Common Traits of Millionaires and Financially Successful Individuals (Part III)

Financial freedom requires a solid understanding of your core values and beliefs. In previous blog entries various traits and characteristics of financially independent people were identified. The most common qualities of millionaires and financially successful people were identified as follows:

1) Integrity, 2) Courage, 3) Willingness to Act, 4) Commitment, 5) Purpose, 6) Creativity, 7) Balance, and 8) Persistence.

Incorporate all of these characteristics and personality traits into your life and you will likely gain a better understanding of what the term "financial freedom" actually means to you. The only constant in life is change. If you are going to change your financial life then you need to adopt the behaviors associated with these characteristics of success.

9. Spirituality

“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.” - Mother Teresa

“Faith is the force of life.” Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

Successful people have a strong amount of spirituality in their lives. A strong relationship with their God helps guide them through good and bad times. Spirituality also provides an understanding that our actions and behaviors have a greater meaning and purpose in the grand scheme of things. Faith also provides encouragement and strength during difficult times such as experiencing tax and financial problems.

The Bible teaches us many valuable lessons about money. Some people mistakenly believe that money is the root of all evil. The scripture tells us that the love of money is the real problem. A life of faith helps people accept the role as an agent of change.

10. Love of Learning

“Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back.” - Chinese Proverb

Successful people never lose the desire to learn. Whether through reading, attending classes, learning new hobbies or exposure to new life experiences, knowledge is a key to success. The love of learning inspires successful people to be open minded and willing to advance their minds. Every person that you meet and every life event provides an opportunity to learn something.

11. Adaptable/Flexible Thinkers

“If you are truly flexible and go until... there is really very little you can't accomplish in your lifetime.” - Anthony Robbins

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” - Charles Darwin

Adaptability and flexible thinking is a vital trait of successful people. Success demands thinking outside the box. Adaptable and flexible thinkers see both positive and negatives in every situation. They also possess the ability to adapt their style of thinking in different situations. Open-mindedness and curiosity are excellent traits to possess when faced with difficult problems.

12. Patience

“Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience.” – Unknown

“He that can have patience, can have what he will.” - Benjamin Franklin

Success takes time to build. You cannot begin building meaningful wealth until you are completely out of debt and have established a solid financial base (e.g., emergency fund). In this day and age of instant gratification very few people have the patience needed to succeed financially.

Financial change requires a great deal of patience. Tax and financial planning issues do not usually occur overnight. Therefore, they probably cannot be dealt with in a short amount of time. You probably have heard the old saying that anything worth having in this world takes time to get. Patience does not mean sitting around and waiting. As the quote above indicates, you need to keep going and take action even when the going is hard and slow.