Striving For Felicity

Personal Growth, Success + Lifestyle Tips

Personal Development

4 Things You Need To Know About Finding Your Passion

Blog, Personal Development

Nowadays, many people are searching for their passion. We continuously hear others referring to this topic.

“I am living my passion. I am so happy!”
“You will only be truly happy in life once you are doing what you are passionate about.”

This search for passion is especially intense in young adults. Coming fresh from school, they need to decide on a career they want to spend a big part of their lives in. Not an easy choice to make.

It gets even more difficult if you are trying to think of something as cryptic as your passion.

Enjoying something is not enough anymore, we want to be passionate about it.

To find that one passionate interest is challenging. Trust me, I was there two years ago when I graduated from school.

4 things you need to know about finding your passion

Many of us still have no clue what our passion truly is.

To help you out with the search for your passion, I collected 4 things you should know about finding your passion.

These are different ideas and concepts I have come across in people who say they are living their passion. They all changed my view on the topic drastically. And I hope yours will change as well. Enjoy!

Read also: 9 Things A Boss Lady Has That You Don’t

1. There is no such thing as your ONE passion.

I need to address this first as it is probably the most significant misconception many people have about finding their passion.

There is no such thing as your ONE passion.

Why do we always believe things to be black and white? Why do we always try to limit things to one option or none? Why should we only have one passion?

Just think about it, do you know a single person who only enjoys doing one single activity? Just one?

I don’t know any person like that. The people that surround me like architecture, books, and art. Or they like drawing, pets and music.

I also have various interests. I like reading, Yoga, self-development, cars and so on.

Each of these interests could be a passion. Who is to say I can’t be passionate about Yoga AND cars?

I believe we overestimate the feeling of passion. We seem to think that passion is such an overwhelming feeling that it encompasses everything and leaves no room whatsoever for another passion.

However, if we look into the Oxford Dictionaries, we read that a passion is simply an intense desire or enthusiasm for something.

Surely we can be intensely enthusiastic about multiple things at the same time. And if not that at least at different times.

And that leads us straight to the next point.

2. Passions change, and that’s ok

Again, we seem to think that our passion is something God or nature bestowed us with during birth. And who knows maybe that’s true.

However, many people who say they are living their passion admit that it has changed over the years.

When you were younger, you might have been passionate about gaming. As you grow older, you might develop an enthusiasm for cooking and fitness.

It’s only natural for your passion to change since we ourselves shift a lot over the years.

I believe we should try to see a passion less as an obligation we need to fulfill, and more like an ever-present gift that follows us throughout the years.

You are meant to enjoy doing what you currently feel passionate about. Don’t spend too much time overthinking what your one BIG obsession in life could be.

If you are enthusiastic about writing Fanfictions today, do that.

If next year, you suddenly have intense joy in working out, do that as well.

Don’t take life too seriously. There is no single right way to live it. Just go with the flow. Listen to your body and your emotions. They usually tell you all you need to know.

3. You will only know it once you live it

Truth be told, I don’t believe you will ever really know what your passion is until you lived it for a while.

I am sure you experienced multiple times when something turned out different than you expected it to. This might have happened in a bad as well as in a good way.

However, it shows us that our expectations are rarely entirely accurate. How are we then supposed to know beforehand what our passion is?

The only way to find out is by trying out the activity you believe could be your passion.

In addition to that, you should also be open to things that you have already crossed out of your “possible passion”-list. You never know, maybe something turns out way more enjoyable than you thought it would.

So be open and experiment! You will find your fascination sooner or later, I’m sure of that.

4. It might be better not to pursue your passion right away

This is another idea that made a significant impact on me. Usually, we all try to find our passion as soon as possible so that we can aspire a job in that field.

However, there are two reasons you might not want to pursue your passion instantly.

1. You don´t know your passion yet

This is pretty obvious, but you might not know what your passion is yet.

If you are coming straight out of school or university, don’t stress yourself if you still don’t know what you are intensly enthusiastic about. Just start doing something you enjoy.

However, if you already do know your passion, there can be a different reason to not go after it immediately.

2. Your passion can’t earn you money directly

For many people, their passion might not make them much money in the beginning.

If art is your fascination, you probably will not sell a lot of paintings as you start out. If you rely entirely on that as your income stream, you will struggle significantly to make a living.

Why not approach the subject differently? Why not look for a job that you do enjoy – but you don’t have to be passionate about it – and that makes you a decent amount of money.

In the meantime, you can either already start your passion as a side-hustle until it can make you a living. Or you can put aside a fraction of your income and invest it in stocks, bonds, real estate, etc. so that this will generate you a full salary.

Optimally, you do both at the same time. The sooner you start, the sooner you will be able to quit the job, you are not so passionate about and live a financially free and passionate life.

That does sound better than being broke while living your passion, doesn’t it?

Read also: 11 Ways To Spend Your Money Wisely

That’s already it!

I hope these four ideas about finding your passion help you.

Maybe they will change your perspective on the topic just like they did for me.

