Three characteristics you need to become a millionaire or obtain any wealth you desire
January 19th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
When you are complaining, you become a living, breathing “crap magnet.”
T. Harv Eker discussing The Law of Attraction -
The average person in this world has all they need in order to be very successful in life, they just limit themselves. There’s no reason why we can’t be financially liberated and independent and simultaneously have good relationships and be spiritually wealthy. We should be able to, after some focused work, escape a 9-5 job and live comfortably with no financial worries and some good income streams. Of course, I think a 9-5 job is good, and even necessary, for many people, but does not have to be the only destination for you. Jeffrey Tang talks about this in this blog entry I particularly liked. Although I signed a contract to start a 9-5 type of job in a couple of months, I think that it’s important for everyone to know that we do have OPTIONS.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/ / CC BY-NC 2.0
No matter where you look, everyone who has taken time and observed those who have achieve great wealth, even when starting with little or nada, had a few common characteristics that were KEY for this to be possible. All the books I’ve come across about wealth and success have at one point or the other mentioned a very recurring subject — Think and Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill), Rich Dad Poor Dad (Robert Kiyosaki), The One Minute Millionaire (Robert Allen), and not money oriented ones such as Getting Things Done (David Allen), The Secret (Rhonda Byrne) and A New Earth (Eckhart Tolle) . What you can notice is that there are a few KEY things that will set the successful apart from those who fail.
Here are 3 –
- Defined Purpose
- Positive Attitude & Resiliance
- Giving
I. Defined Purpose
You must define what you truly want to, and will, achieve. Everything is within your reach, if you focus on it. It is easy to bounce around ideas of things that ‘would be nice to obtain,’ but what I’m talking about here is to TRULY DEFINE WHAT YOU WANT. Grab a piece of paper and write on it your idea of success, and don’t ignore any important things when doing this. Then, realize that all this you can have, if you truly believe you deserve it and will get it.
It all boils down to this, if you truly know what you want and believe you have it, you’ll see it materialize. This truth has been taught by many successful people, and was taught by Jesus himself when he said, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” This is not an obscure philosophy, but one that has been around for thousands of years.
Why can’t you go ahead and fully believe it? Most people would rather dream small and not get disappointed than dream big and face a few challenges to get there. This brings me to my next point.
II. Positive Attitude & Resiliance
If you are going through life seeing the cup half-empty, your next cup will look even emptier. My glass is not half-empty, it’s not even half-full, it’s overflowing. Keeping a positive attitude has a gazillion benefits, but one of the most important ones is that it will allow you to enjoy your life, NOW! I feel extremely fortunate to have realized this rather early, there is more to life than what people tend to see. We all go through our lives and tend to worry because of small, insignificant things. It’s difficult for people in general to take a step back and realize that, within the big scheme of things, we are doing amazingly well! Remind yourself of all the things you do have, not what you’re lacking, and life will be much more fruitful for you. Say “Thank You” for your life, and truly feel grateful, and you will get more out of it.
You’d be amazed by the number of people that I meet who are MIT students and feel that their life is the worst, and can’t stop complaining about things. I am talking about people who have access to education from one of the top universities in the world, people who were given an opportunity to study here when the admission rate is only ~12%, and they still feel that way. Ridiculous, huh? It seems that the human race has been plagued with a disease that doesn’t allow us to take a step back and truly feel grateful for all that we have in life.
We need to be resilient and keep a positive attitude. More than 90% of the population won’t do that, they will be positive for a few minutes after reading a nice article and then they allow their doubt to creep in. If you want your life to be better, you must do something different. This is your chance, keep a positive attitude.
In the end, a positive attitude will always bring people to your life with a similar vibe. We attract each other based on how we feel. So allow yourself to laugh and smile genuinely, you will attract positive people to your life and with them better health and happiness.
