Do you want to know the real key to creating cash flow today? Principles first, strategies second! You’ll hear me say this time and time again. Strategies are useless unless you have the key to making them work. This is where principles come in. If you want to see results happen immediately, then tune in!
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Principles For Creating Wealth Today – Part 2
I’m glad to be here for part two. I wanted to dig into these wealth principles here because this is the real meat. The strategies that I teach you are great. There’s no doubt about that, but if you get the principles right first, the strategies show up much more easily than the second coming up from behind. That’s so critical. You’ve got to understand the principles first and then apply the strategy second to create real results in your life.
If you haven’t been on the show, I recommend you do so. There are some great episodes. We talked about some of these principles. We especially talked about those principles of scarcity and abundance. Scarcity is a life of limits. It’s talking about lack. There’s fear at the heart of it. There’s greed, impatience, and all those things. If you have a spender or a saver mindset, you tend to fall into that scarcity or consumer mindset.
On the flip side, there’s abundance where there are no limits. You have faith, not fear, and you work and get results. You’re the hero of your situation, not the victim. In doing so, you become more of that creator mindset. Instead of the consumer, you’re a creator. In doing so, you tend to create better results. We have distinguished what those things are, the difference is between scarcity and abundance, and being able to recognize that in yourself.
I want to talk more about how to take those principles to the next level. How do you act upon them? It’s one thing to learn about this stuff. There are plenty of people out there that will teach you about things like scarcity and abundance, but they haven’t truly lived it in their lives. They don’t know how to control it or teach you how to control it. I want to talk about that because all of us will vacillate from scarcity to abundance and then back to scarcity and abundance again.
No one person I know of is ever 100% in abundance or 100% in scarcity. We always go back and forth. We can choose to live our lives in one more predominantly than the other. That’s critical to know. I want to talk about 1) How to create more awareness around it, 2) How to change your words and be able to change your thoughts, the existence, and the results, and then 3) How to act and make that show up in your life because it’s not something you do in one day.
This is something that you do lifelong. If you understand, this will make positive results for the rest of your entire life. It’s so important. This is not something that just applies to money, although it’s very important for that. This applies to your family, the relationships you have in your life, your physical health, and your well-being because without this, people get sick and die as a result of not understanding these principles.
I’ve seen this happen many times. This will affect your mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being and every single aspect of your life. Who cares if you make all the money in the world if you can’t enjoy it and don’t have a better quality of life? That’s what I want to dig into. This is something that should permeate every moment every day of your life. Let’s dig into this. The last episode, we talked about scarcity and abundance quite in-depth.
Scarcity Versus Abundance
We can go a lot deeper into this, but I typically say that more for our events where we don’t have it broken up by commercials or small segments. I want to make sure you get the biggest bang for your buck too, when you’re listening to these shows. When we talk about scarcity and abundance, you’ve got to remember the distinction between the two. Abundance typically is a place where you are in faith, not fear.
It’s a place where you’re looking from the standpoint of how you’re going about creating value for people. You value people more than you value money because you realize that money has no value other than when it comes through people. If there were no human beings on this planet, how much would a nice Mercedes be worth? Nothing. It’s the same thing with a big house. It’s just a bunch of stone and wood or however your house is made. If you have a huge mansion, it’s worth nothing without people.
People that are in the abundance mentality have true value. Those people that are creators look at money as a tool to serve more people. People in the consumer condition or those that have a scarcity mindset look at people as a tool to get more money. They use people to get more money, while people that are in abundance will use the money to serve and help more people. I hope you understand that, especially from a financial standpoint. It’s essential.
For those of you that are business owners, I’m the financial advocate for the Entrepreneur. Most people I talk to are in business. They’re in some business, even if it’s a side business. A lot of them would go to networking events. You will see how people show up at networking events. I challenge you that if you do so, observe people and how they’re showing up even energetically because a lot of times, you will see people showing up and they’re desperate. They’re hyper almost.
It’s okay to be passionate and excited. There’s no problem with that, but some people will show up and you could tell they’re urgent. They need the money. You can feel it from them. It automatically causes distrust between you and them. You don’t want to trust them at all. You think, “You give me the heebie-jeebies.” It’s that weird feeling you get from people. You may not be able to explain it. You might say, “They seem like a great person, but I don’t know if I would trust doing any business with them.”