Whatever you take from this article, I want to encourage you to keep believing in a passionate life.

Too many people nowadays lost hope in living their passion. They simply keep working in their despised jobs and count the days until they can retire.

What kind of life is that?

I want you to live a life in which you wake up each day with a smile on your face and excitement in your heart. A life where you love the Now so much that you do not need to anxiously await a better future.

To live that kind of life you have to put in the necessary work. That might mean taking a few calculated risks. It could also mean to spend less time watching Netflix and instead to work on your side hustle.

Whatever it is, start as soon as you can. So that you can live in Felicity for as long as possible!

Until next time,

Sophie

Reading List For Personal Growth | Books for Ambitious Women

Blog, Books, Personal Development, Success

Reading List For Personal Growth

We Felicity Seekers always strive to improve ourselves. And what better way to do that than to read through my Reading List for Personal Growth!

These books contain the knowledge others acquired throughout decades. There is no faster way to learn anything!

To help you grow in every area of your life I collected my favorite Non-Fiction books. These are all books I have loved and benefitted from.

As I read every day, this list will grow steadily. So should you ever need some inspiration for your next read, check it out!

This page contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of them, I will receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). I only ever recommend products that I have personally used and loved. Thank you for your support!

Finances

Business & Success

Femininity & Everything for Women

Mindset

Productivity

Spirituality

Relationships

Science, Philosophy, Knowledge

Biographies

9 Ways To Overcome Limiting Beliefs | How to Break Bad Beliefs

Blog, Personal Development

Limiting beliefs – A term you probably heard many times before. Since a few years, many people on social media keep talking about how dangerous limiting beliefs are and that we all have them.

But what exactly are limiting beliefs and why is it crucial to overcome them.

9 ways to overcome limiting beliefs

Limiting beliefs are a belief pattern we most of the time hold subconsciously and which directs the way we live.

The danger lies in the word “limiting”. It is reasonable and necessary to hold some beliefs that direct your life.

Having a deep belief that people should always help each other is a valuable belief that brings a lot of good into your life.

But limiting beliefs hold you back from living your full potential.

Let’s look at an example.

Imagine you grow up in a family of overweight people. Naturally, you become more and more overweight yourself.

Now while you are a child, your family always says “oh, you know, being overweight lies in our genes. There is nothing we can do about that”.

Of course, as a child, you believe that. You create the limiting belief that you are genetically overweight. But why is that a limiting belief?

Simple, with a mindset like that you will never try to lose weight or tone your body. This keeps you from living a healthy, happy and longer life.

So you see the danger in limiting beliefs like that? To help you get rid of them, I collected 9 effective ways to do it. I designed it as a step by step guide. Therefore I recommend you start at the beginning.

Read also: 9 Mindsets That Are Keeping You Poor

Read also: 7 Mindset Changes You Need To Make ASAP

1. Identify your limiting beliefs

As mentioned above, limiting beliefs are very often subconscious. And to solve a problem we always have to identify it first.

You have to become aware of what it is holding you back.

You may not be able to recall all of your limiting beliefs instantly; I am aware of that. You can either give yourself a week to collect all the limiting beliefs you can find, or you can do this routine every time you stumble over a new limiting belief.

Try to look for situations in which you think or say words like “I can’t…” or “I am not … enough”.

Some of the most common limiting beliefs are:

  • Not being talented enough to do something (e. g. dance, draw, ski, cook …)
  • Not being smart enough to get that degree/job
  • Money being difficult to earn
  • Not being pretty enough (seriously, have you seen some of the models nowadays?! Probably anyone could become a model if they set their mind to it.)

To aid your search, ask your friends and family if they ever noticed you saying negative phrases like that repeatedly in certain situations.

2. Write your limiting beliefs down

Collect your limiting beliefs on a list. Make them visible to you. Things become more meaningful once they’re written down.

Maybe it doesn’t even take much more for you than becoming aware of your limiting belief. Perhaps that’s enough to make you realize how stupid it is.

But the longer you have been clinging to this belief, the more difficult it will be to overcome it.

I recommend you to journal about your limiting beliefs. Write about your thoughts and feelings about them.

It is much more powerful to write things down than just to think them in your head.

I also recommend you to use the following points as Journaling prompts.

Read also: 11 Journaling Prompts To Skyrocket Into The New Year

3. Ask yourself if they are justified

Obviously, this is a rhetoric question. The answer should always be “No “.
But I believe it is vital to dig deep on what caused this belief.

For me, it always helps if I can find logical arguments for why my limiting belief is illogical.

Maybe you can create a pro and con list.

Ask yourself what would be the worst to happen if you dropped that belief for its opposite.

Would it really be that bad?

Think back to situations you acted according to that belief. Do you think they would have turned out differently if you had behaved otherwise?

Try to look at your belief from a third person perspective. What would others say about your mindset?

Write your arguments down. You might need to look at them once in a while to overcome that belief.