III. Giving
The effects of giving go beyond measures. Hopefully we’ve all seen it or experienced it first hand at some point. If you want people to be friendlier to you, start by thinking that people ALREADY are nicer and friendlier, and treat them as such. Treat everyone like this and you will then experience the benefits.
This same concept applies to any other thing you may want. Don’t frown and keep a stern look while you wait to receive it, go ahead and give it as if you already had received it. If you keep telling yourself you “can’t afford this” or that, you never will. I’m not saying that you should go ahead and make irresponsible decisions, but don’t keep focusing on the lack of something, rather focus your thoughts on all the great things you have and life will be better.
Remember, always ask “How can I obtain this?” rather than saying “I wish I could obtain that” or even worse “I can’t afford that.”
One thing to note here, though. Sometimes we wish for the wrong thing. If you want love, imagine your life full of love, but don’t ask for a specific person to love you. Let everyone decide for themselves who to love and enjoy life with, you should just focus on your own health and love, and go forward with that. Hope you understand why this makes sense and it’s important.
Leading to a Happier Life Through Gratitude
August 14th, 2009 § 7 Comments
Many of my friends wonder how I can stay upbeat and happy for what seems like… all the time. How can I be so terribly optimistic, and how do I keep my thoughts on the lighter side.
Truth is, I wasn’t always like this, and even now I have my emotional times. There are many things I’ve learned, and many others I still need to learn, but I can thruthfully say that my life has changed for the better in the past few years.
I attended boarding school during my high school years (Fall 2003 – Spring 2006) and I went through both good and very challenging times. Although you may think — what can you possibly go through during high school that is so challenging? You don’t understand anything about life at that point! — I can tell you that I had some emotional troubles that remain, up until today 5+ years after, some of the most challenging times in my life.
This turned me into a colder, more analytical person that would value others based on anything but their good personality. At the same time I struggled with emotional challenges at school, I was facing difficulties with my family, and was hiding most of my feelings from everyone.
After a year or so, however, most of my problems were dissipating and the aura around me started getting lighter. My source of emotional pain was gone from my life, my difficulties with my family were mostly gone, and I started having a shift in my life. Things got much better, and continuing forward I continue to change my perspective and live a happy life.
The single, most powerful lesson I learned throughout all this was to be grateful. The more grateful I am for all the things I have in my life, the better things that flow into my life. As I smiled and gave thanks for the wonderful friends I had, my happiness was contagious and infected those around me. Soon my family and friends were happier, more accepting of me, and our relationship grew stronger.
This same gratitude has also allow me to appreciate all the things that I used to ignore in my life. Now that I was not busy complaining about what I didn’t want or didn’t have, I opened my eyes in amazement and discovered even more things to be grateful about. This attitude also allowed me to meet people I would otherwise have probably ignored in my life, and these people have allowed me to grow as a person and to achieve more of the things that I am grateful about now.
It’s a cycle, the more gratitude I had in my heart, and the more things I was genuinely grateful about, the more things that flowed into my life that allowed me to brighten up and be happy. I can truthfully say that I am very happy with my life. I know there is still a lot more for me to learn, but this is a lesson I wholeheartedly embrace and live in my daily life.
Thank you for reading! The fact that some of you took your time to read this is another thing I’m now grateful for!
If you would like to, please leave a comment sharing any personal thoughts, experiences, or ideas you may have. You can also leave a comment if you think there is more to it, or if you disagree with something I said.
-Omar
Image Attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pensiero/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Killing habits that keep us from succeeding.
August 11th, 2009 § 3 Comments
It is often easy to get inspired and excited about something new in our lives, but how long do we stay motivated? Most people I have met are only happy and excited for as long as a novelty lasts, or until the first big challenge arrives. However, if you aim to be successful in any personal goal, the initial inspiration and emotions need to be present day and night, for it will carry us through difficulties. When we face difficulties, when we receive bad news, it’s even more important to stay focused on our goal and be positive. We can’t simply give up and move on, it doesn’t work that way.
For winners, losing inspires them. For losers, losing defeats them.
