Clinton Skakun

Money is like personal hygiene, it tells a lot about you

“How do we help poor people by becoming one of them, just another mouth to feed?” – T. Harv Eker

Most people have been conditioned in a way that creates a number of mixed feelings and habitual excuses toward money. Responses are to the effect of “well, money’s the root of evil” or “you can’t be spiritual and rich.” On top of this we have all been subconsciously programmed, through our parents, friends, peer groups etc, to resent rich people. And subconsciously, we move away from wealth or sabotage our success half way through.

If this is your belief system concerning money, answer these questions: How are you helping the poor by being poor? How are you acting in love and abundance, instead of fear and scarcity, by preventing yourself to have the means to help those in need? Hell, most people are flat broke, they can’t even help themselves.

Take a look at the following:

• Money can’t buy happiness!
• Money isn’t that important…
• Money’s not as important as love…
• I’m afraid that if I have money I’ll change.
• What would I do with a million dollars?
• But if I buy that car, and it gets keyed, it’ll cost a mint to repair.
• Think of the taxes you’d pay making “that” much a year!

Here’s an interesting question to ponder. No matter how poor you are, there always seems to be someone poorer. If you live in a middle-class neighborhood, there’s someone who lives on the street. And if you live on the street, there’s someone in Africa who lives in a dirt hut and drinks diseased water. How can you justify being better off then them? Why is it just when you have a million dollars that suddenly you don’t feel right? Is this really a belief system about taking care of the less fortunate or resenting the rich? Because if we truly were thinking about the poor people in the world, we’d be motivated to work longer hours and grow greater masses of wealth, and spend less time watching TV, because we knew there are people out there who we need our help. What is the underlying force behind this belief system? Obviously it’s guilt and fear. Maybe we should feel guilty, but not because we have more … but rather because we have more and do less with it.

T. Harv Eker says that “rich people do not scorn rich people”. Scorn for the rich is a part of the poverty package most people “sign up” to. Rich people, or rich minded people, see the world differently. The contrast is bazaar:

• The poor say: Money can’t buy happiness – The rich say: Not surprisingly, lack of money won’t buy happiness either, assuming it’s not cheap if it could be bought.
• Money isn’t that important – Money is like personal hygiene, it tells a lot about you. On top of that, the average person doesn’t work because they like the 9 – 5 shift…
• Money’s not as important as love – Water’s not as important as having a brain, but we kinda need to full package to survive.
• I’m afraid that if I have money I’ll change. – Money makes you more of what you are. If you’re an ass now, you’ll be a bigger ass with money. If you’re a giver now, you’ll be a bigger giver with money. If you’re a poor gambler, get more money you’ll be a bigger, and eventually poorer, gambler. You decide if the change will be too uncomfortable.
• What would I do with a million dollars? – This question either arises from too many years sitting on the couch or never being an alert person in the world. Instead of asking, “what would I do with so much”, the rich ask “what would I do with only a million dollars?”
• But if I buy that car, and it gets keyed, it’ll cost a mint to repair – With more wealth comes more responsibility. Life it’s self is a responsibility, whether you’re rich or poor, deal with it.
  
• Think of the taxes you’d pay making “that” much a year – Once you get “that” rich you can afford the best tax specialists.

“Success isn’t convenient. It’s NOT about ’showing up’ when you ‘feel like it’ or doing a ‘good’ job once upon a time. Success is constantly trying to push you away, every minute of every hour. “

Photo, Fort Lauderdale, by anadelmann

This photo is courtesy of Red Stick Republican’s Rantings
Goal setting is not a one time activity, it’s a skill that, with much practice, can be mastered. Some people set better, on target, goals than others. It can be a very simplistic process, if done right. If you do it wrong you can confuse the hell out of yourself. It pays to learn how to set goals. Thousands of books, audio tapes, CDs, seminars have been made on the topic of goal setting. Avoid reading and listening to ALL of the material out there, obviously you won’t live long enough. Instead get advice from the best selling business and personal best practices authors out there like Brian Tracy, Stephan Covey, Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar and Tony Robbins just to name a few.

