Now is arguably one of the most difficult times to strike out on your own in the modern era. There are plenty of reasons one would want to give up. However, if you follow these tips you’ll be in the best position to beat the odds and learn how to make it in life on your own.
Easy Tips On How To Make It In Life On Your Own
1. Know Your Strengths
The first step to starting out on your own is knowing what you can do. If you don’t honestly assess your strengths (and later find people to fill your weaknesses), you’ll be back to square one before you know it. A sobering assessment of your own skillset will help you focus your efforts and make fewer mistakes starting out.
There are plenty of online resources to get started. If you don’t entirely know your strengths and weaknesses, ask those closest to you. Those who truly care about you will give you honest feedback about what you do well and where you can improve.
2. Start Early On
There’s an adage in investing that says, “time in the market beats timing the market.” Effectively, what that means for you is you need to start now. The earlier you start, the greater leeway you have to fail and to learn.
At the same time, there are emotional benefits to starting early on. It’s scary to fail or re-route your life plan in your late twenties to be sure. However, it’s much more terrifying to have to re-route in your late forties because you’ve realized you aren’t fulfilled.
3. Learn to Live Frugally
You might have big dreams of living a life of luxury, but the only way to achieve that is to manage your money wisely. If you’re genuinely interested in doing what it takes to be successful, you need to lower your cost of living.
Whether that means getting a roommate, going out less, or learning to cook, you need to maximize the percentage of your income that goes to your business endeavors and your savings.
Related Article: Simple Rule To Save Money Monthly
4. Take Advantage of Mentors
This one should be obvious and self-explanatory. If you can find someone who’s doing what you’re doing, ask them everything that you can. If you approach them respectfully and in earnest, oftentimes you’ll earn the respect of these potential mentors.
If they aren’t interested in respecting you, move on to someone else and share your knowledge with the next generation when you reach that same level of success.
5. Set Goals for Yourself
Easily my biggest struggle getting started was with goal setting. It’s extremely difficult learning how to make it in life on your own if you can’t figure out deliberate, tangible goals and an order to achieve them.
By setting goals you’ll avoid the anxiety that comes from only having a vague sense of what you want. Physically writing them down can be an incredibly powerful way to internalize these goals and values.
6. Don’t Let Negative People Sway You
Not everyone will be happy that you’re attempting to better yourself. The same people who laugh at you starting out will be the same people trying to hold you back when you start to succeed.
If you know your goals and can ignore negativity starting out, their opinions won’t matter to you when you start to achieve success.
7. Don’t be Afraid to Take Calculated Risks
When I first started out as a writer, I decided to spend nearly half the savings I had to buy a new computer. I knew I could improve my quality of work significantly if I had a functioning computer, I could invest in for the next few years. That investment was smart because it directly affected how successful I could be.
If you don’t have a large amount of money, make sure your investments can pay themselves off (and are tax-deductible if possible)! At the same time, don’t be afraid to spend money to make money. Know how much risk you’re willing to incur and make sure you’ve done your homework before any major purchase.
8. Ask Others for Financial Help Only When You 100% Need It
This goes double for the recent high school and college graduates. Living with your parents/relatives, if that’s an option, can be a prudent financial and emotional investment. However, you need to be able to establish yourself. It’s not wrong to ask for genuine help if you need startup costs covered or are in a serious financial pinch.
The worst way to gain your independence is to continually accept or ask for help you don’t need. You know when you genuinely need financial help and when you’re just scared of taking a risk and being uncomfortable.
9. Get Comfortable with Saying No
You can’t spread yourself too thin and expect to succeed. While saying ‘no’ can be scary at first, there’s something very gratifying to knowing your worth and rejecting offers that aren’t beneficial to you.
It doesn’t benefit anyone to take on a new client or job when you’re overworked already. Clients would much rather you say no to them at that moment than you deliver something sub-par; this benefits no one in the long run.
This goes for personal life as well. Knowing when to say no to negative people around you or when to cut ties with people who aren’t making you better is painful but necessary. If you aren’t healthy emotionally, you can’t succeed in business and life.
Our Final Thoughts On How To Make It In Life On Your Own
Making it on your own is daunting at first. If you decide to head out for yourself with no idea of what you’ll do or where you’ll go, you’ll end up right where you started. If you methodically follow these tips, you’ll be in a much better position to get ahead and stay there.
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