Change Your Life in 7 Days – Wealth

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Notes from the book ‘Change Your Life in 7 Days’ by Paul McKenna that are specific to “Wealth”

Wealth

Real wealth isn’t just about money – it’s about your access to resources, whether or not those resources technically belong to you. Just think about what you have accessible to you even if you have virtually no money – beautiful streets and parks to walk through, libraries, music, film, schools for your children, hospitals for your body. Things that were only available to the privileged elite a few short centuries ago probably feel like your birthright.

Real wealth is about having an abundance of good health and true happiness. It’s about having good friends or family who you can share intimate and pleasurable experiences with and laugh with, people who stimulate & fascinate you. Real wealth is feeling happy most of the time. It’s a sense of knowing you are contributing something to the world, and that your life is worthwhile. After all you are unique – nobody can do things exactly the way you do them.

 

Money

Wealth is also partly about having money.

Money is a symbol of our confidence in our product, our service and ourselves. (Money is no longer backed by gold, but we still act as if it’s worth something, because of our confidence/faith in the source of the money – the government that issued it)

If you want to have more money in your life – for yourself or to help others or both – then you have to make yourself more valuable in the eyes of other people.

The more confidence we have in ourselves and/or our product or service, the more we will be able to charge for it.

If money is confidence & confidence is a state, then you already have everything it takes to make all the money you could ever want – you just have to choose to cultivate it!

What we expect to be true in our minds will tend to become true in reality. We act in ways that are consistent with our expectations. Those actions create the results we expected.

[tweetable alt=””]If you want to have more money you have to make yourself more valuable to others[/tweetable]

 

Wealth Self-Sabotage

If you believe you can’t really become wealthy, you will speak/act consistently with that belief and ‘prove’ yourself right. If you change your expectations of the world to reflect your infinite potential for wealth, you will quickly generate the thoughts, feelings and behaviours that will draw money to you.

If you believe money is bad in some way, you will unconsciously sabotage your attempts to create more of it in your life.

You need to let go of any old limiting ideas you had about money & re-programme your mind to become more prosperous and think like a millionaire.

1.) What you resist, persists

(Law of reversed effect: No matter how hard they try to consciously get rich, their unconscious beliefs will not support them and they end up sabotaging themselves)

2.) The law of attraction

(What you focus on consistently, you get more of in your life – if you focus on poverty or lack, you will tend to get more of that in your life & if you focus on wealth that is ‘already there’, you will tend to get more)

You are always attracting people and circumstances that resonate with your predominant thoughts. If you want to become rich and stay rich, you need to begin thinking of yourself as someone who deserves great wealth. As you begin to truly see yourself as a wealthy person, you will see your financial abundance grow.

[tweetable alt=””]”If you believe you can’t really become wealthy, you will speak/act consistently with that belief and ‘prove’ yourself right”[/tweetable]

Creating Wealth Consciousness

[tweetable alt=””]Money is one of the rewards you get for adding value to the lives of others.[/tweetable]

AnchoringRehearsing4 KeysMeasuringAbundance

Wealth Anchoring

What would having more money give you that you don’t already have?

If you want to get something in order to feel a certain way, feeling that way now will be the fastest way to get it.

  1. Make a list of all the states and feelings you believe money will bring you (confident, happy, peaceful, generous, etc.)
  2. Choose the first state on your life. Remember a time when you really felt that way. Fully return to it and see what you saw, hear what you heard, feel how good you felt – or imagine it.
  3. Keep going through his memory, making colours brighter, sounds louder, feelings stronger.
  4. As you feel these good feelings, squeeze the thumb & middle finger of one of your hands together and say the words ‘I am wealthy!’ in your mind or out loud.
  5. Repeat steps 2-4 with each emotional state on your list. Soon, squeezing the thumb & middle finger together will begin to bring back all those good feelings you associate with wealth.

This your wealth anchor. Use it any time you are thinking about or wanting more money to condition yourself for success.

