I have been living in the bliss of financial ignorance for most of my adult life. I just woke up one day with the realization that financial health needs help: my eldest son will soon be in college, I have over $50,000 in credit card debt, over $20,000 in student loans and has no savings at all. This realization drew me into panic since I reached a point where I could no longer pay more than just the interest charged by the credit card companies.

They say that success does not come overnight. Same with financial demise. All my debts had been accrued for a couple of years. It was not because I went crazy shopping. It was because I belong to the sandwich generation and there came a point that I need to give huge financial support to my parents. There are also some unforeseen expenses that really hit hard on the pocketbook.

Learning to be inspired.

I have decided right then that I need to do something. My husband is an avid reader of inspirational stories and self-help books. The first book I took from his bookcase is by Robert Kiyosaki titled “Rich Dad, Poor Dad“. This book pushed me to become a better version of my self and improve my financial well-being.

There are a lot of inspirational books out there. It actually took my husband a long time to convince me to start reading them. But I was so inspired to kickstart my financial rehabilitation and I will share with you some short inspirational quotes for success that really helped me.

Your Strength, Your Dream, Your Success

I have always dreamed to be financially successful. But what does this really mean? It means that you need to dream big, focus on reaching your goals and working hard to get there. There will be a lot of disappointments along the way, but the important thing is that you just keep on pushing yourself to do the best you can every single day. I have always worked hard as an employee. It never did occur to me to work harder for myself.

Winners Fail Until They Succeed

This quote really hit me hard. I have a notorious history of starting different projects. At the first sign of problems, I just quit. I never wanted to deal with issues, be it my personal or professional life. I realized that if I keep on doing what I had been doing, I will still be in the same place I had been for a long time. There will be no progress. I need to start working on my dreams and make them into my reality.

When we look at successful people, we just see the glory of their status and their achievements. We don’t see, or we refuse to see, the hard work that they put in to get to where they are now. A lot of us want an easy life. But in order to get there, we need to work hard and keep on trying, regardless of the difficulties and trials that come our way.

What your mind can conceive, it can achieve.

This is a very famous quote by Napoleon Hill, author of the book “Think and Grow Rich“. As I keep on reading and exploring all the knowledge and possibilities out there, I realized that the great minds of today follow the footsteps of the great minds of yesterday, This quote was confirmed by Robert Kiyosaki that we can train our minds to allow us to reach our highest potentials. In his book “Rich Dad Poor Dad“, he reiterated the power of the mind in his quote: “The single most powerful asset we all have is our mind. If it is trained well, it can create enormous wealth in what seems to be an instant.”

Hard work pays off

This picture says it all. Don’t get discouraged if you think you have been working hard but you are not seeing results. Just keep pushing. As Doris said in Finding Nemo: “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming”.

Even the Bible contains scriptures regarding God’s blessings if we diligently and faithfully work to accomplish our task: “Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty.” from Proverbs 28:19 English Standard Version talks about the importance of hard work.

Another verse from 2 Corinthians 9:6 talks about how your harvest is in accordance with your hard work: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously”.

These inspirational quotes all have something in common: the power of your mind, working hard, and not giving up. These famous and successful people are telling us that we can teach our minds to achieve our goals, and we need to work hard in order to be successful. Do not be afraid of failure. Instead, let this be the fuel to push you to fight harder.

I leave you with another quote that will show you how powerful our mind is, that whatever thoughts you feed into your mind becomes your reality.  Train your mind that all your dreams are possible and achievable, then work hard towards your success.