is if you want to be just like the five people you spend the most time with and are happy, then great! But if your closest friends are hard to describe, then it is time to change your circle.

Surround yourself with people whom only help to support you in the decisions you make or your goals reaching. You will notice a big difference in yourself once you change the circle of people you talk to most often.

Being honest here, I have changed my circle of friends over the past years and cannot even say how much better I feel about myself and looking at my past friends, they are exactly at the same position where they were before.

Get out of your comfort zone and start meeting new people that have similar goals!

If you can’t afford to buy that car or that vacation or struggling financially completely then it is time to find a way to make extra money or switch jobs, do something that will only get you closer to the person you want to be.

Anything is possible if YOU start believing in yourself

Everything takes time and it is up to you how bad you want it. You don’t need a college degree to be successful in life, you just need to start believing in what value you can bring to this world. School only helps you to get into average but I hope you want to be way better than average.

Lastly, Something to Know

Your life is up to you and what you make of it is only up to you. There is so much to do in life that I don’t even know where to start. If you change your mind on things, surround yourself with right people, become more confident, and get out of your comfort zone – you are guaranteed to be a unique individual.

So, take a charge now! Don’t like something or even someone? Just cut it off from your life, meet someone new, develop new goals and become who you really want to be.

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