Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth (#0 Introduction)

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 your subconscious ‘financial blueprint’ is not ‘set’ for success, nothing you learn, nothing you know, and nothing you do will make much of a difference” (Harv Eker)

Harv Eker used to be a financial disaster. He had ups and downs, yet for the most part, he was broke. Until one day, when a rich friend of his dad told him that rich people think a certain way and poor people think a completely different way, and those ways of thinking determine their actions and therefore determine their results. Then all you have to do is copy how rich people think. That information helped Eker to become who he is today – author, businessman and most importantly, wealth coach.

So, after he learned about the fact that rich people think differently than poor people, he started studying rich people (just like how Napoleon Hill interviewed successful people and came out with the father of self-help book, Think and Grow Rich). “Eventually, I became aware of how my own thoughts were holding me back from wealth.” He learned that is it not about the tools alone, it is mainly about the toolbox. The tools are all the knowledge and information you’ve got, the toolbox is your mind, your way of thinking. He found that when he combined the inner game (toolbox) with the outer game (the tools), everybody can succeed at the game of money.

What the author wants to teach in his book is how to master the inner game of money to win the game of money – how to think rich to get rich! Josh Billings was quoted as saying, “It’s not what we don’t know that prevents us from succeeding; it’s what we know that just ain’t so that is our greatest obstacle.” The lesson is simple: If you want to move to a higher level of life, you have to be willing to let go of some of your old ways of thinking and adopt new ones. The secret to new mindset is unlearning. We are where we are because of the things we do day in, day out. Our old ways of thinking brought us exactly to where we are. If we want something to be different in our lives, we need to do something different. Harv Eker invites us to the journey to financial freedom.

His book is split up into two parts: Part #1 Your Money Blueprint, which is about how we are conditioned concerning money, it’s about why we are who we are, and about our old way of thinking; and Part #2 The Wealth Files, which is about 17 wealth files or about how rich people think/act/live. Basically, it’s about our new way of thinking and how we should think if we want to become rich.

[To read my review of this book, CLICK THE TITLE, Secrets of Millionaire Mind Review]

Are you ready to start learning how to think like rich people? I sure do!

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Final Summary)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by late Stephen R. Covey, writer of the most-effective personal development book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change (first published 1989). One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Grow!

In order to be truly effective, you must fully address yourself first, concentrate on your goals while being proactive and seeking to synergize with others, build relationships and finally having and maintain a balanced lifestyle. Here is a quick revision of the key messages of this book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (click title to read):

#1 Be Proactive and take all the matters in your hands.

#2 Begin With End In Mind by envisioning long-term goals daily.

#3 Put First Things First by organizing your life and focusing on important and not urgent matters.

#4 Think Win-Win and try to create situations of mutual benefits with other people.

#5 Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood for efficient communication.

#6 Synergize with others for best results and benefits that you couldn’t gain by yourself only.

#7 Sharpen the Saw having and maintaining a balanced life so you can practice all above.

Thank you for reading my short review of this book. I hope you’ll be inspired and – grow!

Be An Highly Effective Person

Is Technology Changing Our Brains #6 Deep Reading vs. Skim, Scan and Click!

When we read, we construct a mental representation of the text in our minds, much as we do when we look at terrain and create a mental map in our heads. But experts warn that we read text on screens differently, preferring to skim, scan and click hyperlinks, rather than ‘deep reading’ in the old-fashioned sense.

Norwegian experts tested the theory by dividing students of comparable reading skills into a paper group and LCD monitor group. In a follow-up reading comprehension test, the group who’d read texts on computers performed a little worse than the traditional readers. And a Swedish study in which volunteers completed a reading test reported similar findings: those who took the test on a computer scored lower, and reported higher stress levels, than those who took the same test on paper.

Prof Ziming Liu, of the School of Information at San Jose State University in California, believes digital screen readers engage in greater use of shortcuts such as browsing for keywords. His research also reveals that screen users are more likely to read a document only once and expand less time on in-depth reading.

(Summarized from BBC Earth Magazine (Vol.9 Issue 1), page 33 by Jo Carlowe)

Verdict: More research needed, but technology may make us less thorough

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

As A Man Thinketh #2 You Are Today Due to the Books that You (or Don't) Read

“People are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound”
(James Allen, As A Man Thinketh)

We spend hundreds of ringgit a year for clothing, cosmetics, body products and other items to change or improve our outward appearance but very little money or time to change our inward condition. Many people easily spend hours a day online, going to gym, playing games, watching series and movies but find every reason in the world not to spend even a few minutes a day to improving their minds.

