Make Choices Based On Clarity And Intention

In the popular film ‘Three idiots’, the lead actor Rancho who is an excellent engineering student is seen telling one of his friends, “You are an idiot, you love photography and yet here you are marrying engineering” he further explained that it was the reason why his friend wasn’t performing well in his studies. His heart was obviously into taking pictures of wild animals but his parents had pushed him into studying something different because they liked the prestige that came with having an engineer for a son. For each one of us, choices are presented every moment for the small as well as the grand things in our lives. 

 

As soon as you first open your eyes in the morning the choices are presented to you in their numbers. To wake up immediately or to laze around in your bed for a while, to head straight into the shower or to go for a jog or to give yourself a ‘much-needed break’. To declare the day slow and boring or to inject positive energy into it. The choices go on into the day, every moment is full of them. When to eat, what to eat and how to prepare it, these are all the alternatives you get as you go on with the day. To give thought to your looks or not to, to make an effort towards building good relationships by calling or visiting your folks. At the end of the day, you are the product of all these small options you took seriously or allowed yourself to lazily and unconsciously take. 

 

Knowing, therefore, that for as long as you live you will always be faced with the need to make selections, what is it that you ought to consider so that you may become better at it? 

1. Clarity about yourself 

I cannot stress this enough, “Man, know thyself”. Your character, your strength, and weakness should guide the choices you make so get busy finding them out and trying and testing them. All your life you may have been told that you are bad at something when in fact that is your best talent only needing some polishing. Stereotypes may have saturated your head until you ceased to bother trying out certain things. Take time to test them out, try everything your time allows you to so that at the end of the day you know yourself more than anyone else does. You will work extra hard if as an easily distracted person you choose to work from home in the same way that one who values family time may want to consider a job that grounds and keeps them closer to home. Are you an excessively smart person who loves nothing more than order in your environment? You may need to consider having a smaller family or investing in an effective organizing team or system. Award yourself the happiness you deserve by studying yourself and making decisions based on what works for you.

2. Your ultimate intentions

 

In the same college accounting class, there may be a student who wants to become the best accountant in town and get hired by the best firm while there is another who wants to fully grasp the accounting systems so that he starts a large accounting firm himself. These two will not study the same thing during their free time. The former ought to develop the qualities necessary for job security which include hard work, consistency, and constant skill development while the latter needs to add leadership skills among other things. Once you discover your life’s purpose, it is easier to make the little choices you are faced with throughout the day. You have a compass pointing in the direction you want to go therefore anything that feeds into it, you make time for while cutting everything else out.

3. Your intentions for those who follow you

You want your children to try different kinds of sports and find out what they are good at? Take them to a school that celebrates sport and has organized schedules for them. As a leader of a team, decide if you want them to have maximum focus and then design their workspace for such. Do you want a happy team that doesn’t need to worry about what to have for lunch? Put in place a good café, dining room, or catering services for them. If the goal is to have loyal employees, you must make them feel loved and appreciated in special ways so you may need to find out what makes them tick. Know their birthdays and other special events in their lives and celebrate with them.

 

Before purchasing a car, the average person wants to know the qualities of the particular model they want so that they make an informed decision. The same applies to the process of buying a house or any other big investment. If you applied the same principle to whatever thing you needed to acquire in your life you would save yourself from making grave mistakes.

 

Moving From Where You Are To Where You Need To Be

Almost everyone dreams of a better life or version of ourselves. We can see ourselves in houses we see in magazines and the television, we see ourselves having happy families, businesses, or good jobs. But, unfortunately for some people, these things will just remain what they are; dreams. Not all of us get to make our dreams come true even though we all have to potential and ability to. Why is that? It is because dreaming is easy. The challenge is with making the dreams a reality.

