What do you really want in life?
FINANCIAL FREEDOM BEFORE 30 YEARS OLD
I'd never have to worry about not having enough time and resources (money, health, etc) to live my life to the fullest, doing what I truly love and sharing my successes with my family, relatives and friends.
What I'd love to do:
-keep on learning foreign languages
-travel around the world anytime, anywhere
-learn how to become a competent language teacher
-have enough time to spend my days with my loved ones, family & friends
-play volleyball 'til I'm old
-choose any kind of lifestyle I want
Quote: "It's not about how much you earn, it's about what you do with what you earn, how well you manage your resources to help you get what you want in life"
Why do you need to step out of your comfort zone?
Because I want to live my life without anymore regrets. While I still have the energy, I must not stay in this comfort zone and waste my youth doing something dull, boring or even worse, trapped in the rat-race (a 9-to-5 job with little or no sense of achievement and earning "peanuts").
It's time to focus all my effort and earn what I deserve. I must explore my true potentials and fly higher. Learn from past mistakes. Pull myself together and jump right back on track to financial independence (= clear loan, create multiple passive income generator, share my successes with people I care the most and live a meaningful life).
How to achieve these desires? What does it take?
Self-belief
Courage
Perseverance & determination
Integrity & ethics
Continuous learning
Now let me share with you my real life experience three years ago. Around November 2006, I was in the midst of completing my 22-week Industrial Attachment, I realized that I don't like being told what to do most of the time and found that I didn't want to see myself working as an Engineer 10, 15 and 20 years or forever. I was fired up and confused at first, wondering what on-earth I was doing here. Do I study this Engineering degree to just become like everyone else? Trap in the job they don't like just because it pays the bills?
Then to my surprise, I stumbled upon "A Gift from a Friend" (written by Merry Riana) at Borders, Orchard during one of my Saturdays. I was exploring motivational book section coz' I was so confused at that time. I love to read books and look for answers whenever I'm in doubt. I was just flipping though the pages and reading her stories, the more I read the more I felt like I was reading my own story. All the things she experienced were very similar with what I experienced in university, especially during the Industrial Attachment. So as you may have guessed, her book ended up being a part of my most precious book collections. I'm truly inspired by your story. Thank you Merry! *re-reading the book to remind myself of my big dreams three years ago*
That was how my mindset had changed since then. All I really need now is the courage to take my first babysteps. I don't wanna be trapped in this rat-race anymore, no matter how comfortable it gets. Starting the journey to financial freedom takes a lot of determination, focus, perseverance and self-belief. I've wasted three years now. I was so angry at myself these last few days for not having the courage to go full time last July 2008 upon graduation. I applied for jobs just like eveybody else and also wanted to do a part time in financial industry. The first two months, I realized that I made a big mistake for wanting to do both the busy full time job in conference industry and studying part time to get my license in financial planning. In the end, both attempts failed at around the same time. That was in September 2008. Moral of the story: I MUST FOCUS and EXCEL AT ONE THING ONE AT A TIME. DON'T BE GREEDY!
Even with that lesson learned, I still didn't take the opportunity to go full time and took the leap to create my own freedom. Somehow, all the odds were against me *real excuses*. I was on a social visit pass and a pending permanent residence status. I had 2 months to find a new job or else I couldn't get the PR status and had to return to Indo before applying for anymore jobs in this lil' red dot. In the end, I chose to look for engineering jobs instead. I despised those engineering-related jobs but yet I looked for opportunities there. What an irony!
Anyway, part of the journey to become a better person is by learning from past mistakes. None can change the past nor predict what the future holds, so the best I can do for now are to focus on the present and start taking my babysteps out of this comfort zone.
The future is so bright out there, live up to your potential and never give up, ok?
-Sien-
Babystep#1 - completing course to become a property agent, collect namecards and start real prospectings
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