The following guest post is written by Aron Musk, a young new blogger from Finland. He’s passionate about investing, and he can show it. At just 24 years old, he’s already worth 180k USD! Aron and I had a conversation and I decided to give him a podium to grow his own blog a bit. If you want to read more, visit Young and Financially Free. Over to Aron!

Think about your previous month: what did you do? You were probably doing the same things over and over again mostly. You woke up, went to the bathroom, ate breakfast, went to work, spoke with the same persons you know, took the same route at the same time to home as you did yesterday and so on. As you can see, you most likely did all the same things that you have done already, many many times. Same habits lead to the same results. Ordinary habits lead to ordinary results – in other words: mediocrity. 

New Habits

By developing new habits, you can expect to see new results. Results do not come to anyone by accident. When you see your favourite sportsman or movie-star performing at their best, you might think that what they are doing is so easy. Maybe it is for them, maybe it is not. But it did not come without a ton of repetitions and trial and error. Top athletes have usually spent hours and hours in the field practising their sport. Same applies to any other field you want to succeed. Sure, some people make it easier than others, and some people even get ridiculously lucky, but it rarely happens. Success does not just happen, it has to be made. You don’t have to be extraordinary, you just have to be willing to do things differently than the rest of the people. Simple but not easy.

Modern living – bliss or a curse?

Escpecially in developed countries, people are living in abundance of great resources. Most people in the Western world have enough food, money and security to cover their basic needs. On top of that, most people have jobs and social security which covers basic needs in case of unemployment. That is of course a good thing.

But it comes with negative effects also: you don’t necessarily have to develop yourself that much because you can lead a mediocre life without much of an extra effort. It is easy to just go with your life on an autopilot-mode. Same sh*t every day and night, year by year. Nobody is pushing you to do anything. You don’t have to jump to the cold water which is unknown and full of uncertainty. Why is this a bad thing, you might ask.

People are not meant to live like that. Think about it, did past generations grow up with the kind of security and easiness that we nowadays have in developed countries? They did not have the opportunity to go to the supermarket to buy their favourite ice cream and eat that on their nice sofa for the rest of the evening while simultaneously binge Netflix. No, they absolutely didn’t. They had to be their best version every day if they wanted to even stay alive. This might sound that modern way of living beats old days 100-0. And to a certain extent, I definitely agree. But what is missing these days, is the need to get out of your comfort zone. Humans are not meant to sit on the sofa and watch tv. No wonder people are so depressed and detached from themselves nowadays. 

How to get to where you want to be? 

Like Arnold Schwarzenegger says, first you have to have a goal and a vision in your mind about what it is that you want to achieve. For most of the readers, one goal is financial freedom. It is much easier to start developing powerful habits once you know your goal. Most of the people just spend all their money because they don’t have financial goals. They believe that the rat race and long corporate career is the only option. They don’t proactively do anything about their finances, thus, they get only mediocre results (a long, often boring career).

Once you know your goal, you have to have some kind of plan or an idea in your mind how you’re going to get to your goal. Best way to develop a strategy is to get a mentor or follow/mimic someone who has already done it. This is why FIRE blogs are so popular and addictive among the FIRE people. People want to learn from them who have already made it. I’d rather listen to Mr Money Mustache or Mr FreeAt33 than some financial advisor who works for a financial company and knows only how to maximise his/her commissions.

Taking action: feel the fear and do it anyway

People stay in their comfort zone so easily, because no one is pushing them. It has to be done proactively. Human brains are programmed to keep you safe. However, true happiness is very hard to achieve in your safe zone. That is why you need to push yourself, even if/when it feels uncomfortable.  It takes mental muscles, and you can train them like any physical muscle! That is how you can achieve anything.

How are you making sure you’re not mediocre?