 

Moving from dreaming to living the dream requires so much from us. Sometimes we overthink it though. The world seems to believe that success only comes when we suffer and spend sleepless nights. Many success stories have that part. However, sometimes all we need to do is plan well, work smart, get enough rest, and stay healthy. We can follow these everyday steps to move from where we are to where we need to be: 

 

1.  Prioritize your mental health – you can have all the good plans in place but if you have mental health issues, your journey from where you are to where you need to be will be more than just a struggle. It is, therefore, necessary for you to wake up and remind yourself that you have and are all it takes to get where you need to be. This will require you to keep away from negative people or anything that makes you doubt your capabilities. 

 

2.  Be grateful for what you already have – gratitude is one way to keep us in a good mood and get motivation. Counting your blessings gives you the hope that you do stand a chance to get the things that you still dream of. Gratitude also shifts our focus from negative things which helps clear our minds and enables us to see things from a different point of view. 

 

3.  Remind yourself why you chose the path that you are walking – sometimes all you need to do to get yourself motivated is to remind yourself why you chose to be the person you are or want to be. Where you were starting to feel like giving up everything, this helps you find yourself back to your feet again. The thought of what you lose by allowing yourself to give up and be something else will not give you peace. You are then left with no choice but to soldier on.

 

4.  Revisit your set of principles and boundaries when you need to make a decision – when we keep our principles and boundaries in mind as we make decisions, we remind ourselves why other choices may never work for us.

 

5.  Do what you have to do – strategies do not implement themselves. Get up and work. Laziness is what fails most people. Good people with good plans included. Make it a point that you fight the spirit of laziness with all you have else your goals will be nothing but dreams.

 

6.  Get enough rest – one of the mistakes that we make is overworking. Learn the difference between working hard and overworking yourself. Yes, you can make more money and gain more experience when you overwork but you need to listen when your body starts screaming for help. Exhaustion can affect us mentally and physically. We might end up having to pay hospital bills with the hard-earned money instead of just enjoying it and investing in who we want to be. When we are well-rested we also function better. 

 

7.  Do not envy – there is so much that we see around us which appears like ‘good life’. Well, we will not bother to talk about whether it is real or not. The point is, real or not, it is not your race. Protect yourself from unnecessary heartache and feeling like a failure by staying in your lane.

 

8.  Trust the process and be easy on yourself – we do get moments where we feel as if our dreams are taking too long and we start doubting if they will ever come true. Be patient and remind yourself that you haven't failed yet. Life is not just about that one dream. We will always have things to work on. This includes character development and gaining work experience among other things. Find something to keep yourself occupied and growing as you wait for the 'bigger' part of your dream to start moving.

 

9.  Build or strengthen your connections – be it socially or in the workplace, we need people we can rely on when things are tough or we are discouraged. Make it a point to build and maintain good relationships who understand and believe in your dreams so that you can get the help you need when things get hard. Remember to not step on people on your way up. You might need them on your way down.

 

Own Your Life

So often people choose to settle for what’s safer and what’s more comfortable. They let life happen to them other than actually creating the life that they want for themselves. They paralyze themselves in safe places, living according to other people’s opinions and dreams. The safer choice is taking a traditional job in a billionaire’s company. That job which will take 40 years of your life, living paycheck after paycheck. You neither have enough money to take a vacation nor have free time to enjoy those few earnings you’ve made from the job. The comfortable choice is not having something to believe in. You waste time going after one doctrine after the other. You let your circumstances define you and simply life happens to you. This is called survival.

 

Living on the other hand focuses on the total opposite. When you’re living intentionally you have a set purpose to life. You own your life. You focus on doing things, on growing and achieving. While surviving centers around getting to the next day, living centers around the life and how to embrace life to the fullest. You’re aware of your health so you monitor what you eat, you exercise, and you go for regular medical checkups. You don’t let life happen to you as the survivor. You live life with a set of intent. Every financial choice you make is intentionally aligning towards gaining financial freedom or independence. You acknowledge what you’re passionate about and you take small consistent deliberate actions to fulfill your passion. This is owning your life. Actively participating in creating the life you want for yourself and the people in your life. That’s the power of intention.

