Focusing on our finances is an integral part of a successful life but it is not the only one. So while my goal of eventually having a one million dollar net worth is admirable, it will mean nothing if my health is greatly deteriorated and I have no friends. In Dan Miller's book, 48 Days to the Work you Love, he highlight's 7 key areas of achievement that must be in tune. I will go over them and tell you specifically what I am doing to work on those areas:
1) Finances: This is an obvious one because this is basically what this blog is about. I have a goal and that goal is one million dollars. As I have said I have no doubt in my mind that I will achieve this goal. Setting clear goals is what allows the successful to flourish.
2) Physical: I plan on living a healthy long life so I can enjoy my money to the fullest. I try to do at least 100 push-ups a day and I try to walk whenever possible. When faced with stairs in a building, I take them, forgoing the elevator. I also attempt to maintain a healthy diet, although this one is especially hard living as a college student. But overall, it doesn't take that much extra effort to maintain good health, just do the little things.
3) Personal Development: I try to learn something new everyday. Most of the time I am forced to because I'm still in school but that's beside the point. I am slowly but surely becoming an avid reader. In this past, I would be lucky if I finished one book a year. Currently I am half way through my 3rd book since September. Dan Miller says in his book, "Your success, financial and otherwise, will never far exceed your personal development." So if we grow our knowledge, as a natural side effect our finances and other important aspects of our lives will grow as well.
4) Family: This one is important. We must have a support system in order to maintain our success and we find that in our family. These people should love you no matter what, and you should love them in return. I live fairly far away from my home, so I make an effort to talk to my parents at least every other day just to check in and see how things are. If your relationship with your parents or children is bad make a small effort everyday to mend the relationship, you will get out of a relationship what you put into it.
5) Spiritual: There are two main things I do to increase my spiritual bank account. The first is that I adopted saying the rosary everyday. It is a great time to meditate and reflect on those important mysteries of the rosary. I am also reading a chapter of Proverbs everyday. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs and usually 31 days in a month, so it works out quite well when trying to remember which one I should read. These are sometime hard to understand and cannot simply be skimmed over if you want the full benefit. I try to reflect on each verse and see how it can be related to my life today.
6) Social: I maintain a relationship with my friends from undergrad and try to go out of my way on weekends to see them. I keep my promises I have made and I always try to smile. Nobody wants to hang out with an unreliable grump.
7) Career: In his book Dan Miller says, "Your career should be a reflection of the LIFE you want... once you decide on the life you want, it becomes obvious what kind of work embraces that." I love helping and teaching people. I am in school right now pursuing my PhD in biomedical engineering so that I can do research to make people's lives better. While doing research I also plan on being a professor so that I can teach others about the swiftly growing field of biomedical engineering.
All of these areas are interconnected, if we abandon one it will bring all the others down with it. However, if we are able to weave together and stimulate each of these areas in our lives, I believe we have created the one million dollar formula.
--A Future Millionaire
P.S. - Sorry for the long post, I felt like this was all really important stuff. The good news is you will have all weekend to digest it, the next post will be on Monday.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment with any questions or criticisms and I will be happy to respond.
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