Great Hair. The Fundamentals
What sets Green Berets apart from the rest? Other than rugged good looks, great hair, and the distinctive headgear hanging out of your cargo pocket taunting everyone else*?
I mean, there is all the extra training, special equipment, and mindset combined with the mystique of a barrel chested freedom fighter who defies all odds. Then there is the primary mission set (Unconventional Warfare, Special Reconnaissance, Direct Action, Counter Insurgency, Foreign Internal Defense). Not to mention language, survival, and hand-to-hand training; the personal characteristics of initiative, self-reliance, maturity, and resourcefulness; and the ability to operate in austere, politically sensitive environments where small decisions can have strategic impacts.
Wow, that was braggadocios
But what it really comes down to is… doing the fundamentals better than anyone else.
So what are the basics when it comes to Financial Freedom? You are probably expecting a list. Lists are good for high adventure trips to the grocery store, or for tasks like heart surgery or flying an airplane. Some folks love lists (pilots, doctors, and other important folks). I mean, writing down what you need to do and then checking it off is psychologically fulfilling. Supposedly, lists lessen anxiety, give structure, and show progress.** So go on with your list writing self!
It’s your own fault
But first, let’s discuss how your basic life decisions have strategic financial impacts, and then we’ll mind map (I love mind mapping!) our way to greatness.
When you are deliberate about something, you focus on it, and make decisions with the end in mind. When you just do what everyone else is doing, and then wake up surprised that you ended up where you did, it’s your own damn fault.
Conventional Wisdom
Get good grades in school, be well rounded, buy a car, go to college, get a good job, get married, have kids, buy a house, work until your 60+, retire, and enjoy your Golden Years. What are the main ideas surrounding conventional wisdom***?
- Keep up with the Joneses.
- Buy stuff on credit.
- Immediate gratification.
- Hope things work out later.
- Stuff equals happiness.
- This looks like a list…
Empowered Wisdom
Everyday, all day, we are being influenced**** (advertisements, corporations, others around you) to follow conventional wisdom and consume. However, when you become self aware, you realize a couple of things that others know, but don’t know they know*****.
Bottom line: what you spend your money (and time) on is what you value.
What do you value? What’s important to you? How do you want to be remembered? Make it so.
*All true. “Great with the ladies” is honorable mention.
**Although helpful in some situations, lists don’t enable my creativity, they blur the lines between urgent and important, and all those unfinished tasks make me antsy and unhappy (Zeigarnik effect). Hence why I add already completed tasks to my list so I can cross them off…
***Conventional wisdom can be helpful, but not always… Unconventional thinking can lead to new understandings, creative solutions, and redefining success.
****Brainwashed?
*****There are known knows. Known unknowns. And Unknown Unknowns. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REWeBzGuzCc This guy might sound dumb… and arguably did some very things. Nonetheless, the heuristic he gives has potential. And it is sort of funny…
Picture: https://imgur.com/r/all/xQXjsgw