Our assistant, Brandon, is passionate about personal finance and empowering our clients with small tweaks in behavior that can have a big impact on their financial well-being. In this blog post, we share some of Brandon's tips on how discipline can lead to freedom, especially when it comes to saving.
"Off the bat, you might be thinking: 'How exactly does discipline equal freedom?'. From the outset, they seem to be a complete dichotomy of each other. However, you cannot have one without the other. In 2018, I read Jocko Willink’s Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual. This book has helped me in many ways and has positively impacted how I think and act. If you are here for shortcuts or hack, you're in the wrong place. If you are ready to take a disciplined approach to create more freedom in your life, these strategies are for you.
Who is Jocko Willink? He is a retired Navy Seal Lieutenant Commander who served two tours in Iraq and was a Navy Seal instructor. Since he retired in 2010, he has written multiple books on leadership, such as Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual. All of his teachings have been sewn by the threads of his experiences throughout his life and career.
In this blog post, I will share some of Mr. Willink's key takeaways from his teachings.
Where does discipline come from?
Discipline comes from within. It is an internal force. You can have a self-help guru or a mentor tell you what to do, but those external forces are weak. Your internal force is what drives your decisions. For a decision to change your life, the decision must come from YOU.
Now take a step back.
What are you deciding on? What freedoms do you want?
We hear a lot of common things from clients. We hear that they want more time to spend with family; that they want to be financially free or confident; and that they want to be healthy and physically free. All these things are considered freedoms.
Take all the things that you want in life and change how you view them.
Don’t view them as a dream because dreams don’t come true. Think of them as a destination. It is not a matter of if you get there, but when. To get to these destinations, it takes discipline.
For example: Let’s say you wish to spend more time with your family.
First, you need to create time, whether that be by eliminating TV, taking shorter naps, or fiddling less with your phone. You would be surprised at how much time we waste in a day. The website eMarketer did their own survey and showed that in 2019, the average person spent about 2 hours, 55 minutes on their smartphone1. That number is only going to increase as we become more reliant on smartphones. If you manage your time better, you can allocate that extra time to the things that are important to you, like spending time with your family.
Another example: This example might strike a chord with you if you are planning for retirement. Let’s say your goal is to have 'x' amount of money to live off in retirement. That number could be a million or it could be $10 million. How are you going to get there?
Let’s face it, the amount you desire is probably high and may seem daunting. To get there, you are going to need discipline. You will not reach your destination if you are finicky and invest $100 every time your goal comes to mind or if you spend on things you don’t need. You need to have the discipline to save money. You could save $100 a month or a $1000 a month, as long as you are disciplined and stick to your plan. This is the financial discipline that will lead to financial freedom.
Remember, at the end of the day, the decision to have whatever freedom you decide on comes from YOU. I highly encourage you to share with us what freedoms you want in your life. We would love to hear them and hopefully, we can be a part of your journey toward those destinations."
How are you being disciplined and how are you experiencing freedom as a result?
Share with us on Instagram, Facebook, and/or LinkedIn!
In good financial health,
Tori
1 https://www.emarketer.com/content/us-time-spent-with-mobile-2019