Broke Can’t Be Happy

The ultimate goal of every individual is happiness, though definition of happiness may differ from one person to another. However, as far as I know, one of the factors that can hinder happiness is being broke. I have heard few people say their happiness is not dependent on availability of money and I agree with them. Availability of money doesn’t necessarily mean happiness but when you are Broke (absolute lack of money to meet immediate needs), no matter how religious, contented or hopeful you are, it is hard to be Happy.

I am not about to tell you how you are going to get rich overnight, neither is this a get rich quick scheme nor means of evoking the spirit of money. However, I believe that if you can work based on the factors I am about to point out in your life, things will turn around for the best.

Here are 7 reasons why you are broke almost all the time.

1. You have too much idle time
You have too much idle time on your hands. Your time is not well invested in productive activities. You sleep all day, hang out with friends, hang around cybercafes, stay online without real business there, you are the official mascot of the newspaper stand etc…these are time killers. You should realize that every second is valuable, some people get value for them and you should do same too.

2. You are scared of trying something new
Fear is the culprit of many troubles we go through, little wonder the book of life kept saying “fear not”. If you do not act, you can not actualize, no shortcuts. Waiting for a perfect time is just a perfect excuse to be a perfect nothing. I have read through people’s success stories and I have not found anyone successful with a perfect start. You want to stay in your comfort zone, where you and I know nothing works because you are scared of failing. If you see where you are as your ground zero, you will realize you can’t fall further than that.

3. You think everyone else is responsible for your predicament but you.
Everyone is responsible but you; your father, your mother, your friends, siblings, employer…everybody but you. I use to blame too, until I realized it was robbing me off improvement; places I ought to improve, I kept thinking someone else should be responsible. Even when it is obvious that others contributed to the failure, your focus should be YOU; “what could you have done differently?”. Responsibility is credibility, without assuming responsibility, it is hard to be in credit.

4. You are busy waiting for opportunity
Opportunity they say comes but ones… though this axiom has been faulted on several occasions but the reality remains opportunities are scarce resources with numerous suitors. If you keep waiting for it, you might grow old without a knock on your door. Our life is an open door and when you’re not alert opportunity will “coming and go out” without you knowing but when you are all out for possible opportunities, you can’t miss it. “You don’t wait till the iron gets hot before you strike it, you keep striking till the iron gets hot.”

5. You haven’t learned to separate need from want.
When you are not financially disciplined, it is hard not to be broke. We have needs and we have wants…you need water but you want alcohol, one is readily available and affordable while the other is a distance away and yet expensive… Your decision is the difference between being broke and being bloom. Apply this concept to all other choices you make on daily basis, ask questions like; do I really need this? does my survival depend on this? No doubt want to someone might be a need to another. To a student having a car is a want but to a commercial driver it is a need. So you need to know where each item fits in your own life.

6. You do not re-invest
You are expected to re-investing at least 10% of your income … Salary, profit, gift, allowances etc, but you do not re-invest. Life is in seasons…planting and harvesting seasons, for instance. If you do not plant, I need not tell you there won’t be anything to harvest. Planting includes saving for rainy day, investing to have other streams of income, giving to people and giving to satisfy your religious convictions. When you fail in the act of planting, the act of harvesting will fail you and being broke becomes inevitable.

7. You don’t believe in yourself.
You are not convinced you can do anything good. All the first six reasons boil down to this, if you do not believe in yourself, you can’t even make efforts to make things right. If you are a pessimist, if you don’t have hope, if you don’t believe you can be productive, if you don’t believe you can make it, If you can’t have faith in yourself then hardly can anything work. You have to overcome this before you can embark on making things right with your finances and your life.

I know you are probably thinking of a shortcut or something that won’t work you that much; like winning a jackpot, lottery or getting free huge sum but here is the bitter truth, even if you hit the jackpot without fixing yourself and aligning with these 7 reasons, you will eventually break the pot and go back to being broke.