 

The first step to owning your life is taking responsibility for the decisions you make and for your actions. We are the architects of our lives. Our lives are made up of a series of small and big choices that we make each day. When you don’t make the choice for yourself, it is made for you. The fundamentals of this journey are firstly finding your true identity. When you have understood your truth and sense of self, you then set your intent for your life. What you aspire to achieve. Your goals, dreams, or ambition. The last step is taking big or small purposeful steps towards fulfilling that purpose.

 

Everyone loves a good rag to the riches success story. One of my favorites is the life story of Oprah Winfrey. Oprah was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother. She was raised on a farm by her grandmother for the first 6 years of her life. Her grandmother was so poor that Oprah often wore dresses made of potato sacks and other children made fun of her. She has stated that she was molested during her childhood and early teens and became pregnant at 14. Sadly, she lost her son and she was moved to Tennessee. Even at a very tender young age, she envisioned a much better life for herself. She got a job in radio at 16 whilst she was still in high school. At 19 she was hired on television as a co-anchor for the local evening news. She did not know how to write or act but deep inside she says she knew what she wanted to become, an actress. That was her truth.

 

When Oprah was 22 years old, she was making $22 000 a year. A lot of people were telling her that that was the best it could get. But even though she was doing well, she knew she could do better. In one of her many inspirational quotes, Oprah said,’ Everybody has a calling. And your real job in life is to figure out as soon as possible what that is, who you were meant to be, and to begin to honor that in the best way possible for yourself’’. This is exactly what she went on to do, honoring her truth. When the opportunities were presented to her, she was ready and prepared to pursue her inner calling. Today we talk of Oprah Winfrey dubbed the queen of all media. She not only became an actress but also a talk show host, television producer, media executive, and philanthropist.

 

Your success is a result of owning your life. You should not allow your background or any sorts of limitations to stop you from following your truth, purpose, and intention. Refuse to be defined by the box that people put around you and fight any fear that may come your way. And finally, be prepared when the opportunity door is opened.

Self-Discovery: Figure Out Who You Are

One of my favorite professors back in university taught us an easy concept to learning something new, which became a life lesson to me. He described this as an important way to gather up all the important facts based on research work or learning in general. He said, “Whenever you came about a new lesson or concept to learn, make it your aim to be able to answer seven key questions concerning that topic”. It’s called the 5W2H principle. The key questions to ask are Who, What, Where, When, Why, How, and/or How much? I’ve put this simple principle in my day-to-day routines and whenever I come across some decision making, and this has helped me tremendously. In my journey in self-discovery, asking myself these key questions also helped me understand myself even better. Before we get to finding a purpose to live and living it intentionally, we should be able to give ourselves an identity first. Knowing who we are is a journey that requires a deep inlook into one’s life. Self-searching, self-questioning, and self-reflecting on our personalities, emotions, and lifestyle.

 

Who am I?

 

This journey of self-discovery begins by asking yourself this question. Who am I? Your name is your title but that is not your true identity. Your true identification lies in what you believe in and who you choose to become. The world we live in now has blurred the lines to self-identity and now encourages people to identify themselves however they wish to. Your identity is a choice that you make for yourself. People around you and your background may try and label you but what truly matters is who you choose to identify yourself as. A hundred people calling you poor when you have a million dollars hidden in your account does not make you a poor man. Waking up each day calling yourself a poor man and choosing to be lazy and not be productive will make you a poor man. That identity will stick to you because you accepted it and made it who you are. 

 

What defines me?

 

What is important to you? What are your values and needs? What thoughts and feelings do you stand by and are worth protecting? What you believe and fight for is who you are. Acknowledging your interests, your dreams, and ambitions is another crucial step in your journey to self-discovery. Our lives are driven by having a purpose. You cannot have direction in your life if you do not know what exactly you’re aiming for. Self-knowledge and self-appraisal are what pre-selects the values that make you who you are. Discover hobbies and traditions that stand out to you. The only way to know what gives you personal satisfaction and makes you happy is to try out new activities. You really never know what you like till you’ve tried it.

