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Finding Balance In Your Work and Personal Life

In normal conversations when we use the word “balance,” we tend to think of balance being an even distribution. And in many cases, this is correct. But when it comes to your life or your business or career, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Finding balance in your work life and personal life takes effort.

How To Find Balance In Your Life

I want you to say this phrase out loud: “Balance means equal attention given to both or to all…” Then I want you to say it again and remove the word “equal” because having equal attention in all things cannot and does not work in anyone’s life, including yours.

So if balance doesn’t work in equal proportions, then how does it work? We’ve talked a lot about the 80/20 rule or the Pareto principle. It says 20% of your activities will create 80% of your results. This means that 80% of what you do is wasted as far as the results you want are concerned.

So what do you do to find balance in your life?

  • Prioritize
  • Be productive
  • Separate different areas of your life

1. Prioritize

The first thing you must do is prioritize. You have to say, “What do I do that is productive, makes money and gives me joy?” The reality is most of our time is spent on frivolous, crappy stuff that doesn’t create real results.

Sometimes if I’m not careful, I can be on my email for four hours because I’m curious and think, “What does this financial letter say? What does this other guy say? What’s all of that about? What does he want over here?” I then catch myself and notice how many hours have gone by when I could have finished the emails I needed to do in 20 minutes.

2. Be Productive

That’s life. You have to discipline yourself to be productive.

3. Separate Your Life Into Sections

So how do you prioritize effectively so you can be productive? I want you to think about dividing a piece of paper into two sides, a left side and a right side. Most of our students are involved in a business, work, a career, or something where money or business is involved. So we’re going to put money and business on the left-hand side of the paper. On the right side, we’re going to put the rest of life. You might be thinking that that’s unbalanced, but it’s not.

Let’s take the money and business side, first. I’m going to share with you a big secret right now that not too many people know. I call it “The Big Kahuna”. The big kahuna means the “big thing”.


Determining Your “Big Kahuna” 

In your money and your business, what is the one big thing you can do that will have the most impactful effect and will create the biggest results for your business or career? It’s the ONE thing — not the ten things, five things, four, three or two things.

For my situation, I’ve been fortunate enough to do enormously well on my book, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. That book brought me a lot of clients and business from all over the world and has sold over 2 million copies in 43 languages. So, “The Big Kahuna” for me that would have the greatest impact would be writing another best-selling book, and that would be huge compared to everything else that I do on a day-to-day basis.

So, how much time should you dedicate to “The Big Kahuna”? 50% percent of all of my business time would go into my Big Kahuna. This may come as a shock to some of you reading this right now. But let me ask you this: Do you want greatness or do you want mediocrity? Do you want wealth or do you want to earn a living? If you want wealth, you have to work on “The Big Kahuna” and make it happen. That’s what will create greatness in your life.

Okay, what’s an example of a big kahuna for someone else who is in business?

I can tell you right now that 99% of every business problem lies in marketing and sales. If you are a great marketer, chances are you’ll make great money. If you’re a lousy marketer, chances are you’ll make lousy money.

I can tell you with absolute certainty that the most essential skill I have is the skill of marketing, and 99% of the time, that’s my big kahuna. In my experience, most people who are underachieving are not spending enough time on marketing. The reason is that they either don’t like it (very common), or they don’t know exactly what to do to make it work.

That is why we created our web class, The 500 Million Dollar Secret, to teach you exactly how to become a master at marketing. You can learn what common mistakes most people make and how you can avoid them. You’ll also get the opportunity to know exactly what I do in my own business to predict success.

Dedicating Time To Your Personal Life

For the right side of the paper (the rest of your life), how long does it take to have dinner with your family? It takes an hour a day. How long does it take to read a book to your kids and spend quality time with them? It can take an hour or less. How long does it take to work out? It takes half of an hour to an hour. You DO have time for everything else, and that’s the bottom line.

Exercise: Finding Balance Between Your “Big Kahuna” and Personal Life

Decide what your big kahuna is. If it isn’t marketing, then what is it? Come up with a plan to divide your time to create success in your personal life and your business or career. Leave a comment below and share your story with us!

For Your Freedom,

T. Harv Eker’s Top 10 Tips For Wealth & Success

harv eker pointing up

When it comes to creating wealth and reaching high levels of success, there are only a few rules and principles that you need to consistently follow to get there. 

However, if you don’t get good guidance from someone who has successfully done it before you, and you end up taking incorrect actions, you’ll find yourself struggling to reach the level of wealth and success that you desire.