The reason is that when they show up, they show up with major scarcity. When I was a financial advisor, I did this badly. I didn’t understand at that time. I remember I was referring to people like crazy. I would send referrals to people thinking that if I gave, I should be able to receive. I was having that entitlement mentality believing that I should receive. When people weren’t sending me that many referrals, I would get upset.
For example, I didn’t bother to ask why they would not send referrals to me. Part of it was because when you’re an entrepreneur, you realize that you don’t want to deal with financial planners that way. Financial planners do teach out of scarcity. They teach you to take money out of your business and not put it back in. Combined with that fact, plus the fact that I was desperate, even if I tried not to act like it, people would still feel it.
No one person is ever 100% in abundance or 100% in scarcity. We always go back and forth, but we can choose to live our lives in one more predominantly than the other. Click To TweetAwareness
I wondered why I wouldn’t get very good results when I was out “networking.” I’ll do a different episode on this where we talk about building relationships, not just networking, because there’s such a big difference. The reason I bring this up is that you have to be aware of how you’re acting and thinking because, without that awareness, nothing can work. This will not work for you.
If you want to truly change your life, you’ve got to be sure to understand the difference between scarcity and abundance, know when you’re in scarcity, recognize when you’re in abundance, and choose abundance. I believe that you’re not an abundant person unless you choose abundance in the face of scarcity. It’s so easy for people to choose abundance when things are going well.
How do you choose abundance? Do you choose abundance even when things aren’t going well or going your way? What if you run into some obstacles? How do you show up when that happens? That’s going to be a big critical factor, whether or not you’re an abundant person, a creator, or a consumer. There’s a big difference. Awareness is the first step, understanding what it is. You can’t stop there, but it’s at least the first step.
Are you showing up in scarcity or abundance at this moment? Ask yourself. This is something I’ll ask myself all the time, “What emotions am I feeling? Is this a scarcity emotion or an abundance emotion? Why am I feeling this way? What fears are coming up?” I felt myself go a little bit into scarcity. This typically happens with me when I’m working on a lot of projects in the office. When I’m not contacting with people or talking to people, sometimes I’ll feel a little bit of scarcity because I feel like I’m trapped.
I wonder how much impact I’m making versus when I’m talking to a lot of people and teaching. I tend to feel more abundant. The trick for me is this. How do I make sure I still choose abundance and still be as happy being in the office as I am when I’m with people? It’s being as happy when I’m setting up things, writing blogs, writing emails, or things like that. How can I still remain in abundance? That’s a question that we all have. All of us have different lives and different situations. How do we make sure we choose abundance in every situation?
A great book that I read was by a man named Victor Frankl called Man’s Search for Meaning. You might have read this book. There are a lot of parts in the book. The story is great, but I remember there was this one section of the book that struck me hard. If you don’t know the story, this is a man who was in the concentration camps. He was in Auschwitz and places like that. As a Jewish person, he was based in concentration camps, being held captive with the threat of death knocking at every step.
Everything from starvation to genocide. You name it. This guy eventually made it through. He believes that it truly was because of the way he thought. He talks about how you could take away his clothes, decency, manhood, occupation, titles, and even his name and just give him a serial number. You can take away everything out of his life, but the one thing you cannot take away from him is his mind and the choices he makes at that moment.
Many people I know with much less serious circumstances will choose being a victim, stuck, and in a place where they feel like there are no options or choices even though they made a choice to have no choices. It’s a delusion. There’s always a choice in the matter, no matter what circumstances happen and how hard it gets. Trust me. I’ve been through some tough times, especially from a financial standpoint.
I’ve been through some times that have been difficult and tough that I’ve had to overcome. When I’m able to control my thoughts, I can create results faster and better than when I choose scarcity and become that more consumer mindset. I get stuck longer. It gets harder and more painful. It doesn’t mean that you can avoid pain in life. That’s impossible.
