Week 2 – Rank Your “Whats” in Order of Desire & Importance

Welcome to Week 2 of our 52 Week Financial Freedom Journey educational series! It is our hope that by engaging in this course, you will be well on your way towards Financial Freedom. Each week we’ll bring you a new post in a (somewhat) structured order which is designed to help you achieve your financial dreams.

In Week 2, we build on our Week 1 – What Do You Really Want work by now ranking the items we truly want in our journey to financial freedom. If you have not yet completed Week 1, be sure to do so before beginning this week’s exercise.

Week 2 – Rank Your “Whats” in Order of Desire & Importance

Now is the time that you will need to take all of those ‘whats’ that you came up during our Week 1 exercise and rank them in order of desire and importance.

This step will serve as the crucial point of personal motivation as you continue to take this journey towards Financial Freedom.

The goal in this step is to define your main driving desires for financial independence.

In completing this week’s exercise, ignore that little voice on your shoulder that might say, “you’ll never achieve that” or “this particular reason shouldn’t be that important”.

If becoming financially free so that you can sit around and watch TV or game all day is the most important desire for you, then, by all means, rank that as number one.

This is your one life and no one can tell you how to live it.  Own your truth! 

My Top Three

To help you with a personal example, here are my top 3 reasons to be financially free:

1. Be able to generate enough passive income so I no longer trade my hours for work.
   
2. Live debt-free so that I am not a servant to anyone else due to owing them money.
   
3. Be able to provide for my family, as well as being able to help others through financial and other means.
   

Don’t take too much time trying to make the list perfect. Rather, you will want a list that is truly from your ‘heart’ and not based on much logical, fact-based thinking.

Logic is certainly important to keep in mind during any journey that we undertake, however, we often find ourselves trying to reason away what we truly want and desire.

Here are a few tips that I would recommend in completing this step: 

1. Let your intuition guide you.  Listen to what your heart is truly saying.
   
2. Don’t try to think about what would impress anyone. This list is only what is important to YOU.
   
3. Don’t spend too much time creating this list. The writing of the list should be the lengthier process. The act of ranking it should take 10-15 minutes, tops.
   
4. Remember, there are no right or wrong rankings or answers here. Just do the best you can.
   

Be sure to hang onto the list for future reference. If you’re a techy like me, I recommend putting this into a spreadsheet program in order that you can easy filter and sort it down the road.

Remember: be open, be honest, and be real during this step. You’ll be happy that you did.

WEEKLY FOCUS:

So, what are the rankings of your ‘whats’? It’s time to find out.

1. Take 10-15 minutes and rank your list in order of desire.
   
2. Once you have the list assembled, sort it and see how it feels.
   

If you need to make any final changes to the list, do so now. You can always change this later, but it’s good to have a starting off point. 

Week 2 Closing

So that’s it! Take some time – plan on a week or so – and really think through your rankings. Be sure the rankings reflect items to which you are willing to commit. This list will serve as a great motivator for future weeks and your Financial Freedom journey!

Next up: Week 3 – Commit to Change

Disclosure: I am/We are long $AAPL $ADM $ALL $BG $BGS $BP $BUD $CALM $CAT $CAG $CL $CLX $CMI $COF $CSCO $DAL $DFS $F $FAST $GD $GE $GIS $GT $HBI $IBM $INGR $INTC $IRM $JNJ $JPM $KHC $KMB $KO $KSS $LHX $LUMN $MMM $MSFT $NWL $O $PEP $PFE $PG $SBUX $SJM $SPTN $STX $SYY $T $TSN $UL $UPS $WFC $WPC $WRK $WY $XOM

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