 

Where am I positioned in life?

 

Where you position yourself, the people you allow into your personal space, your colleagues and friends, and the places you choose to hang out in all influence who you are or who you’ll become. One bad apple spoils the whole bunch they say. The bad apple, the influencer, is someone who has made a distinctive identity of himself or herself. Even a dog raised by a pack of wolves does not make it become a wolf. Nobody can wrongly influence you if you stay true to your true self. Who you are and what’s important to you. Surround yourself with people that nurture the person you want to become. People that build your ambitions and goals and those that promote your intended lifestyle. 

 

When do I get to where I’m going?

 

Every goal, ambition or dream needs a time factor set to accomplish it. Where do you see yourself spiritually, intellectually, or financially being a week, month, or years from now? That big picture, when you’ve finally achieved those big goals, begins with making small intentional decisions. Making small purposeful acts one after the other, one day at a time. Once you’ve discovered where you want to be in your life, you set a time frame when you want to see yourself there. Knowing yourself, and staying true to yourself helps you in making attainable goals. When the goals are too demanding and time-consuming you might lose yourself to frustrations, anxiety, and depression. 

 

One of the important lessons I was taught growing up is how to celebrate the small progressions I make in my life. Firstly, I learned to separate my short term from my long-term goals. As I was achieving my short-term goals it gave me a drive and encouragement to keep pursuing all the other goals I had set for myself. It reminded me that I was perfectly capable of attaining what I was setting my mind on. I wasn’t focusing on the negative energies, what I was missing, or why it was taking long. I focused on what went right and how to make my next step forward. My journey continues, and this lesson proves to have made me a better version of myself.

 

Why am I alive today?

 

Why do you wake up every day and do what you do? Why do you push yourself to go to the gym every other day and eat healthily? Why do you keep disciplining yourself to stay on budget? How much are you willing to give to obtain your inner peace and happiness, and to experience the wholeness of who you are? The reason lies in understanding your life’s purpose. Those central motivating aims of your life guide your life decisions, influences your behavior, shapes your goals, and offer a wide sense of direction thus creating meaning to your life. What defines who you are is what you live for, your soulful purpose to life.

 

Sticking To Your Beliefs Even When It’s Hard

We all have beliefs or perceived truths that we hold dear to us. These truths shape our perceptions or our view of the world and make us who we are. They guide us in decision making, interactions, and determine our way of life. However, beliefs can be either true or false, good or bad, and positive or negative. False beliefs, for example, are those perceived truths that are drawn from a misinterpretation or misunderstanding of life events or phenomena. In some instances, our beliefs change as we mingle with people of different views and as we experience new or different things in life.

 

Our focus, for now, will be on sticking to our beliefs even when it is hard. Needless to say, this applies to those who hold good and/or positive beliefs. Beliefs can be deemed good if they cause us, above everything else, to value others and, they allow us to find our purpose and live according to it. Positive beliefs are those beliefs that empower us and make us feel good about ourselves without having to esteem ourselves of better value than others. The emphasis on the different types of beliefs is based on the fact that sometimes our beliefs can cause us to do unimaginable things to ourselves or others, and this indicates a need to reconsider our way of life. Cliff Young’s story is a good example of how sticking to beliefs impacts our lives and sometimes, the lives of others too.

 

In 1983, Cliff Young who was 61 years old at the time, joined the Sydney to Melbourne race snakes covering a distance of almost 550 miles and takes about a week to finish. To everyone’s shock, this old man with little competitive experience wore overalls and work boots to an event where he was to compete fit runners in their prime. Many thought he wouldn’t last and some, fearing for his health, called for him to be banned from partaking. But he had other plans, he believed with his heart and mind that he could run and complete the race. He didn’t have any self-limiting beliefs. When the race started, nobody was surprised to see Cliff immediately falling behind. However, halfway through the first day, Cliff overtook all the season runners and took the lead. Instead of stopping to sleep for the night, cliff continued to run while the other runners slept. When everyone woke up the following morning, Cliff had built an incredible lead. He set history by winning the race with a 10-hour margin!

