A New Year, A New Blog and Much More…

A Happy New Year to you all, I am hoping that you have been able to refresh, take stock and feel energised to get back into a new year.

Over Christmas, I hope that you were able to over-indulge, have too much food, drink and good company, as I certainly did, but now we move back into reality, with most people getting back to work over the next few days. What’s done is done, therefore there is no need to feel guilty about potentially being a little heavier, with a little less money in the bank or having spent the last two weeks unproductively. If you do feel guilty, take in five deep breaths, let it all go and let’s move into the very present as we are reading this blog.

You have no control of what has been done, you only have control of the fleeting moments we call the NOW and of course, you have control of choosing to behave in certain ways in the future. Hence why there is no need to feely guilty, although I am sure some of you do still, but let’s move into what 2023 could be, rather than focusing on the past and things you have no control over.

2023 is ear-marked to be a pivotal year when it comes to money, the economy and many other outside influences, such as politics, conflicts between countries and energy/resources.

What happens this year will potentially dictate the rest of this decade, as we leave a year of instability in 2022, especially with inflation increasing significantly, the biggest conflict between countries we have seen since the US-Allies-Afghanistan war and energy prices increasing significantly as we work towards a world to decrease the impacts of global warming. Change is afoot and we must get ready for big changes to occur in our everyday lives as well. The best thing about being human, is that we are adaptable, one of the most adaptable mammals on this planet.

The reason we have become the apex, the reason we are sitting on top of the food chain and seen so much progress over these last 100 years alone is due to this survival trait. Where we can adapt to most environments, imagine ways and think up ideas to solve problems and be able to not just survive, but thrive.

Thriving is going to be the main theme of 2023 for Take Back Control, we want you to thrive, I want to see you become more this year and grow into someone who has taken back control of their Life, Health and Wealth.

To do this, I am going to be sending out more content than ever before, as the environment changes, we need to adapt, so here are some of the ways Take Back Control is going to ADAPT this year:

• The number of blogs will increase from 1 per week to 2 per week - Every Thursday and Sunday

• The New Series - Your Money Storey-TBC will be sent out at the end of each month. Where we talk money and dive deeper into understanding success and failures with money, and hope to grow and understand how inter-connected money is with our lives.

• The Content is going to be more focused around the core pillars of Take Back Control - Life-Health-Wealth.

• There will be quarterly surveys to see what you would like to LEARN from the content, so you leave after reading every blog a little more knowledgeable and hopefully with some take-aways that can improve your life this YEAR!

• The first ever T-B-C Free Courses will be created and tested (Will hear more about this over the coming months)

2023 is going to be a big year, it will be a year that you mould and a year where you control what happens, if you focus on what you CONTROL not what is happening in the outside world. You simply only have control over your own actions, therefore, if you start there, you can make 2023 a year better than any other!

Until next time,

Take Back Control

T-B-C Turns One & FPA Uni Student of the Year Finalist!!

What a way to celebrate the first year of blogging and starting Take Back Control, by getting told that I made the top 3 in the inaugural award of Financial Planning Associations “University Student of the Year!”

You could imagine the surprise I was feeling when I got the call, it started off with myself wondering “who was calling me on a Friday morning?”

Other than my mother or wife, no one calls me during work hours, so I thought about just leaving it, but I just felt like I should pick it up. I am glad I did, because the next thing I know, I am getting told…

“Congratulations, you are a finalist for the FPA university student of the year!”

I was a little dumbfounded at first, and a bit unsure, but as the conversation continued, it started to hit me. The main thing that I felt when it hit me was how grateful I am to being recognised as a finalist. Being acknowledged for all the extra work that I put in and the passion I have for the Financial Planning profession, it is a rewarding feeling.

Of course, a lot of people have spent a heap of time with me, talking to me about the financial planning profession and teaching me what I needed to know to get me to where I am right now. The acceleration in my growth is all thanks to each and every Financial Planner who took time out of their day to talk to me over the last two years, to all the industry professionals and mentors who have made it their mission to see me improve, all of this and more led me to applying for the university student of the year award,

I couldn’t list all of you here, but you know who you are, so thank you for spending the most precious commodity we have on this planet, your time, to nurture my growth.

Now, the plan was to write about the previous year and to write about some of the most read blogs of the year, but the news caught me off guard and I just had to share it with you guys. As my loyal reader’s and to anyone looking to Take Back Control of your Life-Health-Wealth, you can make it happen, you can become better and take back control.

