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“To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want. The world is not yet a crazy enough place to reward a whole bunch of undeserving people.” ~Charlie Munger
We all want things in life, whether it’s more money, a promotion, better health, and better relationships. You name it.
But not everyone gets what they want.
What does it take then to deserve something? Being worthy and being aware.
The problem is that most people in life are victims of their own making. They are focused on the lottery approach to life. They think that tomorrow is going to be better than today, which is equivalent to waiting and wishing upon a star, but do nothing to realize a better tomorrow.
Rather than changing their situation, especially their financial situation, they complain about what’s happening around them. They make up excuses as to why they’re not earning more money and why they didn’t get promoted, for example.
None of these actions, however, make them more deserving of what they want.
There are 3 types of people in the world:
- People that make things happen.
- People that watch.
- People who wonder what happened.
Which of these types of people make themselves more worthy?
Which person are you?
To change your situation, you have to become more aware of it and of yourself. If you want to succeed, you're going to have to be focused on the present. You have to understand what it is you want and the actions you need to take today in order to be more deserving of it.
Sigmund Freud in Civilization and Its Discontents said:
“Life as we find it is too hard for us; it entails too much pain, too many disappointments, impossible tasks. We cannot do without palliative remedies.…There are perhaps three of these means: powerful diversions of interest, which lead us to care little about our misery; substitutive gratification, which lessen it; and intoxicating substances, which make us insensitive to it.”
When it comes to your financial situation and your financial goals, which of these three things are getting in your way?
Which of these things are holding you back and making you less worthy of what you want?
Reflect on the people you have encountered in your life: your family, your friends from high school and college, your coworkers, etc. Who would you bet on to be successful?
When you identify those who have become successful, was it the prom king and queen? The football jocks? The Class President? The valedictorians?
More than likely, it was the student with the set of intangibles: drive, passion, perseverance, awareness, courage, patience, focus, wisdom, balanced, the list goes on. It's not the strongest or the most popular, but the most intelligent that survives and thrives.
Most importantly, however, would you bet on yourself?
In being aware of what it takes to deserve something, it’s necessary to know what it takes not to deserve something. To learn what to do, sometimes it’s best to invert your thinking and analyze what not to do.
Therefore, who wouldn’t you bet on and why? It's not always what will make you successful but what's guaranteed to not make you successful. If you wouldn’t bet on yourself, why not? By changing those things, you will make yourself more deserving.
There are four categories of things to become aware of:
- your known knowns (the things we know we know),
- your known unknowns (we know there are some things we do not know),
- your unknown knowns (the things we don’t know we know), and
- your unknown unknowns (the things we don't know we don't know).
When it comes to your finances, make a list of your knowns and unknowns. Each day, go to bed a little wiser by becoming more knowledgeable of the things you don’t know. Step by step, you will get ahead in improving your financial situation and becoming more worthy of what you want in life.
Questions for the Community:
- How deserving are you of what you want and how can you increase it?
- What is your plan to start deserving what you want from life?
- Would you bet on yourself? If not, what do you need to change?
Photo courtesy of Images Money via Flicker.