Stop waiting, start acting

If you want to be financially stable, financially successful, and achieve the dreams you passively talk about, you have to do something about it. You can't be passive about your dreams, you have to be willing to take action. Here's what you should know.

1. Financial success does not happen by chance. Do you think that the most successful and financially stable people in the world got there by chance? Do you think that they just sat passively by, and waiting for luck to turn their way, or fortune to fall in their lap? No, while there are those with money because of family inheritances and trusts, it is important to recognize that financial success requires active participation. It requires plans, steps, and actions that get you from point A to point B.
2. You have to know what you want for your future. Look at your future. What do you want? If you are not where you want, and you want financial success, you can't have vague notions about it, you need to have a concrete idea and plan of what you want for your future. This means get some goals down. It might be paying off your house, it might be a more successful business, it might be having $20,000 in a savings account. The point is, that everyone's financial dreams are different, so if you do not know what you want for your future, specifically what you want, not vague notions, you will never achieve it. If ten years from now you want to have a nice nest egg, or a fat retirement, you have to start implementing the steps to make that happen starting now. This means make a plan now.
3. You have to commit to do the work to make it happen. This is really important, and goes along well with the first two points. If you want to have financial success, you have to commit to what it takes to achieve this. For example, you can't have your goal to be to get out of debt, and then continue to spend lavishly on credit cards, and neglect to put together a budget. There have to be actions to back up your goals. This means that if you want to make it happen, you have to really commit to it. What are you willing to do and sacrifice to make your financial goals happen? It might mean putting in late nights and long hours to start your own business, or living frugally so you can save for emergencies, etc.
4. Tough times are a fact of life. You have to push through them.Along with setting goals and taking action, you have to recognize that there will be road bumps along the way. Do not give up on your goals the first time you meet an obstacle. It can be incredibly frustrating to have a savings goal, and work hard at it for several months only to have it be wiped away by unexpected illness, etc. but that is the point of a savings, and you have to push through the hard times to get to the good.