4. Understand how and when they came to exist

Since limiting beliefs are often subconscious, we tend not to realize when we are adopting them.

There are many ways to adopt a limiting belief. A particular event could have been the cause for example.

But I believe most of the time other people “taught” us their way of thinking.

It happens through family members, friends, teachers, coaches, bosses, social media or peers.

Did your parents keep telling you that you can’t afford things and did you learn that money was always scars?

Did your teacher make you feel like you were too stupid to go to university?

Finding the root of the problem will bring you significantly closer to freeing yourself from the belief.

5. Realize that they are serving a purpose

This is something I have learned from Jen Sinceros “You are a badass“.

Your limiting beliefs often serve a purpose for you. Why else would you cling to them?

The questions is, is this purpose worth living a limited life?

Thinking that things are out of your control and that you are simply the unfortunate victim serves the purpose of pity. People love being pitied.

Or maybe your limiting belief makes you feel secure.

Try to find that purpose. It will help you in overcoming the mindset.

6. Think of times when they have been holding you back

Chances are your limiting beliefs will not only hold you back in the future but have already been holding you back in the past.

Try to think of those times. Times, when you missed out on something good because you were too afraid to act.

Nobody likes the feeling of regret. But in cases like this, regret can help you create a better life. It can give you the push you need to motivate yourself to change.

Don’t be afraid of change. Life is constantly changing. To enjoy it you have to embrace transformations.

7. Transform each negative beliefe into a positive affirmation

Turn back to the list you made in number 2. Now create a second list and replace each negative belief with a positive affirmation.

Change “Money is always scarce” to “I am a money magnet. I attract money effortlessly into my life every day. Money is easy and fun to earn.”.

Change “All the good men are already taken” to “I constantly meet good men! Every man I date is absolutely wonderful to me!”

Make the affirmation sound strong. Use words that resonate with you. And formulate them in the present tense. As if it already were this way.

Write your positive affirmations down each day. Speak them out loud.

Maybe journal about them once in a while. How do you feel about them? Are you starting to believe the words you are saying and writing?

8. Find idols that show you everything is possible!

Try to find a person, who was in a situation similar to or worse than you, and accomplished the very thing you think is impossible for you.

There are endless success stories out there. They have the power to crush every limiting belief you have.

Rags turned into riches.
People met their soulmates.
Miraculous recoveries from diseases are recorded.

Literally, everything is possible! You simply need to have the right mindset.

9. Act according to your new belief

Just do it!
Try to do the very thing you think you cannot do.

If you still have that limiting belief, you might not succeed immediately. But keep trying. Once you can see the first signs that it is possible, your limiting belief will dissolve into thin air.

As with many things in life, this is a never-ending journey. Just because you got rid of old limiting beliefs doesn’t mean new ones won’t develop.

You have to be self-aware and analyze your behavioral patterns. Any time you become aware of a new limiting belief, rinse and repeat the process that got rid of your past mindsets.

That’s it. Now you should be ready to tackle the beliefs that are holding you back from living your most fulfilled life.

Do you already know some limiting beliefs you want to transform? Comment them down below so that our community can hold you accountable.

And as always, I hope you continue to strive for Felicity. I know there is still so much in you that can help you to live your life to the fullest.

Until next time,

Sophie

12 Powerful Ways To Be Confident | Confidence Tips for Babes

Blog, Personal Development

Confidence is one of those crucial skills you need to develop if you want to be successful in life. But this is nothing new to you, right? We all know the importance of confidence, yet for many of us, it seems very hard to be confident.

But what is confidence? Confidence means that you love, accept and trust yourself – your abilities, qualities, and ideas – completely.

Confidence is not something you are born with, it can be developed. But it can also be lost! So you always need to work on it!

The following tips should help you tap into your confident self. Enjoy!

1. Know that people care less than you think

Something that is intertwined with confidence is caring what other people think about you.

The more confident you are, the less you care what other people think of you and vice-versa.

One thing that we should always remember is that nobody thinks about us as much as we ourselves do.

12 powerful ways to be confident

In reality, everybody’s primary concern is themselves.

So, don’t worry about what people think of you. Chances are they either didn’t even notice that you did something “weird” or they forgot about it within a few hours.

Never feel insecure because what other people might think!

If you want more tips on how to stop caring what other people think of you, check out my article on that.

2. Know that nobody is perfect

Most of the time we are our harshest critic. We often diminish our confidence by negative self-talk.

Try to catch yourself thinking those negative thoughts.

No, you are NOT stupid!
You are NOT clumsy!

Yes, you might have messed up. So what? Millions of people mess up daily.

This is part of being human. We are not perfect.

Therefore stop being unfair to yourself! You wouldn’t criticize your best friend like that, would you?

Accept your failings, your imperfections and move on confidently, knowing that nobody is perfect!

3. Dress to impress

We are always told not to judge a book by its cover. And in theory, we all try not to do that.

But in reality, our first impression of a person is gravely shaped by the first data we get from them. And often this is a visual impression, in the form of body language, hair, hygiene, and clothes.

