Thinking-Rich.com

If you’re considering whether to stay in a job for its perceived security or to follow the desire to strike out on your own, you might ask yourself this: “How do you feel at the end of your work day?”

Are you energized by the work you did? Do you continue to think about how to improve your work? Do you actually enjoy thinking those thoughts? Do you go to bed looking forward to work the next day?

If your answer to the questions above were mostly negative, it’s time to find your passion in work that pays you more than money and a dubious pension plan. You need to employ your brains and/or hands in something with positive financial, physical, spiritual and emotional returns. And it is possible. People around you are finding and living their passions daily.

It’s also easier now than it ever was. Innovation is now encouraged by society when it used to be frowned upon. The market for ideas and services has never been broader. You can now work from home, gain wealth and still affect the world in astounding ways.

Of course, this is not a new idea. Henry Ford believed in it the early 1900s. He built his business by it and the idea of service. Let’s hear it in Henry’s own words:

I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night. (Of course,) it is nice to plan to do one’s work in office hours, to take up the work in the morning, to drop it in the evening — and not have a care until the next morning. It is perfectly possible to do that if one is so constituted as to be willing through all of his life to accept direction, to be an employee, possibly a responsible employee, but not a director or manager of anything.

A manual laborer must have a limit on his hours, otherwise he will wear himself out. If he intends to remain always a manual laborer, then he should forget about his work when the whistle blows, but if he intends to go forward and do anything, the whistle is only a signal to start thinking over the day’s work in order to discover how it might be done better.

The man who has the largest capacity for work and thought is the man who is bound to succeed. I cannot pretend to say, because I do not know, whether the man who works always, who never leaves his business, who is absolutely intent upon getting ahead, and who therefore does get ahead — is happier than the man who keeps office hours, both for his brain and his hands. It is not necessary for anyone to decide the question.

(For) a ten-horsepower engine will not pull as much as a twenty. The man who keeps “brain office hours” limits his horsepower. If he is satisfied to pull only the load that he has, well and good, that is his affair — but he must not complain if another who has increased his horsepower pulls more than he does.

Fire up all the horsepower you have to offer to your dreams. No one can do it for you. Becoming rich means infinitely more than merely making money.

~$~

I have a quick quote and a quick quiz for you today. Who wrote the following quote:

It seems to be true that we find our most complete fulfillment if we can be ourself and do what we like to do while dedicating ourself to a task we believe in. In this, we transcend ourselves, and simultaneously satify ourselves. One without the other throws us off balance.

Was it Viktor Frankl or Friedrick Nietzsche?

Quotes like these seem so simple yet are so profound. The solutions to 90% of life’s disappointments can be found in this one paragraph. (Except for the answer to the quiz.)

First: Learn what you really like to do. Not what you should like, not what is big money, not what your family will approve of, but what you really like. Maybe the thing you would do if you had a month to live or the main thing you’d like to be remembered for.

Second: Learn what you really believe in. Not what you were taught in church or school or by society, but the thing that resonates in your heart and soul. This can be hard, because people aren’t (and shouldn’t be) limited to one true belief. If you find yourself wavering with your belief, pick the one that moves you most at this point in your life. You can pick up others at any point in your life.

Third: Find our how your like can be applied to support or produce more of the thing you believe in. For example: you like to speak in public and you believe strongly in the rights of children, so you start a podcast or a national speaking tour or prop your soapbox on the steps of City Hall and give your knowledge to illuminate others.

Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh: Become fulfilled, transcend yourself, attain satisfaction and live in balance.

What could be more simple? Now that you’ve reached this point - and if you need to - start thinking of ways to earn your living from this new dedication. There honestly is money to be made in doing the right thing for yourself and others. By thinking rich, you’ll find the wealth in what you love.

If your reason for having more money is so can spend more time with family and friends or relax more - more trips to the beach, more jamming with your guitar, etc., then is money really what you need? If you’re taking time away from your life to make money, then you’re doing the opposite of your desire. Maybe what you need is less money or more money in less time.

Time and money are not of equal value. Money is nothing compared to your time. Time can’t be banked, can’t be depended on, can’t be added to. Your time on this earth may be long or short, but it’s all you get.

So what are you working for? Material wealth or the freedom wealth gives you? Neither answer is wrong. You’d just better know before you commit yourself to any strict path.

Does being rich mean owning the Mercedes or does it mean living by the ocean? Would you drive a used Kia in order to live worry-free and perhaps a bit more frugally by the water for a year or more?

On the ocean topic, I read a quote by someone (help me if you recognize it) that says, in a bit more elegant manner: “Why do we wait to move to the ocean until we’re so old we’re afraid to go into the water?”

So how is making more money now going to affect your true desires?

How much time are you spending now to make money you’ll spend later?

What if there is no later?

Isn’t it counterintuitive to work away your youth so you can be comfortable when you’re old?

Work-weary old farts really dig a nice blanket and a good book. Is that what has you on the edge of your seat right now? Is that goal the one that drives your motivation to go to work each day? Or would you rather be skiing? Would you rather be painting landscapes on the edge of the desert? Would you rather surf, sculpt, write, live naked, travel the world, know your Goddess, front a band, restore old cars?

Whatever it is, do it now. Now is all you can count on. Find the ways to make more money in less time if money is what you need. Research alternatives to money if a lifestyle change is your goal.

If you want to ski, can you learn to groom trails, operate a lift, teach beginners or work at a lodge in exchange for your daily dose of downhill?

If you want a band, can you and your bandmates pitch in for place to live/practice, can you give lessons, work in a recording studio, DJ weddings, create graphics for fliers or CD covers, fix guitars, teach songwriting, create jingles for local businesses in exchange for the time and place to play your music?

OK. You get what I’m saying. You can make less and get more. Thinking rich encompasses so much more than the act of making money. Of course, the best of both worlds is also possible and certainly the most recommended - make tons of money while living your dreams. Most money gurus say this is the only route to true wealth. I’m leaving that decision up to you.

~$~

Featured on Verve Coaching’s “Carnival of Powerful Living.” Thanks Erek!