Conditioning, conditioning, conditioning. It’s not just a mantra for athletes. In the Millionaire Mind, we go marathon – the distance of life – not a race to a million. It’s not something to train for occasionally. It’s something we live consistently, yes?

Even if we’re not always at peak level – and there will be times when we’re just not – there’s something that’s motivating us, something that’s fueling us. What we’re fueling up with will determine whether or not we go the distance.

The juice that fuels us is our motivations – why we’re doing what we do. And there’s really only two ways to go here. You’re either doing what you do based on a positive energy juice or negative energy. Both can be extremely effective. Both can get you far, but the difference in the end: are you going to arrive where you intended to go, and what kind of condition are you going to be in when you get there?

People who run on negative energy juice do things like make pretty decent amount money but get rid of it because it was angry energy that got them there; they were rebelling against something, or someone (usually a parent). Except when they get rid of it now they’re BROKE and angry! They got rid of the wrong one.

Others are so fearful that there will never be enough money – or they will never be enough – that the insecurity shifts their focus away from the other areas of life. Their insecurity erodes their physical, mental, and emotional condition.

Fear can be useful when it comes to getting our butts in gear when we know we have to get it done. But when we’re acting on imaginary pain – pain based on negative conditioning that fuels negative motivations – that kind of fear acts more like an obstacle to our happiness rather than an efficient fuel source.

How about these for motivations: joy and purpose! Loving what you do! Contributing to something beyond yourself and the money is the result. Good or good?

If you’re not juiced by joy and purpose, it ain’t gonna work, not for the distance anyway. You can get short burst of success based on anger or fear, but these create stress. You might win the game financially for a short period of time, but you won’t be rich on a spiritual, emotional and mental level.

You cannot have enough money to not be angry anymore. No amount of money will lessen fear because fear is the habitual fuel and money is the prop. You can never alleviate the fear with more money or more of anything. What you have to alleviate is the fear itself. Change your fuel! We want money and happiness. The only way that can happen is if you’re running on supportive juice, not fuel that’s going to lead to a crash and burn.

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If you’re going to make money, come up with a couple of motivations that are supportive. There’s always family, obligation, more toys or material things—but what are some motivations that really touch the core of our greatest joys in life? What are some different types of juice that relate to happiness beyond “I have to do this” or material comforts? We want to hear from you!

 
To Your Success,

Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, at their roots, have had historic importance worldwide for thousands of years. Many ancient peoples celebrated the Winter Solstice with different kinds of festivals and rituals with themes of death, birth, gifting, praising, etc.

Some historians trace New Year traditions back to the Babylonians of 4,000 years ago. For them, this time of year meant paying off debts or returning borrowed items, a different way of “resolving” their issues.  There was a sense of accountability as well as celebrating what’s to come. We have our parties and Auld Lang Syne too, yet our resolutions tend to focus on ourselves: losing weight; quitting smoking; or making a million dollars—being better or more than we were before.

You don’t need New Year’s to remind you to stay on track toward your goals. Success-building is a daily routine, yes or yes? The fact is, though, that most people are not going to keep their resolutions. Some surveys suggest only about 8% will stick to their resolve by year’s end, and a whopping 45% will fail by the end of January!

While the reasons range from fear of success or failure to resolving the wrong things for the wrong reasons, maybe we should resolve instead to grow every day, one day at a time. This is what it really means to be present. It’s not a coincidence that we use the same word to recognize the now-moment as we do to define a gift.

The seed of all the great things in our lives—who we are; who we want to be; what motivates our desires, what determines whether or not we achieve success—is happening right now. Everything. If we want quality answers that are meant to ease our anxieties about the future, it means we have to ask quality questions now, which is the quality of present moment awareness. As our awareness expands so does our vision, our ability to be in tune with what is happening—what will happen—as our intuition guides us in spite of uncertainty.