Rehearsing Wealth Techniques:

  • Open your bills and vividly imagine thousands in the bank, far more than what you need to pay on the bill.
  • Get an old bank statement, cut it up, remove the bits that say “overdrawn”, rearrange the figures and glue it back together showing thousands in credit.
  • Practise writing out cheques and deposit slips for hundreds of thousands of dollars until you feel comfortable doing it.
  • Create a ‘wealth scrapbook’, collecting pictures of things you want, places you want to visit, and people you want to meet. Anything you’d like to bring in your life. Then everytime you look through your book, practise creating sensory-rich experiences of your goals (if it’s a car, go and get a test ride so you can vividly imagine driving one; if i’ts a house, imagine walking around it until you know every inch of it – the feeling of the carpet, the smell of the hallway, the texture of the furniture, and so on)

You are rehearsing being wealthy – you need to ‘get in the part’.

A friend of his wanted to travel the world in style, he collected travel brochures, cut out all the exotic places, then each Sunday for a month, he’d pack his suitcase and go to the airport – standing in line before finally turning around and going home. When he went home, he’d watch a video of a programme about travelling first class, and spend time looking through his scrapbook at all the places he wanted to go. One day with no warning, he was called into his boss’s office and offered to become an international reporter – travelling all over the world – first class.

4 Keys to making more money by adding more value:

  1. Uniqueness – the more unique value you provide, the more you will be able to exchange for it. (Famous actors)
  2. Scope – the more people you add value to, the more money you get to make (Bill Gates)
  3. Impact – the more of a difference you make in the lives of others, the more money you can demand in return (doctors vs teachers – most people value their health above education)
  4. Perception – What unique product or service would I like to provide that will be of massive value to the world? You need to give something to the world that people will pay you plenty for.

Measuring Wealth

Wealth Measure #1 : Your net worth (Total Assets – Total Liabilities = Net Worth)

Wealth Measure #2: The # of days forward you can live without earning any more money (Expenses divided by 30 = ‘Daily Rate’), then (Net worth divided by Daily Rate)

Wealth Measure #3: The amount of money you wouldn’t worry about losing (5, 500, 1000, etc.)

Wealth Measure #4: Your magic number for financial independence.

1.) List of all one-off purchases you would like to make in your lifetime and approx. price (House $500,000, Car $50,000, etc.)

2.) Total up all the items “Figure A”

3.) Decide on a comfortable ‘annual salary for life’

4.) Multiply that salary amount by 12. THis is the figure you would need to invest at a fairly conservative rate of return to ‘earn’ your annual salary for life – “Figure B”

5.) Figure ‘A’ + Figure ‘B’ = Your Magic Number – the amount of money you would need to have in the bank in order to be utterly financially independent.

The Ten Secrets of Abundance

  1. Decide right now that you are responsible for your financial abundance.
  2. Save first, then spend only what you can truly afford.
  3. Study wealthy people.
  4. Build your financial reservoir. (savings of 3mo-2yr salary)
  5. The 80/20 Rule (80% of your wealth will come from 20% of your clients, 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts – concentrate on that 20%)
  6. Get in touch with your passion every day.
  7. Charge what you are truly worth
    (a.) write down the amount of money you expect to earn this year, b) erase/cross out the last 3 numbers, c) divide by 2. This is what an hour of your time is worth
  8. Regularly practise the Change Your Life in Seven Days techniques (create a sensory-rich experience of what you want; condition yourself for success)
  9. Celebrate your life, starting today (make it a practice of reflecting on all the good things in your life as you drift off to sleep each night; cultivate an ‘attitude of gratitude’ (which is the exact opposite of poverty consciousness)
  10. Keep going (no matter what you think you see, hear, think or feel, keep your feet moving. If you keep your feet moving, you will eventually get to where it is you want to go)

 

Dream Big

What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

Look around you – almost everything you can see started as a thought in someone’s head.

When the mind has a target, it can focus and direct itself until it reaches its goal. If you have no target, then your energy is dissipated.

Dreaming is not just about getting what you want – it’s about becoming more than you thought you could be.

In essence, all you need to do is to think of something you want, imagine what it would be like to have it, check to see if it’s OK for you to have it, think about how it might come about, then focus your mind upon your dream regularly.

‘If I continue along the present course I’m on, where will I end up? Where will I be five years from now?’

Step 1Step 2Step 3Steps 4&5Steps 6Step 7

Step 1: The most important things in your world

  • What would you do if the world was going to end one week from today?

Your answer to that question is the key to identifying your values – those things that matter most in your life.

When you learn to focus on your values and your life’s purpose instead of just your goals, you will automatically begin to take the big picture of your life into account.

