Financial freedom. My two favourite words in the dictionary. The first one word alludes to the green stuff we all work so hard for, the second to freedom in our lives. We all crave a life of freedom and flexibility. It’s just that most of us aren’t willing to go through the initial pain required to get there.
Passive income and financial freedom
Creating a lifestyle where you can enjoy having financial freedom over the long-term involves cultivating a winners mindset. Why? Because amassing financial resources coupled with having freedom involves creating passive income streams. These are streams of income that you can earn without directly trading your time for them.
For example, Miranda is obsessed with travelling. She owns a travel blog where she writes all about her globe-trotting adventures. Her blog is popular and she ranks on the first page for quite a few terms in Google. This means that Miranda’s blog is generating organic traffic through people searching for terms in Google.
Miranda acts as an affiliate for various travel related products and services so she mentions and links out to these companies from her blog posts. Some of the people reading her content will click-through and purchase something, it could a flight ticket, a suitcase or some form of experience day. When people make a purchase, Miranda receives a commission for the referral.
This is passive income. Miranda has set up her blog and worked hard to achieve her rankings but she can now enjoy residual income for months, if not years to come from the same articles.
Essential personality traits for financial freedom
As mentioned before, achieving financial freedom involves cultivating a winning mindset. Some call it the entrepreneurial mindset. It’s essential to understand the requirements for creating a successful business that earns passive income.
The reasons most people don’t get to enjoy earning passive income streams are many, but most boil down to personality traits as we respond to obstacles in a particular way.
Throughout my journey so far, I’ve identified five fundamental personality traits that are paramount to achieving that sweet financial freedom we all crave so dearly.
Let’s get started:
#1. Grit
A fine combination of courage and resolve that result in a strong character. Grit is a pre-requisite to building a successful business. It takes a certain level of courage to leap into the unknown without any guarantee’s of winning.
When I think of Grit, it makes me think of the hustle. To push past apathy and laziness. To get the work done with no excuses.
Without Grit, you may find yourself unwilling to take necessary risks as well as make the sacrifices required to build something successful.
#2. Consistency
In many cases in business, it isn’t lack of knowledge, intelligence or courage that result in failure. It’s a simple lack of consistency. Some of the worlds most successful people were turned down more times than most even try. But they were determined. They remained consistent.
The likes of Walt Disney, JK Rowling and Jack Ma, for example. People from all walks of life that share these common traits of consistency, determination and overcoming overwhelming odds to succeed.
#3. Focus
Focus is the currency of the digital age. We live in a time where perpetual distraction is rife. We’re constantly bombarded with stimuli designed to pull our attention.
Without being aware of this, it’s easy to get into a habit of distraction. Our culture glorifies instant gratification and almost encourages impatience.
Speed is the name of the game now. With super-fast internet, same-day delivery on goods and on-demand TV, we don’t have to wait for anything anymore. This becomes a problem when we need to focus and play the long game for a business.
Focus enables you to quite simply, get stuff done. If you can’t focus, you’ll waste so much time on activities that won’t move the needle for your passive income venture.
#4. Versatility
The ability to flex and pivot in business is crucial to success. Resistance to change is futile in a world that’s constantly changing. You need to be ready to switch things up. Many successful businesses have had to completely change their business model in order to succeed.
Starting a business on your own requires learning and mastering a few skills. You’ll need to be willing to jump into uncharted waters.
Let’s take blogging as an example. You might assume that blogging is easy, but that’s only because the professionals make it look easy.
A successful blogger needs to master the following:
- The ability to connect with an audience
- Copywriting
- Email marketing
- SEO
- Influencer marketing
- Product creation/affiliation
- Basic coding skills
- Content marketing
I could go on for a lot longer but I’ll leave it there!
#5. EQ
What is EQ you ask? It stands for Emotional Quotient and it has everything to do with your emotional intelligence. Your level of emotional intelligence affects every part of your life. From how you respond to stressful situations to your awareness and regulation of your own emotions.
Studies have found that your level of EQ has a bigger impact on your ability to succeed than the popular IQ academic intelligence measurement. And it makes perfect sense. As humans, we’re emotional beings. We like to think that we’re driven by logic and common sense, but honestly, it’s the feels that make us do things.
How does this relate to financial freedom? Emotions play a huge role in any business venture. Things will go wrong. Obstacles have a unique way of finding you when you’re pushing yourself. And the way you respond to these challenges will determine your results.
Rounding things off
I hope this short list has helped highlight the importance of psychology when it comes to starting a business and achieving financial freedom. We tend to underestimate the value of a powerful mindset. In reality, a powerful mindset is a pre-requisite to a life of wealth, abundance and happiness.
So it’s time to do some inner work!
Cultivate the qualities of success and it won’t be long before you’ll be enjoying it for the long-term.