Our ancestors wouldn’t have survived if it weren’t for planning and anticipation of the inevitability of change, guiding their ability to plant, harvest and know when not to. Nor would they have had reasons to ritualize endings, beginnings, celebration of success or reflect on past mistakes if it weren’t for planning for the change of seasons. It’s in our best interest to plan as much as we can to work toward what we want to see happen. The truth is, though, we don’t always know what’s coming around the corner. We can take educated guesses, but there’s no such thing as absolute certainty.

In the end, all we ever really have is now, and this is where we will find our richness. Now is when we can reflect, think, make decisions, act or not act—not tomorrow. There’s always only now. Giving yourself to the present moment is the best gift of all—it’s the resolution that lasts a lifetime, every minute of every day. It’s in the present that all things become possible.

From the entire Harv Eker International Team, Happy Holidays and have a great start to another year of growth, learning, happiness, success, and richness!

For Your Freedom,

 

Be grateful!

We hear it all the time, at least in a community of fellow seekers who want to grow their financial success building as much as their spiritual peace. Life has its highs and lows, but the one thing that’s the same no matter where we are on the wheel is that there are always many things to be grateful for.

It’s easy to be grateful when it doesn’t really require a ton of effort, like saying “please” or “thank you.” It’s easy to be grateful when things are going great. But what about when things aren’t going quite as planned?

Everyone’s been there. The mind starts going into “what’s wrong,” or what’s not enough, what’s too much to deal with, too much to do in order to overcome an obstacle and reach a goal. In some ways it’s natural, but when it becomes a habit then the pity party is simply a safer choice.

The truth is it takes much more courage to appreciate what we’ve got—no matter how little it may seem—than it is to surrender to the scarcity model and let ourselves off the hook for taking action because something isn’t enough.

Our egos will tell us that if we spend too much time being grateful for what we have, we won’t try to get more, and we’ll become stuck with being “content” instead of happy.

Wanting what we currently have has nothing to do with somehow tricking ourselves into “settling.” Just because you’re buying an economy car now that’s practical but not so hot-looking doesn’t mean you won’t want a Ferrari three years from now when you’re rich. It’s not hard to be grateful for that fact that you have four wheels to drive that gets you where you need to go. There are plenty of people in this world that don’t have that, with consequences we couldn’t imagine.

It’s the lack-based protective mind that continuously hungers for more, like a squirrel hoarding nuts for winter. The scarcity model, constantly looking around, overlooks and discounts what’s right in front of us. We have to constantly remind ourselves to look for “what's right” in our lives instead of “what's wrong.”

Then we’ll be less likely not to forget to show our appreciation to the people who are closest to us; our family, friends, loved ones, co-workers, employees. Then there are teachers, postal workers—all the people that make our daily lives more convenient and enrich our larger communities. And let’s not forget to say “thank you” to the Universe for our many blessings.

Gratitude particularly holds true when it comes to finances. To have abundance, be grateful for and properly manage whatever wealth you have now, even if you don’t think it’s much. Why? If you’re not appreciating what you already have, that means you’re not maximizing what’s available right now. If you can’t do that, why should the Universe believe you can handle more?

Now it’s your turn: Who and what have you not fully appreciated?  What are some of the things that you think we tend to take for granted? Below list the people and things in your life for which you are grateful. Show your appreciation to the people who mean the most to you for all that you have.


For your freedom,
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Notice how the universe supports us in living. We are intended to have the perfect combination of gases so we can breathe, and food that just grew from the ground for our picking well before we became agricultural communities. These are not flukes of nature. To deny this is to deny that the universe is on purpose-and to deny that everything in it, including us, is on purpose.

Purpose is a tricky term. After all, how can anyone be sure that they are living their purpose?

There are two types of purposes. The first is the purpose of life, which consists of three sub-purposes, if you will. There are a number of fill-in-the-blanks to the statement, “The purpose of life is to …” I think, though; there are some core basics to the purpose of life.

One important purpose for us all is to add value—to this planet, for this generation and those that follow. Adding value could easily include procreation, to nurture and love a being in hopes that they will do the same for others.

