To start getting into the habit of feeling the fear and acting anyway, put yourself in uncomfortable positions every day, conversations with people that challenge you, something adventurous like skydiving, taking on a project you have no idea about, learning something new. The key here is to become obsessed with new experiences that allow you to become accustomed to feeling uncomfortable or fearful and acting anyway. Then the brain can become even better at creating new neural networks and become fitter and stronger!
Exercise: Every day from today, put yourself in an awkward or unique experience that forces you to feel some form of fear or anxiety and makes you have to act immediately. It could start as something simple as a new drink or food you’ve never tasted, a place you’ve never been, public speaking, or some kind of thrill seeking like bungee jumping. Condition yourself to feel the fear and act anyway and watch your dreams turn into reality.
Vitamin D
Do Whatever it Takes
An athlete of the mind never quits on their dreams no matter what. Most athletes of the mind have failed more than many and made many more mistakes. They take them on board as learnings not setbacks. An athlete of the mind takes massive action and does whatever it takes staying true to his or her values, with ethics, values and staying within the confines of the law. However you will find many will ask for forgiveness, rather than permission within the business or financial world.
I believe it’s critical to stay sophisticated, honest and congruent to your values doing what feels right to you, whatever that may be at the time. Outside of this there are no excuses, no reasons, no person, and no setback that will ever completely stop an athlete of the mind. In their mind there is no failure, only feedback, and the only way to fail is to quit. If you never quit you will never fail, simple!
The athlete of the mind is prepared to get up as early as they need to and go to bed as late as they need to achieve their dreams. The athlete of the mind is relentless in the pursuit of their dreams, with such laser beam focus no obstacle can cause them to take their eye off the prize. People will pass, loved ones will break your heart, kids will be born, illness will fall upon them, accidents will happen, economies will fail, governments will change power, snow will fall, droughts will occur, floods will come but they will never, ever take their eyes off the ultimate prize of their dreams, not even for a second.
In my last business there was a time that I had to live in my office as I was homeless, but I did not quit. I couldn’t afford food or eat for days on end, but I did not quit. When setting up these current businesses I had glandular fever and was bedridden for months, but I did not quit on my dreams. I worked all day on my laptop and did whatever it took as I had promises to keep.
No matter what tests or adversity you are faced with, a true athlete of the mind never waivers from their dreams and always keeps at least one eye on the prize.
Exercise: Write below 3 things you are prepared to do as of now you’ve never done to dramatically increase your rate of success. I.e. get up 2 hours earlier, make 2 hours more a day of phone calls, save an extra $500 a week for investing.
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Vitamin E
Eliminate Negative Self-Talk and Blame
Quite possibly the quickest and easiest way to get massive changes in the results of our lives is change our self-talk. You cannot stop thinking. You think all day, every day, and if you let your mind will wander, it will do as it pleases. It will become lazy, distracted and weak if you let it.
The biggest killer of our dreams is not the economy, our parents or the government, not even where we live. The biggest killer of our dreams is the negative self-talk that stops us in our tracks. The negative self-talk that we use to self-sabotage ourselves or our actions. I’m about to share with you the 5 most powerful forms of negative self-talk that if you continue to use, you will never, ever, ever achieve your dreams. Even if you do so, it will be short lived.
Your brain is a muscle that can be strengthened, or weakened. Your mind is also like a garden and what happens to a garden if we let it go? It grow weeds right? If we weed our garden once then let it go, what happens? They grow back, right? So we need to weed the garden of our mind of negative self-talk every day. If we don’t the weeds will grow back.
There are many types of weeds, in the garden of our mind. In this book I’m going to cover 5 of the most devastating weeds that will destroy your garden if you let it. If you choose to begin focusing every day on weeding your garden of the mind of just these 5 weeds and were not to implement anything else in this book, I’m sure I would be hearing from you very soon about some great success story or something you’ve achieved in your life due to the positive changes.
Weed 1) The word TRY
The word ‘try’ denotes failure. I ‘tried’ to quit smoking, I ‘tried’ to go to the gym, I ‘tried’ to eat healthy, and I ‘tried’ my best to make my dreams a reality.
