Too many people live from hand to mouth income monthly.  They are merely surviving, without the joy that can come from adequate financial prosperity. Most adults consider money problems their biggest cause of stress.  The constant worry about money is debilitating.  Worrying provides no known benefit and cannot change what will happen tomorrow – but it can weaken your faith, cripple your actions, destroy your peace of mind, and make you feel powerless.

Money issues are a major reason for the breakup of some marriages.  Money problems affect us all at one time or another, and many of us all the time.  Since money problems can ruin our health, cause distress in our personal relationships and our careers, and destroy our happiness and our lifestyles, financial fitness should be a major requirement for everyone who wants to be financially free.  It was Publilius Syrus that said, “Money alone sets the entire world in motion.”

Anybody with the desire for financial fitness can achieve it.  Financial fitness means being content with your financial life, not wanting for anything, and being free of pressing financial problems.  If financial problems are inflicting distress or harm on you or your family, you are not financially fit.

Henry Ford once asked one of his automotive engineers, “What is your life ambition?”  The young man said, “I want to become very rich.”  A couple of days later, Ford approached the engineer and instructed him to put a pair of glasses, which instead of having glass lenses had silver dollars in the frame.  Then he asked the engineer, “What do you see?” “Nothing,” the engineer replied.  Having made his point, the auto giant said, “Then maybe you should rethink that ambition of yours.”  The man had money right in front of his eyes, but he couldn’t see it.

No wonder an India man came to Nigeria and said there is money virtually in every street but Nigerians are so blind that they cannot see it.  The opportunity to make money is always around us, within our environment.  Making money is just about doing things, it’s about how you see things – and being the person it takes to earn it.  If you want the flexibility to come and go as you please and the mobility to go anywhere you want, you must be financially fit.

Some people have jobs that demand a lot of time and travel.  Others have the financial ability to go wherever they want, but they don’t have the time.  For example, doctors are frequently on call twenty-four hours a day.  They carry beepers with them wherever they go.  No matter where they are, they must respond – and usually end up dropping everything to attend to a patient.

Make sure that you don’t get trapped within the job, all because you want to make money.  There is a better way.  You can avoid being trapped in the job, if you apply correct principles, both in the way you choose to earn more money and in becoming the person you desire to be.