Choose Your Words
It’s how you interpret that pain and how you can compare it and be grateful even when things seem bleak. To be able to choose gratitude is a very difficult thing to do, but it does get you out of that situation faster. That awareness would be there. The next one is choosing your words. This sounds almost cliché. Change your words to change your life. As cliché as it is, it’s still true. I have to put a big but on this one. You can change your words, but changing your words doesn’t necessarily mean you will change your life.
I know a lot of people based on their words and the talk that they’re giving, they sound very abundant, overly optimistic, and even Pollyanna-ish, but they do it in a different way. There’s a difference between being optimistic and being positive, optimistic, and abundant. There’s a big difference. People that only do the words but don’t have any power behind those words won’t see the result.
You’ve probably noticed these people. These are the people that seem like they’re very optimistic but you almost feel like they’re fake. Have you ever felt those people before or known those people? They seem pretty fake when they’re being optimistic. You almost think, “These people are going to be broke forever. These people are going to be stuck. They’re saying these positive things but they don’t believe them.” A lot of times, we can sense those kinds of things with people.
I see a lot of people like that. They’re saying positive things, but in reality, they don’t believe it. If they want to believe it, that’s good. You’re halfway there, but it’s not enough. Changing your words alone is not enough. You’ve got to truly believe it through and through. This is the hardest part of scarcity and abundance. This is the most difficult part to master, and it’s something hard for me to master too. Even now, I still struggle with it from time to time.
Don’t think that I’m somehow impervious to scarcity. I do deal with scarcity on a daily basis, even if it’s for a small moment. Here’s how you do it. Here’s the real way you can change your life. Some people will say, “I’ve never been wealthy before. I’ve never had a lot of money or had this in my life before. I’ve never had good health, great relationships, or a good marriage.” Whatever it might be that you’re experiencing, that’s fine.
The one thing people cannot take away from you is your mind and choices. Click To TweetYou don’t have to let the past determine your future because if you don’t close the doors that passed, you will never be able to open a new door for a new future. You’ve got to close those doors. The best way to change your thoughts and the words that you’re saying is to look for evidence in your life when abundance was true. I was talking to somebody where I said, “Even if you’ve never had money before or you’ve never felt like you’ve had business success before, have you ever had success in anything?”
This could apply to you. Maybe it’s a success like you did well in sports or in school or you played a musical instrument where you did well. Think of something that you did and achieved or something you did well where you felt proud or happy. Look for that. It might have been something where you felt like you were a success in the home with your family. It might have been the success you felt in general like at work, whatever it might be or wherever it was.
Think about when you felt successful, even when you felt like you were standing out in a way. Look for that, even if it was one single moment in your life where that happened. Think about how it felt and the emotions that go along with that. How much gratitude did you feel? What things were you doing differently than what you maybe do in normal life? How did you create that success in your life? Did you practice a lot? Did you master something? Did you have fun doing it? Did you enjoy it?
It’s those kinds of things. Think back to those successes you’ve had and then tie them back into your life now. Carry those emotions over to where you are. For example, I was one of those guys who, in high school, I was average. I might have had above-average grades. I’m better than okay in certain sports, but I wasn’t ever exceptional in any one thing. I didn’t feel that until I went to college and started ballroom dancing.
Some of you might know, and some of you might not. I was an amateur ballroom dancer. I was one of the top in the country. Once I left college, I stopped dancing as much. I even danced in the dance team that won Blackpool a couple of years in a row. That’s the world amateur championships for team formations. It was a cool experience. It was awesome to be on a team of such high-level people. The people that were there showed up to create a difference and make a difference.
I remember there was a time when I was dancing on that team when things started to suffer. I was getting criticized a lot by my coach. It was no fault of his. It’s just the way he coaches. When I get criticized a lot, I tend to perform worse. They happened to me in sports and everywhere else. I had one dance teacher that said, “You’ve got this. It’s just a few little tweaks. Do a little bit different to make all the difference in your dancing.” I did.
I remember that year. There was an exponential, huge growth to the point where I said, “I can dance with the top dancers of the country. With more practice in this, I could be one of the top if not the best one.” It was so cool to experience that and start winning competitions and doing things that way. It was so much fun to see a difference in my dancing and how I showed up. I was even getting high honors in my medals exams.