Since it is our thoughts that determine the life we will have, you must focus on doing those things that will change your thoughts, and nothing is more effective at changing your thoughts than reading the right books. Charlie ‘Tremendous’ Jones writes, “You are today the same you’ll be in five years from now, except for two things: the people you meet and the books you read. The people you meet can’t always be with you, but what you read in books can remain with you a lifetime. How often we hear of individuals who began a new era in their lives from the reading of a single book.”

Are you a book reader? Why not start a new habit today? Spend just 15 minutes every day in the morning or before going to bed or whenever you’re most concentrate and focus. Read from a personal development book or biography of someone you admire (ask me if you want my book suggestions on both topics). At the end of a year you will have read about 12 books – at the end of a five years about 60 books! Through your changed thoughts you will have become much more like the “vision you enthrone in your heart.”

As English writer Aldous Huxley observed, “Every person who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant, and interesting.”

Think about it!

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

References:

1.      As A Man Thinketh (1903) by James Allen

2.      Day by Day with James Allen (2003) by Vic Johnson

Nurture Creativity: Steve Jobs said "Creativity is Just Connecting Things"

Picture: Credits to Hugh MacLeod & Vitor Bellote  

“You cannot force creativity to happen—every creative person can attest to that.

But the essence of creativity is making connections and solving puzzles”

(Nancy C. Andreasen, Neuroscientist)

Creativity is connecting things. In other word, making connections where none existed before is what creativity is all about. The world is our field. Thus, there are practically unlimited possible connections that can be made. We are making connections all the time as part of our learning process. For example, a lot of things happen when I’m doing one thing and I’m not thinking about what my mind is doing. I’m either watching movie, I’m reading a book, eating my lunch and then – I make a connection. It may have nothing to do with what I am doing, but somehow or other I see something or hear something or do something, and it pops that connection together. People use to say, millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked, ‘why?’

“Creativity is just connecting things,” Steve Jobs, late CEO of Apple told Wired magazine. “When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people… Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem.”

Jobs told a story when he took calligraphy in college, a course with no practical applications to his life then. But after he came back later he used his knowledge and skills to added Macintoch, the first computer with beautiful typeface, fonts, and calligraphy. The dots were connected. Creativity is connecting things. Can be few years from now, can be months from now, can be in a minute later. So how to connect the dots? Here are my suggestions (at least, these are the things that I do myself):

§  Carry a notebook and keep track of everything – especially in the toilet (sometime I just write ideas on tissue!)

§  Read to add more knowledge. Logically, the more knowledge you have, the more connection you can make.

§  Play or try to experience more things in life. Most of the time, connections just happen when you least expected it.

§  Review the last sermons or scratch or whatever notes you had wrote before. Recalling and reminding are the best way to spark creative connections.

§  Try observation skill. Just look around you and try to make connections between things which may show similarity or maybe totally unrelated.

Don’t just stare the ceiling, make connections.

Don’t just read and play, make connections.

Don’t just eat and sleeping, make connections.

Maybe just relax, and there is a connection!

God, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Nurture Creativity: Read Widely like Google Search, Read Purposefully like Playing Archery

“Reading remains an unsurpassed vehicle for

the transmission of interesting new ideas and perspectives”

(Steven Johnson, TED Talks)

During my school time, there were three things that I hate in the world most: English language, writing and reading. Now strangely as it sound (and thankfully), I love all of them. I figure it out that if I want to grow I must challenge myself, keep pushing and do what I initially hate doing because I know that it is worth my investment, energy and time. Each and every one of us has the potential to grow. It's just a matter of practice and doing it regularly. In this way, we train ourselves to be more useful and – creative.

So now I love reading. One of the ways you can be more creative is by reading on a very wide range of subjects. Not just any reading will do, though. Blog posts, short articles, magazines, websites, newspapers and the like are all a fun diversion and beneficial, but they simply won’t turn on your creative juices as effective as the way good selective books will. “The reading which counts,” said Leon Gutterman, “is the reading which, in making a man think, stirs and exercises and polishes the edge of his mind.”

Let me give you an advice: you can learn anything, but you can’t read everything. So pick your subjects with a sense of purpose. For example, one of my goals this year is to write a book on creativity, so I should stuff my brain more by focus reading on the subject of creativity, innovations, ideas, arts, inventions, history and biographies/autobiographies of creative minds. Of course, insights and inspirations may come from other sources too. That’s for sure. So read widely (like Google search) and read purposefully (like playing archery). Randomly and focus reading. Both. 

Here are why reading can boost your creativity: Reading will:

§  Stimulate, nourish and broaden your mind (stagnant thinking is dangerous)

§  Help you to think out of the box (look at the things from a different perspective)

§  Add knowledge that can be used to spark ideas

§  Develop your vocabulary (especially for creative writings)

§  Enhance concentration and discipline (focus, focus, focus)

§  Sharpen language and communication skills (boring people are generally non-readers)

§  Helps you to think and gain more ideas from others

§  Improve your imagination (better than watching movies!)

