Are you living life as an Optimist?

Do you think you are an optimistic person or a pessimistic person? Have you ever bought a lottery ticket? If you have purchased a lottery ticket there might be hope for you. But, let me dig a little deeper. Did you dream about all of the things you’d buy with your newly gained fortune, or did you go home and stick it in a drawer thinking you’d never win anyway? Those are the types of questions that separate the optimist, from the pessimist.

If you don’t think you can win, you never will. Whether its the lottery or life in general. Have you ever heard of that super famous book on how to be a pessimist? Of course not. No one had to write that book because people are naturally pessimistic. The whole self-help industry and Tony Robbins exist because people don’t know how to be optimistic. And then, even if you do believe in yourself, they will call you egotistical. It’s all very difficult and draining (whoops that is pessimistic). I should have said, it can all be difficult and draining if you let it get to you. But, we positive people, do not let it get to us. It’s just like water off a duck’s back.

Little kids aren’t pessimistic. They dream, smile, play and imagine. Somewhere along the way people are either taught to be pessimistic or just convince themselves to be negative. I don’t really know where it comes from. Maybe it’s the consumerist society that tells us we always need more to be happy. Or perhaps, it’s the fear they continuously try to instill in us. Fear the world is going to end, fear to leave your crappy job, or fear to just alow yourself to be happy. They barrage us with ads that have people prettier than us in cars we can’t afford. It all adds up and weighs people down. They think I’m not as good as him or I’ll never make as much money as her.

But, there is hope if you find yourself feeling like you don’t measure up. The secret is who gives a F#@*. Seriously, who cares if you measure up to him or her or anyone else. I wish people had a happy meter on their front lawn so you could drive around and see who were the happiest people in your neighborhood. Those are the people I want to be around, to be like, and to aspire to. When you realize you don’t need that new car and a that a life without debt is WAY sexier than one with debt, things start to change in your mind. You start to notice that the people you thought you wanted to be like are stressed out because they are living above their means. You start to feel a little smarter for driving a crappy car and living below your means. You start to notice a little extra free time because you’re not killing yourself just to pay your bills. Your whole outlook starts to get a little brighter. Like that Claritin commercial where they make the screen get brighter after you take their drug.

If you are a naturally optimistic person you are the one who can change the world. I’d go so far as to say that almost everyone who has gone down in history as ‘one of the greats’ was probably an optimistic person. These people are the dreamers, the innovators, and the winners. Every time someone comes up with a new idea, five people tell them why it won’t work. It’s too hard or It’s too expensive or too big, or too small, or too whatever… But some people press on, while others give up. Are they too excited, or too smart, or just too stubborn? Who knows! My theory is they just believe they can do it. They are the ones that change the world.

There are a thousand great quotes on this subject. One of the most famous is “whether you think you can or your can’t, you are right”. I believe your attitude becomes a self fulling prophecy.

I was scrolling through Facebook the other day and an ad popped up that said something like “Five Countries Where You Can Retire On Only $500,000”. Amazing how Facebook thinks I’d be interested in an article like that, right? I didn’t want to click on the article an read it so that Facebook would know they were right. So I thought I’d just quickly read the 385 comments to find out the gist of the artile. I expected to read comments like “I love Belize, I could retire there” or “I never thought of retiring in Peru”. And then I’d learn the secrets of the article without clicking on it. But, those are not the comments that I read. They were more like “Yea right, I’ll never have $500K” and “The author of this article is out of touch with reality because regular people don’t have that much money”. These type of negative comment went on and on and on. It broke my heart a little that so many people thought a half a million dollars was unattainable. It also made me pick up my pen and start writing again. I just moved down to the Islands and haven’t written anything for a couple of months. Mostly because I’ve been busy with the move and getting settled in. But, also because I struggle with whether I can actually help people with this blog and if anyone will ever even find it in the interwebs. I also wonder if what I have to say is important or different from what a 1,000 other bloggers are writing about. However, that is just the negativity of the universe getting into my head. We are all susceptible to it. I decided, if that many people think the will never have $500K then the world does need me trying to help them change their RETIREMENTALITY.

See what I did there? You were thinking, why is Jeff writing a touchy feel-y article about being positive. But I brought it back around to changing your Retirementality.

Changing your Retirementality isn’t just about crunching numbers or learning how to create passive income. The biggest part of all of it is believing you can achieve a better life. You can read a thousand article about how to get rich, but if you don’t think you will ever BE Rich, it won’t do you a bit of good. I’m here to tell you – Everyone is going to tell you-You can’t do it. You’re too old or too young or too fat or too skinny. You waited too long or you don’t make enough money. And I say, Bullshit. You can do it! I’m looking out my window right now and there is a windsurfer ripping through the waves on a Carribean Island. I’ve dreamed of living on a Caribbean Island for 20 years and I just did it. Less than 10 years ago I was flat ass broke. I didn’t get lucky or win the lottery or get an inheritance. I just did the work. I lived below my means and I invested every dollar I made. And, most importantly, I believed I could do it. Now my friends say things like “You’re so lucky” or “I wish I could do that”. But, I told them exactly what I was doing 5 years ago and they could have done the exact same thing. Most of them probably made more money than I was making and could have done it easier than me.

So, NO, I’m not lucky. I knew what I wanted. I thought about what I needed to do to get there, and then I did it. That execution part is where a lot of people fall short. Actually, I bet more people don’t even know what they want. Believe me, if I can do it, so can you. I made some big mistakes along the way. So you can probably do it even faster than I did. I’m not done yet. I still have a little ways to go before I have the financial independence to live the lifestyle that I want. But now I’m working on the last phase of the plan from a Caribbean Island. So please, do us both a favor: subscribe to my channels and read the content and watch the videos, click the links and use the stuff from my affiliates.

That is how you will learn more about money and the links I put in here have great products That is how you will learn more about money, and it will help me be able to keep providing you with more content.