Money and Personality

Have you ever asked yourself how money and personality are linked together? Here are some thoughts on that:

Money is a measure for growth. In order to earn a lot of money, you need to have the mindset for it. And in order to have the required mindset, you need to grow. Depending on how you were programmed when you were young (what you were told and what you saw), you’ll need to observe these beliefs and change them for more prosperous ones. Having the personal discipline to decide which thoughts you allow in your mind or not is quite a challenge. But if you master this, you’ll slowly realize that you can achieve whatever you want and become whoever you desire.

Money is energy. You don’t focus on making money, you focus on adding value. Put your attention on helping others. Ask yourself how you can help people doing what you love. I suggest you read my article on Finding Your Life’s Purpose through Giving for more info on that. Once you’ve found what to give, ask yourself how you can help 10 times more people. Then always multiply that number. Providing service to the largest number of people will come back to you in greater wealth.

Make sure that you focus on growth, because whatever you focus on expands. If you get excited about your objective, you’ll reach it faster. And if you focus on your problems, you’ll worsen them by giving them extra energy. As I said, disciplining your mind is a challenge, but it’s important to choose our battles wisely. If you want to determine which battles you should fight and which not, picture yourself beyond the obstacle and ask yourself if, once the issue is resolved, the energy you spent was worth it.

An important aspect of accumulating wealth is to separate yourself from it. When you start taking action outside of your comfort zone, you are bond to make mistakes. That’s fine. That’s part of the learning process. But you need to realize that the amount you earn does not define who you are. Your self worth does not equal your net worth.

I talk a lot about increasing my wealth and I’d like to say why I believe this is so important. I heard from T Harv Eker that if you work hard on your job, you make a living, but if you work hard on yourself, you make a fortune. I’ve always been a great personal growth enthusiast, and now I realize that personal growth is tied to personal wealth. Read my article titled Fearless Millionaire which talks about the link between fear and wealth. When you start working on yourself, through meditation and exercise, or by expanding your knowledge, you’ll naturally attract opportunities. Focus on feeling worthy and you will become what you visualize.

Lastly, if you think you don’t have enough time to spend on creating wealth, I believe the opposite. Having passive income streams frees up your time to do anything you want and really enjoy life. Of course, the initial effort will require some time on your part. But what is it to invest a few hours to get things started and enjoy a permanent vacation afterwards? So it’s all a matter of setting your priorities right and recognizing that time invested now multiplies exponentially in the future.

You can watch my video on Changing Your Mindset to Become a Millionaire

Click here to read my other articles on Creating Wealth.

How to Cultivate a Wealth Mindset

My New Wealth Mindset

I am fascinated by the concept of becoming rich. What’s very intriguing is that the further I move towards my goal, the deeper my understanding of wealth gets, the more detached from the money I become. Instead, my mind is attracted by concepts of freedom, personal development, overcoming my fears and growing. Money is becoming a side benefit, a tool required for freedom instead of a main objective.

I am very attracted by T Harv Eker’s teachings. First, because his seminars and books are definitely centered on ACTION. I hear so many people who know exactly what to do but don’t do it. And most people who don’t know what to do are simply unaware that they pretending not to know, so they don’t feel the guilt of not acting.

Pay Attention to Your Environment

The five months I spent living in a rich neighbourhood in California were extremely insightful for me. These few months contributed to changing so many prejudices I had about rich people. First of all, most rich people are extremely nice and helpful: they want people around them to succeed! It makes a lot of sense: if they succeeded themselves, that’s because they were nice and other nice people helped them out! I used to see rich people as competitive and ruthless, only striving to make the most money. That’s because my OWN mindset was oriented that way.

T Harv also says that environment is stronger than willpower. That also makes a lot of sense! When I went to high school, I was in a stronger academic program. I did only one class with the regular students and I was so bored!! The pace of the class wasn’t fast enough so my grades went down! The power of our environment is very strong! Often more than we realize. I heard countless time that we earn the average salary of our 5 to 10 closest friends. So take ownership of your life and start hanging out with the people you admire!

Become aware of your background

Another very important step in the process of becoming wealthy is recognizing what background we come from in order to release ourselves from the influence it still exerts on us. Examine the beliefs your parents have around money and you probably also have 90% of them. That’s because we are mentally programmed at a very young age and in many ways we’re not aware. To know more about this, read my article on Subconscious Mind Childhood. You also need to be aware that what you were told might not be the only programming that got into your head. For instance, I was never told that money was scarce, but I could easily feel the anxiety around a potential lack that could happen at any time. I therefore registered that the flow of money can stop at any time, and that I should hide my fear that this possibility might occur.

Start Managing Your Wealth NOW!

An important point in accumulating wealth is to manage what we already have. As T Harv Eker says, it’s like claiming that we will exercise once we have lost 20 pounds! It’s obviously the other way around! We need to “exercise” our money management skills BEFORE we create wealth. I only recently understood that concept and it makes so much sense! A year ago, I had plenty of money and I thought that behaving like a rich person (according to my idea of what a rich person was back then!) would keep me rich. How wrong was I! Now that I am in debt, I understand the importance of managing everything, no matter how “small” the fortune. (I’m now kind of FORCED to do it anyway!) We obviously know that Oprah can pretty much afford anything she wants, but I also know that she loves discounts and she will only buy something if the price really corresponds to the value she is getting in return. Being rich, contrary to what I thought for a long time, does not mean spending carelessly.

Small Decisions Add Up!

We also need to understand the major impact that very small decisions have in the long run. For example, if you were to stop buying a $3.50 latte today and everyday, and you instead invested the money at an 8% interest rate, you would have… an astonishing $250,000 in 30 years!! Pretty incredible isn’t it? The problem is that our mind doesn’t add up the small details and doesn’t see how tiny actions, when added together over time, can yield humongous change! Think of it another way: if you were to fly from New York City to San Francisco, but the plane went just a few degrees to the left, you would end up in Mexico! When considered on large scales of time and distance, small differences end up changing results big time! So don’t underestimate the small changes you make in your life. I started this blog in October 2013 with the discipline of writing every 1 or 2 days and I am amazed at how much I have written! I wrote over 100 articles now, which is roughly 40,000 words! That’s the equivalent of a novel. There is no way I would have written than much by sitting down, 6 months ago, thinking that I had to write a novel. But by doing a little bit every day, I never even realize that I was writing so much! I kept it fun! I made sure every day was a great day, and I ended up living a great year! In the long run, I know this will add up to a great life!

And now, what about you? What are your big stumbling blocks around money? Are you aware of your programming and childhood beliefs? What are your next steps in acquiring wealth?

To learn more about T Harv Eker’s seminars, read my review of Millionaire Mind Intensive.