The Most Effective Method to Becoming Rich (part 2)

hint: You already have everything you need!

(Please read previous post as this is a continuation…)

And now… the last two New Millennium Currencies

Information

At this point, you most likely know that we’re in the age of information. It’s the most expensive thing on the market. People pay ungodly amounts of money for it, governments spend massive amounts of time controlling it and no one feels like we have enough of it.

There are people that get paid far better for the management, the development and the creation of information and information technologies than ever before. If you know how to do something and can communicate it in a way that your client, colleague or friend can understand it… the value can be limitless depending on the need.

Also, it should be understood that you specifically do not need to know everything to utilize this type of currency. You can have a vast network of people who have information, talent and skills. Being the solution to someone problems doesn’t necessarily always mean you are the only person solving said challenges. Bring the right team for the job and you have solved the issue.

If you don’t have it, invest time, energy, passion and money (from your assets of course) into gaining the right information and the right network to lead you to the right solutions. Then figure out how to monetize it so it can make money for you on a consistent basis.

I’ll give you some suggestions in the next post.

Passion

health + energy + momentum + optimism + confidence = Passion!

This is your number 1 currency. Period. Non negotiable.

The above equation is ordered in an important way! Generally each preceding factor feeds into the next until you reach the all encompassing “Passion”.

Do you feel less passionate in life? (regarding work, your loved ones, the daily grind, etc.)… that means you’re more than likely lacking one of the preceding factors! Think carefully. Many people lack optimism and confidence… this may be due to lack of energy, exercise and diet (meaning Health).

If you have more health than the next person, you’ll live longer.

If you have more energy than the next person, you get more done in all areas of life.

If you have more momentum than the next person, you’ll reach your goals sooner.

If you have more optimism than the next person, everone will want to know you and be around you.

If you have more confidence than the next person, you will get the sale.

If you have more Passion than the next person… you will win. Period.

Let’s remind ourselves that our economy is fueled by confidence. Stocks, bonds, other investments. How optimistic the public and share holders are with a company’s performance is literally how much that company is valued. This concept of dealing in confidence spans across industries, governments, and the media.

What we tend to not realize is this is also how we are valued as a professional in many ways! We deal in optimism and hope - both as manager and as employee as well as in multiple levels of business, jobs and even in our personal lives.

Time management has been replaced by energy management. In business and in general life.

Energy management is a broad subject. I’ll cover it in a future post. But the easiest way to understand this concept is to understand this:

Yesterday a task may have taken you 3 hours to complete. Maybe this was due to a normal day in the routine of your life.

Today, you have had a wonderful morning, a solid breakfast, some great conversation, and you’re feeling good all around. The exact same task will only take you 1 hour.

Why? It has nothing to do with better scheduling or time management. Its because you have different levels of energy. This is due to the multiple areas of Passion. If you have the Passion… you will succeed.

Passion is King!

The absolute top priority in any market anywhere. If you have time & money… invest it in more Passion!

Invest all other resources and currencies into each of the ingredients of passion; especially the first few building blocks (health and energy).

There is absolutely no argument against this ROI. If you’re healthier and more energetic in a natural way; you will live better, work longer and play harder. Period.

The Most Effective Method to Becoming Rich

hint: it has nothing to do with “money”!

(Please read previous post as this is a continuation…)

And now… the first two New Millennium Currencies

Time

The most finite, expensive (especially with the ever popular “opportunity cost” equations), and in-demand currency of them all. But not the most important! It’s important to realize that more time, resources, thought and engineering is being spent on figuring out how to save time (or properly utilize & monetize it) than ever before.

BUT, the entire concept of time management (in terms of scheduling and proper use of time) is being placed under debate and is being renegotiated. It’s outdated.

I suggest rethinking the concept of time for yourself. After reading ahead into the currency of passion and learning that energy management is far more effective and important than time management, I urge you to consider dropping the outlook calendar, the 2 ton calendar you have in your bag or at your home office… and develop the process of having a simple priority divided task list that’s organized like it was the latest apple software product and a single small tablet of paper on your desk that says “today I will accomplish these two tasks:…”, or even “today’s top priority is…”. It will be the best innovation to your time management since you started learning to read a clock!

Later we’ll discuss how to properly monetize your time. But for now, start to understand that time is a vital form of currency. And that it is far more important than “money”.

Assets

This category use to be labeled money or cash. But money alone is no longer considered an “asset”. This is because it doesn’t follow our New Millennium currency rules. It’s not in motion (well at least if you don’t consider inflation and if you do, then money is always declining in value). Thus, in order for money to be in motion, it needs to be earning you a return of some sort by investing it and converting it into an “asset”.

