What’s stopping you?

Have you ever said “I wish…”?

Why not turn it into the truth?

Go through the exercise, and say something ‘outrageous’ that you have said “I wish” plenty of times..

I want to work part-time

Block:

My expenses require a full-time job

Solution:

Can I cut down on my expenses? How?
Make a budget, track your money and look for places to trim

Hmm. I can’t cut down more than the bare bones on my food and life!

Well. Can I move to a cheaper place? Take on a roommate or two? Would that lower my fixed expenses?

Can I take the bus instead of a car? Can I carpool instead?

Can I work for 5-10 years and THEN go part-time, by saving up enough to supplement?

See what I mean? If you want to reach a goal, set it as a priority and then work around the blocks. Use creativity.

Let’s try another one.

I want to be able to travel twice a year.

Block #1:

I don’t have the vacation time.

Solution:

Can I ask for it in my next employee review?

Can I negotiate with my manager to work extra hours ahead of time and then take off a few extra days to “make up for it” while blocking it off with a long weekend?

Can I look for another job that will give me that vacation time?

Block #2:

I don’t have the money to travel.

Solution:

Where do I want to go? Can I save the money slowly and cut back on certain areas and sacrifice to make it work? How much do I need to save for the trip? How much is that per month?

Can I choose a different destination that is cheaper? Maybe do a road trip instead?

Can I pick up a side job? Work more over time? Sell things on the side? Maybe tutor or help my neighbours cut their lawns or shovel snow, or so handy side jobs.

If you want this goal badly enough, you’ll find a way to get it. Trust me, even children know this and learn it from an early age, if taught.

The real question to ask is…

Why can’t you?

What is stopping you?

List out everything, put numbers like dates, amounts and concrete things to work with, and then work on a plan to make it happen.

The only excuse you have is that you don’t actually want it badly enough to put the work into figuring out how to achieve it.

As an example, we took a couple years off to travel around the world.

We spent $20,000 each to do it. How did we do it so cheaply?

We flew in off-peak times.

We didn’t eat out all the time and hit up grocery stores to make our own food to defray the costs.

We stayed in cheaper areas of the city and took public transit instead of cabs.

We didn’t buy souvenirs and shop much – hard to when you’re only carrying a carry-on!

We used points, credit card rewards and other ways to save – there are plenty of articles telling you how to do this – search “travel hacks”, and there are lots of people into this travel hacking.

We didn’t go to expensive touristy spots, we did a few must-see destinations but then we chose mostly free entertainment like visiting parks and museums.

There are plenty of ways to reach the goal of what you want to do.

The real truth is:

You need to want it badly enough, to put in the work to do so.