Since we all want to make an excellent first impression, we feel insecure whenever we are not happy with our appearance.

Wearing clothes, you feel comfortable and maybe even sexy in can boost your confidence tremendously!

The same goes for your hair. Try to get a haircut regularly and invest a little bit time into learning how to do hairstyles that put your hair in order.

Take care of your personal hygiene. Shower regularly, cut your nails, shave and take care of your skin. If you feel fresh and clean, you will feel more comfortable in your own skin.

And last but not least, take care of your body. Move daily, eat healthy food, straighten your posture and do regular check-ups with the doctor.

In total, feel confident in your own skin!

Some of these changes you can do immediately, others will take more time. But all of them are going to make you feel confident!

4. Positive affirmations

Yes, it is cheesy, but it works.

The power of positive self-talk has been proven scientifically. By now, psychologists and psychiatrists use it to help their patients fight depression.

And I am sure you heard some life coaches talk about affirmations, too.

If you have never done it before, saying affirmations will not feel very comfortable at first. But have patience.

You don’t need to shout them out loud, standing in superman pose in front of the mirror.

You can whisper them. Or you can think them quietly in your head.

Particularly the morning right after you wake up is a good time to affirm yourself. That way you will already start your day off great.

Another way is to create visual reminders for yourself. Write a Post-it with an affirmation and put it somewhere you are going to see it every day.

You could also let your phone remind you at specific hours every day of a positive affirmation.

As I said, you don’t need to be crazy about it. Just do what feels comfortable to you. It will subconsciously make you feel better about yourself.

5. List things you love about yourself

As mentioned above, we tend to criticize ourselves day in day out. We always focus on the negative stuff.

My nose is too big.
I have oily skin.
Why am I so tall?

For a change, try to focus on the things you love about yourself.

Start every day by listing at least three things you like about yourself.

I love how my freckles make me look cute.
I am so grateful to be small. I never have to worry about legroom.
I adore my curly hair.

Try to list different things every day. With every new item, you will feel a bit more confident.

6. Be around uplifting people

I’m sure you have watched a few funny interviews with celebrities, haven’t you? Did it make you smile watching them joke around? Did it lift your mood?

I am also sure you experienced the following situation: You are incredibly excited about something and want to share it with a friend or a family member. But as you reach them, you realize they are in a foul mood. They simply are not as happy as you are about this thing you wanted to share with them.
Within minutes if not seconds your mood dropped significantly.

Moods are contagious. And we all want to be in a good mood. Especially to be confident you should be in a good mood. Or have you ever met a super confident person that seemed listless?

You are the average of the five people you spent the most time with.

So look around you and name those five people. Are they usually in a good or in a bad mood? Are they energized to tackle life or do they dread everything?

Try to find friends who make you feel energized and confident.

Friends that lift you up and support you with your dreams instead of friends who are judging every step you make.

I know that this can be especially difficult with family members since we all do not want to abandon them from one day to the other.

But maybe do try to spend a bit less time with them. Or include a third person, who also is of the uplifting kind.

Alternatively, you can also train yourself to some extent that their words and their mood pass right through you.

But beware, that will only work to some extent!

7. Broaden your horizon

The more you know about different topics, the more confident you will feel when talking to different people.

It will become easier to communicate for you in every situation.

Of course, you can be confident around subjects you know nothing about.

We all know that one person who knows next to nothing but acts like they have been teaching the subject for years.

But the more you actually do know, the easier it will be for you to feel confident.

So educate yourself! If will also help you in every other area of life.

Read also: 18 Powerful Personal Growth Ideas

8. Act as if

You might also call this “fake it until you make it”. The principle is easy. Act as if you already were confident.

Ask yourself, how would I act if I were confident? Surprisingly, it is quite easy to act like that once you know what it is.

Try to imitate confident people. How are they behaving?

Especially look for their body language. Confident people stand straight, head held high and walk calmly.

You can actually influence your emotions my imitating the body movements that come with them.

For example, if you smile for a few minutes, your mood will lift, regardless of how stupid you might feel doing it.

The same works for confidence through adapting the right posture.

Presentation coaches teach their clients to stand in an empowering pose, right before an interview or a presentation.

An example would be the superman pose, where you stand wide legged, breast thrust forward, head held high and your hands on your waist.

I know that the Superman pose might not be for everyone, but you can make subtle body posture changes during your day that will improve your self-confidence.

Simply pull your shoulders back a bit and walk more assured. See what a difference it can make!

The same goes for your voice.

Don’t mumble, don’t whisper and don’t speak with a high voice as if it were a question. Try to talk calmly and with a stable voice.

With time this will become your second nature. You won’t have to act confident anymore, you will become confident!

9. Track your accomplishments

We accomplish so much in a day, yet we can think of so little whenever we look back at our day.

Start to track your accomplishments, your little milestones.

Once you realize how much you accomplish on a day to day basis, you will feel proud and competent.

Knowing you are able to get stuff done will increase your confidence.

