How to Create All of the Wealth and Success You Want In Your Life – Tip #12

This is tip #12 of at least 10 in the series (yes, we passed our minimum starting goal, and we will probably be rapping up the series soon). I have published most of them as e-zine articles, but if any are missing, they are all available on my blog. Thanks, and enjoy Tip #12…

Tip #12 – Give yourself permission… Several previous tips hit on the fringes of this, but I feel like this is important enough that it deserves its own article, too. What could I possibly mean when I say you need to give yourself permission to create and have all of the wealth and success you want in your life?

Well, most self-made millionaires started out poor, and wanted something better for their lives, but they had to overcome this major obstacle. Most of us, if we are born into a poor family, are programmed from the time we are babies to stay poor. Our parent(s), without thinking about the impact it has, say things like: rich people are greedy; money doesn’t grow on trees; what do you think we are, the Rockefellers; you want me to buy you what, do you know how hard I have to work for what little money we have; if you want it, go out and get a job and earn the money yourself. If you want to be rich, WOW, what tough programming to have installed in you from birth!!!

So we have programming from birth that says it is bad and wrong to be wealthy. Our programming is unlikely to say, “It is okay to be wealthy if you don’t take advantage of others, and if you make the world a better place through the earning and use of wealth”. Furthermore, it likely teaches that the only way to earn money is by the sweat of our brow. It is unlikely that we were taught that we can get wealthy by thought, creativity, ideas, wise investments, etc.

Then, more layers complicate things even more. We spend years in school learning how to be good employees. We are taught to follow the rules. Every child must do the same work, and act in the same way. Forget about what you are good at, or where your passions would lead you; you must do the three R’s like everyone else. Forget about being unique, or finding your true calling. Every student must conform to the herd. To some extent, conforming is necessary for the public school system to work, but oh how it stifles creativity and individual ideas!

But I tell you, God did not intend for us to be the pine caterpillar. You see, if you place pine caterpillars end-to-end, in a circle, they will follow each other around that circle indefinitely. You can place food in the center of the circle, and the pine caterpillars will continue to follow each other around that circle until they die of starvation, so strong is their follow-the-herd mentality. They won’t break away on their own and go to the food. But to be wealthy and successful, you must break away from the herd. You must break away from mediocrity, and chase greatness in something. Wealth and success generally requires that you be very good at what you do – whatever that may be. Brian Tracy says you want to get in the top 10%, because all of the rewards go to the top 10%.

However, for most of us who were raised poor, no where in our programming were we taught that it is okay to be wealthy and successful. Instead, we were taught that the wealthy are greedy, or that they should be put on a pedestal that is not meant for us to attain (Rockefellers, Carnegies, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln – we were taught about them, as icons, but we were not taught that we could become like them – why?).

What I am saying is, if this is how you were programmed from birth, then there is a giant step that is necessary for you to take before you can achieve wealth and success… You have to give yourself permission to break out from the herd. You have to decide that you deserve more and better. You have to recognize that rich and successful people are often the most kind, giving, caring, and compassionate people in the world. I think I mentioned before some of what helped me with this step – the mantra, “I get rich doing what I love. I deserve to be rich because I add value to other peoples lives.”

For those of us who grew up poor, we need to overcome programming that equates rich with negative connotations. Until we do, we might have hit and miss successes, but sooner or later we will sabotage ourselves.

In T. Harv Eker’s Millionaire Mind Intensive, we did an exercise where we wrote down all of the negative programming we received growing up, and then, for each thing we came up with, we reprogrammed with new, more beneficial statements. I suggest you do something like this yourself. As an example, ‘rich people are greedy’ can become ‘rich people are giving, intelligent, and free to live life on their own terms’ (and if you don’t believe it, go out and meet some rich people and discover the truth – most are the later, and not the former!). ‘You have to work hard to earn money’, might morph into ‘money can be made through my ideas, thoughts, creativity, businesses, and good investments’. If you were treated poorly as a child, perhaps ‘you are worthless’, might become ‘you are a child of the most high God, and you were created for great things’ (a line borrowed from Joel Osteen)!

Once you come up with new programming, take it a step further. Harv says, wisely, that physical is memorable. So, first, write down your new statements, and say them out loud every day (the louder the better – you want to convince your subconscious mind). Second, make it physical. Put a large rubber band on your wrist, and every time you think the old negative thoughts, snap the rubber band hard enough so it stings real good (physical is memorable). Now you are taking steps to remove the old programming, and replace it with more beneficial new programming. Now you have better things in your future, and you are starting to give yourself permission!!!

Again, please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it… Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success we want in life!!!