There is really no right amount of goals, some people set 500 a year and other set 2-3, most people set none. Some people like to set small goals so they can check something off every day so they can build up momentum to larger goals. There are also those people who think 20 years down the road before they achieve any of their goals.

I use a system for tracking my progress and just started using it recently. In order for this system to work your goals NEED to follow these guidelines:

Smart Goal Setting Guidelines:

1. They need to be written in the present tense and personal(I–or we if you’re an organization–am/have/own(present tense) …)
2. They need to be measurable(e.g. I have grossed $120,000(specific amount) this year)
3. They need a deadline(e.g. Jan 1st 2011)
4. They need to be specific(WRONG: I have gone on vacation…RIGHT: I have taken a vacation with X in X resort as of June 12th 2010)
5. It needs to be meaningful
6. You need to be clear on how to get there(at least have an idea on the first step or know someone who you can model)

Quick Note: The Best Things Come in Three’s

One is not enough, four is too much to focus on. You should not focus on more than tree goals a month. The fewer goals you have per month, the sharper your focus. There’s only 30 days in a month, don’t plan on changing the world within that time. Three goals is just right. Like I said above, there are no “right” amount of goals. However the less number of goals you have and the more meaningful they are, the surer you can be that you will accomplish them.

The Monthly Review–Be Accountable

What happened if you set goals and never checked the progress? You might not get there. Why? Because it’s easy to stray. It’s easy to set a goal and forget about it in three weeks. This is important: KEEP YOUR GOALS IN FRONT OF YOU DAILY!

SideNote: There is a common opinion in psychology that says that the brain can’t differentiate between internal references(like constructed and remembered images) and external references(things that, in the life out side of you, actually happen and you pick up on through your senses). There’s a major difference between merely reading the words, of the goals you’ve written down, and the seeing and feeling them in your mind before they happen; we know that from many reliable sources, as well as the new discoveries in quantum physics, that say that the subconscious mind is always working to live up to the self concept you choose. When you write down goals on paper your subconscious mind comes up with ways to achieve them, I believe that this is where intuition and bursts of creativity come from. We all know though, that what you focus on expands. When you talk about, think about, and dwell on your ideal future, you begin to find your self working towards it.

Five to ten days before the end of the month do a monthly review on how far you are from your monthly goals. If you set a goal for the 31st and it’s currently the 22nd, review your progress:

CASE 1. Didn’t achieve goal but made progress:

1. How far am I from X goal? (Use some math if there are numbers involved to get a percentage)
2. How much did I do vs. Averages? (e.g. Averages say I need to sell 20 cars to reach my income goal, I sold 16 thus a shortfall of 4)
3. How much harder will I have to work/What will I do differently next time to accomplish this goal in the comming month? (e.g. if I continue to work the same way I’ll continue to get 16, if I follow up more often and take a sales course I might be able to get those extra 4—or just stay later and start earlier)
4. What will I do next week to prepare to acheive this goal in the next month?(Add this to next weeks list of things to do…e.g. Contact more prospective car buyers in the last week of this month that may generate some sales next month.)
5. What is a major constraint(or constraints), that I can leverage, that if eliminated would make all the difference? (You will now focus on eliminating this constraint, brainstorm how to do it and then take action … e.g. get out behind the desk and actually go talk to people who are look at vehicles in the lot.)
6. Due to the Lead* measures, are the Lag* measures leading me to think I’m closer/future than I really am to achieving this goal? e.g. Am I too busy checking the score sheet(Lag) when I should be perfecting my skills(Lead)?
7. What did I do right(what’s the winning strategy), that allowed me to get as far as I have? (focus on what you did right and either do more of it or continue it at least … e.g. Gave out a lot of cards which resulted in multiple calls from certain people interested in buying Hondas)
8. What assumptions did I make this month that may have acted as a constraint to this goal? (e.g. I assumed that it was going to be a good month for vehicle sales, ended up I didn’t work hard enough to find prospects and sat back)
9. Is there a lack of emotional desire to this goal, or mabye mixed feelings? Can I adjust this goal to appeal to my emotions better so as to increase motivation? If not, is this a goal that really matters to me? (If you’ve lost interest in this goal, strike it off the list and save your energy for what you really want.)