10. Step out of your comfort zone little by little

Confidence is a muscle. It gets stronger by use.

Just like with your physical workout, you always have to push yourself a bit beyond the pain point to see growth happening.

Of course, this can be incredibly daunting, so you want to do it little by little.

Analyze your current confidence level. When do you lack confidence? This is your starting point.

Find little things each week that you can do although you feel insecure.

If you push your comfort zone just once a week. Within a year you will have moved 52 steps closer to your confident self!

11. Give compliments and help others

We all love to receive compliments. If somebody compliments your outfit, you are probably happy about that for the rest of the day if not much longer.

However, not only receiving but also giving compliments makes us happy.

There is just something about being altruistic that makes humans feel good about themselves.

Furthermore, complimenting others makes you feel less envious. You need to be content with yourself to overcome envy and give compliments.

I also believe that this starts a positive feedback loop. The more people compliment each other, the more people become happy and confident enough to compliment others.

It can build itself up in a loop and increase to a truly happy and confident society.

Obviously, we are still far away from that. But I believe every single one of us can contribute to this end goal and feel good while doing so.

Read also: 8 Ways To Provide Value To The World

12. Be yourself!

Stop trying to be someone you simply are not.

You will never be able to truly feel confident about yourself if you keep disguising your real character.

Start being unapologetically yourself.

And if you don’t like certain things about yourself, you can always improve.

The key is not just to act like you are different. You need to change within not only on the outside.

Sure this will take longer than just acting like you are a different version of yourself, but you will feel much more at peace with it.

If you want a starting point on how to improve yourself, check out my Reading List for Personal Growth.

I listed a ton of self-development books that will help you become your best self in every area of life.

What about you, Felicity Seekers?

How confident are you? And which of these tips are you going to implement into your life?

Also, if you have any other recommendations comment down below.

Since I am also working on being more confident, I’d love to read some of your tips on the topic.

9 Mindsets That Are Keeping You Poor | Money Mindset Tips

Blog, Personal Development, Success

As a Felicity Seeker, I know you strive to live your life to the fullest. For most of us, this includes financial freedom. After all, who wants to be poor in life?

There are endless ways to become rich in our world. However, many people underestimate the importance of the right mindset.

Because your thoughts shape your actions and your actions shape your reality. If your thoughts are not designed for wealth, your life will be just as little.

To help you on your way to financial freedom I collected 9 mindsets that you might have that are keeping you poor.

Analyze yourself and find out which of these mindsets apply to you. Above all, you have to be honest with yourself.

Read also: 7 Mindset Changes You Need To Make In 2020

Read also: 10 Mindsets Of Successful Women You Need To Adopt ASAP

1. You think money is the root of all evil

Although we live in a world that shows us daily what immense good money can do, many people still believe that money is the root of all evil.

First of all did you know that this is an incomplete quote?
The apostle Paul wrote: the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

And this may be true to some extent. Loving money too much is greed. Being greedy causes people to throw all their morals in the wind and do everything necessary to accumulate capital.

9 mindsets that are keeping you poor

Seeing people do that is simply sad. Even more so, if you look at the unbelievable amounts of good money can create.

Money helps charities feed the starving, build houses for the homeless, educate children and give a home to shelterless dogs.

Money helps communities built churches, mosques, synagogues, sports fields, parks and playgrounds.

Furthermore, money enables us to fight diseases and environmental pollution.

Moreover money is needed for every new invention and discovery we make.

Therefore never believe that money is the root of all evil. Money is the root of a lot of good in our world.

If you want to become financially free, you have to believe money is something amazing. If you think of money as something terrible, you won´t open yourself up to earn it.

It is just like if you think that your diet won´t work. Guess what, it probably will not work.

And should you struggle to think of money as something good, always remember that the more money you have, the more you can help other people!

2. You feel entitled to money

I have talked about this before. So many people nowadays feel entitled to money.

They believe they deserve a raise, they think the government should take care of their pension and that the rich should pay for their needs.

To become wealthy, you need to stop feeling like other people should take care of your finances.

You need to accept that you have control over your financial well-being.

If you want more money, you have to be creative and create more wealth!

If you keep looking for ways to make some extra money, suddenly, many unknown doors will open up for you!

3. You are afraid to invest in yourself

” The best investment you can make is in yourself.”

Warren Buffett

As important as this wisdom is, only few people know or practice it.

I get it; investing money in yourself is scary. Trust me; it has been very uncomfortable for me to spend the money necessary to start this Blog.

But the truth is, not only are you the only thing you can ever have full control over but investments in yourself will never be lost.

The knowledge and skills you will acquire through books, courses and seminars will accumulate and make you your most valuable asset.

You will be able to make money out of many different sources and with increasing ease.

But you have to take the first step and invest in yourself. Nobody else will do it!

4. You follow the crowd

Peer pressure is intense, we all know that. But to become rich, you have to withstand that pressure and start swimming against the stream.

Because unfortunately, the crowd isn´t wealthy. They obviously don´t know how to become rich so why should you do what they are doing?