§  Release your stress level and help you to relax

§  Build self-esteem, positive thinking and confidence (except when you read ghost stories)

§  Put you in the range of highly effective people all over the world (most successful people are readers)

§  Ignite your passion to read more. Reading is fun once you get into the habit (Fun = creative state).

§  Reading books, especially, will change your life!

“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” (Victor Hugo)

So, read widely like Google search and read purposefully like playing archery.

God, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Nurture Creativity: Use Online Time Wisely (Hunt for Ideas!)

“In order to become an effective idea hunter,

one must be receptive to creative inspiration from unfamiliar or unusual sources”

(Andy Boynton, The Idea Hunter)

Most of us spend online time for social networking, searching, reading content, e-mailing or communicating in general, visiting multi-media sites for music or video or both, online shopping, etc. Recently I visited TIME website and stumbled on an article. I thought it is interesting because in the article they include Apps that can count how many time (not necessary ‘wasted’) you spend on Facebook. It is safe and will not appear on your timeline. Mine, since 12^th November 2008 until today, I spend only 3 days 18 hours 52 minutes and posted 14,718 things on my feed. On average 17 minutes per day. How about you? [Check it out: http://time.com/6107/how-much-time-have-you-wasted-on-facebook/]

Surely, Facebook or any other social media or the Internet is not that bad. What’s bad is when you addicted to online 24-7. What’s really bad is when you wasted your life online! What’s good is that you can use these tools for good. These tools, if you can use it wisely, can be your great source of ideas and to spark up your creativity. Basically, these are the thing I do when I’m online:

§  Downloaded audio sermons, audiobooks, talks and seminars

§  Watch video or listen to talks from YouTube, podcasts and websites (I recommend TED Talks, Google Talks, Intelligent² and LearnOutLoud.com)

§  Read articles such as How Stuff Works, BBC and TED blog

§  Surf randomly (but not mindlessly). Who know, you might stumble to a cool website that may change your life!

How to use online time wisely? Here are my suggestions: 1) Intentionally, set time for online. You should be in control. It can be an hour in the morning, then an hour in the afternoon before lunch or mid-night before you go to sleep. Try not to go online, if possible, in the evening. Safe it for outdoor activities. 2) Set a limit. As for me, in regular time, I set at most 2-3 hours online. Depend on your job requires and working hours, set a limit (or simply take some time off once in a while). and 3) Use the time for ideas hunt. Find and gather as many ideas as possible, write it down on paper, steal it! and create your own new ideas – and if it useful, work on it.

Use online time wisely. Go for ideas hunt!

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Nurture Creativity: Take More Time Offline

“Oh, it's sunny outside. I better update my Facebook status

for all of my friends that don't have windows” (Unknown)

Most of life is offline. Eating food and watching movies. Sleeping and bathing. Drinking coffee and reading books. All these daily activities are crucial for developing our creativity. I’m not telling you to stop online but asking you to spend more significant time offline. For me, I don’t check Facebook and email all the time (with exceptions). I try to limit my Facebook and social media time to one hour or less per day, and check e-mail once or twice daily except on Sunday (sometime I simply don’t check for few days!). I know a lot of bosses demands that their employees check email all weekend, but thanks God my boss is cool (so far).

You see, if you take more time offline, you can have more time to do something else. You will have more time to read book or magazine, more space to interact with people personally, you can take a break and pause from the desire to always online, you can observe – nature and people – around you, smell the flower, more time to play and exercise, etc. All these are human way of getting more creative. I think Marilyn Monroe says it well, “Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you're a human being, you feel, you suffer. You're gay, you're sick, you're nervous or whatever.” And – you will fail too, in relationship, business, project, games. Remember, human being makes mistake and failure, and failure is an essential aspect of creativity.

Take more time offline, be human again.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

My Top 17 Book on Innovative and Creativity Lists

I wrote this article on my other blog Word Speaks Today. Here are my Top 17 Book on Innovative and Creativity Lists. Enjoy! Click HERE also if you want to read my TOP 20 Book on Personal Development Lists.

“Creativity is a characteristic given to all human beings at birth” (Abraham Maslow)

Christianity must be creative because first and foremost, we follow a creative God. There is nothing more needed in Christianity today than creativity. We don’t need more doctrinal precision and biblical knowledge, more conferences and programs. We don’t need more identical youth groups copied from the megachurch on TV. We don’t want to hear another worship song with the same beat, the same tempo, the same words, and the same three chords as every other worship song. We don’t need to follow Planet Shakers or Hillsongs or True Worshippers. We need to be original and contextualize! Thus, creativity is needed.

