I am not a product of my circumstances

Is your circumstance a story you tell yourself when things don't work out as planned? Or, are you intentional with your decisions and live a life with no excuses? This is the podcast EP you need to hear.

"I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions." – Stephen Covey, American educator, author, and businessman

We often talk about adversity; sometimes, our circumstances can be the most significant adversity that we face in our lives. But, is it the perception of this adversity, or is it something real that holds you back?

Let's consider my circumstances:

I missed my first significant growth spurt due to breaking a leg in 7th grade. As a result, at 16, I was 5' tall. As you can guess... my dream of playing professional soccer went down the drains. 

Like many people, I grew up in a divorced household. Though in the end, the reality was that my family grew, the side effects of watching your parents separate can seemingly make an impression on a young adult. Even better, during hard times, we lost our house. I almost felt hopeless. 

College just wasn't for me. I dropped out of college with one semester left. Given that I was so close to the end and not receiving the paper that said that I was "educated," could have ruined my chances of getting a job in a competitive hiring marketing. 

Married and divorced three months later with a baby on the way.

Credit in the toilet.

And more.

What changed my life

What changed my entire life was understanding that all of my decisions were precisely what lead me to my outcome. You get what you give. I always seemed to be broke - well, where is my money going? It becomes overly apparent that I was broke, not because of how much money I made, but because of how I spent the money I made.

Living a life driven by the wind, aimless, comfortable not having a plan, falling into a job, and being complacent are all decisions you make — not the circumstances of your upbringing. It doesn't matter what you want if you don't purposefully make intentional decisions, because, in the end, the unintentional choices are just as impactful. 

How to live your life by making intentional decisions

1. Get your yellow legal pad out and figure your what your exact income is on a weekly/monthly basis.
2. Create a separate account to take 10% of that number and save it for your future investments.
3. Research investments that you can make for $500 or fewer dollars (there are more than you think!)
4. Pick one of these particular investments and use the same strategy we talked about for an entire year. After one year, determine how much better off you are or aren't and how effectively you stuck with your investment.

• Create a course on Udemy
• List your place on air b n b
• Rent out your car
• Peer to peer lending (look it up)
• Buy and sell used books or other items you know about

No matter what you choose, your success will be directly tied to your decisions. Are you someone who is going to decide to make it work and stick with it, or are you like most people who choose to start and then give up nearly as quickly as they started because it was hard? That decision is yours.

An example of being smart and intentional

If I make 400 per week (10/hr) and I spend my money on food, gas, and other random things, then at the end of the week it is gone - but if I take 40$ of that money every week and save for four weeks, then I can buy a three-headed vending machine and put it in a local restaurant. After doing this for an entire year and using the same process I could have 12 of these same machines, and if they each make me even $15 (.50 per day) per month each, I will take my 1600 and now have 1780, and if I do this for two years, and invest the extra 150 each month that I'm making, then I would be spending 300 every four weeks. At this rate, at the end of year 2, I would have 35 of these things… You get the picture…