 

The first lesson we can pick from Cliff’s story is that in some cases, we will face opposition and discouragement from people who may think that our dreams are impossible to achieve. He chose to stick to his belief that his background and strategy were enough to help him finish the race. What made him achieve the unexpected was that everyone doubted him and consequently, did not see his victory coming. Had they paid attention to him and expected him to do much, they would have tried his strategy too. Belief and confidence give us the strength to reach our goals, and in some cases, influence the world in the same way Cliff did.

 

Through sticking to our beliefs even when they are seemingly less likely to lead us to victory, we have a chance to change the perceptions of our critics as well as those who chose not to pay attention to us. If you stay true to your beliefs, you can still start that businesspeople thought was a silly idea and have relationships people thought are just a fairytale. Thus, sticking to your beliefs even when it is hard can lead you to a victory that can change your world.

 

Sticking to beliefs also boosts one's confidence. As you experience the joy of achievements resulting from one of your beliefs, your other beliefs will be affirmed. You will get the feeling that your beliefs are valid and you are headed in the right direction. As you remember what you achieved when no one else thought your way of life was what you needed to succeed, you get the understanding that your beliefs and mental state matter more than external influence. 

 

Further, beliefs help us cope with life. As we remember why we started believing in the first place, we get the strength to keep going and we are also reminded of why we cannot choose anything else. In that regard, sticking to our beliefs keeps us focused. And, not only do we stay focused but, we are also motivated to do more. Sticking to our beliefs when things are hard and we are tempted to try a different way of life protects us from making decisions we are likely to regret in the future and giving room to things that are against our values.

Understand The Significance Of Intentional Living In Achieving Your Goals

Intentional living enables you to achieve your goals by ensuring every choice you make and every step you take is in line with your end goal. Understanding the significance of intentional actions as well as intentional choices in accomplishing anything worthwhile and in improving your overall life will motivate you to continue working on your goals. It will strengthen your faith in your abilities, build your self-confidence, help you progress, and cause you to see that any goal you set is attainable.

 

5 Ways Intentional Living Helps You Achieve Your Goals.

 

1. Intentional living teaches you to take deliberate action. 

 

Intentional people recognize that the key to achieving any goal is taking deliberate action, having deliberate thoughts, making deliberate choices, as well as being deliberate when setting your goals. For instance, if you want to lose 80 pounds this year, you set daily, weekly, as well as monthly goals that will guide you in that direction and get you where you need to be. You break down 80 pounds into daily or weekly manageable targets. For example, aim to lose 5 or 10 pounds a week. 

 

Take deliberate action by taking the stairs, going to the gym, picking up an exercising routine, cutting off fatty foods from your diet, substituting fizzy drinks with plenty of water, avoiding fast-foods, and taking packed lunch to work. Deliberate goals encourage deliberate action, guide you in the right direction, and enable you to get what you desire. 

 

2. It strengthens your belief system. 

 

Living intentionally encourages you to stand by your values or beliefs and increases your faith in what you believe in. It reminds you that your life is your own, it’s important, and you don’t have to compare it to anyone else’s. Living with intention means you are not controlled by your environment or circumstances. You live by what’s inside you and your life is directed by what you believe in which empowers you to reach for your dreams.

 

3. It keeps your eyes on the bigger picture. 

 

“Which areas need improvement?” “Where can I improve?” are intentional questions you need to ask yourself time and again but most importantly after a failure. That is because they remind you that reaching your aims requires constant growth and improvement and that failing today doesn’t mean you have reached the end of your journey. 

 

The best way of accomplishing each goal you set is by keeping your eyes on the bigger picture and you can only do that by learning to live with intention. Let “Where am I going?” and “What do I intend to accomplish?” guide you whenever you fall. 