Another purpose of life is to learn and growto evolve our consciousness, which includes spirituality.

A third component is not just simply enjoying the fruits of our labor, nor just strictly enjoyment in terms of material satisfaction and pleasure, but that we also enjoy the journey, which could very well (probably, for most) entail some trial and tribulation. In other words, to appreciate everything.

By no means do I think that those are the only three important purposes in life, though I think they are fairly basic to everyone on the planet.

The second type of purpose, though—our personal purpose, or mission, is obviously going to be unique for each and every one of us. This kind of purpose includes all the other purposes in life that we can think of, but it mostly focuses on that first—adding value to others and to the planet.

In the Hindu tradition this translates to dharma, or duty. Author Carolyn Myss calls it our sacred contract with the divine, a belief that each person has their dharma to fulfill on this earth, to help make the earth whole; a specific calling, a specific piece of the puzzle to help define the bigger picture.

God forbid, but if we lost an eye or a limb, we could go on, yes? But things just wouldn’t be the same either. That’s what it’s like for this world to not be gifted with those who aren’t living their dharma. Others can survive without your piece of the puzzle, but it’s just not the same.

We not only have unique talents but unique ways of expressing those talents. This is the way we become rich spiritually and financially—by matching those unique talents and forms of expression with the needs of your fellow human beings.

Live your life based on your mission. Honor your dharma. Fulfill your sacred contract. Everything else in life is built on the truth of your purpose. It will bring you happiness, fulfillment, meaning, and success.

You are not only important in this world, you are essential! If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be here.

What’s your dharma? How did you come to recognize and know that it’s true for you? Help yourself and/or others come to greater understanding of themselves. Leave me your comments below!


For Your Freedom,

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That’s the easy part—it only seems difficult sometimes if we feel guilty about wanting what we want or scared of what others might think. Once you get over stuff like that, knowing what you want isn’t that hard.

Among the many things we all want in life, more money tends to be in the Top 5. Money makes life a little easier, at least financially. You can do more things with more money. That leads to another connected want on most everyone’s list—greater happiness, which includes less stress about financial security, more personal time, more freedom, greater joy.

These are things that lots of people say they want, but most people aren’t financially secure and barely get by while working jobs. This job might be “more money” than they were making before, but is that the road to financial freedom or simply retirement, and how long will it take to get there playing the money game like we were taught?

And is that a joyful way to live?

That second key to getting what we want in life is the “Why”: why do you want what you say you want? Does it really mean something to you? Is that someone else’s imposed thoughts echoing in your head or your own, from your spirit?

I always wanted to be free. I love doing what I do, but the worst thing I could think of is being forced to do this. I wouldn’t love it anymore. People just don’t like to be forced to do things. You want to do it from choice.

That choice has to be backed by reasons that are honest, true and excite you to your core, like a kid who can’t stop jumping up and down and clapping in anticipation of pure joy.

In my experience working with thousands of people, more than 50% of the people that do this one simple action doubled, tripled or even quadrupled their income within a year:

Write down want you want. It must be clear and it must be absolutely important to you. Write at least five reasons why you want what you want, especially in terms of wanting more money. Put that sheet of paper on a wall you can’t avoid.

You want to see miracles in action? You’re not sure Spirit exists?  Think the Universe is trying to support you if you would just get out of the frickin’ way? Do this!

It’s unbelievable, but you have to do your part, and it starts with putting it right up there front and center in your consciousness.

Now give us stories of your miracles in action. Did a door that you didn’t expect open for you after making a life-changing decision? Were there times when your income jumped drastically? What choices were you making at that time? What goals are you proud to have checked off your list?

Share your stories! Together we can continue to grow and learn with each other!

For Your Freedom,

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Last month we explored how sometimes we just need to be able to identify what we’re frustrated at in order to begin addressing it. When there are consistent frustrations in a business, we can usually address them by putting systems in place that minimize inconsistencies and produce more of the results we’re really looking for.

It’s another one of those no-duh, no brainers that may not appear like much until those frustrations build to the point of blinding us from the most direct solutions.