Over the course of 30+ years in business and bringing in over 500 million dollars in revenue, T. Harv Eker has definitely achieved a high, high, HIGH level of success AND wealth, so he’s a great person to model, yes or yes?

When it comes to creating wealth and reaching high levels of success, there are only a few rules and principles that you need to consistently follow to get there. Share on X

Watch the video below and keep reading to learn T. Harv Eker’s top 10 tips for wealth and success. 

Want to learn more from Harv? Attend his free web class, The 500 Million Dollar Secret.

1. Take Ownership Of Your Life 


So many of us spend our lives waiting for our “big break.” We think that if we just put our heads down, work hard, and do the right things, eventually someone will hand over the keys to our success.

If you want to create real success in your life, you need to believe that you are the one creating your own life. And on the flip side, that you are the one who creates any mediocrity or financial struggle. It may sound harsh — but if you look at it the right way, it’s actually empowering. Because if you’re the one responsible for your own failure, then you’re also capable of changing your life for the better. 

This is how wealthy people see the world, and it’s one of the reasons for their success. Most middle class and broke people see things very differently. Instead of consciously creating their lives, they see life as something that happens “to” them, instead of “for” them.  

So, before you try to do anything else, it’s time to take control. When you believe that you can create the life that you desire, rather than waiting for good things to happen to you, you’ll be putting yourself on the fast track to wealth and success.

2. If You Want To Change The Fruits, First Change The Roots


This may not make a lot of sense at first, but picture a tree in an orchard. Any kind of fruit will do. This tree you’re imagining represents your life. In life, all of our actions will eventually have some kind of result. In other words, your tree will someday bear fruit. But what kind of fruit? Will it be juicy, crispy, and sweet? Or will the fruits of your labor be disappointing and bitter?

Most of us would like the juicy, sweet fruit – the successful results. So, if you want a tree to produce more and better fruit, what do you do?

You go back to the roots.

You can’t change the fruit that’s already been produced, but you can make tomorrow’s fruit sweeter. You nurture the parts hidden under the ground, knowing that eventually, your efforts will affect the entire system of the plant. Life is the same way. If you aren’t getting the results you want, it’s important to make sure you’re focusing on the real problem, not the end result. Focus on the invisible in order to change the visible.

3. Be Willing To Be Uncomfortable


The truth is, most people have trouble stepping outside their comfort zone. When we hit a roadblock or an obstacle, we assume that we’re doing something wrong. But nothing could be further from the truth. Instead of retreating back to old, familiar territory, try taking a different approach:

If you’re feeling uncomfortable, challenged, or discouraged – that means you’re growing.

Even if it doesn’t feel like you’re making progress, the fact that you’re moving outside your comfort zone means you’re moving forward. Many of us envision success as a straight line, a road from point ‘a’ to point ‘b’. But in reality, the road to success is filled with unexpected twists and turns. Being able to accept and adapt to them is one of the major factors in actually achieving any big goal in life.

So, the next time you feel lost, or confused, or just a little out of your depth, remember: it’s actually a good thing to try things that make you uncomfortable.

4. What You Focus On Expands


Have you ever met the kind of person who can’t seem to stop complaining about everything that’s wrong with their life? You probably have. Did that person seem happy, or did they seem absolutely miserable? 

It’s an unconscious trap we all fall into sometimes, but it’s a habit you must break if you want to reach your goals in life. Here’s why. When you are complaining or negative, what are you focusing on — what’s right in your life or what’s wrong in your life? What’s wrong in your life. So, if what you focus on expands, then what are you going to get more of in your life? What’s wrong in your life. 

Instead of looking for reasons why everything is wrong, commit to looking at what’s right. By really focusing on your goals in a new and more dedicated way, you’ll find new roads opening up that you never would have noticed before.

5. Your Word Must Become Law


It’s time to be honest, and the answer to this question may make you cringe. But how often do you start projects and never finish them? So often, we hear from people who start new programs, who set goals for themselves and then never follow through. Finishing what you start is more important than you might think, and it comes down to one word: integrity. And that doesn’t just mean in terms of being honest with yourself (although that’s important).

It also means being whole and complete as a person. When you don’t keep your word to yourself, it feels bad. When you don’t complete what you set out to do, it can shake your confidence and make you feel like there’s no real path to your goals. It’s easy to get stuck in a loop of bad habits and turn this into a self-reinforcing cycle if you’re not careful. 

On the other hand, when you do whatever it takes to keep your word to yourself, that confidence will spill over into every area of your life. It’s a simple matter of self-discipline. It will take some practice and hard work, but in the end, it’s the only way to reach the goals you set for yourself. This is one of the major ways you can own your life, achieve success, and increase wealth potential.

