One of the best ways to create wealth is by overcoming addictions; destroying addictions; and replacing addictions with a mission that will lead you to your dreams.
We don’t just focus on money here at, Wealth Well Done. Our articles focus on the steps, insights, and knowledge it takes to create an awesome life. Once you feel like you’re living an awesome life, you will begin to feel like one of the wealthiest people on earth no matter how much money you have. That perspective, I think, is what makes this blog unique. An awesome life = A wealthy life. So always pursue an awesome life first, and a wealthy life will be the result of your pursuits.
Luckily for those of us who weren’t born into families with millions-of-dollars, or stunningly-good educations, or perfect jobs, the truth is, you really don’t need an ungodly amount of money to create an awesome life for yourself.
Here is an important insight into creating wealth that I don’t think gets talked enough about:
I am convinced that one of the greatest tricks the devil ever pulled on us, is by making it too easy to justify our own personal addictions. It’s too easy for us to convince ourselves that our addictions really aren’t that bad. It is so easy to compare our lives to others, and say, “Well I’m not a drug-addict, or sex-addict, so I’m Ok, because I’m not that bad.’
I personally want to bury a nuclear weapon inside that way of thinking and blow it up, because engaging in that way of thinking is one of the most harmful things we can do to ourselves and our futures. This is why:
This week I received an awesome comment on this blog. It was left on an oldie-but-goodie post you can read here. (It’s about my years in a break dancing crew. It was one of my favorite to write.)
The comment read: “Kill Your addictions. I like that Wealth Creation Tip. Addictions only distract you from what’s really important in life, so I definitely agree.”
BINGO!!!!!! That comment hit on a massively important insight on how to create wealth. Wealth is created when you can overcome addictions, and re-focus your energy on the dreams that matter to you.
I think this comment does a great job defining what a true addiction looks like. Not all addictions make us look like homeless-hobos shooting smack under a bridge with passed-out prostitutes lying around us. Most people will never get to that point of depravity, but most of us will use that image to justify that our own bad-habits really aren’t that bad compared to others.
This is a good time to remind ourselves, that the addictions we really have to be concerned are the ones that make us seem “normal,” yet creep inside out lives and take control of us like evil octopuses with tentacles that spread into every area of our lives. These types of addictions are so subtle, that you might not even know that you struggle with them, until they steal so much life from you that you one day find yourself old, and tired, and you realize that you didn’t accomplish any of the dreams you had when you were young.
These addictions come in a lot of different shapes and sizes. They come in packages that look “normal” and “socially acceptable” to us. They look like TV’s, and Media, and an extra drink, or joint, at night to help you chill out the brain cells that feel inspired to do more with your life.
These are the addictions you should become aware of, and learn how to fight against. Because the fewer addictions you have that are stealing energy from you, the more energy and opportunities you will have to start finding yourself and building your wealth.
So how do you become aware of these subtle addictions in your life? And start fighting against them?
Ask these questions to find your true-self and life-state: Who am I? What am I becoming? Are your getting closer to your biggest dreams? Or are you drifting further away, and becoming a shell of the person you dreamed of being?”
It’s the subtle, passive-aggressive addictions you have to look out for. These addictions are the ones that distract you from living the life you dream of.
Destroy your addictions, and you will naturally begin to find yourself and the life you dream of.
There’s nothing to be ashamed of when we discuss our addictions here. We all have them if we’re honest with ourselves. Remember, an addiction is simply: “ANYTHING THAT DISTRACTS YOU FROM CREATING THE LIFE THAT’S IMPORTANT TO YOU.” Destroy those things, and you will find yourself and your unique path to your wealth.
Honestly, I have quickly risen from a life worth nothing, to being worth hundreds-of-thousands of dollars, and I would say that the biggest source of my wealth didn’t come from making the perfect financial investments. The biggest source of my wealth came from targeting my addictions, and fighting against them to overcome addictions and take back the control in my life. If you can defeat your addictions over and over again, and replace them with healthier habits, you will naturally begin to find yourself, and your path to wealth.
For Example, here are three addictions I overcame.
Overcoming Addiction: My Party Lifestyle
Back in my early twenties, I almost considered myself a “professional partier.” College house parties, hippie music festivals, underground raves were the environments I was drawn to and felt comfortable in. It didn’t matter what the party looked like. As long as there were drugs and alcohol involved, and people who wanted to let loose in their inhibitions, I felt as alive as I’ve ever felt.