As I started to see that, I realized in business that I started to coincide the two. Sometimes I was even dancing while I was doing my business to keep feeling that feeling and carry it with me on my business. I would perform better because the same things were successful there. It’s having good coaches and mentors and being able to have the right strategies given with the right principles first. The strategies that followed made all the difference.
It didn’t matter the dance moves I did. It mattered the basic principles of dancing, center, and things that made me a better dancer. All those things that were evidenced they created for me created that success and that feeling of accomplishment. They will carry me into business. It’s amazing how that puts me in a better state. They can create a new future for you.
Think about it. In your life, you’ve always had a first time for everything. Why not now? Why couldn’t you have a first time for success in business, your relationships, or your health? There’s no excuse. There’s no reason why you can’t have that since everything you’ve done in your life has been a first time at some point. You weren’t always born experienced. Think about that difference and the benefit you get there. That’s where it’s powerful and it makes a difference in your life.
Look for evidence where these principles have worked, even if it hasn’t been with money or business. Some of you have already seen it in business. You’ve probably had a time. Maybe you’re successful now or a few years ago. Tie that in and look for that evidence. Focus on the feelings or emotions around that, not just the actions, although that’s part of it. It’s also who you were being. Maybe you were doing certain disciplines that made all the difference.
That’s what you look for. When you start to see the evidence, you start to live in that world that works better. Another way to look for evidence beyond your life is to find good mentors. This could be somebody in your life. This can also be as cheap as looking for Audiobooks or books where you’re reading about successful people or reading from their standpoint.
I’m going to read a lot of books by Donald Trump because I saw how he overcame some of his difficult times. His book Trump Never Give Up made a big difference in my life. It’s things like that. Listen to successful people. Three Feet from Gold is another great book. There are a lot of good and successful business stories in there too of all kinds.
People that you want to become like are the people that you want to listen to and surround yourselves with. Fill your brain with those people. Feel them in your ears if you’re listening to them. Read their words. Make their words become your words. Please understand you don’t have to be that person but find ways to adapt and think like they do because the key is not what you do. It’s how you think first. The doing is a natural byproduct.
Change your words to change your life. Click To TweetThat’s how I was able to retire when I was 28. I started listening to those people and obsessing over listening to them. Pretty soon, their words started sinking deep into my subconscious to the point where I started believing them. It started to show up as real evidence. That’s how you do that. Let’s get into the last part. We talk about awareness. You have the awareness.
Act
Second, you’ve got to change your words. Watch the words you speak, not just out loud but to yourself and by looking for evidence too. That’s one of the easiest ways you can do that. Three is to act. You’ve got to act on it. You can’t philosophize all day long. A lot of people are great at philosophy. They’re horrible at finding real results. You’ve got to act and take it to that next step where that faith leads to action. Faith and principles lead to action.
Here’s one of the best ways to do this and help foster this. I truly attribute this to some of the ways I was able to overcome some of the hardest times in my life and created better results. It was doing what Tony Robbins calls the Hour of Power. Some people call it Power Hour. Others might call it a morning ritual. My friends call it that because they don’t like the hour aspect of it. It can be more or less than an hour.
Whatever it is, doing this morning routine or ritual each and every day where you focus on three key areas. 1) Exercise. You’ve got to exercise. 2) Educating your mind. 3) Building up your spirit. You’ve got to do those three things. It’s physical, mental, and spiritual. Those are the three areas you focus on each and every morning.
Some people ask, “Does it have to be in the morning? Why can’t we do it at night?” I say, “It has to be in the morning.” You can do some of these things at night, but you’ve got to do these things first thing in the morning to get your body going and get you moving. Without this, it doesn’t work. You’re not as powerful. The thing that I have to do to get me going is I have to exercise. I have to get my body moving, even if it’s just quick little calisthenics, to get my blood pumping and wake myself up.
I’ve got to get my body moving. Exercise however that shows up for you. It could be workouts, strength, endurance, going for a nice brisk walk in the morning, or something as simple as doing some calisthenics in your home. There are all kinds of fun things you could do. Some of them take no more than a few minutes to do to get your body going and keep you in better health.