6. Be A Great Money Manager


Do you have a system for managing your money?

If you aren’t making as much as you’d like yet, it may seem easy to write the idea off. You just tell yourself you’ll think about it later when you have extra money to budget. But if you don’t take control of managing your income now, what will you do when you achieve the success you want?  

If you have a poor habit of managing your money, then there is a good chance you’ll still have a bad habit no matter how rich and successful you become. The answer is to first build the habit no matter how much money you earn because money management is one of the biggest differences between rich people and most middle class and broke people. It could make all the difference in whether or not you achieve success and increase wealth potential. 

7. Model Rich & Successful People


How many of us grew up with millionaires in our lives we could use as role models for success? Not too many, right?

The sad fact is that most of us just haven’t seen what it takes to achieve success and increase wealth potential. We can’t go to mom and dad and ask them for advice on how to become a millionaire because most of our parents aren’t millionaires… so how would they know?

Instead, it’s imperative to find people who are rich and successful – and study them to learn how they got there. 

You don’t have to meet these role models face-to-face to use this strategy. You just need to do your homework. Read their books and watch interviews they’ve done. Find out what you can about their past through biographies and news stories. Learn what their lives were like when they were at the same point in their journey that you are now. And then, do what they did. Model their approach.

8. Don’t Put A Limit On Your Income


If you have a job, you have a limit on your income. You automatically have a ceiling on what you can earn. If you want to get rich, you must get rid of all limits on your income. In most cases that means starting a business. 

However, a big mistake people make is when they start a business, they are the business. They are the ones who are solely responsible for the business succeeding or failing. Most small businesses and professionals are set up in a way that gives the owner such a vital role that without them present, the business is unable to function. That kind of setup is a mistake. And that’s the reason why so many small businesses remain small or unfortunately fail.

To be truly successful, your business needs to be able to run without you having a hand in every little thing. If you can step back and allow the systems you develop to run your business for you, even better! Once you step back and allow your business to run without you, there are no limits to the income you can earn.

Think about it – most jobs are based on an hourly rate, a salary, or a commission. That means you can only earn as much as you’re able to work. But when you step back and let your systems do the work for you, suddenly the number of hours in the day will no longer hold you back.

9. Stop Focusing On The Money, Focus On Solving Problems


A big problem I see with struggling business owners, entrepreneurs, professionals, and people transitioning from a job to owning their own business is that they are fixated only on themselves. Do I know enough? Will it work? Will I make enough money? Will they like me? And it goes on and on. However, this is the wrong approach. Stop focusing on yourself and start focusing on others.

Making money isn’t complicated. People will pay for something that solves a problem for them. It’s that simple. You can’t just start a business and hope it becomes successful, it has to have rhyme and reason. People get rich by building businesses that solve problems for others and earned a lot of money for it.

So, you need to shift your focus to being what Harv calls a “problem solver.” You need to decide what you can do to best help people. Money is a result of helping others and providing value to their life.

Think about your life right now. What are you paying for that is helping you solve problems in your life? To get rich you need to help a lot of people solve a problem. That’s the key to success.

This is also a valuable concept that I explain in more detail in my free web class, The 500 Million Dollar Secret. 

Click here to learn more.

10. Never Stop Learning


Finally, don’t make the mistake of thinking that once you’ve achieved a goal, you know everything there is to know! The most successful people in the world are committed to continuing to learn and grow.

Set aside time in your life (and money in your budget) to invest in programs that will teach you something new each day. You’ve probably heard the saying that “knowledge is power” – take it to heart!

So, now that you’ve read Harv’s top tips for wealth and success, what comes next?

Well, that depends… are you ready to learn some more advanced strategies and principles that will help you create wealth in your life? 

If so, then you’ll love my free web class called,

The 500 Million Dollar Secret

On this class airing, you’ll learn:

  • The 80-80-80-80 rule…when followed you’re virtually guaranteed to succeed.
  • How to get 10X more sales and make 10X more income from one slight change to your business model.
  • The 10-letter word that will practically hypnotize your prospects and customers and make them fall in love with you.
  • How to instantly eliminate all feardoubt, and non-supportive beliefs around the word “selling”
  • And much, much more!

Click here to register for my free class and select a date and time that works best for you.

How have you applied any of these 10 tips to achieve success and increase wealth potential in your life? Share in the comments below.