 

4. Intentional living emphasizes on your capabilities.

 

Knowing your skillset or what you are good at keeps your mind from straying or going with what seems “attractive” at the moment. It helps you realize your purpose, your worth, what you are meant to be, and focuses your attention on what you can do to begin reaching your goals. Living with intention makes you realize that you have what it takes to get what you are aiming for because each step you take is an intentional one.

 

5. It helps you make smart decisions that will benefit you in the long run.

 

“Will this help me to get a step closer to or further away from my goal?” is the most important question you need to ask yourself each time you are about to make a decision. This is because there are some choices you make, some steps you take, and certain things you commit to that can delay your journey to success or hurt your goal. So, let that question guide you when deciding on what to do next. 

 

Intentional people ask intentional questions which are the key to making smart and informed decisions. So, train your mind to constantly come up with deliberate questions that play a significant role in making intelligent decisions and in moving forward. If taking that next step aligns with your goal, don’t hesitate to take it. If it has nothing to do with what you are aiming for, don’t take the step because it will only delay your progress.

 

Being intentional in all things keeps you ahead of everything else. It gives you the strength to keep working, continue trying, keep believing, and never allow anything to stop you from going after what you want. This is because an intentional life is a life that is focused on what you believe in, who you see yourself becoming, what you are meant to achieve, who you are meant to be, as well as where you are going, not where you currently are. 

 

So, be deliberate when setting goals because being deliberate is important for the attainment of your goals.

6 Reasons Why You Need A WHY Statement

Most people do not know what their true calling in life is. Some people just don’t care about this and are happy to be a drifter in life and just “go with the flow”. Others do care about it but have problems with identifying their real purpose in life. So here will show you 6 reasons why you absolutely must create a WHY statement.

 

1. It will provide clarity about what your purpose in life is.

 

If you don’t know your true life’s purpose then you will end up doing things that you really don’t want to do. There are so many people working jobs that they hate just to pay the bills. They dread Monday mornings and always feel apprehensive on Sunday nights. This is no way to live your life.

 

When you know what your true purpose is in life you can take action to achieve this. You will have more confidence and can get a job that will align with your purpose. You will have more energy and be motivated every day.

 

2. A WHY Statement Sharpens your Focus

 

Without the right focus in your life, it is easy to set goals that you are not truly committed to. A lot of people follow their friends and other influencers in their life and end up setting the same goals as them. We are all different and this rarely works out well.

 

When you identify what you really want your life to be about this clarity helps you to work out your next moves a lot more easily. You can use your WHY statement to drive you forward each day and achieve what you really want from your life.

 

3. You will make the Right Decisions

 

Have you ever made wrong decisions in your life? Of course, you have we have all done that. When you have a strong and compelling WHY statement it will help you to make much better decisions in life.

 

A lot of decisions have serious consequences and if you don’t know your true purpose then you can dismiss these consequences in exchange for short term pleasure or gain. With a good WHY statement you will assess the long-term consequences and be able to make better decisions.

 

4. It Provides more Accountability

 

People that have no purpose in life tend to shy away from accountability. They are just happy to drift along but then complain bitterly when things go against them. It is never their fault of course and always someone else’s.

 

With a powerful WHY statement you will know where you are going in life and be accountable for this. You will think things through more and only take action where it aligns with your WHY statement. This additional accountability will make you a better person.

 

5. You will be Healthier and Happier

 

If you only want to consider one of these reasons to have a compelling WHY statement then this is the one to choose. There is nothing more important than your health and your happiness. When you are happy then you tend to be healthier. If you are unhappy then your resistance is down and you can experience all kinds of health issues.

 

6. Your Resilience will Increase

 

Everyone has to face problems in their life. For some people these problems are too difficult to handle and they become overwhelmed and stressed out. When you have a compelling WHY statement you can see these problems as opportunities for you to grow and attain fulfillment in your life.

 

Bitcoin 101 – What It Is And Why You Should Care

You may have heard about Bitcoin and wondered what it really was. There is always a lot of news about this digital currency and especially how it rises and falls in price dramatically at times. Well, here we will give you the complete 101 on Bitcoin.

