Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: So What the Heck Do I Do Now? (End)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by T. Harv Eker’s Secret of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth (2005) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

“If you want to change the fruits, you will first have to change the roots.
If you want to change the visible, you must first change the invisible.”

(Harv T. Eker)

An old saying, “What you hear, you forget; what you see, you remember; what you do, you understand.” As you read Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, do you remember Eker’s motto? Exactly, action always beats inaction! That’s why I suggest that you get started. Take the ONE Wealth File that you liked and/or needed the most and read it again and follow the action plans. Think of what you could do RIGHT NOW that would bring you closer to how rich people think and act. That’s the first step. It’s your actions that count!

Now, reading is a start, of course, but if you want to succeed in the real world, it’s going to be your actions that count. Reading is an action as well, and reading great literature is a HUGE step in the right direction. Still, it is very important to integrate what you’ve learned into your life. Otherwise, it doesn’t help you grow. Getting rich said Eker throughout this book, takes focus, courage, knowledge, expertise, 100% of your effort, a never-give-up attitude, and of course, a rich mindset. So work on yourself. Work on your thinking. Work on your mind. Work on who you are. And if you choose to be rich, or better – if you commit to being rich – then it helps to know that the most important ingredient to self-made millionaires’ success is the MILLIONAIRE MIND!

I Have A Millionaire Mind!

With Winning In Mind: Catch Yourself Doing Something Right (Chapter 5)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Lanny Bassham's With Winning in Mind (2012) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

“Stop catching yourself doing things wrong and trying to find out why you are failing. Instead, only think about your successes, never your failures. An example is a golfer. The mentally uninformed golfer hits a good shot and says, ‘Well, I guess I just got lucky that time.’ When he hits a bad shot he says, ‘Why do I always do that?’ The mentally informed golfer hits a bad shot. He knows it is bad, but says, ‘Next time I will hit a better shot.’ Then he hits a good shot and says, ‘That’s a good shot. What did I do right?’ See the difference?”

(Lanny Bassham)

Instead of catching ourselves doing something wrong, let’s from now on catch ourselves doing right and improve our chances of repeating that positive behavior in the future. You can catch yourself doing anything right. Be it cleaning your room, studying, reading, meditating, being kind to someone, having fun, practicing something… whatever it is: Catch yourself and pat yourself on the back. Applaud yourself. Better yet, celebrate yourself.

“I know it’s counterintuitive,” writes Bassham, “but that’s because our society is seriously messed up. We’re all programmed to focus on the negative, to complain, to make excuses, to behave like little bitches, and to use negative reinforcement. Let’s stop that.” Instead, be nice to yourself and others, focus on the positive, talk about the good things in life, and positively reinforce them.

Have A Winning Mindset!

How to Be Innovative #2 Don't Think About Failure, Think About What Have You Learned

“Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity – not a threat”

Steve Jobs, 2010

Many of us are brought up believing that failure is a bad thing. Our early childhood experiences typically involve being laughed-at for getting things wrong. Although we have to learn the difference between right and wrong and what is ‘good’ and ‘bad’, we are often not taught how to learn from our mistakes.

The famous inventor Thomas Edison story tells of how he invented the light bulb. He tried more than 2,000 experiments before he got the electric bulb to work (although, I suspects that it was not exactly 2,000 experiments. It just mean lots of failed experiments). A reporter asked him how it felt to fail so many times, Edison responded, “I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2,000 step process.” At every stage, he learnt what worked and what did not. If he had given up at stage one, the world would be a darker place today!

The problem we have today is that we have a low tolerance for failure, especially in evangelism and business environment. Failure or the perception of failure is often treated with dismissal, although the reality is that although the expected results may not have been achieved, those involved learned a valuable lesson. A 1976 study carried out by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, on the reasons for major engineering failures, found insufficient knowledge to be their primary cause. The more information we have, the less likely we are to fail, so engineers today are more likely to get things right by learning from what didn’t work in the past.

This is true for all aspects of our lives, whether it is work, at home or during leisure. We need to learn from our mistakes rather than trying to forget them and move on. In every situation, it can be worthwhile jotting down or take a mental note on what has worked and what hasn’t. Commits it to memory because it can provide a useful reference when you face a similar situation or a new challenge. Don’t think about failure, instead think about unexpected outcome!