When we use the word try, it’s because you are giving up or stepping back. An athlete of the mind never quits remember, not on their dreams. The more resistance they experience, the harder they push. Persistence beats resistance. Can you ever remember actually using the word try, after you succeeded at something? No, of course not, because you didn’t try, you just did it. This is so simple that deep down you probably know that whenever you use the word try it is holding you back, and causes you to take a step back and stop giving 100%.
Completely remove the word try from your vocabulary. And do not replace it with “I gave it my best”, or “I did my best.” Did you really? If you gave it your best until you achieved it and did whatever it takes then you would have succeeded. Is your best really your best? Could you not do better tomorrow from the learnings? Of course. Eliminate the word try as Yoda from Star Wars says: “Do or do not, there is no try.”
Weed 2) The Word SHOULD
Have you ever found yourself saying things like, I ‘should’ go to the gym, I ‘should eat healthy’, I ‘should’ save more money, I should, I should, and I should? And you should all over yourself?
When we say we should do something are we motivated to do it? Not at all. And when we feel we should do something then we don’t, how do we feel? Guilty right? Is guilt a motivational state? Not at all. Then to make it worse, we create an anchor that triggers a feeling of guilt every time we think about what we should do. Let me explain.
Day 1 - I should go to the gym, you don’t then you feel guilty.
Day 2 - I should go to the gym, you don’t then you feel guilty.
Day 3 - I should go to the gym, you don’t then you feel guilty.
Day 4 – You simply think about the gym and automatically feel guilty and you don’t know why.
Have you ever heard a song come on the radio and it’s reminded you of someone or an experience? It’s called a trigger, you can use these to your advantage or your own pitfall.
Instead of using the word should from here on in, you are going to replace it with a strong must and because. Example. I must go to the gym because I want to live longer so I can see my grandkids get born.
Start replacing should with must today and watch yourself become a huge action taker. This will also help you eliminate procrastination.
Weed 3) The Word LIKE
What a weak word really. I would ‘like’ to achieve my dream lifestyle. I would ‘like’ to quit smoking. I would ‘like’ to be financially free. Do you think the word ‘like’ is compelling and emotionally pulling enough to motivate you to do whatever it takes to achieve your dreams? Definitely not. Instead of using the words ‘I would like to’, start saying ‘I’m going to’, today.
Weed 4) The Word BUT
The word ‘but’ is a dream killer. When used in a sentence it negates everything said before it. I woul
d like to go on a date with you ‘but’… I would like to go to the gym, ‘but’… I would like to achieve my dreams, ‘but’ I have to put my kids and my family first. I would like to go on a holiday, ‘but’ I can’t afford it. I would like to be financially free ‘but’…
I understand when we use it, it seems to make sense to us. But all it does is gives you an excuse and a reason not to make it happen. You will also notice when making excuses people use a lot of these words and distinctions together. Kick but in the butt and start moving towards your dreams now. Eliminate all the excuses, use strong compelling words, remember your why and tell yourself you are going to do it no matter what - for your kids, for your family, for your community and most importantly, for yourself.
Weed 5) BLAME
This usually follows ‘like’ and ‘but’. I would like to eat healthy, but I don’t have enough time to prepare my food. Here we are blaming time and we don’t even know it. We are blaming something we cannot control. Therefore we relinquish all of our power, responsibility and control, meaning we are the victim and powerless to do anything about it. This reality for many is so far from the truth that it’s blinding, and I believe it to be the biggest reason people don’t succeed in achieving their dreams next to not knowing your why.
I would like to spend more time on my business but I need to look after my children. This is a huge one, and I agree family come first. But don’t use them as an excuse and blame them for you not achieving your dreams. You might think this sounds harsh, and at first it will. If you look deep into your soul I know you will find it to be true. Is it really your kids, could you not get up earlier? Create more financial freedom and free up your time, find someone to help out with the kids?
I agree family is the most important thing, which is why you must achieve your hopes and dreams, so you can lead by example and show your kids that it is possible and dreams do come true. Imagine the lessons and values they will learn from you when you do.
We usually blame things outside of us, and tie it in with an excuse. Sorry I’m late for work, the traffic was bad. This is so common. If you had of left 10 minutes earlier would you have been on time? Of course. Can you control the traffic? No. What you can control is what time you leave. So you are not late because of the traffic you are late because you didn’t leave early enough.