For Your Freedom,

UP NEXT:


Why Marketing Is Your Key To Business Success

 

 

 

 

 

The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More (And Making More Money)

When it comes to getting rich, most people pour their time, energy, and money into the wrong areas. Instead of focusing on the actions that will lead them down the path to becoming wealthy, unfortunately, they end up wasting their time and energy. If you haven’t been successful in what you want in life yet, chances are, you have done this, too.  

Become Wealthy By Following The 80/20 Principle

Maybe you’ve heard of the 80/20 rule before.

It’s the principle that states that 80 percent of your success is determined by only 20 percent of your actions. If you think about most areas of your life, this is probably true and some things just have more impact than others. True or true?

The same goes for business.

When it comes to having a successful business and getting rich, there is only one key element that’s more important than any other.

When it comes to having a successful business and getting rich, there is only one key element that’s more important than any other. Share on X

Whether you like it or not, it’s the part of your work that has the biggest impact on both your business and your life.

Would you like to know what it is?  

If so, watch the video below — a sneak peek of my free web class — to find out. You’ll also learn:

  • 00:20 — How I used to believe all parts of my business were equal and that each part deserved equal amounts of time, money, and effort
  • 00:41 — Why that belief left me constantly broke and struggling to make ends meet
  • 00:53 — How there are only three major parts to any business and what they are
  • 01:18 — The real secret to business success and how it will have the single biggest impact on your financial life
  • 02:17 — Why you should focus 80% of your business time, energy, money, and learning in this one particular area

Again what I covered in this video is counterintuitive. It’s not common knowledge nor is it common sense — but it works in the real world and that’s all that matters. True or true?

The fact is, if you don’t put your time and focus on marketing, you will always be working too hard AND earning too little.

So whether you like it or not, marketing will always have the single biggest impact on your business’ success, mediocrity or failure.

Which is a big, big problem…Why? Because unfortunately, most people are bad marketers.

But there is good news! You don’t need to know everything in marketing to succeed. You only need to know the right things. So to help you in this arena I created a FREE web class, called:

The 500 Million Dollar Secret


In this class, you’ll learn:

  • The most common AND deadly mistake that underachieving businesses make and how you can avoid it
  • How to get 10X more sales and make 10X more income from one slight change to your business model
  • The 10-letter word that will practically hypnotize your prospects and customers and make them fall in love with you
  • How to instantly eliminate all feardoubt, and non-supportive beliefs around the word “selling”
  • And much, much MORE.

Friends, I can’t emphasize how important this free training will be for you and your business. Allow me to teach how you to approach marketing in a whole new way so you can reach the level of success where you’re finally working LESS and earning MORE!

Click here to register for my free class and select a date and time that works best for you.

Where do you put the majority of your focus on in your business or career? Leave a comment below.

For Your Freedom,

 

UP NEXT:

Discover The 4-Letter Word To Eliminate “Selling” Completely And Still Get Rich

 

 

 

 

 

 

Change How You Define Success By Taking Time For Yourself

There’s always something to do, right? Somewhere to be. Someone to meet. Commitments to fulfill. We all have our reasons, but there’s one thing we need to ask ourselves: Is this really taking me toward my idea of success? How do I define success?

How To Define Success By Taking Time For Yourself

We can define success by financial abundance or happiness in relationships and family. But we’re really looking for common underlying themes, no matter what the category. Some of these themes are peace of mind, a sense of calm, and for things to slow down so we can actually enjoy our lives and take time for ourselves.

In other words, what we’re looking for is the exact opposite of the typical hectic lifestyle most people live.  The irony in all this is how we define success as a society encourages you to live a hectic life where you can’t take time for yourself. You feel the need to reach for success now, so then you can finally relax, slow down and enjoy a sunset in the future.


But when does that moment come? Next week? Next vacation? Next year? When we finally reach a long-standing goal? When we retire?

It becomes a never-ending cycle of work for play; only a lot of people forget to actually take time to play now because of how they define success! When work is over, then errands. And when errands are over, then it’s obligation A, then B. Then it’s time to just crash and get ready to do it all over again so there’s no opportunity left to take time for yourself.

No doubt, hard, effective work can pay off, but at what price?

We need to change how we define success. Our definition of success needs to be one that speaks to our needs for:

  • more balance
  • more time to be with those we care about
  • more time for play
  • more time to take care of ourselves
  • more time to do the things we really want to do, not just what we feel like we have to do

Why do so many people “work” their lives away and busy themselves to death?

One word: FEAR!

People fear that they’re not doing enough, or for that matter fear they are not good enough. They fear that if they don’t spend enough time on results-driven activity, then they won’t get anywhere.