How to Create All of the Wealth and Success You Want In Your Life – Tip #7

This is tip #7 of at least 10 in the series. I will try to publish most of them as e-zine articles, but if any are missing, they will all be available on my blog…

Tip #7 – Choose who you spend your time with carefully… Learn from people who have already successfully done what you want to do.

Studies have shown that your income is the average of your peer group. Think about the five people or groups of people that you spend the most time with, and odds are your income is about the average of that group. If your peer group is pulling you down, or keeping you down, then you need to fix that, or decide that you are content to stay put.

Personally, I had a big issue with this, because my group of family and friends were poor, but I couldn’t or wouldn’t change my family or close friends of many years. Still, a couple of points that can help you… First, find a mentor who is already at where you want to be, and find a way to get them to help you. Keep in mind, it wouldn’t be fair to just expect someone who is very successful to help you out of the kindness of their heart (though sometimes they may); offer them as much or more value in return for their mentoring you, and don’t give up until you find the mentor you need.

Also, I increased the average income of my peer group in part through books, CDs, web sites, etc. Robert Allen, Robert Kiyosaki, Mark Victor Hansen, Jack Canfield, Ron LeGrand, Brian Tracy, Robyn Thompson, CREonline… I spent/spend time with these big thinkers every day!

Let me share a little story with you… Fishermen of old sometimes used crabs for bait. What they found was, if they had one crab in a container that was several inches high, the crab would climb out and get away every time. However, if they put a bunch of crabs in a container together, they could use a container that was only one inch high, and the crabs would never get out of the container. What happened was, every time a crab tried to climb out of the container, the other crabs grabbed him and pulled him back into the ‘safety’ of the group. They didn’t want to let one crab get out, because who knows what dangers may lurk beyond the walls of the container!

Are you seeing this safety net in your life, and among your peer group? Every time you talk about new ideas, or getting rich, or trying something you have never done before, are there people in your life shooting it full of holes and trying to talk you out of it? If so, is it time to find some ways to increase your exposure to peers who will pull you up instead of down? We all need more positive associations in our lives!

Before I close this tip, more on making sure that you learn from people who have already successfully done what you want to do. If I am having problems in my marriage, should I talk to a parent that has been divorced four times and is struggling in their current marriage? If I want more money and success in my life, should I talk to a family member or friend who hates their job and lives paycheck to paycheck with no idea of how to ever change that? A great rule for getting anything you want in your life – find someone who already has what you want, and steal if from them… (hopefully you know I am kidding). Study them. Read their books. Ask them to mentor you. Learn how they did it, and then you do it too. If you think what wealthy people think, and you do what wealthy people do, eventually you will have… what wealthy people have!!! It is simple, but it isn’t easy!

If you enjoy my tips, please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it… Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!

How to Create All of the Wealth and Success You Want In Your Life – Tip #5

Tip #5 – “Develop a Millionaire Mind”.

In tip #4 we discussed being willing to pay the price of success, and how you have to really want it badly. We ended talking about wanting to be better (improve yourself), and now we are going to transition further into the mental side of the equation. Zig Ziglar is well known for his quote, “You can get anything you want in life if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

Personally, I include in my daily declarations (a list of things that I declare over my life, out loud, on a daily basis) these statements that I got from T. Harv Eker’s 3-day “Millionaire Mind Intensive” (a boot camp, if you will)… “I get rich doing what I love. I deserve to be rich because I add value to other people’s lives.” What a change in thought pattern when, instead of thinking “I want to be rich, I want to be rich, How can I be rich?”, you start thinking, “How can I add so much value to other people or to the company I work for or to the world that money will flow back to me for my efforts?” Do you see the paradigm shift starting to occur here?

What does this mean? To me, it means you earn according to the value that you add. If you create a huge amount of value for a few people, you will collect a few huge paydays. If you add a very small amount of value, but add it to huge numbers of people, then you will collect a large stream of small paydays. Hopefully at some point you find/do work you can do once, but you keep getting paid over and over again (called residual income), like with successful books, or maybe selling a patent and getting an ongoing percentage of sales, or investments that earn you money even while you sleep. If you don’t add much value, you won’t get paid much. Let’s break this down a little. If you have a JOB, it pays you according to the value that someone believes that you, in your position, create. A secretary is generally not considered to create a ton of value, so the pay is not great. A CEO that successfully runs a billion dollar company is generally considered to create a lot of value, so he gets paid a lot more. Bill Gates created a lot of value with his vision for computers and how they can make lives easier. Sam Walton created a lot of value when he came up with a store, Wal-Mart, which gave people great prices and a ton of selection all together in one location – which was unheard of before he thought of it and decided to pay the price to make it happen.

