by Ellesse @ Goal Setting College

There is a feature in the Investment section of my Sunday local newspaper that I’ll never skip, even though I’ve a notorious reputation in my circle & family for missing out on important news. It’s a weekly success story column on people who’ve made it good in the respective domains. And when I say “made it good”, I’m actually referring to the fact that they’ve carved a niche for themselves in the selected fields, lived a fulfilled life serving others with their skills and amassed quite a fortune while doing so.

As I continue to read such columns every week, I’ve noticed one common trait in all the featured personalities. Yes, not one of them. Not some of them. But all of them.

Despite the fact that they’re from different backgrounds, all of them possess the same mindset when it comes to money. In the past, I couldn’t put a name to this mentality. But after embarking on my own personal development revolution many years ago and recently having recapped this concept from the first free lesson in Bob Proctor’s Science of Getting Rich program, I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This is the infamous money consciousness that renowned personal development gurus have been referring to all these years.

From a layman’s point of view, this is what we call the wealthy mindset. This wealthy mindset basically means, irregardless of the physical condition that you may be currently in, so long as you see yourself bathing in financial abundance, your actions will maneuver in a way to manifest the wealth that you see yourself enjoying in the first place. If you possess the wealthy mindset, your endeavours will acquire the Midas’ touch. Literally.

The fortunate thing is, all of us possess the innate ability to fire up this wealthy mindset and there’re in fact different approaches to do so. Below are the top 5 steps.

(1) Eradicate Your Limiting Beliefs About Money

Some people scorn at the mere mention of money. How many times have you heard people say “Oh, I’m not doing this for the money” or “Money isn’t everything.” Well, they’re not wrong. The fact is money in itself has no absolute value. It’s the things that money can buy when in circulation that makes it valuable. It can buy material possessions yet at the same time, if you look from a different angle, once you’ve got enough of it to be financially free, it can literally buy you off from laborious work to spend more precious moments with family. You can also contribute it to charity and benefit the less priviledged.

On the other end of the scale, some people tend to overvalue the importance of money so much so that they become slaves to it. They loved money and let this passion cause their downfall.

In essence, if you never come to terms what money can bring forth into your life (i.e its value), your uneasiness with the “idea” of money will limit your ability to attract more of it. To put it simply, just imagine this, would you go into a car showroom if you’ve never had the intention to purchase a car? You may not want to buy it now, but the fact that you walked into the showroom implies that you appreciate the value of what a car brings. It can serve as a means of transport for you and your family. Or, if it’s a luxurious car, it may bring you the associated prestige with owning it in the first place. Because of your perceived value tagged to owning a car, you’ll find means and ways to get one. Likewise with money.

Remember, you can’t desire something that you’re not in resonnance with.

Therefore, it becomes imperative that before you learn about other steps to hone this wealthy mindset, you should start having a conversation with yourself to remove the beliefs that’s limiting you about money. You can make use of the following exercise to help you with this.

a) Write down the limiting beliefs

- I shouldn’t earn more than what my husband is bringing home
- Rich people don’t care about the poor”

b) Ask yourself power questions to trigger a refreshed view about money
- If money is not an issue an all, what will be the positive things that you can do for your family and community?
- Out the things that you would like to do, which one ties in closely with your personal values and goals?
- What are the reasons you aren’t rich yet?

c) Tease your original limiting beliefs to create new affirmative statements

- My husband will be delighted to know I’m earning more than him because we’ll have more income to go for family holidays with the kids
- Selfish rich people may not care about the poor but I know I’m not.

d) Pick the most sensational one and repeat it everyday

(2) Decide You Want to Be Wealthy & Justify Why

Everyone has the right to be wealthy. Yet, most of us allow a temporary lack of money eat into our minds, literally confining us into the vicious cycle of poverty. One of the colloary of the Law of Abundance states “People are poor because they have not yet decided to be rich”. So long as you manage a conscious decision to become wealthy and have utmost faith that you can achieve it, you act accordingly to what you believe. Say “Yes” to getting wealthy today! And say it with conviction.

Deciding to be wealthy only gets you started on the quest but what sustains you throughout the journey is the why. What is the reason that you want an extra $1 million into your bank account? Why do you want to work your butt off, sacrificing your weekends to man your business? Where can you seek inspiration if the going gets tough and you’ll feel disheartened? Yes, it’s all in the why. If you do not have a burning desire supporting your decision, you’ll find your motivation waning sooner that you think you can last.