Practical Suggestions:

§  If something hasn’t worked, don’t focus on the failure, instead think about what did work and learn from it

§  Think about what hasn’t worked for you in the past and reflect on how you dealt with the situation and what you leaned. What this a positive or negative or growing experience? Did you come out of the situation a better person?

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Change Your Life: Just Do It!

“A thousand-mile journey begins with a first step”

(Lao-Tzu)

Procrastination – putting things off, dragging one’s feet, unnecessarily postponing what can and needs to be done today – is a pervasive phenomenon. Over 70 percent of college students, for example, identify themselves as procrastinators. The temptation to put things off is understandable, but the price we pay for procrastinating is high – studies show that procrastinators have higher levels of stress, a weaker immune system, poorer sleep, and unsurprisingly, given all of that, lower levels of happiness.

Fortunately, the research into procrastination has also identified practical ways that can help overcome the tendency to procrastinate. The single most important technique is called “the five-minute take-off.” It consists, simply, of starting to do the thing you have been putting off, no matter how little you feel like doing it. Procrastinators often believe that to do something one has to truly want to do it – to be in the right mood, to feel inspired. This is not the case. Usually, to get the job done, it is enough to begin doing it – the initial action kick-starts the process and often brings about more action.

So, for example, if you have difficulty getting yourself to exercise, just make the choice to put on your running shoes and start running: more often than not, the action will reinforce itself. If you have a project that needs to be done, don’t wait for that “right moment.” Choose to act, now! This approach can serve you well on a larger scale too: Commit to your vision, your dream, don’t procrastinate. Find ways to start moving forward the life you want to be living right now.

Don’t procrastinate,

Just do it!

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

 References:

1. Choose the Life You Want: 101 Ways to Create You Own Road to Happiness by Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD (New York: The Experiment, 2012) Buy this book!

2. Overcoming Procrastination: Or How to Think and Act Rationally in Spite of Life’s Inevitable Hassles by A. Ellis and W.J. Knaus (New York: Signet, 1979)

Nurture Creativity: Have Crazy Idea, Don't Give Up!

Fred Smith, founder of FedEx

“I think there are two keys to being creatively productive.

One is not being daunted by one’s fear of failure, the second is sheer perseverance”

(Mary-Claire King)

“It’s so crazy, it might just work,” said Fred Smith optimistically. He was an undergraduate at Yale University in 1965. As part of the coursework, he wrote an economics paper exploring the process of transportation of goods in the United States. Fred Smith wrote “crazy” idea on paper how a company carrying small, essential items by plane could be a much better business. He, however, did not go into details about how to actually run such a company.

As expected, his professor gave the paper a grade of “C”. Just like Smith’s professor, other people thought that the idea was indeed deserving a “C”. Some even thought that it was “crazy”. It was, but not for Fred Smith. Therefore, Smith held on to the crazy idea despite what others thought of it. He believes in his idea. To cut the story short, in 1971, the company was launched. It is called FedEx Express. Throughout the years, will all the challenges and failures, Smith never give up. “Today,” wrote Abhash Kumar, in YouStory.com, “FedEx is a global giant with operations in more than 220 countries and territories and an annual revenue of US $45 billion.”

What I learned from Fred Smith’s story is this: Logic will dictate that we stay away from crazy ideas. True, but the crazy ones are dared to go beyond what is “logical” and what is “safe”. They were the ones who have ventured out of the boundaries of the norm. Highly creative people are basically crazy. And once they believe in the idea, they will never give up. Remember Steve Jobs’ famously quote: “the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” Are you crazy enough? Do you have “crazy” idea that you believe in despite people’s negative criticisms about it? Do you want to change the world? Then, stay on. Don’t give up.

Many ideas deemed as crazy at first may just turn out to be very creative and innovative. “Nearly all creative ideas can sound crazy when first presented,” write Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari. He continues, “Most people don’t have creative imaginations, so most people don’t get what the creative is saying. And people tend to be fearful of things they don’t understand.” Here is the fact: Not all crazy ideas have worked out – but most do. Add that crazy idea to perseverance and believe. Remember, some will just laugh at your idea. Don’t give up. If it is a worthy idea, make it work despite how silly it may sounds.

Have crazy idea. Don’t give up.

God, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)