 

As we already mentioned, Bitcoin is a digital currency. You may think that there are actual coins available but there are not. These are just fabrications. The original intention of Bitcoin was to send payments anonymously and securely online. This is still true to a certain extent today.

 

A Decentralized Currency

 

A number of countries around the world are scared of Bitcoin. It is a totally decentralized currency not controlled by any governments or centralized banks. Some countries have actually banned Bitcoin.

 

A major advantage that Bitcoin has over conventional fiat currencies is that it is not affected by any inflationary of deflationary measures imposed by countries. There is a limited supply of Bitcoin which increases its value – similar to gold.

 

The Technology behind Bitcoin

 

Blockchain is the technology behind Bitcoin. This is a public ledger system which adds to a large chain of confirmed transactions which is where the name blockchain originated from. Anyone can see the entire blockchain for Bitcoin since it began in 2009. This is a lot of data and will grow even larger in the future.

 

With blockchain technology after verifying a financial transaction you cannot change it. It creates immutable records. This is excellent for security but not so good if you make a mistake with a Bitcoin transaction. There is no turning back after verification and confirmation.

 

Thousands of computers (nodes) in the blockchain network for Bitcoin validate it all of the time. This means that it is virtually impossible to hack a blockchain network as you would require more processing power than all of the computers that make up the network.

 

Bitcoin Mining

 

The process of verifying Bitcoin transactions falls to Bitcoin miners. These are individuals, groups or companies that use high powered computer equipment to solve the complex cryptographic codes needed to verify each transaction.

 

Bitcoin miners receive rewards for this work in the form of Bitcoins. With Bitcoins being very valuable these days, mining can be a very rewarding task. The problem is that with the creation of new Bitcoins the number of new ones available falls. 

 

You need a great deal of computer processing power to participate in Bitcoin mining now. A powerful desktop computer is nowhere near good enough. So, if you want o be a Bitcoin miner you need to invest in high spec computer equipment (and lots of it), and be prepared to run them 24/7 with the electrical costs that that brings.

 

Where can you get Bitcoins?

 

You can purchase Bitcoins in your native fiat currency e.g., US Dollar by using a cryptocurrency exchange such as Coinbase.com. There are fees involved for buying and selling as you can imagine. 

 

A cryptocurrency wallet stores your purchased Bitcoins. The cryptocurrency exchange will provide you with an online wallet and there are other forms of Bitcoin wallet such as a desktop wallet, a paper wallet and a hardware wallet.

 

The hardware wallet is the most secure because you do not leave it plugged into your computer or mobile device. An online wallet is the least secure because if you can access it online then so can hackers.

Should You Invest In Bitcoin Or Trade Bitcoin?

There are a number of stories about Bitcoin traders that have made a great deal of money on the back of the volatility of the digital currency. Some traders are able to make consistent profits most days with Bitcoin. So, if you are just starting out with Bitcoin should you trade or go for longer term investment?

 

Bitcoin Trading

 

If you are new to Bitcoin then it is not impossible for you to make trades to make regular profits. But this is not an easy thing to do. It takes a good deal of experience and you need to be mentally and financially ready. To make consistent profits from trading you need to buy low and sell high.

 

When you first start to trade Bitcoin it is natural for you to panic when prices change. Bitcoin is now very valuable and there can literally be thousands of dollars at stake. The more money that you are using the more likely you are to panic.

 

Learn how to Trade Bitcoin

 

We would never recommend that you just jump into Bitcoin trading. You need to learn everything that you can about it first. A number of the exchanges will provide you with a dummy account where you can practice. These accounts have real time prices like the real ones and if you make a mistake then you can learn from them.

 

It doesn’t matter if you blow all of the pretend money in a demo account. Just get another demo account and try again. But imagine this was real money you were trading with – it would be devastating to lose everything wouldn’t it?

