In the Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad) era, OPM was a key phrase that meant using other people’s money (i.e. leveraging yourself) to acquire real estate, or other assets. I suggest that this strategy, while it is a very risky one can only relate to a small portion of the regular population. The other and more popular OPM, or Other People’s Mistakes is one that every single person on this planet can relate to!
One of the key themes I want to impart on you throughout this blog is learning from other peoples mistakes, namely my own. We’ve all made them! Mistakes, or learning lessons, opportunities for growth or whatever you prefer to call them have a fundamental place in everyone’s FI journey! If you haven’t had a past riddled with hurdles and challenges including some failures, perhaps you’re not optimizing your full potential?
Each of us, Kiyosaki included have a journey with finances that includes some rather unsavory experiences! It’s these experiences that sometimes define us and it’s these experiences (along with my victories) that I want to share with you!
If you’ve ever studied the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, he speaks about paradigm shifts. In a nutshell, a paradigm is a current state of being that is overarching throughout all facets of our life. A shift in our paradigm happens when there are changes that occur to us as a result of something major happening in our lives. We live in paradigms all the time, and a paradigm shift can be good; i.e. a marriage, birth of a son or daughter, job change, etc. But they can also be bad; death of a loved one, sudden disease or illness, job loss, etc.
These paradigm shifts have a way of stirring up our conscious state of mind and making us more alert in every sense! Paradigm shifts cause us to evaluate our current circumstances and make necessary adjustments to our status quo. Until a paradigm shift, many of us often find ourselves in cruise control running through the motions of this life. Avoiding friction or conflict in the meantime and optimizing the ‘joy’ throughout the process!
When paradigm shifts have occurred to me in the past, more often than not they sucker punched me right in the face leaving me feeling inadequate and lost. Don’t get me wrong, I have been supremely blessed in this life and I am very thankful and grateful, but I believe I have made a conscious choice to learn from my paradigm shifts and grow from them! Throughout this blog I will share with you some of these experiences that have shaped who I am today and how they have helped me become more focused and determined than ever before!
My goal is to impart some of my previous OPM’s on you and the lessons I have learned as a result!