Take a piece of paper and scribble down all the reasons that you can think of. Maybe you’ll like to retire earlier and travel around the world? Or you can quit your job and be a full time parent? Etc etc.

Needless to say, the one that resonates with the deepest part of your heart should be written on a index card to remind you of your bottomline.

(3) Determine How Much Do You Want

How much you want will inadvertently determine the action that you’ll need to set forth to reach it. For example, if it’s $2,000 per month that you’re looking for, working in your existing job might suffice. However, if $100,000 per month is what you intend to achieve, other alternatives such as starting your own business, investing in properties or working on your skills to get a better paying job may be more effective. More importantly, knowing how much you want prepares your mind for the potential issues you may face and keep it upbeat.

The challenge therefore becomes, how do you know how much you want? It’s tempting to arbitrarily quote a figure but this will probably do you more harm than good. If the amount is much higher than what you want, your approach to acquire the wealth may be too drastic within the same timeframe. And you may end up burning yourself out. In the event that the amount is lesser than what you need, you’ll probably have to delay your gratification longer than you expect.

Determining how much you want need not be rocket science. You can do this by taking into consideration the objective for which you want the wealth for and do a high level analysis of the costs necessary to sustain it. Say if your reason is to provide your family with a comfortable lifestyle, you can include the costs of travelling overseas for holiday twice a year into your analysis. Continuously review this list of costs to ensure that you’ve got most if not all covered.

(4) Brainstorm On How to Get There

A lot of people think having a wealthy mindset involves only constantly thinking about getting rich. It’s only part of the equation. Brainstorming on how to get there is another important element that actually exposes the mind on the many possibilities.

Suppose you want to get from point A to point B, there’s route 1, route 2, 3 all the way to n (i.e. infinity). When you’re planning how to get there, the mind starts considering the many options and may prompt you to act on one of them. Along the way, your wealthy mindset may attract different opportunities, encouraging you to change course and go through a totally somewhat exhilarating experience.

One of the many featured personalities in my local newspaper, super affiliate Ewen Chia was a classic example. Initially, his plan was to market his own music compositions through the internet. But incidentally, he stumbled on online internet marketing and embarked on a unconventional route to becoming a internet millionaire. It was not an easy route as he had to juggle learning about the new knowledge and a full-time job. But his burning desire to be rich and financially free got him through the hurdle to get him to where he is today.

(5) Imagine As If You Already Have It

5 years before he bought his million dollar mansion, John Assaraf, one of the teachers in “The Secret” had been visualizing it every day on his Vision Board.

Jim Carey, one of Hollywood’s most famous comedian, wrote a cheque of $10 million to himself for “acting services rendered” and dated it Thanksgiving 1995, . By the time it was 1995, his asking price for the leading role in the movie “Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls” was $20 million!

Now, what do all these show?

That before you physically acquire the wealth that you’ve envisioned, you need to live it as if you’ve possess the amount of money that you desire! Since the subconscious mind is unable to differentiate between actual possession and mere visualization, by imagining that you already have it, you’re encouraging your subconscious mind to seek ways to transform your imaginary feelings into the real thing.

I know many people refute this step thinking that it’s impractical. But if you think about it, isn’t everything around us a true manifestation of someone else’s imagination? The Wright brothers imagined being able to fly and the reality is, we’re now able to fly in an aeroplane from 1 country to another in a matter of hours and sometimes, even minutes. Thomas Edison imagined lighting the whole room using a single source and as a result, the lightbulb was invented! Christopher Columbus imagined a new world and found the American continent. And many many more.

It’s a fact that without the imagination of these great visionaries, we’ll not be able to enjoy many of their discoveries. At a micro level, you too possess the same capability to create, improve your own destiny by constructing it in your mind. Brian Tracy said it best in his statement, “All improvement in your life begins in the improvement in your mental pictures”.

So how do you build this imagination?

Golfing legend Jack Nicklaus has an excellent technique called “going to the movies” that’s easy and fun to apply. He’s known in the industry to have a very clear picture of how he should play the game before actually going into one.

In his own words, he states “I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head. First I see the ball where I want to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes, and I see the ball going there; its path, trajectory and shape, and even its behaviour on landing. Then there is a sort of fade out and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality.” You can do the same.

For example, you can imagine receiving many income cheques when you opened the mailbox everyday. Or you can picture yourself receiving an award for being nominated the best entrepreneur in your country. Not only does it send the message to your subconscious, it serves a great form of daily motivation. You can try out this daily exercise in one of my earlier article 5 Tips to Daily Motivation.

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