- Robert T. Kiyosaki “Rich Dad, Poor Dad“
We are living in a society in which most people are encouraged to find an excuse and give up, rather than take charge of our problems and tackle them. Beneath this behavior of excuses is the belief that you won’t achieve your goal, so you might as well find an excuse and that way avoid facing defeat. How many of us have heard a couple of our friends complain about their weight problems, but then go on and say that they just have to accept their body the way it is. Apparently they got the ‘bad genes’ from their parents and the ‘bad metabolism’ so they just have to accept their fate.
This approach, full of excuses, will keep you from achieving your goals. If we do not pay attention to this problem, and ‘let it slide’, we will soon find this same attitude poisoning other areas of our life and becoming a habit. This habit, like a virus, prevents us from living the life of our dreams, as cliché as that sounds. It is important, then, to recognize when we are falling into this trap so we can stop it immediately. Here are ways to assess this problem.
- Write down your goals - small and big.
- Prioritize – Which of your goals are more important and/or urgent to you?
- Establish a timeline - set a deadline for your goal. Include many short-term goals along the way!
- Follow the timeline – reward yourself every time you achieve one of your short-term goals.
As soon as you catch yourself not following the timeline, you should answer a few questions:
- Am I close from achieving my goal?
- What is keeping me from achieving my goal?
- Was the timeline realistic? Should I reassess it?
- Have I done everything in my power to achieve it? What can I do differently?
- What have I done that is preventing me (or has delayed me) from achieving my goal? Has it been really worth it?
It is important to really take the time to reflect on the things that are keeping us from achieving our small, short-term goals. Awareness of what is stopping you from achieving small goals will be the foundation to changing habits that are most likely affecting larger areas of your life without you noticing it. It all boils down to self-control in the end, and taking the time to study yourself is the best tool you have to achieve this; it is also one of the most rewarding activities you can do!
Share your thoughts – What techniques do you use to not fall in a vicious cycle, and instead keep working toward your goals? What are common excuses you have found that should be rethought and avoided?
If you found this post useful and things others might enjoy it, I would appreciate it if you submit it to StumbleUpon, Digg, Retweet it, or share it in any way! ~
Image attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcoie/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Avoiding unnecessary grudges – Activate your full brainpower to cool down.
August 5th, 2009 § 9 Comments
The German army won’t let a soldier tile a complaint and, make a criticism immediately after a thing has happened. He has to sleep on his grudge first and cool off. If he files his complaint immediately, he is punished. By the eternals, there ought to be a law like that in civil life too – a law for whining parents and nagging wives and scolding employers and the whole obnoxious parade of fault finders.
written by Dale Carnegie in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People
Now here is one piece of advice you may have heard before. In fact, you probably gave the same advice to dozens of friends as well, but still, when a discussion arises you find yourself in the heat of an argument before having had a chance to cool down your thoughts and be reasonable about the situation. When we disagree with someone else’s opinion, we want our point of view to recognized and often we want everyone to accept that we have the most reasonable point of view. You defend your argument with passion, and start getting roiled up when you find resistance. Typically at the end of the discussion one person finally gives up the argument and the other gets the bragging rights of having won the argument. An hour later everything goes back to normal and all you both got out of the argument was hurt feelings and a not-so-healthy relationship. Was it worth it?
If you, on the other hand, take the time to cool off after the initial emotional rush you are most like able to share your point of view without the need to deny the other person’s argument. It is easier in this state to learn from each other, and by this cooperative discussion you can forge new friendships instead of breaking current ones.
This is a difficult lesson to put in practice. Ideally, we want to be able to not have an emotionally charged take on an issue by the time we discuss it with someone else. When our emotions are present, the amygdala reacts without really giving you enough time and space to think clearly.
How can we avoid this innate reaction?
- Take time to cool off and wait until we have total control over your thoughts.