So day in and day out, task by task, how much value do you add to the world? That is one of the great determining factors of success. Someone who doesn’t know and understand this is going to have a hard time ever being extremely wealthy or successful. I am getting a little side-tracked here, but once you have made a decision that you want more out of life, there are a lot of things you can learn and do that will help you. Until you have made the decision, though, there is very little that can help you! Until there is a paradigm shift in the way you think about money, it is nearly impossible for someone who is poor or middle class to become wealthy. They have to be willing to pay the price, but they also have to develop their own millionaire mind.

Here is an example of a millionaire mind in action… A poor person or middle class person decides they want to buy a boat. They go to the bank, beg for a loan, and get approved. They buy their boat, and incur monthly payments. Next they spend money on a bunch of toys and gadgets that every boat owner wants, plus don’t forget fuel, maintenance, insurance, etc. Owning a boat keeps them poor or middle class, or maybe even broke. Next, we put on our millionaire mind, and see how a wealthy person buys a boat. First, they set an accomplishment goal, and decide that, once they make a successful investment, they will reward themselves with a boat. They go out and buy a bargain priced duplex, that has positive cash flow after paying the mortgage and all other expenses. The excess positive cash flow from the duplex pays for their boat and boating expenses. Now they have their boat, but no money is coming out of their pocket. In fact, the duplex they own, in the long run, appreciates in value. The underlying mortgage they got to buy the duplex gets paid down a little every month, growing their wealth without them working for it, plus they get tax benefits for investing in real estate. Without going into too much detail, you can see how, by developing a millionaire mind, we can have our cake and eat it too?!!!

This is tip #5 of at least 10 in the series. I will try to publish most of them as e-zine articles, but if any are missing, they will all be available on my blog. Hopefully you are getting a lot out of my tips, and can’t wait for the next one. If so, please refer a friend to my blog so they can benefit from it as well… Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!

How to Create All of the Wealth and Success You Want In Your Life – Tip #4

This is tip #4 of at least 10 in the series. I will try to publish most of them as e-zine articles, but if any are missing, they will all be available on my blog. Enjoy Tip #4…

Tip #4 – Dreams don’t fail for lack of desire; dreams come apart from not being willing to pay the price to achieve them… That says a lot.

Here is a recipe for success in any area of your life: figure out what is required to achieve your goal or dream, and then determine in advance that you are willing to pay the price. My friend, Tim Harris, is fond of the time-honored quote (as am I), “it is simple, but it isn’t easy”. The formula for success is not complex – it is simple. The doing, however, is often the furthest thing from easy.

I talk with a lot of people about real estate investing, wealth, and success, and I have noticed a recurring pattern… People want to be successful and wealthy and happy, but they don’t want to pay the price. This generation is full of people who think the world owes them a living, but they have that formula backwards. So many people want to win the lottery… Rather than working hard and doing what it takes to earn a fortune.

When I started on the road to wealth, I wanted to know “The Secret”, but I didn’t want to work my tail off. For a while, nothing happened. Eventually, when I wanted it bad enough to give 110% at my full time job, and then added in a second full time job investing in real estate and the study of wealth, things improved. When I started getting up earlier, and working harder, and going to bed later, and sacrificing some weekends, working on making me the best me I could be, things improved. You see, The Secret was good, but to really get the ball rolling, I also had to be willing to pay the price!

In my former life, as an employee, I knew a lot of people that had a job, worked every day, and hated it. They hated Mondays and lived for Fridays at quittin’ time. They bickered and complained constantly, and worked just hard enough to keep from being fired. Then, they had the gall to complain that they didn’t get paid enough, never got big raises or the promotion they deserved, and weren’t treated fairly by the boss or the company. Here is what they were missing. They thought they should get paid more just because, and they never figured out that the best way to get paid more is to become more valuable. If they improved their attitude, worked harder, offered to take on more workload, and thought of ideas to help the company be more successful, sooner or later they would have got paid more, or got promoted, or probably both.

How do you fix this ‘the world owes me a living mentality’? First, “Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.” That may or may not be from Jim Rohn. Jim Rohn does expound that you will become wealthy when you spend more time working on yourself than you spend working on your job.

I will leave off here on tip #4, and we will transition into tip #5 – Develop your millionaire mind.

Please pass this on to anyone you know who may benefit from it… and I will see you soon in tip #5. Together, let’s get inspired, let’s get motivated, let’s create some buzzzz, and let’s help some people (family, friends, and ourselves) create all of the wealth and success they want in life!!!