I was full of stress today. I wanted to give up. I felt so much frustration that it was easy to believe that no matter what I do, or how hard I try, that I will never reach my dreams.Â
I stared at my life. I looked my future in its eyes. It felt like there were just too many puzzle pieces to put together to transform my dreams into reality, and that no matter how hard I worked to try to put them all together, I’ll never be able to do it.Â
I struggled today. I felt like giving up. I have saved more money than I ever dreamed of, but money isn’t enough to create happiness. I want my dream life, and I’m tired of waiting for it. I want it now. Today my life didn’t feel like a care-free stroll in the park. Today I felt like I was stumbling around like an incompetent leader and I didn’t deserve the massive dreams that I feel in my soul.
This is how it sometimes feels, even when you’re on your path to wealth and your dreams.
Look at my living room right now:
I have this big $10,000 sweatshirt order flooding my living room. I have to sort out for a client, but the instructions from my client are vague, and I don’t want to rush it, because if I make a mistake I’d have to eat a $10,000 order. I spent all day working on this order to get it ready for screen-printing, but then I realized it was all wrong and I had to start over. Â
I’m tired. I feel like I have so many things to do. Sometimes the path to your dreams just isn’t fun.
At moments like these, I feel pressure on all sides. I have to keep sales coming in so my business survives.  I have to keep saving my money so I can hopefully buy another investment property. I have to upload my first novel to this website. I have a huge guest-post on another big blog to finalize. I have to add some new insulation to my rental property. And I have to write this week’s post! I have so much to do. Yet I have to remember to enjoy life at the same time.
Striving for greatness isn’t easy. The truth is, sometimes it isn’t even fun.  Â
Right now, I just want to give up and disappear somewhere. I want to crawl into a hole and forget all my dreams. I want to numb myself out, or fall asleep, and hope everything is better in the morning. I want someone else to make the hard decisions for me. I want to be free now. I don’t want to wait for financial independence. I WANT IT RIGHT NOW SO I DON’T HAVE TO THINK ABOUT ANY OF THIS OTHER STUFF AND I CAN DO WHAT I WANT FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!!!  Â
I no longer want to feel the pain and frustration of striving. I just want to be happy all the time.
I’m writing this all out, and aggressively venting about it, because I think it’s a perfect example of what the path to wealth really looks like sometimes. It’s not all glitz and glamor. It’s not easy. It’s maddening, and frustrating, and challenging, and at times, it makes you want to give up when you don’t know the perfect answer. Sometimes it feels like you’re trying to jam a round peg (your life) into a square hole (your dream life).  And sometimes everything just doesn’t feel like it’s working, even when you do your best to make it work. Â
I don’t have all the answers. I try to be confident, but I am human and doubt myself too.
During my greatest days I have enough confidence to envision myself as a legendary warrior who can fight anything, anywhere, anytime.
But in moments like today, when I feel weak and tired, I feel like I am doing the best I can, and I question if my best is really good enough to get me to where I dream of going?
And that’s why I am writing this post. To really shine the light on the fact that even for people who look like they have it all together; and write like they have it all together; there are days like this when nothing feels like it’s going right, and everything you do just seems difficult.Â
During moments like these, I have to remember that the only reason I have gotten this far (being happily married; owning two homes; having a net-worth of hundreds of thousands of dollars in only five years), is because when I faced moments like this in my past ⸺ where I severely doubted myself and my abilities ⸺ I didn’t give up. I fought through my insecurities and doubts. I didn’t avoid my problems. I confronted them. I evaluated myself and my environment, and learned how to overcome them.  Â
Honestly, having the strength to fight against your own doubts and insecurities is a skill more essential to building wealth than picking the right financial investment or choosing the right career. I believe it’s in these moments that determine a person’s wealth potential. If you avoid your problem, and shrink during these moments of insecurity, you will forever stay in small dreams. However, if you choose to fight through the difficult moments, and find confidence as you learn about yourself during hard times, you will have the opportunity to rise up and live big dreams.
People don’t become wealthy overnight. The stairway to wealth takes a lifetime to climb. Each step of this wealth stairway is built on all of the hard moments you overcome.  If you give up when your journey gets hard, you will never climb the staircase to wealth. However, if you fight through these moments, you can climb your steps into the dreams you never thought possible.  Â
Successful people ⸺ no matter what they’re doing ⸺ know that success doesn’t happen in one moment, or one day. It takes years of consistent effort. It is a lifetime journey of taking two steps forward, and learning from your one step back. Patient minds learn to succeed. Impatient minds get frustrated, give-up, blame-others, and never know what they’re capable of.    Â
A great maxim is: If a journey isn’t painful, it’s not worthy of your time.
So when you see people who are living their dreams, and have reached the most successful moments in life, don’t be envious at their easy life and moments of glory.Â
Remember the only reason they have reached success, is because they have survived the thousands of moments that pushed them to their breaking point and made them want to give up.
The reason they are successful is because they didn’t give up. They chose to fight. They fought through those moments of insecurity, and learned from them, and used that knowledge to make better choices the next time they encountered difficult times. It is because they chose to fight against the toughest moments is why they eventually became successful.
 Ok, I am done with my rant. Thanks for listening to me as I fought through this difficult day.
Wealth is found when you don’t dream of living an easy life. It’s found when you want to work your hardest to make life look really easy.