I never thought of it as an addiction. I justified my lifestyle that it was just “blowing off steam” and “having a blast” once all of my responsibilities were done for the day. But now that I look back on it, I see that I really was living as a “functional addict.” Because even though I wasn’t dropping out of school, or getting fired from a job, my party-addictions were definitely leading me to live below my potential. I look back on it now, and I realize that I spent most of my young-adult life recovering from my binges, and keeping up with the lies I was telling myself. Because I was wasting all of this energy maintaining my addictions, I lost out on many opportunities to aggressively pursue the dreams I had for my future.
Once I started to see people get arrested, and overdose from drugs, I started to realize that I was too deep into this messy lifestyle, and I wanted to change. Once I began destroying the bad-habits that were holding me back, I began to listen to God more, and obey the cravings of my soul, and I put all of that energy into aggressively building the life I dreamed of living. This led me to find more meaning, purpose, and money that I dreamed of having in my life in a very short time.
Overcoming Addiction: Sports Entertainment.
A lot of people watch sports and TV, so it doesn’t seem like that big of deal. It’s an easy addiction to justify as being “normal.” But as I mentioned above, these “normal” addictions are often the worst because they can go undetected and suck amazing opportunities out of you for years and decades on end.
I got into watching NFL football in my 20’s, and it became an addiction. I would say sports started to pull me away from my dreams just as fast as drug and alcohol did. I became so obsessed with my favorite teams in the NFL, I started checking updates on my phone several times a day. I started to read online reports of my favorite teams every night after work. Rather than spending that time creating the life I dreamed of, I wasted that time following other people’s dreams on the sports teams I followed.
I eventually had an honest conversation with myself, and realized that following sports had become an addiction in my life. I asked myself: Was sports helping me become the person I wanted to be? No. Sports were distracting me from my dreams, and so I decided it had to go. In its place, I decided to talk to God more, and that action helped lead me to where I am today.
Overcoming Addiction: Movies and Media.
I watched my wife mainly struggle with this one when we first got married. She’d come home from work, crawl into bed, and watch a movie. It seemed harmless to her and I at first, because she had worked hard all day, and so it was easy to justify her relaxing with some “down time” in front of a computer and television.
But from a distant view, I began to watch my smart and talented wife waste 3-4 hours every night, along with some of her weekends, lost in a fantasy world of media that didn’t even exist in the real world.
We worked on overcoming that addiction together. We now talk, and take long walks every night, or cook dinner together, or work on the house, or do anything that allows us to open our minds and think about living a better life, rather than turning our minds off and losing ourselves in the false realities we find in movies and media.
In conclusion, wealth is not all about gathering more money. Wealth is about becoming aware of our addictions, and fighting against them, so that they don’t steal our lives, talent, and ambition from us on daily basis. Go on a mission to kill your addictions, and you will naturally begin to find yourself, your dreams, and wealth beyond your wildest dreams.
So what are your thoughts? What addictions have you overcome that have helped you create the wealth you dreamed about?
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wow Bill B. i realllly needed this ‘meeting’ this mornin!
Well thanks Kimmy!!! My dream is to inspire you, and watch you become successful in your life. I’m glad it helped and thanks so much for commenting! I always enjoy seeing your name pop up!
So true! We like to label “addiction” as something pertaining to drugs, sex, or other things that Puritanical society categorizes as Not Good. But caffeine, sugar, and media consumption all fall into this category, too. I’m admittedly addicted to caffeine and sugar and haven’t made many attempts to give either of them up.
I do wonder how much wealthier I’d be if I didn’t spend so much money on baking or on coffee beans. I do ensure that my addictions are done in the most frugal way possible, but hey, they still cost money.
Thanks! And I am totally in agreement with you that sugar and caffeine can wreak havoc on your happiness if you struggle with an addiction and dependence to them. Like you, my wife battles to find a healthy realtionship and balance with food. Here’s an article she wrote on it that describes her fight against food: https://www.wealthwelldone.com/lies/
Say it ain’t so. Caffeine, sugar, media in moderation are true benefits of this modern world and for the first two have been helping people improve their performance for thousands of years. There is a real temptation to the curmudgeon living inside all of us to label anything that tastes good or feels good as being harmful or wasteful. Tasting something awesome and feeling something that feels wonderful are two of life’s greatest pleasures. Taken to excess almost everything is harmful but taken to the sweet spot of harmless pleasure, that’s just living life to its fullest. Although I always agree with you because you are incredibly wise I beg to differ here.