The best example is the stock market. Whenever the stocks are dropping many inexperienced investors frantically start to sell their shares, which makes the value drop even lower.

For all the successful investors, this is like Christmas!

They can get the stocks for sale, and once the value rises again, they can double or triple their wealth.

If you follow the crowd, you will only arrive at business opportunities that have already been exhausted.

To become wealthy, you need to find opportunities before they are trending.

5. You think “I can’t …”

There we have it again. Another common limiting mindset of our society.

Nowadays we regularly speak and think in negative terms.

We talk about things we “can´t do”, “cannot afford”, “don´t want” or “will not”.

We focus way too much on the things we can´t do, than on the things we actually can or want to do.

This creates a problem.

Once you think “I cannot be successful” or “I will never be rich” your brain stops working.

You need to ask yourself “How can I be successful?” and “How can I become rich?” This way, your brain will start creating solutions for your problem, and you can work towards your goal.

So stop telling yourself you can´t afford something and start thinking about how you can afford it!

Read also: 9 Ways To Overcome Limiting Beliefs

6. You don’t know the difference between being able to buy something and being able to afford something

This one is huge! Because so many people get it wrong.

The financial ability to buy something does NOT mean you can afford it!

Let´s say you have 2.000 € in savings. Technically, you can purchase that luxury Maldives holiday.

But are you able to afford it? If you only have savings of 2.000 € then NO!

Being able to afford something means that the purchase will not impact your financial situation gravely.

You will still have enough money to spend on the necessary and valuable things.

Whenever you have to check your bank account to make sure if you can afford the new iPhone, this is a clear sign that you cannot afford it.

Instead, use that money and invest it into assets. That way, your money will start to work for you, and with some patience, you will be able to afford a new iPhone.

7. You focus only on one stream of income

If you are guilty of this, it is not your fault. It is what they teach us at school.

We have always been taught to find ONE good job that pays the bills.

But there are two flaws with that concept.

Number 1: For many people nowadays, one job isn´t enough to pay the bills. Over the last few years, there have been multiple studies that found that an increasing number of people have a second or even third job to bring in the necessary money.

Number 2: With one stream of income you are sitting on a one-legged stool. The problem with that is that you are dependent on that income.

Should it disappear for whatever reason, you have to scramble to find a new source of income before your savings run out. And sadly, most people do not have enough savings.

You need to diversify your streams of income. This is how you can live a careless life and do not have to worry about the next financial crisis.

8. You focus on active income

Most people nowadays earn active income. Meaning they trade their time for money, usually in the form of employment.

This concept also has two issues.

Number 1: You only have 24 hours in a day.

Meaning the time you can trade for money is limited. So the only way to earn more is by increasing your pay rate.

But as an employee, you only have a limited leeway to get your boss to give you a raise.

Number 2: You could lose that job tomorrow.

The word job can be seen as an acronym for “Just Over Broke”.

If your only stream of income is your job, you need to have good savings. Because they will be your only parachute should your boss decide to pull the floor away under your feet.

The worst about having a job is that you have no control over being fired.

Sure, if you behave like an idiot, they will kick you out for that reason.

But other causes can be bankruptcy, the merging of two companies, a financial crisis, the takeover of your company or outsourcing.

You have absolutely no control over any of that. And all of those scenarios are things that happen daily to dozens of companies.

9. You think you don‘t care about money

Finally, we come to our last but certainly not least important point.

No matter how much you try to tell yourself that you do not care about money … you do care.

As long as you do not live inside a cave or on a desert island you care about money. Simply out of necessity. Without money, you won´t have any food, clothes, housing, electricity, water and so much more.

We live in a world directed by money. And while many people may curse that, it is actually a wonderful thing. It has enabled us to rise to a powerful and highly intricate society.

Because money is so important, you need to put in the effort to become financially literate. That might be one of the most important skills any person can have.

But for some inexplicable reason, not even our educational system teaches us about it. And we always thought school was designed to prepare us for life.

If you want to become financially literate, you have to educate yourself.

With the amount of free content online, this is incredibly easy.

But if you want to go deeper into the topic, I recommend you to read the Rich Dad Poor Dad series by Robert Kiyosaki.

That man has made it his mission to shine a light on the topic of money. I can highly recommend his books!

If you want to go even deeper into the whole topic of money and investing check out my Reading List for Personal Growth. I compiled my favorite life-changing books on subjects from Finances, Relationships, Mindset and more.

Reading those books and implementing the information you learn can really put your life to a whole new level!

So what do you think, Felicity Seekers? Do you believe these mindsets can bring you closer to financial freedom?

On which of those points do you need to work the most?

Comment down below! I´d love to hear your thoughts.

11 Signs You Are Mature Enough To Succeed In Life | Success Tips

Blog, Personal Development, Success

Success requires a broad set of characteristics: Ambition, confidence, patience, resilience, creativity and many more. Among those characteristics, a certain kind of maturity is needed to succeed in life.

