Accumulation: The Simple Habit Behind Real Progress

There was a time in my life when I believed I can only get rich or wealthy at once, by chance or by one big earning job. I thought that's how wealthy people make their wealth, aside those who inherit it. I thought if I should just keep hoping and imagining becoming wealth someday, it will happen. That was until I learnt of accumulation.

It sounds like a big word, but it has to be one of the big words that I got to understand very quickly from the first time I heard in the discussion of finances. The same for skills I got interested in, I thought I should get the hang of them once I dedicate a week or two to them but I also learned accumulation works well in that too.

If you've already guessed... This post is writing about the power of accumulation in building freedom on money, assets, skills, knowledge and even discipline. Accumulation in the way I understand it is simply, stacking, gathering, piling, collecting or increasing over time. Whatever you want more of, you grow little little.

Before I go deeper, I'll like to state here that one habit that is an enemy to accumulation is, consumption. When we consume with no restriction or discipline, with no goal, we are getting rid of every possibility of accumulation. When you want to accumulate wealth, you limit your daily consumption of your regular earnings.

If you want to accumulate skills and knowledge, you reduce your consumption of the wrong skill or knowledge so you can build little by little the right skill. If you want to build discipline, you starve the habit of procrastination, instead of consuming it. As a quote said, "Focus is not saying yes to one but saying no to many things".

In the habit of accumulation, one has to be intentional about impulse buy or instant gratification because delayed gratification is one sure way to build something real as you tend to look on the longer term than just quick success. It's not an easy feat and that's why building discipline and having a strong "why" would help.

Have a strong "Why", be intentional and celebrate small steps as you accumulate whatever you decide to build, money, skills, knowledge or assets. The goal is to keep building, no matter how little you can stack each day.