- If you need a quick way to cool off, challenge your brain to solve problems that require you to use your brain! This will force you to activate your entire brain and take power off the amygdala, which is reacting emotionally. Try it! Next time you’re focused on an emotional issue, take out that math or chem book and solve a problem, that’s doubly productive!
- Take a nap or a full night’s sleep before thinking about the issue again. Don’t stay up thinking about it. If you feel you can’t help it, occupy your thoughts by repeating a mantra or a phrase such as “I’m sleepy”. If you are in bed telling yourself over and over that you are sleepy, chances are you’ll fall asleep. If you focus on your problems, however, you will probably stay awake for many hours.
Next time you start feeling emotions while discussing a topic ask yourself, is it time to take a break and wait until the emotions dissipate? It’s an exercise of self-control to actually stop your impulses.
Agree? Disagree? Please leave a comment and let everyone know what you think! If possible, comment about your experiences, it definitely helps to hear from other people. Thanks for reading!
Image Attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fofurasfelinas/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Positive Thinking – A lesson based on “The Secret” and “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”
July 30th, 2009 § 17 Comments
(This post is a bit different from the usual posts I write, I hope you find it useful. Have a happy day!)
Suppose you are single (if you are, great). If you walk down the street and see a person you would like to date, what comes to your mind? Do you turn around and think, “he/she is not going to like me” or do you ask yourself “how can I catch his/her attention?” Say you actually go on a date with someone you like, what do you think when you go home?
- “I wonder what she/he thought, probably won’t call me again” – and then go over the 1000 reasons why the other person wouldn’t like you, or
- “I had such a good time, I’m very happy I met such an interesting person” – and then leave it at that, on a positive note, while proceeding to focus only on the positive things.
Notice how one set of remarks is self-defeating, and reflect doubt, while the other is reaffirming and challenges you to think in a more positive note. The way you approach this and many other situations has a striking effect on what you achieve. The more we focus on what we don’t have, don’t want, don’t deserve, the more time we are wasting that we could be using to be happy and enjoy our day. We could also use this time instead to figure out ways to improve our situation!
Robert Kiyosaki wrote in his bestselling book “Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!”
…rich dad required his children to say, “How can I afford it?” His reasoning, the words “I can’t afford it” shut down your brain. It didn’t have to think anymore. “How can I afford it?” opened up the brain. Forced it to think and search for answers.
The more we make self-defeating remarks, or allow ourselves to focus on such thoughts, the more we hinder our ability to progress and make a difference. No matter how big or small is the goal we aim to achieve, if we do not have a positive attitude towards it, we already failed. This does not only apply to relationship or money issues, but anything you want to achieve. When we say “I can’t stop eating chocolate,” you unconsciously (sometimes consciously!) put yourself in situations in which the process of doing so is facilitated. You find yourself walking through the mall and taking the route that makes you pass right in front of the Godiva store. You think again, “gosh, if I could stop eating chocolate,” and you stare at it just long enough that next thing you know you are eating it. Every step of the way you were unconsciously operating under the affirmation of “I can’t stop.”
Pay close attention to what you say, and what you believe about yourself. When you study the most successful people out there, even those that started with very little or nothing, they all had motivation and confidence in what they were doing. Contrary to what many believe, this self-confidence and drive to succeed is something you can train yourself to have, and not something that is an inherent part of your personality. And this is good news!
As it was said in the book by Rhonda Byrne, “The Secret,” what you have done up until today, and what you have achieved so far, are the consequences of what you were thinking in the past and what that thinking attracted to your life. This, however, doesn’t define who you are as a person, or who you will be. By shifting the way you approach situations, and start smiling when you used to frown, start asking “how?” instead of saying “can’t”, you start to attract better things & open your eyes to new opportunities in your life.
Try it, what do you have to lose? A few days of being bitter about life? I think you can afford to lose them. I have never seen anyone get any substantial benefit out of being pessimistic and/or self-defeating, have you?
Have anything to share? Anything to say? An opinion? Please leave a comment!
