Are You Willing To Pay The Price?

Sometimes I find myself rereading books that I have already read.  Sometimes it's because: a) I really loved it and want to reread that book and enjoy it a second time, b) I feel like I need a second read to fully absorb what the book had to say, and c) I completely forgot that I had read it in the first place (oops!).

When it came to Robert T. Kiyosaki's Rich Dad's Guide to Becoming Rich I must admit that it was a little bit of option b) and c).  First of all I honestly and completely forgot that I had read this book (come on, it was book #35 out of 71 books that I read in 2019...can you forgive me for forgetting?) and secondly, I really needed a second reading to truly be able to make sense of what I wanted to get out of the book.

As you can imagine Rich Dad's Guide to Becoming Rich has to do with financial management.  This, if you know me at all, is not something I am passionate about.  I mean I'd love to be rich but I'm not really into learning all about it how to do it (dumb, I know).  If I'm going to be completely honest here, if I never had to think about financial management ever again in my life, I wouldn't feel any sense of loss.  I am not passionate about it and honestly, I don't feel like I'm good at it so of course (what do we do when we feel insecure?) I kind of, sort of, (ok fine) almost totally, try to completely avoid it if I can.

But you and I both know that avoiding financial management is a recipe for disaster.  I know that I need to smarten up and get more financially literate.  So in true character, I went out and read a book about it.  Actually as I already admitted, I read a book TWICE about it.

As I read this book for the second time I could distinctly remember the narrative portion of the book.  The little stories that Kiyosaki told to illustrate his points clicked with me and I remembered them well.  But a lot of the advice specific to financial management felt like I had never heard at all.  Like it was completely new information.

Yikes!

I believe that when we're uncomfortable with something in life, even if we want to make a positive change about it, we have to take a deep breath and then move forward in baby steps.  We need to start in the shallow end and then work our way into the deep.  We need to stay within a comfortable zone so that we can move in the right direction and not drown on the spot.

Consider someone who is sedentary who wants to become fit - should they start by training for a marathon or should they start by getting up and walking to the mailbox?

For me, reading the book a second time helped me identify what I have been doing, the small changes to my finances that I have already made, and some potential changes that are in my future.  It's not like I got nothing out of the first read of the book; it helped me make some changes that were akin to walking to the mailbox.  For someone who's not into financial management there was only so much I could take in the first time around.  This time around, I got quite a lot more out of it.

I admit that I've had to get up and walk to the mail box when it comes to financial literacy.  I'm no where near a marathon and I'm not ashamed to admit it.  We all have our strengths and weaknesses and money management isn't my forte.  But if I'm willing to make a change, to learn, to do something different, then to me it's not a weakness; it's an area for improvement.

Financial literacy is one of my areas of improvement and I'm glad I read this book because it offered some great advice that applies not only to wealth building goals, but also to life building goals.

Don't we all have areas in our lives that need a change?  Are you looking to make an improvement?

Well I am.

After reading Rich Dad's Guide to Becoming Rich I realized that the key messages about financial management apply to almost any aspect of life you you're looking to change.

For example, how many of you feel like you're somehow a failure?  You've failed in your marriage, you've failed in your health, you've failed as a parent, you've failed at your job - the list can go on and on.

This book taught me that failure is a verb not a noun.  In fact, I say this to my students all the time.  We so often fail at something (verb) and then consider ourselves a failure (noun).  But that is not true.  The only true fail is when we don't even give something a chance.  As the great Wayne Gretzky said, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

So many of us want to change areas in our lives that we feel we fail at but are we willing to get up and just do it.  Are you willing to do what it takes?  Are you willing to pay the price?

This book points out that in order to achieve something you need get going and pay the price.  Actually not just pay the price, but pay twice the price.

Want to get fit?  Not only do you need to pay the price by going to the gym, but you also need to Pay the price of eating healthier too.  Want to excel at your job?  For me, to be a better teacher for kids who struggle I can't just work on pedagogy and curriculum. I also have to know what it means to be a student who struggles and what the experience of sitting in a classroom is like for them. That's paying twice the price.

To get good at something we have to be willing to do the hard work that's required to get us there.  What's the hard work that you need to do in order to achieve your goals?  What is the price you have to pay?  Are you willing to pay it twice?

Whatever your goal just get moving.  Kiyosaki uses Newton's laws to make his point.  Not only do they make sense in terms of building weath, but they also work beautifully with achieving any goal.

How do you get started on making a change in life?  The answer: you need to get moving.  Consider Newton's law that you need a force to set something in motion.  Then, once in motion a body will stay in motion.  If you make no move for a change, a body a rest stays at rest.

To achieve your goals you need to interrupt the patterns of behavior that keep perpetuating the situation you are trying to change.  Get up off the couch and start walking.  Stop yelling at your kids and use deep breathing to control your frustration.  Stop buying stuff you don't need and put some money away each week.  Once you get moving you can then continue in that direction.  If you never start, you'll never get going.

I cannot think of a single behavior that cannot be interrupted by making a small change.  Both your action and inaction matter.

Yes, it might be hard.  Yes you might need to pay the price, but isn't reaching your goal worth it?

Kiyosaki points out that "You can become rich by being cheap, but the problem is that although you are rich, you are still cheap".  Really folks, at the end of the day if you try to achieve your goals by avoiding your problems, at the end of the day even though you've achieved your goals, you still have problems.  Nothing really changes.

Take charge to make a change and achieve your goals.  Building wealth in your life is about more than just money; it's about being willing to pay the price to achieve your life goals whatever they may be.