Every corporation has a Founder and a CEO. Sometimes they are one and the same. But in your life, your Creator (God) is the Founder and Chairman of your Life, Inc. and you are its CEO. As the CEO, you get to make all the financial and life-altering decisions that either will elevate your life business or sink it. Free choice is a beautiful thing...most of the time. But not a single CEO on this Earth has been without making poor decisions. We all do. It's part of being human. Some of those decisions get us so far off track that we are brought to our knees, to our perception of rock bottom. Failure. Fortunately, our Chairman anticipated this fact and gave each of us many excellent tools, that if used properly, can help us find our way back to solvency and peace of mind. Three of these tools are our BRAIN, which has an astounding reasoning capacity, EXPERIENCE and the EDUCATION from that experience, if we choose to utilize it. These really are the only tools we need. Sure, friends and family are always great temporary resources, but even a temporary loan doesn't permanently help the CEO and their organization. They need to get to the bottom of the bleeding, stop it and build up from there. It takes time and effort, but it can be done. Simply put, every successful CEO is on top of the company finances, has cash reserves for the unexpected and makes plans for the growth of the firm. You need to develop razor-sharp skills....Fortune-500-CEO-like skills...and develop a team that will intensify your Brain, Education and Experience tools.
Financial Coaches are to Family CEO's what a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is to the Corporate CEO's. They review financials, report current and expected outcomes and advise accordingly. But final decisions belong to the CEO. Your employees (dependents) are reliant on these choices. You, as the CEO of your company must approach your company's Financial Health and Well Being in the exact same manner as a Fortune 500 CEO. And it's not hard to do...at all! Planning, believe it or not, isn't the issue...Execution is.
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”
- Benjamin Franklin
Look at it this way...every single dollar in your personal domain has an assignment. You've got revenues (income) and then expenses (bills you need to pay). These need to be organized into a BUDGET, because without one, you're lost. CEO's, along with their CFOs, will come up with 1-, 2- and 3-year plans outlining intended use of revenues and expenses. These PLANS consider worst- and best-case scenarios. They look at every angle of their dollars, making the company as prepared as possible for upside or emergencies. They establish the intended growth of the company based on these plans. They also have a Balance Sheet, which shows current assets and liabilities. Better said, the Balance Sheet is the snapshot of their planned execution. With each reporting period, they know the company's net worth...down to the penny.
Translating this into your personal Life, Inc. is a matter of exercise and diligence. The exercise is budget and planning. The diligence is being married to that budget and plan no matter what. Emotional spending has no room in your budget...ever! Keeping up with your Instagram buddies' lifestyles isn't even an option. Throwing caution to the wind...forget it! In fact, caution is your new benchmark. Every cautious spending decision will be the standard by which you operate. For now, your reporting periods are, at minimum weekly, but preferably daily, until your savings and spending habits become your very heartbeat. This is diligence on steroids. It must be. Your monetary growth to your definition of Financial Peace depends on it.
"The difference between successful people and really successful people is the really successful people say no to almost everything." - Warren Buffet
Exercise your "NO" muscle. Eventually, you will learn, instinctively, when purchases are emotional versus necessary and be ready for those necessary ones. Trust me, you are only a few cautious decisions away from Financial Peace. You’ve got this!
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