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Nobody said the road to success was easy. If it were, we would all be FIRE. 😉 Sorry you had a bad day, but I’m happy to hear you’re able to fight through it to get what you want. Be strong!
Thanks @ Mrs Picky Pincher. Yeah, it was a terrible day. But trust me, I’ve been through MUCHHHHHHHH WORSE!!!!!! I may look like a guy who has it all together, and makes everything look easy. But trust me, I have climbed out of a nightmare of a life to get to where I am today. In fact, I am going to be talking very openly about this period of my life for the first time publicly @budgetsaresexy soon, so look for my guest post there. It’ll be eye-opening for sure, and may be unlike anything you’ve ever read. There is much, much, much more to my ,mission and life story than just building wealth. The wealth part is just the cherry on top of everything else I have survived.
And also, thanks for the encouragement. Yesterday, I was discouraged, frustrated, and I just wanted to quit. I was behind on writing, but I still wanted to get a post in. I thought writing a quick article on all of my frustration was perfect, because if you truly want to get out of debt, create wealth, and live your dreams, you have to know that these hard days exist and the only way to get through them is to keep fighting with everything you have.
It’s so easy to write only about the good parts in life. But fighting through the difficult parts is what turns ordinary people with ordinary dreams, into champions who live extraordinary lives. Often times the only thing that separates champions from ordinary people, is that the champions take the pain of fighting through the hard parts, and still believe that their dreams are possible even when nothing is going their way. Thank you for the encouragement, again!!!!!!!!!
ty ty Bill B.! i really needed that advice. Peace
Hey, THANK YOU for reading Kimmy. You are a valuable member to our team. Anytime you have a question, please ask and I’ll be happy to give you a personal answer.
I can so relate with u. Im real down and out to. And ready to give up. I do to also have the most money i have ever had saved up too. I cant, dont enjoy my life because im soo consumed on saving it. Im completely O.C. D about not spending a penny. Its crippling.
Hi Kimmy: So excited to see your comment. Your thoughts and feelings are valuable as I am sure many people feel the same way you do, so you’re not alone! I have been thinking about writing an article, called: How I know when I should spend my money. Your comment may have inspired me to write this sooner, rather than later, so thanks for the inspiration.
Here is a perspective that really helps me see if I should spend my money or not. I call it my, “If I died tomorrow,” test. When I see something that I want to purchase, before I let my OCD get in the way, I ask myself this question, “If I died tomorrow, would I regret not spending money on that?”
If the answer is “yes, I’d regret it.” Then I buy the thing or experience and I don’t look back. However, if I realize I wouldn’t really care about it if I died tomorrow, then I don’t buy it and save my money instead.
Here is an example of me putting this perspective into practice: (Now be patient with me as I talk a little football. This story is more about my decision to spend money than football) I am a huge Minnesota Vikings Football fan. One of my favorite players was Adrian Peterson the last 10 years while he played for the Vikings. He was recently traded to the New Orleans Saints, and the Vikings play the New Orleans Saints opening night in two weeks in Minnesota. This will probably be my last time to see Adrian Peterson play in person as I don’t plan to travel to any of his games.
The problem is that tickets for this game are in high demand, like $100+. I usually wouldn’t pay $100 for a 3 hour sporting event, but you know what, I can afford it, and I know I’d have a lot of fun cheering on one of my favorite athletes one last time as a thank you for all the years of entertainment he gave me for the last 10 years. $100 for a ticket is alot of money, but I can easily afford it. And when I put it through my, “If I died tomorrow perspective,” then I know I’d regret not going to the game, and saving the $100, if I died tomorrow.
So I’ve just decided to go to the game and have fun, and not worry about the $100 I’ll spend. To me, and to anyone who wants to create true wealth, it’s more important to be able to live your life without regrets than it is to live your life in fear. Just remember that’s what you’re ultimately living for: Don’t live your life to posses a ton of money you never use. Try to live your life without regrets. A life without regrets is the greatest life you can live. If you’d regret a purchase if you died tomorrow, I totally encourage you to spend a little and live your life without regrets!!!!! (I think you just gave me another idea for a post.) Thank you!!!!!!!! So what you do think about this perspective?
The ‘regret test’ is a great idea! It also ties in with the oft-discussed “experiences vs. things” debate.
I think you should post a whole article about it 🙂
Thanks @frugal student for stopping by!!! Oh and by the way, I may write my “regret test” article next week as I am busy uploading my first novel to my site so I currently don’t have a ton of time to write new content for the next few weeks. I hope to launch the novel by late September, so stop by and check it out as I know you’re a fan of fiction. It’s actually the first novel I wrote for my writing mentor, Gary Paulsen, author of Hatchet, who used it as a project to help me write better.
Hey @froogalstudent. Long time no see buddy!! Thanks for stopping back. Hey keep coming back in the next couple of weeks. I am currently uploading my first novel, Spark, to my site and should have it ready in the next month. It was originally written as a practice novel Gary Paulsen used to teach me how to write better. Would love to hear what you think about it. Thanks!!!!!
You are on track and your article is on point! Hang in there.
THanks so much for the comment @Patrick Green! I remember writing this article when I was tired, frustrated, and losing hope, and I didn’t think it was any good. I was too hard on myself. I just re-read it and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t horrible, and I wasn’t the biggest loser on the planet that day!!! Haha. Again, thanks for the encouragement. Hanging in there during the toughest moments is really what separates the giant wealth-builders, and the wanna-be wealth-builders.