3 Secret Weapons of the Rich & Financially Free

None are hustle harder or read a book a week…

We live in a world of instant goods and instant entertainment. We can buy almost anything with one click. We can get almost anything with free overnight shipping. Everything is streaming or on-demand. Love stories begin by swiping left or right. We have internet with super-giga-mega-bit speed.

It highlights our obsession with technology, it decreases the average attention span, but worse of all, it builds bad financial habits. This world of instant everything has its drawbacks — all the way down to your wallet and your future financial success. It leads to greed, overspending, and individuals that would rather binge another show than start a side hustle.

Today I’m here to highlight 3 forgotten and underrated secrets of financial independence and how they can help you find focus and achieve long-term financial success. Putting it all together is how you can make huge financial strides, which I’ll cover in the end.

Secret Weapon #1: Delayed Gratification

Delayed gratification is the ability to resist the temptation of instant pleasure. It’s saying no in the present in hopes of getting a better or longer-lasting reward in the future. When you know how to practice delayed gratification, you can wait for what you truly want: earning a bigger payoff down the line.

When we buy things or stuff, it gives us a shot of adrenaline or dopamine. But that happy feeling is fleeting. It fades. It ultimately disappears for good, sometimes just hours or even minutes after each purchase. This is called the hedonic treadmill or hedonic adaptation. We eventually return to our baseline level of happiness, usually sooner than later. Then, we seek that adrenaline shot again. And over time, the time between adrenaline boosts from instant gratification shrinks. It can even become a problem. Shopaholic, anyone?

Delay the cheap and easy right now, so you can wake up to a better reward tomorrow and the day after that. Resist now so you can enjoy a bigger reward in the future.

But how does this work in practice?

Delaying gratification is about building systems that work, rather than relying strictly on willpower. From there, it can be conditioned as the system turns into a habit or routine. Systems build self-awareness and discipline. It builds the willpower muscle without active effort.

Pinpoint the things you find addictive, pleasurable, and perhaps destructive when overused. As an easy place to start, for many, it’s technology . More specifically, it could be cell phone use throughout the day. Pinpoint your daily distractions and actively work to control them. For example, set timers or limits or keep your phone in a different room.

For me, it’s checking my email inbox across my work, business, and personal accounts far too often. To combat this, I recently turned off notification badges and sounds and I no longer check my personal inboxes during work hours. These two actions have given me back no less than 30 minutes a day. That’s 3 and a half hours in a week. That’s 14 hours in a month I was wasting for mini-dopamine shots from checking my inbox.

Think of what you can accomplish with an extra 14 hours a month. When people say they don’t have time for a side hustle or pursuing passive income streams I say, “Sure you do. You just need to figure out your time sucks and eliminate them with systems.”

When you delay gratification from shopping to eliminating time sucks, you’re tapping into the first secret weapon of the rich.

Secret Weapon #2: Finding Flow

To help you resist temptations or avoid desiring things in the first place, focus on finding a hobby that produces “flow”. Flow is actually one of the strongest types of contentment. It’s the feeling you get when you’re highly engaged in an activity, hobby, or project. Find a project that gives you this feeling of satisfaction and allows you to find your flow state.

This will not only keep you busy instead of bored (people spend money when they’re bored), but as an added benefit, it might even help you earn money on the side. I write books, create videos on YouTube, and blog on Medium and I enjoy it all in the process. I spend around 20 hours a week on these projects. I don’t make a great rate when all is said and done — here’s how much I made from YouTube last year — but I love this feeling of creating and getting better at a craft. Plus, I help others and myself and I absolutely love the process and finding flow.

How do you find flow?

There are many examples of flow outside of being a creative entrepreneur online. You can find flow repairing a bike, car, or boat. Perhaps you find it repainting your house or woodworking or even reading a book. It might be getting great at baking, starting a hobby-oriented Instagram, trying your hand at photography, hiking, running, or joining a sports team.

Finding flow is about optimizing happiness now and later by working through priorities and finding a state of being in which you’re actually happy. It’s a bonus if it’s connected to earning money. Happiness comes from doing something you’re excited about.

Seeking flow via a project, hobby or ongoing activity means you’ll have less free time to spend money, more fulfillment, potentially more income, increased skills, and a feeling of a sense of purpose. Maybe it gets you fresh air or exercise on top of it all. Seeking and finding a flow state is a win, win, win, win, win.

A final note on flow, side hustles, and tying this back to the first secret:

90% of building a profitable side hustle is mastering delaying gratification. Most creators and entrepreneurs bow out too early because they couldn’t master delayed gratification. Commit to practice. Fall in love with the process. And it might just change your financial life forever.

Secret Weapon #3: Optimism

You can’t force financial success. What you can do is adjust your perspective and mindset. Don’t waste time thinking about what you don’t have. Change the way you think about waiting. Change your systems. And look forward to the future with optimism.

Many people think success leads to optimism. The opposite is true. Your optimism leads to financial success.

Some people never start a side hustle or financial independence journey because they don’t think they’ll succeed. They’re too scared of failure or setbacks. Setbacks will happen. But when they do, don’t let them be discouraging. Look at them as lessons you needed to learn. See them as opportunities in disguise.

It’s okay to acknowledge financial problems but don’t complain and dwell on them. Optimism is how you turn challenges into opportunities.

What does optimism look like in practice?

It’s identifying and letting go of negative beliefs. It’s giving back to others to boost your personal sense of positive influence in the world. It’s journaling often. It’s practicing gratitude because being grateful is how you get more and recognize opportunities. It’s collaborating with like-minded individuals. It’s responding positively in the face of adversity.

Let’s tie this directly back to personal finance, specifically investing. When the market is down the pessimist only sees loss and fears a huge recession. The optimist says “stocks are on sale” and sees it as an opportunity to get great stocks at a lower price. When the market is down the optimist buys more to succeed.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, optimism is essential.

Optimism is how successful entrepreneurs are able to set aside self-doubt to yield results. Optimism helps you run a business because it’s how you attract quality employees. Optimism is how you spread your vision. Optimism helps you chart a path forward through challenging business times.

10% of life is what happens. The other 90% is how you respond to what happens. Optimism is the secret best way to respond to experience financial success.

You know who’s relentlessly optimistic? Warren Buffett. In fact, writer and data scientist Michael Toth performed a sentiment analysis of Warren Buffett’s letters to shareholders from 1977–2016 and he found positive words far outnumbered negative ones. Only 5 letters displayed net negative sentiment scores which were tied to major economic events.

Several studies show optimism is a trait most successful entrepreneurs share. Perhaps developing optimism is your key unlock.

Final Thoughts

Let the Universe do its work while you do yours. Eventually, resisting temptations with systems, finding hobbies or side hustles that produce flow and happiness, and developing a positive outlook will lead to financial success, gradually then suddenly.

When you put these 3 secrets all together you’ll find success incredibly satisfying, possibly more gratifying because of the anticipation. Believe and trust financial success will come, do work that puts you in a flow state, and enjoy the process with optimism because the reward is extremely great.

CONTRIBUTED BY Frankie Calkins.

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