For many this might be hard to grasp at first. When you do, you will start to take full responsibility for everything in your life and become powerful beyond measure, the captain of your own destiny, in charge and directing your path to greatness. You are in control, you are the one.
Next time you find yourself making an excuse or blaming something or someone outside of you, stop it immediately. If in the future you are late, or something happens simply say sorry, and don’t back it up with an excuse.
Becoming an athlete of the mind today
So will you start conditioning your mind and take all your mental vitamins daily as of today? Will you begin to weed and cultivate the garden of your mind? Are you prepared to become an athlete of the mind and join the 2% of the elite in this world regardless of race or religion that have?
Start with one thing at a time, work on it, master it, and then move onto the next. You can become an athlete of the mind, you can turn your dreams into a reality. You can achieve your dream lifestyle no matter where you are in your life right now, but only if you take massive action every day. The key here is consistency and application of all the mental vitamins until you have.
Chapter 7
Refine your Financial Freedom Philosophy
How would you like to stop living week to week within the next 4 weeks? Have you ever struggled to pay your bills? Found yourself just getting by? Or maybe you are doing well financially but would still like even more financial freedom and abundance?
I’m sure you are also wondering how you will fuel the financial fire necessary to travel, tick off your bucket list and pursue the passions you truly desire. In this step I’m going to share with you the exact financial philosophy we have personally used to create true financial freedom no matter what your current cash flow or net worth is, and to stop living week to week.
Before I do though, would you like to know the number one secret in creating true financial freedom? The one habit that if you adopt right now you will never have to worry about money ever again?
It’s really simple, the number one secret to getting ahead financially and creating abundance in your economic life is; to spend LESS money than you earn, every week for the rest of your life. Sounds simple right?
Many people (myself included) focus on a never ending attempt to continuously make more and more money in a futile attempt to solve our money problems. We make more and we spend more, we make more and we spend more and the cycle continues.
To achieve true financial freedom let’s look at what that truly means. My definition of true financial freedom is to earn enough passive income (income you receive regularly whether you work or not) to cover the living expenses of your dream lifestyle. For some that might be $1000 a week, while for others that might be $10,000 a week. For example, we have a $5000 a week travel budget that is completely covered from our passive or residual income streams. Imagine a life where you could earn $1000-$5000 a week passively or through residual income? What would that mean for you and your family? How would you spend that time?
You might be asking the question, “Well how do I do this?” I’m going to show you exactly how in this chapter so stay tuned. The very first step is to create enough passive income to at least cover your living expenses which technically means you will never have to work again.
So let’s work that out, shall we? Simply write down the answer to this question:
1) How much in total is my weekly living expense? (If you have a partner determine your share)
$_______________
2) How much passive income would I need each week to cover the cost of my dream lifestyle each week? (This doesn’t have to be right or wrong, just a finite target you can aim for now)
$________________
These numbers above are your target. The first target is to get you to a point you are earning enough passive income to cover the cost of all your living expenses in the first number. Then we turn our focus to the second target and life really gets fun.
I personally believe 80% of a result is simply being aware of exactly what you want, and why you want it. So let’s revisit a few questions. At this stage you might have some doubt in your mind that you can make these figures happen, there might be fear, uncertainty, and worry. That’s ok, remember that’s totally natural, besides this is your first time right. That’s why I am here to guide you each step of the way. If you read this entire book, and follow the steps 100% you will overcome those fears, and achieve incredible results in all areas of your life.
My definition of financial freedom and an amount is:
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(Be sure to use sensory data terms like ‘looks like’, ‘sounds like’, ‘feels like’ and more importantly word it in a way you can show someone else you’ve achieved it and its tangible)
Why is it so important for me to achieve financial freedom?
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What would it really mean for me if I was to achieve true financial freedom?
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On a sca
le of 1 – 10, with 10 being the most, how important is it I achieve financial freedom?
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How will I feel when if in 6 – 12 months from now I’m still exactly where I am right now?
(Remember to make it as painful as possible)
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How will I feel if I take the necessary action and do achieve financial freedom?
(Remember to make it as pleasurable as possible)
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If you keep doing what you have been doing up until now, are you guaranteed to achieve financial freedom in the near future? Y/N
10 Steps to Creating your Dream Lifestyle Page 4