There are many misconceptions about what it means to be mature. We hear things like “grow up!” or “behave your age!” or “you are so immature!”.

I believe growing up and being an adult has absolutely nothing to do with how you look or what things you like.

In fact, I believe it improves your happiness if you do not lose your childlike sense for fun and can still enjoy Hanna Montana or Hot Wheels.

Growing up depends much more on maturing your mindset. That’s where the real change is supposed to happen.

Being mature has to do with your values and how you perceive the world around you.

And although many people are legally adults, they still have an immature mindset that keeps them from leveling up in life.

This article is not meant to criticize you. It is supposed to make you aware of things you might want to change in your life to get one step closer to success.

11 Signs You Are Mature Enough To Succeed In Life

Like Tony Robbins says: Success is only 20 percent the mechanics but 80 percent the mindset!

Acquiring skills is easy nowadays. There is an unfathomable amount of free information online, and many online courses are specifically designed to take you step by step through the mechanics.

But if your mindset is not shaped for success, all this information won´t bring you far.

Therefore I have compiled 11 elements that make up a mature mindset. Enjoy!

1. Your perception of time has changed

As children, we didn’t care much about time. Time couldn’t pass quick enough for us.

We wanted it to be Christmas already so that we could open our presents.

We asked a hundred times when we would finally arrive at our destination.

And we couldn’t wait until we were finally old enough to watch that movie, to ride that rollercoaster or to drive that car.

Time often seemed never-ending.

However, as you grow up, that suddenly changes.

There is no specific age when that switch will happen to you. For some people, it occurs at the beginning of their thirties. For me, it happened with eighteen.

Suddenly, I noticed that the 8-hour drive to my grandparents passed quicker than when I was younger.

I always used to dread that arduous drive, where I always needed to find new ways to entertain myself.

Now, that time seems to pass almost twice as quickly and I could stare out of the window the whole time.

The same happened during my day to day life. When I started studying Law, I quickly realized that this was the first time in my life, that I felt like there were not enough hours in a day.

There was always something left I wanted/needed to do.

As you get older, your perception of time shifts. Time suddenly passes way quicker than it did when you were a child.

Due to that, we become more aware of how fast our time is running out.

In fact, we only really have a third of the time we think we have.

Just think about it. The day has 24 hours. Let’s say you sleep 8 hours a day (if you sleep less, great! That means you have more time left for yourself.) That’s a third of your day.

If you have a 9 to 5 job, you work 45 hours out of 168 hours a week. If we add the time to get to and from work, we can say you spent another third of your time working.

So what is left? In the end, we only have about a third of our week to spend freely.

And of course, that third also includes cleaning your house, driving to and from places, etc.

Suddenly, there isn’t much time left at all. How do you want to spend that time?

Mature people value their time more. They try to use it intentionally and don’t want to waste it on unimportant things like binge-watching a series. Because is that something you are going to look back on at your deathbed?

Because mature people spend their time intentionally, they can accomplish much more in life.

I am sure you follow some YouTubers that are the same age as you. They have the same number of hours in a day as you have. And they might even be university students like you or have a 9 to 5 job like you.

While you are watching multiple YouTube videos a day, they are creating the videos! They are building a business which will provide for their future!

But they are not much different from you. They simply decided to watch less YouTube videos and instead start creating some themselves.

We all have the same number of hours in a day. Your success depends on how you spent them!

Read also: 15 Ways To Spend Your Time Wisely

2. You value punctuality

This goes hand in hand with valuing time. Once you know how limited time is, you do not want to waste yours or others.

Lost time can never be retrieved! If you look at it that way, to steal somebody’s time is one of the worst things you can (legally) do to them!

Punctuality is a highly valuable skill if you want to network. Because successful people are not willing to let other people waste their time. And you need to surround yourself with people more successful than you are if you want to level up.

Because as Jim Rohn famously said:

“You are the average of the five people you spent the most time with.”

Jim Rohn

So be punctual!

3. You realize the world doesn’t revolve around you

Part of growing up and maturing is the realization that the world does not revolve around you.

We live on a planet populated by 7.5 billion humans! (If you want the exact number check out the population clock).

And although we all are the leading role in the movie we call our life, we do not even appear in the movies of the vast majority of humankind.

I don´t want to depress you, but as long as you are not Beyoncé or Elon Musk, not many people will take notice should you suddenly pass away.

We cannot stop living in a first-person view. But we can try to look at situations out of the bird’s perspective.

Stop judging people by their words or parts of their behavior. You never know what could have been the cause of that.

The sooner you learn how to look at the world through other people´s eyes, the easier it will get for you to get along with them.

Being able to connect with others and providing high value for them is key to building a successful business.

4. You care less about what other people think of you

As we mature, we get to know ourselves better. We develop various interests and opinions, which will clash with those of others.

It is inevitable. As soon as there is more than one opinion, there are going to be people that will disagree with you.

If you keep caring what other people think of you, you will never be able to be yourself and always have to adapt to different peoples opinions.

