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This isn’t something I learned early in life or was even encouraged to do, but to get ahead in life, you first need to understand yourself. In grade school, you’re taught a simple formula to get ahead: have good attendance, behave, make good grades, and be involved in some kind of extracurricular activity and you’ll be prepared for college. College was a little better in the freedom it provided and choices it encouraged you to make, but ultimately it was more of the same. It’s main purpose was to prepare you, through a curriculum, for a career. What most schools don’t teach you is how important it is to know yourself: your interests, goals, hopes, dreams, etc.
I did the most soul searching as it relates to my career and finances in preparation for interviews with prospective companies for employment, and in working various jobs.
Before that, I had a fairly good idea of what I was interested in and what some of my ultimate goals were, but I had never taken the time to truly sit down and dive into what those interests and goals entailed, why I was interested, and how I would achieve them.
Be Honest with Yourself
Before you can truly know yourself, you have to first be honest with yourself. Some questions to ask yourself include:
Do you only like something because someone else does?
Are you interested in something (a career, hobby, etc.), but afraid your friends or coworkers will not approve?
Are you unhappy with things in your life, but afraid to change?
When performing a self-assessment, the only way to be successful and truly understand you is to be honest with yourself.
What Do You Value Most?
It’s important to know what you value most in life. For me, it’s my religion, family and friends, honor, freedom, and health.
I’ve learned over the years that when it comes to my career, I’m far more motivated by supporting my family and achieving my financial goals than I’ve ever been of the actual job that I’m doing.
When I’m making a decision, these are the filters I use to determine what the right choice is for me.
For example, if I’m given the option between making $200,000/year, but working 80 hours a week and making $100,000/year and only working 40 hours a week, I would consider what I value most. If we’re in major debt and my family really needs the money, then I would probably choose the first choice until we were back on our feet because the security of my family is more important to me than my freedom. However, if we have are financial stable and given the same choice, I would probably choose the latter because my time with family and friends is more important to me than earning more.
To make the choices that are best for you and to truly get ahead in life, you need to determine what is most important to you. Once you know your most important values, let them influence your financial decisions.
Let Your Values Inform Your Monthly, Household Budget
To truly get a handle on your finances, you need to create a monthly budget. One of the most important things about creating a budget is determining what items to remove and what items to leave in. Once you know what’s most important to you, your values will inform your budget decisions.
For example, if you and your family’s health is one of your top priorities, you may decide to spend a little more on your food budget for organic, grass fed meat, but because clothing isn’t as much of a priority, you may decide to lower your clothing budget to make up the difference.
Know Yourself to Get Ahead Financially – Career
Answer Interview Questions to Determine What You Truly Value in a Career
In my opinion, one of the best things to do to determine what you value and want out of your career is to answer interview questions. It doesn’t have to be in preparation for a job interview or another type of interview. Just take a list of the most common questions asked at job interviews and take some time to answer them honestly. Don’t think about what the most common or correct response is. Answer them honestly. If you don’t know the answer, spend some time to figure it out.
Consider Taking Personality or Career Assessment Testing
Personality and career aptitude or assessment testing can be helpful in determining how you best learn, what jobs you would be most suited for, and how you best work with others. These tests can help you uncover information about yourself that was always there, but you just didn’t notice before or confirm assessments you and others already had.
These tests are typically administered in a one-size-fits-all manner with limited classifications, so the results are limited to broad classifications that can help you understand yourself better, but won’t truly define you. Also, the output is only as good as the input, so the more honest you are with your answers, the more likely the classifications will reflect you.
Ultimately, only you can truly know what you’re thinking, how you feel, and who you are. Only you can know what matters most to you and what your dreams are.
People are More Willing to Help Others Who Know What They Want
In my experience, the people who truly get ahead in life are those that know what they want and advocate for themselves.
I’ve found that people want to help other people. Unfortunately, if you don’t know what you want, people won’t know how to help. I’ve seen it time and time again in my career, personal life, and side hustles; those who are outspoken and confident in their goals and dreams are typically those who receive help and support to achieve those goals.
They don’t have to be some outrageous goal like becoming CEO of your company or President of the United States either. It can be something as simple as a change you’d like to see at work, a certification class, or continuing education. When the people around you know what you value and what you’re trying to achieve, most will try to help you achieve it.
What are Your Goals?
Your goals can range from short-term to long-term goals.
I like to think of my long-term goals as the big picture items that I’d like to achieve one day. Those items that typically take longer than a year to achieve.
I like to think of my short-term goals as the steps it takes to achieve my long-term goals. Short-term goals typically take less than a year to achieve.
For example, let’s say your long-term goal is to be financially free by the time you’re 45. You’re 25 now and have ~$20,000 in retirement. Your short-term goals could include yearly milestones to ensure you’re tracking toward the amount necessary to achieve financial freedom by 45. You could also have shorter long-term goals like pay off your home mortgage by 40 that would help you track toward your ultimate goal of financial freedom.
Make Your Goals Smart
I cover this in another blog post, so I’ll make this brief, but your goals need to be smart to be good goals. Smart is an acronym that stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. If your goal doesn’t meet all of these requirements, it’s not going to be as effective.
To learn more about smart goals, please read: How to Achieve Your Dreams by Setting Smart Goals
Spend Some Time Reflecting
People are constantly changing. This includes you. Take time to perform self-assessments at least once a year to ensure your goals and priorities haven’t changed. It may sound silly to think that you could be doing something and not realize you’re unhappy or no longer want to achieve your original goals, but it happens.
Every day there are people heading down a path they started down years ago even though their dreams and desires have changed. Don’t be one of these people.
If they have changed, correct your course and don’t waste another second heading towards a goal that you no longer care to achieve. The longer you wait, the longer it will take to achieve your new goals.
Conclusion – Know Yourself to Get Ahead Financially
Probably the most important things you can learn to get ahead financially is yourself. The more you know about yourself, the better and more informed choices you can make.
Not knowing your values, goals, dreams, etc. is akin to driving cross-country with no destination in mind. You can still have a great life and may ultimately end up in a great place, but if you’d had a destination in mind all along, you could have made it there faster and more deliberately.
You could have stopped at the locations you wanted to stop, visited the people and places you wanted to visit along the way, and arrive at your destination well ahead of schedule.
Do you have any stories about difficulties financially from not knowing yourself (values, goals, etc.)?