 

Create a Trading Plan

 

The best Bitcoin traders have a plan. They have minimum buy prices and sell prices. They stick to this plan no matter what and never enter into emotional trades because they “feel right”. When you start trading Bitcoin forget about making a ton of money in a day. If you have this attitude, you are more likely to make a lot of mistakes.

 

Never go all in on a trade. Just use small amounts of money to trade with until you develop the skills and experience that you need. It doesn’t matter how good an opportunity seems to be – just stick with small amounts when you are starting out.

 

Bitcoin Investing

 

The difference between Bitcoin investing and trading is the amount of time involved. With Bitcoin investing you are committing to the longer term which we believe is a smarter decision. When you invest over the longer term you are able to cover off the volatility of Bitcoin and have the best chance of a good return.

 

One of the best methods to use for Bitcoin investment is the dollar cost averaging method. The concept here is to invest smaller amounts regularly so that you can take advantage of price swings. 

 

For example, if you decide you can invest $100 a week then some weeks you will get more Bitcoins for your money and other weeks you will get less. Over a period of time this should always average out so that at the end of the investing period you have still made a reasonable return.

 

Is It Worth Getting Involved With Bitcoin Mining?

Bitcoin mining is essential to keep the Bitcoin network going. The miners verify and confirm all of the Bitcoin transactions and without them the whole thing would grind to a halt. There would be no more transactions and no new Bitcoins created.

 

What is Bitcoin Mining?

 

Bitcoin miners use very powerful computer equipment to update the Bitcoin decentralized ledger. They need to solve very complex cryptographic challenges and the first to do this will update a block and receive a reward in Bitcoins (at the time of writing this is around 12 Bitcoins). 

 

With Bitcoins being worth thousands of dollars these days this seems like a really good idea. But is it really? You cannot perform Bitcoin mining successfully with a powerful desktop computer. You need to invest a ton of money into very high-end computing power and then pay for the running costs of these computers.

 

The Process of Bitcoin Mining

 

Anyone can get involved in Bitcoin mining. There are already thousands of Bitcoin miners that update the Bitcoin blockchain ledger and thousands more want to get involved. With Bitcoin mining you need to guess a number that will solve an equation that the blockchain generates. 

 

You need to use powerful computers to make these guesses. When you have a lot of computing power you can make many guesses per second which increases your chances of being the first to get it right. 

 

When you guess right the mining software on your computers works out which of the currently pending transactions need grouping together in the next block for adding to the blockchain. After this the entire Bitcoin network validates the transaction.

 

Bitcoin Mining is difficult

 

The inventor of Bitcoin and blockchain, Satoshi Nakatomo, created rules for mining where the more mining power in the network the more difficult it is to guess the right random number. As more and more people are becoming Bitcoin miners the difficulty level continues to rise.

 

The reason behind this increasing difficulty is to create a regular flow of Bitcoins. In reality this means that it takes around 10 minutes to create a new transaction block on average. The actual times vary considerably. It is all about mining power these days and the more you have the more likely you are to succeed.

 

Bitcoin Mining Pools

 

To get involved in Bitcoin mining these days is beyond most individuals. The costs of the equipment required and the running costs are just too much. There is increased competition as well with many miners collaborating together.

 

One solution to this problem is the Bitcoin mining pool. This is a simple concept where groups of people create a pool and combine their mining power and share the rewards. Even small players can get involved with Bitcoin mining in a pool.

 

There are a number of large Bitcoin mining pools existing today. They will take a percentage of any success that you have. Usually this is around the 2% mark.

 

So, is Bitcoin Mining worth it?

 

If you are a newcomer then the answer to this is probably not. There are a lot of factors to consider if you really want to get involved in Bitcoin mining. If you want to go it alone then you will have to invest a ton of money into computers that can make very high numbers of guesses every second.

 

Then you have to keep these super computers running which usually means storage costs (they need proper cooling as they run all of the time) and electricity costs. In truth you would be better off using the money that you would need to invest to purchase Bitcoins.