Best example of creative person and Lord is Jesus. The Scripture says, “He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn’t make” (John 1:3) If you think that the universe is wonderful and it is an act of creative Being – think Jesus, the Author of the universe! We are also made in the image of Him, so we’re at some point – creative people.

There are people who are good at writing books on creativity. We should read it. Reading books on creativity doesn’t mean you will be creative instantaneously. You are God’s creation, you already creative. But to be more creative, you need to cultivate your creativity through reading and applications. Here are some of my books recommendation for you to consider reading with a cautious, prayer and wisdom (Why top 17 books? Because top 10 or 15 or 20 is so mainstream):

1)    You Are Creative: Let Your Creativity Bloom, 3^rd Edition by Dr. Yew Kam Keong

2)    A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative by Roger von Oech

3)    Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius by Michael Michalko

4)    How to Get Ideas, New Expended Edition by Jack Foster

5)    How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day by Michael J. Gelb

6)    How to Think Like Einstein: Simple Ways to Break the Rules and Discover Your Hidden Genius by Scott Thorpe

7)    Buzan's book of Genius: And How to Unleash Your Own by Tony Buzan and Raymond Keene

8)    Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step by Edward De Bono

9)    Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono

10) How to Have a Beautiful Mind by Edward de Bono

11) The Art of Thinking: A Guide to Critical and Creative Thought by Vincent R. Ruggiero

12) Becoming a Life Change Artist: 7 Creative Skills to Reinvent Yourself at Any Stage of Life by Fred Mandell

13) On Creativity: Awakening the Creative Mind by Leo Ann Mean

14) What Would Apple Do?: How You Can Learn from Apple and Make Money by Dirk Beckmann

15) Business Creativity: A Practical Guide by Jodie Newman

16) The Power of Innovative Thinking by Jim Wheeler

17) Creative Bible Study: A Manual for Training Bible Study Leaders by Ada Lum

If you want to read any of this books, but you can’t find it in bookstores near you (Poor thing!)
Then come and borrow the book from me ya. God bless you with creativity. Amen.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Characteristics of a Creative Person #1: Have a Curiosity and a Childlike Sense of Wonder

“Cultivate your garden. Do not depend upon teachers to educate you…

follow your own bent, pursue your curiosity bravely,

express yourself, make your own harmony” (Will Durant)

There’s a lot of talk these days about reconnecting with the child within us. Whether you agree with the psychological objectives of such a plan, it can’t be argued that children have healthy curiosities. Through a child’s eyes, the world is a fascinating place, constantly full of new discoveries and revelations. In our adult attempt to stay on the grow, what could be better than to re-establish the type of enthusiasm with which a child experiences the world?

With curiosity you are inspired to search for hidden strengths and abilities. With curiosity you are motivated to look beyond your present circumstances for any reason. Thanks God for people like Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Madame Curie, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein and so many others were curious people with a childlike sense of wonder.

If you’ve allowed yourself to become cynical and closed off over the years, it’s time to re-stimulate your curiosity factor. Reading more, travelling, initiating discussions with interesting people you admire and purposefully getting involved in new and unusual activities and hobbies are just a few ways to get you inquisitive juices flowing again. Peter F. Drunker, world’s top management guru, once suggested that you walk away from your situation, bend over and look back between your legs. He contends that once you look at situation backwards and upside down, you’ll have a more functional perspective.

Creative people have a curiosity and a childlike sense of wonder

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

*I recommend you to read Danny Cox and John Hoover’s Seize the Day (Book-mart Press, 1994), “Step Two: Developing Strengths” page 77-118.

How-To Generate Ideas #3: Read Many Books

“Libraries were full of ideas – perhaps the most dangerous

and powerful of all weapons.”(Sarah J. Maas)

In my opinion, books are one of the most wonderful medium to transfer ideas and for creating new thoughts and stimulating great ideas. Books, good books will not only inform us but also transform our thinking. “The only real use of books is to make a person think for himself,” writes Aleph Bey, “If a book will not set one to thinking, it is not worth shelf room.” When I read, it helped me learn more and expand my way of thinking. Books really got me to activate my idea generator.

I read widely and variously: from theology to philosophy, spiritual to personal growth, leadership and business, biography and autobiography, fiction and non-fiction. I sometime take a half day (or the whole day) to browse book at the bookstores such as MPH, Popular and Salvation. I even bought and downloaded free audiobooks in the internet! Why? To refill the wells of inspiration, to receive plenty of thought stimulation and to refresh the flow of ideas. Read many books... and create your own personal library.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)