But we now want to articulate the impact of that frustration on our business condition. How does this thing impact you? What results aren’t you getting? What’s happening? What’s not happening that you want to happen, or don’t want to happen?

We don’t want to be working on anything that doesn’t really matter. If you’re frustrated because your partner starts their day later than you do, does it really matter as long as the work is getting done? But if that lateness means missing calls from earlier time zones, that could have an impact, yes?

So it’s one thing to name a frustration, and it’s another to know exactly what that frustration translates into toward your bottom line. You’ve got to probe, measure, and quantify that frustration. You might find at the end of the day, you’re really getting bothered over something trivial—or you could find that your frustrations are indeed warranted.

If you have a complex system you’re looking at, this process can take months. So how about a more simple formula?

“The real problem in my business is the absence …” It could be a system that will cost effectively generate leads rather than be a costly guessing game every time. Or a system that staff can follow consistently rather than doing it their own way each time, producing mediocre or inconsistent results. Or it could be the absence of a system for strategic planning rather than primarily responding to a competitor’s moves.

It’s just a generic way of focusing. You’re not actually formulating a system yet. What you’ll find is some of these things that you describe can actually be purchased as software programs, or you can easily hire consultants who do them much better than you would. But once you’ve figured out what the problem actually is, reformulating starts to become easier.

“The real problem in my business is the absence of a system that will …” Fill in the blank with that generic system solution and then write down your original frustrating condition.

You should start to feel a shift in your energy in terms of some of these things that are frustrating you. The question that you simply have to ask now is: Is this frustration worth fixing? Is this frustration that you named—if it’s not stemming from within you—something you have to address quickly or is it lower on the priority scale?

Do you really want to remedy this frustrating condition or would you rather just live with it? That’s the question that you have to answer.

What do you think? What are some frustrating aspects of running a business that you’ve encountered, and how did you remedy them? Did you find value in naming and understanding the impact of those frustrations? Were some of them really nothing? Make sure to leave me a comment and let me know your experiences with frustrations in business (and how you handled them) – or even how you handled frustration and overcame it in other parts of your life!

For Your Freedom,

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There’s no way around it: those who aren’t extraordinary athletes or entertainers but who still want to get rich have to get good at sales. Whatever that may be, even for artists, or whoever. You have to more specifically not only get good at sales, but good at closing sales.

Now how do you close a sale? There’s three or four ways to do it. The best way is the invitational close. ‘Do you like this? How does this sound?’ You invite feedback. ‘If it sounds pretty good, why don’t you give it a try?’ Assume that when you’ve answered a question or an objection, it’s the equivalent of them having decided to buy.

Or you can use what’s called an alternative close. ‘Would you prefer this or that?’ You offer a choice between A or B. The probability of them picking one or the other goes up dramatically if they have a choice, and whichever one they say ‘Yes’ to, you’ve made a sale.

Here’s a neat trick from one of the masters, Brian Tracy: if you get the customer to give you a single piece of information, you’ve successfully used the power of suggestion. ‘How do you spell your last name exactly?’ If they give you the spelling of their last name, they’ve bought the product. It’s very powerful.

In the end, the most important quality for sales success is boldness. All qualities are habits, habits of thought and action. Because of childhood conditioning, we have these fears of failure and rejection, but those are learned because children have no fears. We learn them as we grow up, but that also means we can unlearn them. The way you unlearn the fear of failure and rejection is by doing the opposite of what you would do in a failure or rejection situation.

When we back away from the fear, it grows and grows. Soon it dominates our whole life, and it paralyzes us. But when you confront the fear; when you do the thing you fear, it gets smaller and smaller and becomes manageable. So for the rest of your life, you make a habit of doing the thing you fear. You make a habit of confronting the fear.

Pretty soon, you develop the habit of courage. You reach the point where you’re not afraid of anything. The key to your success as a person and as an entrepreneur is to develop the habit of courage. The way that you do it is every single time you feel a little bit scared or nervous, you attack. You move toward the fear situation. You pick up the phone. You make the call. You knock on the door. You ask for the order.