The second area is focusing on your spirit. What are things you can do to awaken your spirit? When I go out for a run, I like to do things like listening to my Ideal LifeVision, which is something that Ann Webb created. It’s like goals on steroids and creating a real clear vision. I listen to that each and every morning. When I’m working out, I’m hearing that vision going off. It’s not just that. There’s prayer, meditation, journal writing, and scripture reading. You name it. There are all kinds of ways to build your spirit. I recommend you do that too. That’s as important as exercise.
The third thing is education. What things are you learning about? How are you studying, reading, and growing? Journaling can border on this. These could be things like radio shows, podcasts, or Audiobooks. This could also be reading books or something where you’re studying information or programs. I get business owners all the time who will say, “I wish I were better with marketing.”
“Are you studying marketing during your Power Hour?” They say, “I haven’t been doing that.” If you’re serious about learning marketing, you should try studying it a little bit. You hear the example all the time that the top few percent of people spend an hour a day studying their trade. Why not you? It doesn’t have to be an hour. It could be a matter of minutes.
If you travel or drive to an office, a great way to do that is to listen to an Audiobook while you’re traveling or something like that. It’s amazing where you can listen to things on your phones nowadays and be able to have information more accessible to you at any time. Instead of turning on the radio, why not turn on that? Find ways to do that.
I love to leverage my time. That’s why I love to do those things. I love it when I run to do some of the spiritual aspects in the morning. I listen to my iPod. Some people even do their mental too. They’re listening to books and things like that when they run, they’re out exercising, or whatever that might look like. It’s things to get yourself in tune with, firstly, your body, spirit, and mind.
You sharpen those things and imagine how productive you become when you’re awake and moving first thing in the morning, by 7:00 AM, or whatever time it might be. 7:00 or 8:00 is the latest. You’re up and moving and you’ve got the results of going. You’re truly feeling it and doing it. That right there is when you’re going to start seeing real results.
When I was going through my worst scarcity, sometimes I believed that Power Hour was the only thing that got me through each day. That’s the one thing I felt like I won at. I can accomplish it in a way I can take control each morning and not be stuck. I say, “First thing in the morning, I’ve already won over my body.” The natural tendency of the body is to want to sleep and not get up. I’m not one of those people. I want to get up and exercise for the heck of it.
I’ve got to have a purpose behind it. I truly believe that my purpose behind that Power Hour is if I don’t do that, I am taking value away from people. I’m consuming, not creating. I’m not truly engaged and at my best. When I’m not at my best, that means I’m not giving people the full amount of value that they deserve. When you don’t give people the full value, you don’t get the full value in turn. If you want to make more money, find ways to serve more people and make more things happen that way.
If you want to make more money, find ways to serve more people and make more things happen that way. Click To TweetThis is so crucial. When you start to control your body, mind, and spirit and get these things in tune, you’re productive right from the get-go. You’re not like the average person who rolls out of bed, goes to their job, every morning goes to work, gets up, and starts working, even people in business. I know people would get up, get to their office at 6:00 AM sometimes, and start working like crazy. They skip this entire aspect and wonder why they feel like they’re a chicken with their head cut off.
If you ever feel like you’re a chicken with your head cut off, it’s probably because you’re not meditating. If you ever feel like you’re having a hard time getting going, you’re probably not exercising. All those things have to be there. Imagine if you were productive first thing in the morning, how much more you accomplish and how much more money you can make versus those people that roll out of bed and take almost the entire morning to get going.
Finally, by about lunchtime or a little bit later, they finally feel that they’re productive at the very end of the day in the afternoon. That’s not how life should be lived. Life should be enjoyed now. Milk every minute you can get and every second of every day. If you start to create a great awareness around what you’re doing, you’re searching your words and looking for evidence to be able to help change those words. If you truly believe those words, then they have power.
If you act with power and do things like the morning ritual or that Power Hour in the morning to get yourself moving, that’s hard to stop you from getting results. It’s almost impossible. That’s awesome, isn’t it? We’ve got to wrap up here, but remember, creators are the ones that come from a state of abundance, and consumers come from a state of scarcity.
I want to start going back to doing some more fun things again. We’re going to start talking about some of these principles and strategies next time because it is principles first and strategies second. Master these principles because we’ve got a whole list of awesome strategies coming up. You will want to be there. Please join us. Make it a prosperous day.