The Big Fat Guru

So here it is, part IV and the final article in this series on how to make more money. If you've missed them you can get parts one through three here (I, II, III).

Step 6: Focus on how you will benefit.

So you’ve probably read The Secret no doubt or at the very least, you’ve heard of it. In personal development circles there has been a huge buzz about The Secret. In a nutshell it is all about focus and positive intention. You get what you think about most, in other words. A simple but effective approach and one worth taking on board.

In step 6 I want you to take some time to think about how you will benefit when you manifest the money that you want in your life. Few people are motivated by money alone. Few people find money a motivator in its own right.

People are motivated by what that money can do for them and how they benefit from it, not by the money itself.

What will you be able to enjoy in your life when you are rich that you can’t now? What car will you drive? Where will you live? Where will you holiday? What social events will you attend? What hobbies will you partake in? Where will you eat out? What charities will your give to and why?

You get the idea! It’s not the money that motivates, it’s these outcomes and benefits that fire us up and keep us going!

When visualising, take time to think about and focus on how you will benefit when you have more money. Without real benefits, you may struggle to stay motivated in the long term.

What’s more, as you start to see results, it is often wise to allow yourself to have and to experience some of those benefits…

Because of my good, old-fashioned “waste not, want not”, “money doesn’t grow on trees” upbringing, even when I started to earn more money I did not spend any more. I continued to eat at the same restaurants even though I would have liked to have gone to more expensive ones, I still stayed in cheap hotels even though I could “afford” nicer ones and I still travelled in standard class even though I wanted to sit more comfortably in first class and to get out my laptop and do some work!

I thought that I was doing the right thing, watching my expenditure, and to some extent I was but at some point you need to reward yourself, you need to allow your mind and body to experience the fruits of your labours, the reasons that you did it in the first place! If your motivator really is watching the dollars build up in your bank account then perhaps you don’t need to but for most people that’s not enough.

I’ve read a lot of books about being frugal, about what you can save if you stop lunching from Starbucks and start taking your own lunch to work. This is, of course, sound advice, but you need to balance this with treating yourself and with enjoying the fruits of your labours. I have certain standards that I reward myself with irrespective of the fact that I could save money and do things more cheaply. These “luxuries” serve to remind me and reinforce the positive mental image I have about money, what I deserve and what I need to focus on.

Step 7: Work out how you are going to get more money and take consistent action.

You’ve probably heard of a book which stormed the personal development world called The Secret. For a personal development book, this one has whipped a veritable double scoop choc chip of a stir! People have talked about it, blogged about it and lauded it with praise. I read it and liked it but it’s very basic. Far more basic than many other far superior books out there but where The Secret scored was in packaging, branding and viral marketing. The whole concept positioned basic personal development techniques as exciting, new and fresh. Just the video short that preceeded it was unprecedented in its Hollywoodesque trailer qualities and became a viral explosion.

The Secret in my opinion has one major flaw however… it implies that all that you have to do is focus on something and it will manifest itself in your life. If you trawl the outer regions of the “hug a tree” personal development world you will find that this concept and philosophy has been around for a while in various different guises… “the universe will provide for you”. I know plenty of life coaches who say this kind of stuff and most of them are not very well provided for I can tell you! They don’t travel first class, they don’t go on exotic holidays, they don’t drive nice sports cars and they don’t charge top dollar. Most of them are struggling for clients!

Nice as this concept is and important as positive intention and focus are there is another critical piece… Action!

I’m sure, like me, there are plenty of things that you have positive intention about but until you put your money where your mouth is and take action nothing is likely to happen. If you want to make more money you need to take action. If you want to have more money you need to take action. If you want to earn money you need to take action. If you want to bring more business in you need to take action. If you want to manifest good things in your life then you need to get focused and… take action.

Take some time now to work out what actions you need to take to start to create the wealth and finances that you desire and deserve. Plan your first actions, put timescales on them and get going!

Which leads us to…

Step 7.5: Keep getting up when everyone else stays down.

Here’s a harsh truth. Most people give up before they ever have a chance of succeeding. In today’s society it’s way too easy to give up. There will always be plenty of friends to commiserate with you in The I Failed Saloon. Plenty of people who will dust you down and buy you a point of despondency rather that kicking you up the ass and telling you te get up and have another try.

In today’s society of instant gratification most people want it all now. They expect instant success. They want to lose weight but they give up within days when they see no positive signs of weight loss. They want to save money but they splurge on something they don’t need before they ever invest. They want to make money but they fall at the first rejection and never spring back up again.

When I started blogging a year ago on my personal site www.gaviningham.com I really had little idea what to expect. Many people who had not researched the world of blogging thought that this was a waste of my time and energy and would produce negligible results. I had done my research and for reasons that I will discuss another time believed that was the right action to take. I was not however 100% sure. With something as new as blogging how could I be! But… and it’s a big but… once I committed to do it I knew that I had to do it for long enough to give it a fair chance. Results were slow to start with but gradually they arrived…

I know plenty of employed and self-employed people who know that they need to demonstrate certain behaviours to be worthy of promotion and more money. For a while they try this out but when they don’t get the promotion that they wanted relatively soon they quickly fall back into their normal behaviours. If you want to earn more money you need to step up to the plate and keep on swinging until you get the results that you desire. For sure, tweak and tune your swing, try a different angle, a different back swing or a different follow through but keep on swinging you must!

Sitting in the Well I Tried Saloon might be warm and cosy but it is not the path to more wealth. As Yoda in Star Wars famously said, “Do or do not. There is no try.” Small and green he may have been but right he was.

Get up, take action, keep going.

Tags: financial abundance, making money, millionaire mindset, Wealth & money

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 30th, 2008 at 4:56 pm and is filed under Goals & goal setting, Wealth & money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.