Whenever you feel afraid, do the thing you fear. In a week, a month, a year from now, your fears will diminish. As your fears go down, your confidence and your self esteem go up, and you start to feel fabulous about yourself. You start to feel unstoppable.

What were some of the fears you’ve had to overcome in your life that held you back from success? What once seemed like a mountain but now more resembles a molehill? Give us your feedback. We want to hear from you!

For Your Freedom,

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“Can you hear me now? Good!”

I’m a marketing fanatic as many of you know, so I try to appreciate great ideas communicated brilliantly when I see it. Verizon’s cell phone television ad campaign articulated and took advantage of a simple but powerful truth— with other cell phone carriers, lots of people were experiencing the frustration of dropped calls in the middle of important conversations.

You’ll never have to worry about that with us, Verizon basically said, with commercial after commercial of the same Verizon field test guy in the most remote areas of the country still being heard, still good.

The number of Verizon subscribers jumped from 32.2 million at the start of that campaign in January 2002 to 43.8 million in two years. They also poured billions into their network infrastructure; continually investing in what they said they would deliver on—fewer dropped calls anywhere.

I’m not a Verizon spokesman or advocate, I just use the example to illustrate the power of a simple message communicated to the tune of more customers, and more money. The money is in the message. Marketing and promotion is how you get customers to your business, and customers are how you get more money.

This is exactly the problem most businesses have, though—communicating clearly and concisely what they do and how it benefits their potential customers. It’s one thing for you to know what you do, who you help and how they benefit, but it’s quite another thing for other people to know the same thing.

One of the most essential skills you can have is the ability to articulate what you do in a powerful and concise way. Clarity leads to power, for both you and your customers. It empowers them to understand exactly what you can do for them and why they should buy from you. The reason most people fail in business is that they have a very poor message.

Your message has to cut through like a knife to the core. You have to be very selective and specific about what you say. You might have lots of different things to offer, but you can’t put them all in a 30-second sound bite. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Keep it simple. Less is more. You want to leave people saying, “That sounds interesting.”

What’s your “thumbprint”? What’s unique about you? Why should someone do business with you versus the person next door?

If you don’t have this, you are chopping your income in half. As soon as you have a strong sound bite, and deliver on your promise, you can double your income.

The only way you'll ever know what works is to try something out and see if it works. You always test first, and then you sprint out of the gate when you have a winning proposition.

How about you? Have you experienced a difference in success when you changed your persona—your “calling card” so to speak—as you sold yourself or a product? What was it that specifically made a difference? Was it how you perceived yourself or how others perceived you? Let us know in the comments below!

To Your Success,

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Think back to a time in your past—five, 10, 15, or even 20 years ago. Maybe you envisioned a happy future making more money, having more fun, a family of your own, or living in a bigger place than you did previously.

Few things turn out perfectly, but chances are that at least one area of your life saw some growth and improvement. The standards of a 30 or 40-something-year-old adult are going to be necessarily different than those of a late teenager. In that sense, most of us have undergone economic, personal, and career upgrades, even if you might be disappointed with the outcome thus far.

All life on this planet goes through seasons. We’ll experience spring-like blooms, the reaping of summer, the preparations of fall, and the chill and severity that winter brings. These cycles affect us individually and globally. Overall, the world is experiencing something akin to a severe economic winter.

However, if we can remember that we’ve all experienced times of growth and improvement in our individual lives after a period of lack and want, we can re-adjust back to a mindset that focuses on a future we can look forward to again. That starts with accepting and embracing the now.

By far, the toughest cycle we’ll experience are our “winter times,” whether it’s cold outside or not. Even  the grasshopper needs to be told by the Ant to prepare for winter, so the old story goes. The other seasons are easier if not more enjoyable.

As tough as things can seem during harsh times, winter provides opportunity to recover and start planning for the next spring ahead—the same kind of spring that gave us relief before and will bring us relief again.