  • Jump to the end of your life. What are the 3 most important lessons you have learned and why are they so critical?
  • Think of someone you deeply respect. Describe 3 qualities in this person that you most admire.
  • Who are you at your best?
  • What one-sentence inscription would you like to see on your tombstone that would capture who you really were in your life?

Make a list of the most important things that emerged from answering those questions. Look beyond any material things on your list to the states of being which lie behind them.

From your list, choose your top 5 values – the things that you cannot go without. These 5 things are the very essence of what will give your life meaning – the most important things in your world.

If you do nothing else but live these values every single day, you cannot imagine how fulfilling your life will become!

Step 2: Brainstorm

With your values firmly in mind, make a list of everything (yes, everything!) you want now, have wanted in the past, or can conceive of wanting in the future. Just get everything out of your head and down on paper.

It’s not necessary to have any intention of actually getting any of these things, nor is it necessary that you believe getting any of the items on your list is possible.

No matter how weird/impossible it may seem, write it down.

Step 3: The Big Dream

Again, don’t stop to consider whether something is possible or not. Just let the answers flow…

  • What do you love to do so much that you’d pay to do it?
  • What do you feel really passionate about?
  • What would you choose to do if you had unlimited resources?
  • Who are the people or characters from history you most admire, and why?

Answering these questions will help you to get an overall idea of what your life’s purpose is about.

  • What did you want to do as a child?
  • What did you want to be when you grew up?
  • What would you do if you were guaranteed success?

Now think of all the major areas of your life – family, relationships, career, health, community, and spiritual development:

  • What would you really love to happen?
  • What would you really like to learn?
  • What skills do you want to master?
  • How much money do you want to earn?
  • What character traits do you want to develop?
  • What do you want to give back to the world?

Begin formulating your ‘big dream’. Ensure it’s focus is on what you WANT not want you “don’t want”

Step 4: Measuring Success

Celebrate the progress of your goals

Ask yourself:

  • What will you see as you achieve your dream?
  • What will you hear?
  • What will you feel, smell and taste?

Step 5: Overcoming Obstacles

As you progress, ask yourself the following questions to ensure that living your dream will be good for you and doesn’t harm others.

  • When I think about this dream, does it seem clear or fuzzy?
  • Do I feel free in my feelings or restricted?
  • Is this something I’m moving towards or away from?
  • Is this ‘my’ dream or someone else’s dream for me?
  • What hidden rewards might there be to not living this dream?

Step 6: Setting Goals on your Success Timeline

How long do you think it will take you to fully realize your dream? Working back from that date, figure out the major steps that will need to take place along the way and write them down. These are your goals – milestones along the road to your dream.

Make a list of at least 7 goals and a timeline that will let you know you are on your way. Get a clear, bright image of each goal as if it is already happening now.

Refine your big dream

The most important things in the world to me are: ___________

If I could be, do and have anything in the world, I would… ___________

I will know when I am succeeding when ___________

7 Goals & Timeline  ___________

Step 7: Activate your resources

  1. Your skills, qualities, gifts and talents:
  2. Your community (people you work with/for, family/friends/neighbours, people you went to school with, customers/clients, etc.)
  3. Your available cash & credit
  4. Your possessions

To develop success neural pathways, we need to rehearse success.

Daily exercise (Neural Reconditioning):

  1. Stop and vividly imagine what your life will look like as you are living your dream. What will you see? Hear? What will people say to you? What will you say to yourself? As you do this, really imagine living your dream in as much detail as possible. Create a rich internal experience as if you are already living your dream now.
  2. Next, we will take everything you have learned about what you want, what really matters to you, and what your biggest dream is, and design them all into your ideal week.
  3. How does your week begin? Imagine the kind of people you have around you, the places you go, the things you have. How good do you feel? Where do you go each day? What do you do? Who do you see? What are some of the things that let you know how successful you are?
  4. Continue until you can imagine each detail vividly. This should be enjoyable – if it feels like work, take a break.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Think of at least one thing that you can do today which will take you in the direction of living your dream, and do it.

 

More notes from this great book:

 

 

‘Change Your Life in 7 Days’, McKenna, Paul, Bantam Press, 2004

Penny (PennyButler.com)
Penny (PennyButler.com)

Truth-seeker, ever-questioning, ever-learning, ever-researching, ever delving further and deeper, ever trying to 'figure it out'. This site is a legacy of sorts, a place to collect thoughts, notes, book summaries, & random points of interests.