Stress and anxiety are key players in the lives of those who attempt to pursue financial freedom. There are few things more stressful than running into financial trouble. This kind of trouble is all but inevitable on a quest like this. For my first 2 years pursuing financial freedom, money has been a constant spot of contention for me as I looked to piece together what I could to get by. By selling homes as a part time realtor for a period of time, to DoorDashing, to other odd jobs, I was able to scrape by for the time being. This sacrifice of delayed gratification for any sort of success can break people, and for some depending on their situation, it just isn’t feasible. Money for everyone is a soft spot that usually induces a lot of stress and anxiety into their lives. So, how do we manage this stress and anxiety and acclimate our pursuit of financial freedom for our lives?
Different lifestyles and different needs
For a lot of people, they don’t have the same benefits I had when I began my pursuit of financial freedom. I started this journey when I was 19 and had the luxury of living with my parents while I went to college and got help with the little bills that I had. I get it. Not everyone has that to their advantage so they’ll have to be a little bit more conservative with the risks they take. Ultimately, no matter what, in this country there is a path to take to reach that illustrious goal of financial freedom for anyone.
Some people might be married with kids that they need to feed and need to find a 9-5 job to put food on the table. That’s fine and probably the right thing for you to do. You instead can use your free time to learn about an avenue in which financial freedom can be pursued and make it work around your schedule. With a good 9-5 job, you may actually have a leg up on some other people because you’ll be making income that can offset some of the risks you can take. This takes a lot of the stress and anxiety out of getting started because you have that 9-5 to fall back on (which could be a blessing or a curse).
There are ways to pursue financial freedom under any circumstances. How aggressive or conservative you are should be directly relational to your risk tolerance and your responsibilities (kids, bills, spouse, etc.). There is no one way to pursue financial freedom, but it can be achieved nonetheless by anyone under any circumstances.
The stress of not knowing
The fear of the unknown is what holds most people back when they think about taking the leap towards financial freedom. People are afraid of what they don’t know and how they could possibly overcome something so daunting. This produces a lot of stress and anxiety and can inhibit performance and the ability to solve issues greatly, usually turning situations from bad to worse. Typically, the most difficult situations are those you grow from the most, so finding yourself in these predicaments have their benefits. Something you need to understand from the beginning is that there will be many things you won’t know that a book or a video can’t prepare you for. You will face something or many things that come unexpectedly and you will be asked to deal with it. For a lot of people, this will produce crippling anxiety and fear. To achieve the hardest goals, you must conquer the hardest obstacles. Instead of fearing the unknown, embrace its ability to teach you more than you ever thought you could know about both yourself and the world around you. This is a lesson I’ve learned after dealing with stress and anxiety for years thinking of the unknown. By letting stress and anxiety get to you, you are essentially giving up the ability to think things through and solve complex problems with creative solutions. Eliminating stress and anxiety to the best of our ability starts with the perception shift of asking how something can be done or overcome rather than focusing on how difficult the obstacle is itself. I call this the “I can’t.”, to the “How can I?” perspective shift. Adopting it takes off a lot of the stress and pressure we cripple ourselves with.
Control what you can control
A lot of the time, trying to control things that can’t be controlled contributes largely to the overall stress level of an individual. People try to control aspects of life they have no business even attempting to control and this creates extreme stress and anxiety in their lives. One of the biggest lessons you could possibly learn not only on the road to financial freedom but in life in general is that many, if not most things are out of your control. Trying to control these things is a quick way to run yourself rampant with stress and anxiety. Understand what you can and can’t control from the start and spend all of your time, energy, and focus on the things you have control over. This paradigm shift alone can save you from years if not a lifetime of trying to control the uncontrollable. Understanding and accepting this reality is freeing and a big step to relinquishing yourself from as much stress and anxiety as you possibly can all while opening yourself up to the world of possibilities around you when you focus on things you can have an impact on.