You can do this by defining what you want to create. Be specific. Sometimes luck helps, but there’s no way to get what you want until you’ve defined what that is, and, just as important, why you want it. Your motivations will steer you through any winter storm.

Also, taking inventory. List those attributes that enhance the quality of your life right here and now—family, friends, the network of colleagues who might help you take that next step; resources that are helping you economically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. You might be surprised at just how many resources are at your disposal.

Lastly, be grateful. For every “negative” thing that may be happening to you, someone else is undergoing more pressing challenges. Gratitude has a way of dispelling fear, anxiety, and a self-defeating attitude. You can’t focus on what you don’t have when you’re grateful for what you do have. How we progress through the seasons isn’t based on what we don’t have, or what we might’ve done or not done in the past. It’s about how we use what we do have now, sowing seeds of growth that we can reap later.

Winters can seem to go on forever, but they don’t. Somewhere, right now, someone is enjoying summer. That’s as true for the world as it is in our individual lives. When in winter, use this time to re-focus, heal, enjoy your blessings, and start planning your next spring now.

Give us your thoughts on life’s “seasons,” whether they apply to your personal or professional lives. Where are you in your life’s cycle? How do you navigate your seasons? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Each and every one of your comments is meaningful and valuable.

Happy Holidays!

For Your Freedom,

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Whether you’re rich now, on your way to being rich, or just thinking about it, everyone has fantasized about what it would be like for money—or rather lack of it—not to be a problem.

Most people stay in the realm of fantasy, maybe dipping out occasionally to buy a lottery ticket. Another group, not satisfied with the 9 to 5 grind, takes a few more risks and pours their energy into business ideas, opportunities and companies. Most will fail within three to five years.

But there are those fewer people with the skill (which can be learned through modeling), willpower and creativity who are successful. There is another attribute, though, that separates them from the poor, and that is intention.

Most people say their financial goal is to make money. Yes or yes? That’s a good reason, but the issue is that’s not specific enough. If you have a wishy-washy intention, you’re going to get a wishy-washy result.

Rich Business People Have Three Financial Intentions:

  1. To have a very high working income

  2. To create passive income

  3. Dramatically enhance the value of their company

What’s the intention that poor people have? To earn a living. To earn a decent living. That’s what they’re in business for. They don’t even consider they’re in a business as a way to create passive income and even more importantly to create wealth.

A business is not a job. A business is too much work with too many challenges to just go out there to earn a decent living.

The business is designed to be a vehicle to set you free and create nothing short of wealth! Rich people understand that business is simply two components: either buy or create something and sell it for more than it costs you. That’s it!

Most broke people have struggles, put most of their energy and attention not on the buying, creating, and selling but on the administrative and operations arena—the organizing of those two things—and that is a mistake.

Operations are very important, but it’s not the essence of the business. Go back to the cave people: ‘Here’s a piece of meat. I want your stick.’ That’s it! There’s no customer service. There’s no tech support. There’s no finance department. There’s no reporting. There’s no furniture and there’s no computers. ‘Your stick, my meat! Let’s go!’ That’s business!

Buying and creating and selling. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

This knowledge helps focus the intention of why we’re talking millionaire success strategies. The basics help, but the intention has to come from the simplest truth. When we’re going into business, we’re not going halfway. You could, but would that be much better than working a typical job?

When we’re talking about our money blueprints, these basics of why we go into business have to be drawn up into the foundation. It’s so simple and powerful yet not very well understood. Knowing this helps put you back into focus when the inevitable challenges arise, or when you face disappointments and setbacks.

You are doing this because you are going to be rich! Whatever other intentions are attached to that—for family, to buy nice things, to travel, to be an artist, whatever—don’t have to conflict with this truth.

You are doing this to be rich and to be free!

Now it’s your turn!  What are you financial intentions?  Are they wishy-washy and you need to change them now?  Are they solid and moving you forward?  Share below—I want to hear from you!

For Your Freedom,

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