The mind can be our greatest ally or our greatest obstacle, striving to protect the Ego that above all else wants safety, security, and to make sure we have “enough”. But if you’re always looking for “enough,” you never get to experience it, do you? You’re always doing, always going after it, as if it’s not possible that enough is enough right now.


Naturally, I’d be the first one to say that finances and your career are important to how we define success, but not at the expense of your physical, mental, and emotional health. Not for the price of your sense of peace, your family or your few moments when you get to take time for yourself and enjoy life.

Don’t just spend time; take time!

Exercise: What’s Important To You?

  1. List your values for how you define success:
    • What’s most important to you?
    • If you didn’t have to work, how would you spend your time and take time for yourself?
  1. In order to take time for yourself:
    • how could you leverage yourself (i.e. earn money while you sleep)?
    • Who can you delegate some of your time-consuming tasks to?
  1. Then adjust your schedule for the next month by assigning specific times you take for yourself. Block out these times first. Consider them appointments and keep them as you would any other.

I want to hear from you.  Can you relate to the challenge of the “never-ending cycle of work for play?” If you had to create a definition about how you define success right this minute, what would it be? (You can always tweak it later, but I want to know what comes to your mind first–what does your gut tell you? Declare it here in the comments . . . and then go live it!

This article has been updated for relevancy and accuracy. It’s original publish date was 01/07/10.

Dare To Be Different: Why “Staying Inside The Lines” Holds You Back

Do you dare to be different in your life or do you tend to color inside the lines? It can be intimidating to embrace individuality, but it’s time to truly learn how to break free from social constraints.

Why You Should Dare To Be Different In Today’s Society

There’s a spirit in our culture that prides itself on individuality and “being you.” That sense of satisfaction that comes with doing something your way and finding success.


Yet, as much as we say we value individuality, how much do we really live by that? If you were to ask yourself these questions about individuality, what would your answers be?

  • How often are our decisions influenced by other people: family, friends, a mate, colleagues, neighbors?
  • How often have you wanted to do something but thought twice about it because you were afraid of what so-and-so might think?

When you go against the grain, you dare to be different and stand out, and it can be nerve-wracking. Why is that?

Living Inside the Lines

It starts, like many behaviors, with early conditioning—like staying “inside the lines” in art class. Structure can be good, but if we dared draw outside the lines, watch out! We’d be “corrected” until we developed the habit of staying within artificial boundaries given to us.

That’s just one of many examples of conditioning that ends up placing limits on our creative potential. Pressures could be cultural like being told to stay with your group, economical when we claim that rich people are why we’re poor … the list goes on and on. And most people end up living their lives “inside the lines” until it becomes comfortable, familiar and “appropriate”—even though it may not be appropriate for you!

In everyday life, anything or anyone that doesn’t fit the “norm” often pays the price of disapproval or scorn. It’s a strange paradox; it can pay when you dare to be different—think of somebody like Madonna, who clearly marches to her own beat—but don’t be too different or else you’re weird, or something’s wrong with you.

Going Beyond the Lines

Most people will do their best to fit into a recognizable and comfortable mold because security is addictive to the ego. As a matter of fact, it’s part of our evolution as people. Acceptance in a group meant survival and safety for our ancestors. And, in some ways, it still does.

However, at some point we’ve got to tell the ego that it’s okay to step into the unknown and dare to be different. Also, think of all the people throughout history that, if they hadn’t stepped “outside the lines,” we’d have never evolved as quickly as we did. We’d still think the world was flat, or that the universe revolves around us, or that “normal” people couldn’t do amazing things.


When you stop playing it safe, your spirit is free to grow, expand and create. Individual, family and social “rules” don’t apply.

It takes guts to dare to be different; to stand out from the crowd; to break free from the “clone drone” society and be a true individual.

So, when others criticize you for doing something “different” it’s usually because they’re scared. Inside, they’re secretly stoked that you broke free. They’re also just frustrated with themselves for lacking the courage to do the same. So, be their inspiration!

30-Day Exercise: Dare To Be Different

  1. Let go of worrying about what other people think of you.
  2. Do something unusual (just remember society does have laws!).
    • Whatever business you are in, figure out a way to do it, package it, or market it differently than everyone else.
    • “Zig” when the masses “zag.”
    • You will not only feel a renewed sense of spirit and energy but will also dramatically increase your income and wealth.

Are you up for it?  Let me know your thoughts and ideas on how you can mix it up, start coloring outside the lines, and dare to be different this month. What would you do differently? Can you find the courage? I want to hear from you!

This article has been updated for relevancy and accuracy. It’s original publish date was 01/15/10.