When it comes to your financial future, do you believe in fate and destiny? Do you believe your future is predetermined by God, nature or some other form of destiny?

Imagine a group of kids making toy paper boats they are going put into a river or a stream. Toy boats are pretty simple. Many do not have rudders to provide direction or engines to give power.

When simple toy boats are put into a powerful river or stream, they are really left to the force of nature to determine it’s a course of action. Some boats will hit lots of rough waters and have a greater potential for capsizing.

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Choice or destiny?

Life is similar in many ways. Sometimes we find ourselves in tough situations and the forces of nature seem to move us in ways that we cannot control. That being said, do we have the choice to make decisions to take different paths in life? When things get rough in life, was it because of certain choices that we made in the first place?

I can’t help but believe that we have more say and control over our destiny through every choice we make. Today, we have many tools, different technologies, and information to make better decisions. If you think about it, today, we can build powerful boats to get us to our destinations safer and help us avoid troubles. We have the ability to see the weather for the next few weeks to help us plan our decisions. We have GPSs and maps to give us direction. We have rudders in our boats so we can steer away from trouble. And we have powerful engines to help us move us against the current and the herd.

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Do you believe in yourself?

When it comes to personal finance, I think we have to believe we have the power to take control of our finances.

For most people, the biggest hurdle to wealth comes from a lack of belief that it is possible to achieve wealth. If you don’t think you are worthy of wealth, you have a problem. If you start with negative beliefs about money, it is difficult to get more of it.

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Belief alone is not enough

Just because you believe in yourself, you will not automatically become wealthy.

The mind is very powerful. It operates at both the conscious and the unconscious levels. Some people try to believe it is possible to become rich but it sits at the conscious level. For example, I know many people who read books on wealth, attend seminars and believe they will become wealthy. Yet they still have money problems. True success comes when your belief moves from the conscious to an unconscious level and then motivates you to action.

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It takes action to take control of your money

The key to taking control of your money is to take action. It’s about moving from belief and planning to actually do something different. It’s about changing your habits because the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results.

It’s about changing your course to get different results or making changes to your boat that will help you overcome the forces of nature.

I can’t help but think we have more control over our financial future and our destiny. What do you think?