If you did achieve your the goal this month ask: What is the winning strategy that I can extract from accomplishment and duplicate over the next few months, years, decades, etc?

*A Lead measure is what Kaplan and Norton call a “Performance Driver”, a Lag measure is a “Performance Indicator”. Lead measures can often be referred to as preventative measures or measures(e.g. changing tires on a car). The speedometer can tell you how fast the car is traveling but can’t predict a flat tire, tending to the tires are Lead measures. The Lag measure will tell you your weight(on the scale) but can’t tell you the driving forces of your weight loss.

The following post was written by Tony Ramirez.

The majority of people spend their lives wandering aimlessly not knowing where exactly they are headed. Burke Hedges, author of the International Best-Seller, Who Stole the American Dream? Said, “If you don’t know where your going, you’re never gonna get there.” And that is absolutely true!

I remember sitting down with one of my mentors during the beginning of my senior year in high school. I shared with him certain goals I wanted to fulfill. He gave me advice and told me how I could possibly achieve them. My main focus was graduating from school so I could really start helping myself and others without worrying about attending class five days a week 6 hours a day. He handed me a sheet of paper with 6 questions on it.

The 6 Questions You Need to Answer

Those 6 questions put some things into perspective and played a major roll in my success during my last few months of school. Not only did I finish my schooling but I managed to do it an entire semester early, which has bought me an extra 6 months to get ahead!

I can honestly say the following questions have helped me succeed, which is why I keep the answers updated. If you are serious about achieving a worthwhile endeavor then ask yourself these questions:

1. Who am I?

2. Who do I know?

3. Who do I stand for?

4. Why is my time valuable?

5. Where am I going?

6. What am I willing to do to get there?

Before I continue, I need you to understand that success isn’t easy. I remember spending countless hours of doing nothing but reading and teaching myself material that I needed to know. I still remember the hours I spent answering nonstop packets of work, hours upon hours of writing essays and doing projects. It was difficult, but I embraced the rigorous work by understanding what I was willing to do to get to where I wanted to be.

Because I knew my time was valuable I committed 2 months of hard work to gain an extra 6 months. By doing so, I can now focus more on helping and influencing other people through StayStrongDreamBig.com and get my own life on a greater more meaningful path.

Remember, anyone who ever achieved greatness was aware of where they were headed. Can you imagine if the founders of the United States didn’t have a clue of where they were going when they challenged Great Britain to war? Fortunately they did and it is why they defeated the British, the largest and strongest country at the time. The founding fathers also knew what they stood for and it is the reason why people leave everything they own behind and immigrate to the States today, illegally. They are in search of the opportunity, freedom, hope and dreams that the founding fathers stood for.

Take some time and answer the 6 questions above. If you can’t answer all of them, it’s okay, simply focus on the ones that you can. Those 6 questions have enhanced my success, given me a greater insight on who I am and what I can do. It can surely do the same for you.

(I would greatly appreciate if you could spread this message with others through out twitter, facebook, digg, stumbleupon…anywhere you think it will benefit another person.)

_______________________________________________________

Name: Tony Ramirez

Website: www.StayStrongDreamBig.com

Tony Ramirez is an entrepreneur who strongly believes in the the power of dreams and the power each and every person has to achieve greatness. He writes at StayStrongDreamBig.com, where the main focus is to empower and add value to sharp, ambitious individuals like yourself. To find out more about Tony Ramirez follow him on twitter or visit his site here.

Rich people think differently! Rich people are conditioned differently!

One of the better books I’ve read on money: Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth This book explains that how we handle money in our adult years, and how much we have of it, is rooted in our childhood and what we were “fed” by our parents, teachers, friends, pastors, neighbors etc. Eker grew up in a family that had many mixed feelings about money. His mother wanted him to get a “real job” and his father told him to work for himself. Eker’s father was an entrepreneurial minded who lit the spark so to speak in Eker’s interest in business and wealth building. Eker told the story of how he fell on his face a few times in his twenties before finally building and selling a company for little over a million dollars.

