Change Your Immediate Context to Open New Pathways to Success

Sometimes you read something and realize that finally there is someone else in the world who can verbalize what you’ve been feeling. 

I’ve often had the flickering thought about being a coach of some sort. The most legit option for me is being a financial coach. I looked into that briefly. Talked to a few Dave Ramsey reps about their coaching certificate. It left me feeling a bit empty.

It left me thinking something like the title to this blog I recently read, “Quick, someone get me a Transformational Thought Leader.” It’s as if these can be fabricated out of nothing. 

To Coach or Not to Coach?

I realized in my talks with the Ramsey reps that I could become a financial coach with ZERO formal training. That’s right! I could start my business TOMORROW!

That’s where this gets a bit murky and mucky. In order to give financial advice related to investments, you need to be a certified financial advisor which REQUIRES a degree and a license. 

Where does this leave a financial coach? Essentially, they are a cross between a financial therapist and financial advisor with NO training to back it up. This is fairly terrifying to me because I wouldn’t want to be in either of those professions so is it really a good idea for me to be caught in the middle with an expertise that is self-made and highly tailored to my own personal interests and situation? Probably not. 

If I don’t want to be a coach, that is fine, but what about the whole coaching industry? I’ve written that one of my goals is to encourage others to be authentic to themselves. This is one of the hallmarks of the coaching industry and social media in general. This can be a very good thing. There are thousands of people making a living online doing very unique jobs. Making videos on Star Wars, costuming, cooking, and everything in-between. 

But how do you bridge the gap between quitting your job and doing whatever you want. This is not so simple. The coaching industry gives a lot of motivational messages, but when the rubber hits the road, there are still bills to be paid, mouths to be fed, and only so much time in the day. 

Often, those who make it work need to be committed on a very high level. Optimizing their life to fit what they want and focusing solely on achievement of those goals. This has potential pitfalls: burnout, relationship strain, mental and physical health problems, and it seems the list could go on and on.

The True Story of Success

The story of success is not one of luck and hard work. Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers argues that it is really the intersection of opportunity, hard work, and the very particular situation and context in which you were born and live. Professional hockey players are not born in December (read the book to understand why.) Different family situations produce very different early life contexts with varying long-term results. Your context has just as much, if not more, impact on your ability to achieve certain goals than hard work. For many, their early life context places gigantic walls between them and success.

What’s the solution?

Work hard. Yes.

Be open to opportunities and take advantage if them. Yes.

Change your context??? This is a fairly difficult thing to do. We don’t get to choose into what family situation we are born. We can’t pick what month or year we are born. We can’t change anything about our life before now. You can’t change much of your context so you have to focus on what you can control.

Job. Maybe.

Spending. Perhaps.

Relationships. Yes. Especially your role.

Location. Depends.

Social Circle. Perhaps.

How you were raised and its subsequent opportunities/challenges. All you can do is become aware and then make the best of it.

You really want to change the rules of the game and the context of your life? Become a master of personal finance.

Mastering personal finance is a huge step to developing a new context for your future. Learn how to become financially independent or at least less dependent on your job. This might mean working a job that isn’t ideal for 10-12 years (hopefully less), but it could open up opportunities others could only dream of having.

We can’t change everything about our context, but we can begin to look for ways to rebuild our life to be a reflection of what we truly value and allow us to have the time to work hard at what we love to do so that we are ready to take on the opportunities that come across our paths.