Tomorrow Starts Today

When it comes to exiting the Rat Race, an old proverb teaches a fundamental truth.

It states, “When is the best time to plant a tree? Twenty years ago. When is the second best time to plant a tree? Today.” So often people hold off on investing or building a business because they mistakenly believe that the opportunity to do so has passed them by, or the timing is not right, and they throw in the towel before they even begin.

That is just poor and middle-class thinking getting in the way of financial success!

Although markets go up and down, timing is not everything. Financial education is. When people are financially educated, they understand how to make money regardless of the market’s direction. When people are financially educated, it does not matter if they are in the prime of their youth or the height of their maturity. The financially educated are not only planting a tree today, they are making preparations to plant tomorrow and the days after that too.

It all starts by creating your tomorrow today and that means holding nothing back in your journey towards achieving your dreams. It means abandoning your excuse as to why now isn’t the time. It means quit lying to yourself that you have no idea where to begin. You can’t plant a tree without rolling up your sleeves and getting dirty and you can’t get rich either.

By deciding to go all-in today, you force yourself to think differently about your financial situation. You become less concerned about what or when and more concerned about how to make money work for you. You become rubber-meets-the-road serious about your investing or business.

For example, if you go all-in today as an entrepreneur, you would actually spend time working on your business. You would track expenses and tirelessly pursue sales. You would take action that would get you further ahead and help you learn more than if you were to work on the fifth draft of your business plan. You would develop the mindset of always staying hungry and knowing that the success or failure eventually comes down to you. That understanding would be motivating as well as empowering. It would drive you to “plant more trees.”

Getting started is about actually investing or starting your business. Now if that sounds a little scary to you, it should. It means you are preparing to leave your comfort zone—the habitual resting place of the poor and middle-class.

So take the challenge of planting your tree today. Everyone has to start sometime and your time might as well be right now.