What’s your Money Blueprint?

Until reading this book I had never heard of a money blueprint and didn’t know what it was. Eker uses the money blueprint as a metaphor for your subconscious programming towards money. Take for example these people who can loose billions one day and gain it back the next. And then consider people who win the lottery, and months later they’re back where they started…broke. Is it that not everyone can make the kind of money to build wealth? Do billionaires have skills that millionaires don’t and do millionaires have skills that the middle-class don’t? Eker takes the responsibility off of skills and onto behaviors and attitudes. The fact is we all have a set level in our money blueprint. For some it’s $2400 per month for others it’s $2400 per day! We all act consistent with our money blueprint. If your money blueprint is $50,000 a year you’ll probably end up working a job making around $50,000, get a degree that only gets you a job working for that much and work extra or lesser hours to fit that figure.

How do you find out what your Money Blueprint is…look at your bank account, look at your yearly income, how about your net worth. The symptoms, job..income..debt…net worth..etc, will tell you a lot about your blueprint.

Self Sabotage and the Financial Thermostat

What does the thermostat in your house do? When it gets too cold the heat kicks on, when it’s too warm it shuts the heat off. Lets say you set the thermostat to 22 deg, when the room temperature is say 18 deg the heat will kick on until it’s 22 deg. If it’s a very hot day, the furnis wont come on. Thing is, the same type of mechanism works with your financial thermostat. If, for example, your financial thermostat was always set to having $900 left over at the end of every month. One month you get a bonus, or sell a car, or inherit some money. Now your brain says, “WOW I’ve got extra money, lets buy a new widescreen/car/pool/shed” You will probably spend until you have around $900 in you account…why? Because somewhere deep down you’re working hard to stay at that level. You could say, “well they’re just bad with money” true but not true. Lots of people are bad with money, but somehow they seem to divert to the same level they’ve been set to. Why is it that Doug gets promoted to a higher paying job, making almost twice as much as before, but eventually moves back to his old job using excuses like “it’s too much work/too much of a pain/really hard to adjust to” His brain is really saying “It’s WAY too hot in here, turn off the heat”.

So what happens when Average Joe makes too much money, say he inherits $50,000? He tends to party and get contentious, until he runs out of money or hits his set level once again. What if Rich Jack had only $50,000? He’d feel broke! He wouldn’t spend a cent until he worked himself back up to his level(maybe in the millions)! Is the difference skills? NO! The difference is that Average Joe has a $3000 a month standard and Rich Jack has a $100,000 a month standard.

We don’t monitor our thermostat consciously. Most of our behaviors and choices are made subconsciously.

“People’s regular behaviors make or break them” – T. Harv Eker

How do you change your Financial Thermostat?

You change your Financial Thermostat by recognizing how your childhood beliefs about money have shaped your life and then decide to set new standards for your life. If you grew up in a regular family you probably heard your parents, teachers, friends, neighbors bash rich people. You read in the paper and heard on the news about rich people who were thieves or extortionists. If you decided to grow up as a honest person, and you had mixed feelings about the rich, you’d avoid ever getting rich. RIGHT? On top of that we all have heard these cliches, basically mantras for poor people: “you can’t be spiritual and rich”, “if I had a million dollars I’d give it all away”, “If I had a million dollars I’d buy a private jet”, “they’re a bunch of rich snobs”, “But I’d be bored if I didn’t work(aka I’ve worked paycheck to paycheck so long I don’t know how to do anything else)”, “If I can’t buy a limo why should they?”, “If God gave me a million dollars I’d buy five Ferrari’s”(in that case I hope God doesn’t give money to you.) I have news for you, 98% of everything you’ve heard about money is total and complete bullshit! Do this if you want to be rich: Stop listing to people who have no money and go find millionaires and hang out with them, listen to what they have to say about money.

“If you ever want to be wealthy, you can NOT have ANY negative feelings toward rich people. What you’ve heard about rich people is a lie!”

If you haven’t read Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth, BUY IT and READ IT NOW! If you don’t want to buy it borrow it, or get it from the library.