Hey Steve: I love the comment. I am with you that there are some things that taste and feel incredible in life, and absolutely should be experienced. But I also know that each of us struggle with consuming things that can harm us, and that our brains just don’t have an off switch for. That’s what I wanted to define as an addiction in this article. I don’t think that everything that tastes and feels good should be banished, so that we all turn out to be cookie cutter versions of human beings. I just wanted to inspire everyone to take a good honest look at themselves, and ask themselves, what’s harming me, and why can’t I stop doing it? That’s what I consider an addiction. For some that’s alcohol. For some that’s media consumption. For some that’s certain foods. For some that’s debt. For some that’s drugs and sex. The list goes on and on. I don’t want to tell everyone to stop doing everything. I just want to inspire the people to find out what their addictions are, and then leave those in the past, because that’s ultimately what has led to the most profound and important changes in my own personal journey through life. I hope you don’t have any addictions. But for the rest of us, just saying no to our addictions and moving on to enjoy our lives is on of the most basic steps we need to take to create a life we are proud of.
Great post, Billy! And Mr. G reminded me to take a look at your other one on Budgets are Sexy. Wonderful!
Would you say there are bad habits that keep you from having the life you want, that are not addictions? It’s probably a matter of semantics but we’d be better off if we viewed those as addictions, too. Because then we might actually do something about them.
One of mine is my constant “to do” list. Whether I actually add items to my lists or just mentally take note, it takes away from the moment. Some of my lists are necessary but others are just a brain dump. I think by clearing my thoughts and making lists I’m freeing up brain space, but I spend too much time at it.
Well thanks Mrs. Groovy. Sorry it took me a few days to get back to you. I’ve recently been overworked, so I’ve been trying to reduce as many responsibilities as I can for the last couple of days. (We actually spent the weekend up hiking in Northern Minnesota and enjoyed the full fall colors. Beautiful!)
Actually, the reason for my recent exhaustion and feeling of being overworked, is because of the same “to do list” mentality that you struggle with. Personally, I like achieving and working on projects, so I am always taking mental notes of what I have to work on next. But like you, this leads to endless lists of projects that need to get done. My to do list really got swamped when I bought my recent investment property. The property was in good structural shape when I bought it, but it had so many little “update” and general maintenance projects that need to be done to it. And as you know, when you own real estate, the projects NEVER end. SO I got into this bad cycle of just always planning on the next project. I liked the work, but with my sales business, real estate business, and blogging business, all of that work to maintain all of those businesses to my standards of excellence just got out of control for a bit.
Luckily, I finished the last real-estate project on my mental “to do list” last weekend, so I can finally just let the investment property run on auto-piolot for awhile now that all of my projects are done and it’s finally in great shape. I still want to do some landscaping projects on it, but those can wait until spring when I have been stuck inside all winter and excited to get outside and work in the yard.
And finally, to answer your question, “Are there bad habits that keep you from having the life that you want, that are not addictions?”
I think you’re dead on that justifying them with “happier” words is a bad-habit of semantics that we can use to deceive and manipulate ourselves so we can feel better about the bad choices we make. Like when I was younger, and partying all the time, I never considered myself I was a “liar.” Because being a liar is a harsh term!!! I justified it in my mind that I just wasn’t telling the whole truth to the people I cared about!!!! But what the heck is that!!!! Not telling the whole truth is being a freaking liar!!!!! Once I began to use harsher terms with myself, I began to want to change because I didn’t want to think of myself as a liar. Personally I have learned, that it’s better to be bold and brutally honest with yourself about your choices, even if you’re a little too tough, rather than being soft and gentle. Because humans won’t change to soft and gentle correction, but we will quickly change to brutal and tough correction. I’ve found it’s just more efficient to call the things holding me back addictions, because then mentally I’ll find the courage to change them because I don’t want to be addicted to anything. Thanks for bringing this up and adding to the conversation!
I like where you went with this. For me it’s definitely trying to stay balanced – fitness, social media, …
Here’s another big one I see a lot and it’s directly related to your topic. Addiction to shopping/spending/accumulating. And like the other things you mentioned, isn’t seen by most people as an addiction.
As always, great things to think about!