All you need to do is change a few behaviours, set some goals and dream big, really big…

There is more to it than just that, but its a great starting point, so I will leave you with that and link you to one of my favourite articles I wrote very early on, based on how you can start to dream big yourself, and also a link to the most viewed blog article I wrote as well.

My favourite Article written (Has nothing to do with the fact that Hugh Jackman is a favourite actor of mine…):

https://www.takebackcontrol.com.au/blog/let-me-give-you-the-freedom-to-dream

The most read article of 2022: Holiday Budget: We just got back from our Honey Moon

https://www.takebackcontrol.com.au/blog/holiday-budget-we-just-got-back-from-our-honey-moon

Until next time,

Take Back Control

The Number One Secret to Changing Your Life!

I have talked about this already in my first article, whereby I touched on the foundation of Taking Back Control of your Life-Health-Wealth. The foundation is not something I can do for you, it is not something anyone else can do for you either…

You are the only person who can decide and imagine this key and foundational secret to achieving greater Life-Health-Wealth.

It is a skillset in which you can work on and build upon as well, it is forever changing with your ideals, your values and your environment.

The number one secret to changing your life comes down to one thing really, and it seems so simple once you think about it, but so many people don’t do this one thing.

Let me tell you a quick story about two men, or two women, whichever you can identify with the most. One man was outgoing and adventurous when he was younger, he travelled all over the place, going from the party-scenes in Greece, to base camp of Everest. Everyone looked at what he was doing and thought, I would love to do that, it would be amazing to travel and try new things.

Once this man had finally seen most things, he travelled back home, he was late twenties and was now back to a reality he would rather forget. Hemmed down by debt and not knowing what he really wants to do in life, he goes through life, finds a partner, has some kids, buys a house and gets into more debt and works a job he never really liked. He always thinks back to the days where life was easy and care-free and misses those days. He works up until the point he retires, but his health has deteriorated and he is worried about finances because he had never been good at keeping track of his money. He loves his family, but feels empty on the inside.

On the other hand, the other man, or woman, had decided to work and try new things at home. He also wanted to travel and experience life to its fullest, but he was disciplined enough to save up for the times where he travelled. He spoke to career driven people and found his strengths, he dreamed of travelling and helping people. He envisioned a world where his family was happy, care-free and living in the a really nice house. He dreamed of being surrounded by the people his life had touched.

He worked to semi-retire by the age of 45 years old, so he could truly make an impact on his local community, not having to worry about money or stress about trivial things that were not important to him. Fast-forward to his semi-retirement and he feels he is making a difference to other people’s lives, doing what he loves to do day in and day out. He has a family that is supported financially and has everything they ever need and he takes them travelling around the world, without a worry for money or expenses.

Out of the two men, or women, I know who I would rather be…

Of course, everyone is different, but the foundation for achieving a successful Life-Health-Wealth comes down to the one thing that the second wo/man did more than the first. S/He dreamed of the world s/he wanted to be living in within twenty years time, they were able to be disciplined enough to see what they wanted and created goals to achieve it.

It was the idea of imagining this world, this future, being hopeful and believing in themselves to achieve it. DREAMS and envisioning your future is the foundation to achieving anything in life, if you do not have the imagination to dream your life up, I would suggest that you work on it.

Talk with someone who has a dream for their life, their families lives and even for the world. Because if you do not dream and hope for the future, if you just go through life without carving out your own path, you will most likely end up similar to the first man, or woman.

Not sure where to start?

I started by thinking about these two questions, “Where would you like to be in 20 years time, if you had no restrictions, if you were not worried about money or anything, what would a day in the life of You be like? What would you want to be doing 20 years from now?”

I would sit down, with no distractions and start writing if I was you, I have done this many times over, in fact, I do it at the start of every year.

However, if you are not a writer, and would rather talk, record it or even video yourself, do what you can so that you can go back over it and review it. Your dream will change, but if you do not dream and don’t record/write it down somewhere, you will never truly achieve it.

You need the vision to drive you forward, otherwise, you just go through life much like the first man or woman, and you end up just floating through life and before you know it, your life is over.

I want to leave you with those thoughts, thinking and envisioning has got me where I am today, I truly believe it is the foundation to achieving more from your Life-Health-Wealth. It is never too late to start Dreaming!

Until next time,

Take Back Control

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