The Art and Science of Becoming Independent

If you want to live your life on your own terms, be financially independent. Standing on your own feet gives you the freedom to live your life by your own design. It is the key to a high sense of achievement, high self-esteem, a more meaningful and fulfilling life, and makes for a well-rounded personality. Being self-dependent gives you a better control over your life. If you know what you want in life, you can figure out how to get it and you can direct your efforts and actions in the same direction to achieve those results. You need to master the following techniques::

Set a goal: When you set a goal in life, you give it a meaning and direction in which you should expend your efforts. Once you have set your goal, identify what activities you need to do to achieve it, divide these activities into monthly, weekly and daily sub-activities and work towards your goal single day of your life until you have achieved it, then reset higher goals and repeat the cycle.

Time management: Time management is the key to any person’s success. Lost time never comes back hence utilize every moment of your time wisely. It is important to categorize your daily activities as urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and not urgent not important, which means prioritizing your activities according to their importance in your goal achievement. Urgent and important activities should be done on priority basis at the same time find time to do important but not urgent activities also before they become urgent ad try to delegate third category of activities, that is, urgent but not important, if possible, and avoid doing the fourth type of activities as they mainly include non productive works like spending time on social media.

Develop emotional strength: Experiencing emotions is as normal and as natural as breathing but just the way breathing does not interfere with our work do not let your emotions overtake you and hinder your work. In fact, like breathing gives us energy to work, derive energy (motivation) from your emotions too and use it constructively to achieve your goals. For example if you are feeling jealous (though one should not feel as it is the result of comparing yourself with others), do not use this emotion to sit and brood or to destroy the other person but to work harder towards your goals.

Do not compare yourself with others: When you compare yourself with others, you either feel too worthless, often leading to de-motivation and frustration, or superior or at par with others, both ways you slow down your progress. Remember the story of the hare and the tortoise where the hare felt too superior to the tortoise and finally lost the race to him.

Save: Start small but start early. Once you start earning, your earnings may not be high, but you need to start inculcating the habit of saving from right then. Ideally, you should first set aside the amount you intend to save every month and then prepare your expenditure budget and not vice versa. If your earnings are barely enough to cover your basic expenses then you should practice thrift at that point, you will find yourself with little extra at the end of the month which can go as savings but also keep trying to find more or new ways of increasing your income.

Learn the basics of investment: Make your money grow rather than keeping it stashed in your savings account. Whatever amount you save should be invested so that you get returns on your savings also. For this educate yourself on the basics of short-term and long-term investment and various avenues where money can be invested, depending on your financial goal.

Learn practical skills: The more practical skills you learn the lesser chances you have of depending on others for help. These skills may include handling online transactions, money management, investment, basic cooking and fixing of simple household items. Remember it’s all about self dependence and not dependence or even interdependence.

Take care of your body: Health is wealth, hence invest in it your time and effort. Exercise, take proper rest, drink plenty of water, eat healthy and seek medical help if needed. Staying fit and healthy will take you a long way in working towards your goals and living your life your own way, and enjoying the fruits of your hard work.

The above points are just a few tips but very effective if followed diligently. To be financially independent you should start with setting a specific goal but start as early as possible in life. The earlier you start with a specific plan the better are your chances of enjoying your life to the fullest.