Mikael Rieck is the author of more than hundred articles on topics of how to make money both online and offline. He has been online since 1999 and has always had a passion for money making opportunities and teaching others how to make a profit.To Retire Early You Will Have to Keep Focus
Being able to retire early from your job or from the work that you are currently doing is a dream for a great deal of people. Not having to get up in the morning and not having to go to work for someone else is seen on more and more people’s wish lists.
Even people that are self-employed or own their own company and run it like its president or CEO can have this feeling of wanting to be “free” and not being tied down in a situation where someone or something requires them to do something.
Unfortunately for the majority of people this dream will forever remain a dream and retirement will come when they hit the age where the laws tell them that it is time to retire. In some cases retirement will come earlier than that and especially in these troublesome financial times where people are being fired and can have a really hard time finding a new job if they are 50 years old or above. But that is not the kind of early retirement that most people dream of.
What Is Required To Be Able To Retire Early?
If you have a goal of changing your situation to something that will make you free of working for someone else, then there are some vital points and actions that you will need to embrace and work on.
But if this is not your goal but merely some kind of wishful thinking then the best advice I can give you is to either step up and make it a priority (a goal) or accept the fact that it is never going to happen for you and stop beating yourself up about it.
One of the vital points that will make you able to stop working is mastering the ability to FOCUS. If you have studied anything about goal setting and goal achieving you will know that to focus and maintaining that focus it crucial to be able to succeed.
I’m in the middle or reading Why We Want You To Be Rich, by Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump and I believe it was Robert that stated that FOCUS is short for:
Follow One Course Until Successful
You probably already know that not being focused is getting in your way of achieving what it is that you want. If you have tried to make money online or start an offline business a lack of focus has most likely made you either fail or at least not get to where you wanted and expected to go.
But How Do You Keep Focus?
One of the first things that are necessary to stay focused is to know what it is that you want. If you don’t know what you want then you don’t have a clear goal and that makes it impossible to focus. If you don’t believe me then try to focus your sight on something that is not there. It can’t be done!
For help on setting goals I recommend these posts:
How to Set Goals You Will Actually Achieve
Especially the second one by Steve Paulina is worth reading. Actually most of his stuff is.
Once you have the goal in place you must try to be as structured as possible, because chaos makes focus really difficult. Making lists and writing things down has worked great for me personally but it might not be your favorite choice. Whatever will work for you is okay as long as you create a structure.
And finally you will need to limit distractions. After all we’re all just humans and every marketer, spouse, child and friend is trying to distract you in one way or another (consciously or unconsciously). I’m not saying that you should get rid of your spouse, kids and friends (it is okay to get rid of marketers) 
but merely that you must realize what is distracting you the most from achieving your goal and then try to limit that distraction as much as possible.
If it is the TV or the computer games that are your distraction, then get rid of them. Give the games to charity and stop paying for the big channel package. It might hurt a little right now, but think of what it is that you’re going to get… your goal of early retirement. Once you’re retired you can play all that you want and watch all the TV you want.
But until that time… Follow One Course Until Successful
To Your Success,
Mikael
8 Responses so far
Nicolas Prudhon from SEO Help
July 7th, 2009
10:23 am
Hi Mikael,
I found that the best way to keep focus beyond having a goal, is having a purpose for it. There must be a reason why you have set this goal, and this is that reason what will help you keep focusing on your goal, often much more than the goal itself.
Also, keeping a daily checklist of what you should have completed by the end of the day and being accountable for it has also proven to be a great help to me.
.-= Nicolas Prudhon@SEO Help´s last blog ..How Does It Feel To Rank #1 In Google? =-.
Mikael
July 7th, 2009
10:29 am
Hi Nicolas,
I would assume that if you set a goal you will always have some reason for doing so. I don’t think you ever do anything without reason but you’re just not always aware of what the reason is.
Have a strong why or purpose will definitely help drive you but I don’t think that it will necessarily keep you focus. And example could be that you HAD to make some money online (for whatever reason). That could still leave you jumping from one shiny object to the next and never really accomplish anything.
The checklist part definitely works great for some people. I use it myself with much success but I have also find that some people are not good with lists. But whatever will work is fine as long as you move towards your goal.
Nicolas Prudhon from SEO Help
July 7th, 2009
10:37 am
Hi Mikael,
After, it all goes with the personality of each individual. I myself, don’t need to work with goals, and stuff like that to focus on what I have to do.
A bit like a Terminator, I set myself a mission, and all my efforts are invested towards accomplishing it as soon as possible!
I’m the kind of person who don’t get distracted or sidetracked in my work… in opposition with my wife… I just can’t get her to finish something she starts…
.-= Nicolas Prudhon@SEO Help´s last blog ..How Does It Feel To Rank #1 In Google? =-.
Mikael
July 7th, 2009
11:11 am
I’m sorry Nicolas, but I’m not sure I can write a post that will help Terminators
It is true that this has something to do with personality but I also thing it is about habit and mental attitude.
I’m not sure you can change a personality but you can change a habit and the way your mind thinks. If you can program your mind to see completion of tasks as a necessity then you’ll start getting things done.
Mental programming is something that I spend a lot of time on and it definitely works!
Nicolas Prudhon from SEO Help
July 7th, 2009
1:03 pm
In a sense, this is something I’m blessed with. I kind of have a natural mental programming to be ultra focused to achieve anything I set my mind onto.
On the flip side, I’m not so good at relaxing and enjoying as I always have some “new ideas” running in my mind, my wife seems to complain a lot about that, always work work work…
I don’t need to anymore, but I just enjoy the challenge of accomplishing something new. Anyway, it’s not really work, I’m running my sites for fun now from my bedroom…
.-= Nicolas Prudhon@SEO Help´s last blog ..How Does It Feel To Rank #1 In Google? =-.
The Gooroo from Finance Advisory Stop
July 11th, 2009
4:28 am
I agree in a certain sense. If you want to be almost certain you will retire early, you have to remain focused.
On the other hand, I see many people who simply got lucky, and were able to retire early because of it.
I’m pretty sure you meant for those who want to secure their retirement, so your post was well said in that case!
.-= The Gooroo @ Finance Advisory Stop´s last blog ..What Keeps You Blogging? =-.
Nicolas Prudhon from SEO Help
July 13th, 2009
3:06 am
@ Gooroo.
If there’s one thing I have learned in my years of business and success both online and offline, it’s the fact that you never get wealthy by luck.
You may get momentarily “rich” due to a stroke of luck, but you’ll never get wealthy this way.
The faster you get easy money, the faster you’ll lose it if you don’t understand the principles underlying behind.
.-= Nicolas Prudhon@SEO Help´s last blog ..How Google Ranks Your Site? =-.
The Gooroo from Finance Advisory Stop
July 13th, 2009
10:10 am
Nicolas, good point. I guess there is a difference between wealthy and rich. I was focusing on rich. As for being wealthy, you are completely right.
.-= The Gooroo @ Finance Advisory Stop´s last blog ..Public Transportation Is Ridiculous — My Personal Finances (I) =-.
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