Thinking-Rich.com

Do you have beliefs that limit your ability to achieve or accept wealth?

If you do, don’t feel alone, because self-limiting beliefs may be the greatest obstacle we must overcome before we can create wealthy lives. Here’s a great god-awful list of internal resistance to wealth/self-limiting beliefs I’ve pulled together from various humans:

• Notions of wealth as evil
• Having excess cash seen as greedy
• Feeling undeserving of wealth
• Guilt at making money too easily
• Belief that the only way to make more money is through harder work
• Selling your talents is seen as prostituting them
• Fear of appearing that you’re “only in it for the money”
• Believing that a regular job is the only way to security
• Fear of the complications money will bring
• taxes
• need for security (alarms,etc.)
• being taken
• financial matters - investments, banking
• insurance
• bookkeeping
• The concept that for you to win, someone else must lose
• Fear of losing what you have now
• Fear of losing friends or contact with “real” people
• Fear of being taken advantage of by relatives, others
• Fear of losing your soul
• Raised to believe “those things weren’t meant for people like us”
• People asking, “Who do you think you are?”
• Doubt that people will love you for who you are, but what you’re worth

All of these negative imprints on your mind can be overcome, but it may not be easy. The first step is really digging down inside you and recognizing your limiting beliefs or emotions. Start with the list above. If any of them apply to you ask yourself how realistic the belief is … if you find you have a true concern (not just a nagging thought that you can erase once you’ve recognized it) then take the steps needed to overcome it.

We’ll work on some ideas about how to do that in future posts. Just don’t wait until then to start thinking rich.

~$~
Technorati Tags: thinking, rich,, money,, beliefs,, wealth,, worth

Seventy or so years ago, Napoleon Hill wrote down what he believed were the major attributes required if one wanted to be a successful leader. Hill’s focus was on business and wealth building - these factors were taken from his book “Think and Grow Rich” - but most of them are applicable to any kind of leadership.

Judging by the discontent so many Americans have in their workplace, I’d say that too many business leaders have either forgotten or have never considered the following list. If more of our employers practiced even a few of these factors our jobs would be much more rewarding.

Really, can you think of the last time one of your “superiors” displayed a willingness to take full responsibility for how a project turned out? How about showing sympathy and/or understanding? My former “top of the ladder” superior got so angry about a blog posting that he literally screamed profanities for at least 15 minutes and punched a hole in an editor’s office wall. Would you call that an example of self-control? (For what it’s worth, the blog posting could have been taken down in a shorter period of time than his tantrum lasted and the editor who faced this abuse wasn’t even responsible for the posting.)

Thinking rich and becoming rich will certainly put you in a position of leadership. I hope that some of Hill’s suggestion will encourage you to help change what seems to have become business as usual in today’s leaders.

Note: Since this was written in the early 1900s, Hill consistently used male pronouns, although he made it abundantly clear in his book that he believed women had just as much potential as men. Pretty forward thinking for the time. I just chose not to change his words for this post.

The following are important factors of leadership:

1. UNWAVERING COURAGE based upon knowledge of self, and of one’s occupation. No follower wishes to be dominated by a leader who lacks self-confidence and courage. No intelligent follower will be dominated by such a leader very long.

2. SELF-CONTROL: The man who cannot control himself, can never control others. Self-control sets a mighty example for one’s followers, which the more intelligent will emulate.

3. A KEEN SENSE OF JUSTICE: Without a sense of fairness and justice, no leader can command and retain the respect of his followers.

4. DEFINITENESS OF DECISION: The man who wavers in his decisions shows that he is not sure of himself. He cannot lead others successfully.

5. DEFINITENESS OF PLANS: The successful leader must plan his work, and work his plan. A leader who moves by guesswork, without practical, definite plans, is comparable to a ship without a rudder. Sooner or later he will land on the rocks.

6. THE HABIT OF DOING MORE THAN PAID FOR: One of the penalties of leadership is the necessity of willingness, upon the part of the leader, to do more than he requires of his followers.

7. A PLEASING PERSONALITY: No slovenly, careless person can become a successful leader. Leadership calls for respect. Followers will not respect a leader who does not grade high on all of the factors of a Pleasing Personality.

8. SYMPATHY AND UNDERSTANDING: The successful leader must be in sympathy with his followers. Moreover, he must understand them and their problems.

9. MASTERY OF DETAIL: Successful leadership calls for mastery of details of the leader’s position.

10. WILLINGNESS TO ASSUME FULL RESPONSIBILITY: The successful leader must be willing to assume responsibility for the mistakes and the shortcomings of his followers. If he tries to shift this responsibility, he will not remain the leader. If one of his followers makes a mistake, and shows himself incompetent, the leader must consider that it is he who failed.

11. COOPERATION: The successful leader must understand, and apply the principle of cooperative effort and be able to induce his followers to do the same. Leadership calls for POWER, and power calls for COOPERATION.

Lead on!

~$~

I finally finished reading T. Harv Eker’s “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” and I’m happy to recommend it if you’re having difficulty making money or keeping the money that you do make. I plan to read it again before I move onto another wealth book. It does have enough to offer that I couldn’t absorb it all in one go.

I think the best way to read books like this that really go to the core of our attitudes toward money is to read it through it the first time with a highlighter, then do the exercises on the second read. I’m always impatient. I want the lowdown on the book before I can take time for each exercise.

I don’t want to do a book review here … but I do want to say a few more things before I move on. I think Eker’s more of a speaker than a writer, but what he has to say is so good it doesn’t matter. He endlessly pushes his Millionaire Mind Extensive seminars, but don’t let it get on your nerves. As he points out later in the book, he’s doing something we all need to do a lot more of and that’s to promote ourselves and our work. The book does stand on its own so don’t give up because it at first seems like an ad for the seminar.

Right now after the first read, the most important thing I feel I learned was how critical it is to focus on my net worth and not just my income. Good lord, that sounds dull, but I am so jazzed about it. I finally realize that my net worth will produce wealth for me even more effectively than the labor I do for my yearly income if I consciously work on it.

And speaking of labor … I will not be working on Labor Day for the first in more than a decade! Kinda of sucks that I had to quit my job to actually get this holiday off, but when you work for a newspaper there really aren’t any holidays. People still want their paper on the doorstep. Of course, management and advertising got the day off, but they’ve always been “special.” (And yes, I’m still a little bitter.)

Letting go of all negative energy …

I’m going to enjoy this Labor Day and spend it being grateful for all the people who work regardless of the date on the calendar. Thank you to the police, the firefighters, the waiters and waitresses, the cab drivers, the news slaves, the convenience store clerks, the faithful bloggers, the cooks and bakers, the doctors and nurses. And to anyone I’ve missed, your work makes our world work.

Thank you all. I hope you’re living your dreams.

~$~