But you only have one life. Everybody else already has a life of their own. Why should they be allowed to decide over yours? You should be the only one deciding how to live it.

And anyway, why should you even try to be like everyone else? Our world rewards uniqueness!

We all love people that are unapologetically themselves! We need people who strive for the extraordinary!

Just imagine nobody would have been crazy enough to fit a whole computer into a small mobile device.

Imagine a world without insane inventors and visionaries that dreamed of carriages moving without horses or of humans walking on the moon.

Can you even think of one famous person, who is absolutely and utterly normal? What even is “normal”?

To succeed in life, you need to be unique. You need to be able to give people something that they will not get from others. And with that automatically come others who will criticize you for that uniqueness.

But truly mature people know better than to be bothered.

5. You are comfortable spending time alone

Working your way to the top can be lonely. You have to put in long hours and might need to cancel multiple meetings with your friends.

If you are serious about making it to the top as fast as possible, you will probably stop partying and start hustling.

But be aware! Being a loner can actually keep you from succeeding! The most significant achievements are always a group effort.

On your way to the top sooner or later you will need the help of a mentor or start to outsource specific tasks.

So, expect to be lonely at times, but do not try to do it all on your own!

6. You have a work-life balance

As mentioned in the previous point, you will not always have somebody at your side on your way to success.

Therefore you need to look after yourself.

Maturity means being self-aware and listening to your body. Are you tired, hungry, thirsty or overwhelmed?

Your body and mind are the things that keep you alive. There is no living without them.

So be mature enough to look after yourself or else you will burn out or get sick before you were able to succeed.

7. You don’t have a victim mentality

We all know that children like to blame everyone else for their failures. It is the fault of their parents, their siblings, their classmates, their dog, their friends, their teachers and so on.

Scaringly enough, many adults stick to that victim mentality. They always have somebody to blame for why they didn´t get that promotion or why they are too late.

Real maturity means to take responsibility for your own life!

Get rid of that victim mentality and accept that you have control over most things in your life. Therefore if something goes wrong, you have to blame yourself and nobody else!

Connected to that victim mentality is the belief of being entitled to things.

The vast majority of people believe that the rich should take care of them. They feel entitled to the money of other people. But why?

Imagine you work for years for your business to succeed. Each year you get richer and the richer you get, the more people feel entitled to your money. Isn´t that strange?

You got that money by providing value for those people. Why do they think you should give them more?

I believe one cause for this Robin Hood mentality is that people can´t take responsibility for their own lives.

Look at the most successful entrepreneurs out there, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg. They do not feel entitled to money. They create money! They take responsibility for their lives!

If you want to be rich, you have to drop your victim mentality and start taking back the control over your life!

Read also: 9 Mindsets That Are Keeping You Poor

8. You are open-minded

“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.”

Frank Zappa

Having an open mind makes you available for incredible opportunities.

Life presents us with different opportunities every day. In this world possibilities are limitless.

If you are ready to seize them, incredible success awaits you!

And if you want to feed you mind with more inspirational content I highly suggest you check out my Reading List for Personal Growth. I update it regularly on all my favorite non fiction books.

9. You focus on delayed gratification

A huge problem of our generation is the need for instant gratification. Nowadays we get everything at a moments notice.

Do you want something to eat? Call the delivery guy!
Do you have a question concerning a product? Customer service is available 24/7.

Whatever we want or need we can have it almost instantly. This has created an impatient society.

But guess what? There are some things you can´t have instantly. Among them is success.

There is no quick fix for success. And most people do not get famous overnight. It might seem like they did, but often they put in a lot of work until that “magic” night happened.

If you want to be successful, whether it is in sports or business, you need to be patient.

Take this Blog for example. I´ve been writing content for almost a month. And until now absolutely nobody has ever read a single piece of my content.

If I let impatience overtake me now and give up, I will never have success with my Blog.

But I am not aiming for short term gratification. I want to build a sustainable business that will give me financial freedom for decades to come. Understandably, that needs more time.

You need to plan long term!

“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”

Bill Gates

10. You know when to take risks

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”

John A. Shedd

The most significant success comes from taking calculated risks.

The emphasis lies on “calculated”. Being mature means to ponder when it is worth to take a risk.

Jumping off a cliff or replicating the Fast and Furious won´t get you closer to success in life. In fact, it might shorten your life significantly.

Maturity means finding a healthy balance between risk and safety and using risk to your advantage.

11. You know when to pick a fight

Just like with the previous point this one is all about finding the balance.

Sometimes voicing your opinion and getting into a fight can put you massive steps forward in life.

But more often than not a fight will only do damage.

If you already notice that your opponent doesn´t even care for your arguments, why do you keep making them? It will get you nowhere, and you only lose precious time.

And as we learned time is too valuable to be wasted!

There you have it. What about you, Felicity Seekers, are you mature enough to succeed in life?

What was your favorite point and which one do you intend to improve in your life?

Leave a comment down below!
I´d love to see how mature this community is.