Assets simply stated; stocks, bonds, metals, real estate, net estate (see below), other business investments, etc. (There are more assets that I will cover in the monetization section of these posts, but for now, these are the traditional approaches.)

Many people think of the real estate market as being “crashed”. And sure it’s not worth what it once was. But think globally. How many millions of people around the world would kill to own your house or condominium? Think if you had more time, information and motivation that you could sell it or leverage your property to still make money is a down economy?

If you don’t “own” anything… start today. Even buying a few cheap stocks from very well known companies at the fire sale prices we’re seeing due to the crushed economy will start to generate a feeling of “ownership”. If you don’t know any places to invest in, consider a money market account or just start investing in gold and other metals that historically hold their value. You should definitely own digital real estate – or “net estate” (your own URL and network ICP – see other posts). Depending on where you are financially, you should look deeper into the opportunities that the current economy may have for first time home owners if you don’t own your home. You may be surprised to find out that you could buy your way into a decent place and be paying a lot less for the mortgage than the rent on your apartment – even in this economy. Also see current tax deductions for first time home owners. Thousands of dollars can be claimed back from taxes paid just for new ownership.

Information and Passion currencies are to follow in the next post

Cash is NOT King

The new concept of assets: “New Millennium Currency”

Money is not real! Cash is fake!

I hate the phrase “cash is king”. It drives me crazy.

It’s only a tool to use in exchange for goods and services. Too many people think money can buy happiness, safety or security. Most of the time, this is not always the case. It is only one possible measurement of one side of the equation. Time, for example, can be king. Time works for both sides of the equation. Time always equals Time. Money does not always equal “Money”.

Personally, I don’t even think of money as an asset. Can you use US dollars anywhere in the world, at any time, to obtain anything? No. You cannot. But there are other currencies that can be earned, saved, invested, spent and loaned that you can use anywhere, anytime for anything. Literally.

Let’s take a moment and discuss a different way of looking at currency. The rules changed as we moved into the 21^st century. I’m not asking you to forget “money”. I’m only asking you to drop the concept of “money” to the bottom of the list of importance.

Most people who haven’t properly and clearly set their future goals (read my other posts) typically say “I want to be rich” when asked what their career goals or future goals in life are. And usually a follow up clarification question results in “I want a billion dollars” (or specifically I quote a “bajillion” dollars).

Well, there are many avenues to getting rich, but what I always suggest first is re-engineer your thinking. And one step you can take today is starting to realize there are more important currencies in life than paper “money”.

The Concept of New Millennium Currency:

First lets understand the rules of the new currencies before exploring them:

The new currencies are alive. They are always in motion. At any given point you are either earning more, or losing more.

An old phrase use to be “how much money do you have”? And now that question has become more enlightened… it’s “how are your assets doing in this economy”, “how much free time do you have”, “what talent do you have that you’ve learned to monetize and how” and “how do you feel; emotionally physically, mentally”? The concept of net worth is no longer the most important measurement. What’s more important is what you’re actually able to do with your currency and resources.

The new currencies are always considered in relative terms.

It is understood that any currency’s worth is fully negotiable at any time.

For example, one person will pay more “money” for an extra day per week (like negotiating a lower salary in order to not work on Fridays). The next person would pay a lot more or a lot less for the same amount of time. But I guarantee you that an extra free day a week will enable you to earn a lot more “money” or currency than what your day job is paying you. So it’s all relative and negotiable. Provide more information, you’ll get paid more. Provide solutions for freeing up time, you’ll get paid more. Provide a way to obtain assets with low risk, you will get paid more. Provide a more enjoyable atmosphere or supply charisma in times of need… you will get paid more.

Any of these currencies can be exchanged for local “money” – anywhere, anytime around the world

These are the new currencies in order of importance. But I’m going to break them down for you in a different order in the next post, because some of the concepts may cause you to react in a confused way if you’re not fully ready for the internal discussion you’ll have with yourself at the end of this series of posts.

I would like to introduce you to the New Millennium Currencies:

Passion
Information
Time
Assets

Bottom line: With any of these forms of currency, at anytime - anywhere, you can earn “money”.

But… money can’t always buy these currencies!

Quitting Coffee – How to Successfully Replace a Habit

At the core of building one’s success rests the simple truth that many of us need to change and improve our way of thinking. All the great success architects talk of how we need to change our environment, how we need to keep our goals first and forefront, how we need to take each moment in everyday to remember and remind ourselves to take the next step towards our passion and purpose in life.
Many of those who I’ve spoken to are challenged by their first step in this process. Or their challenge is in maintaining the stamina needed to persevere.
This daily “first step” can be overwhelming in the beginning. But this overwhelming feeling is also a great chance to build this change into a daily habit, and use it to replace an old, less desirable, habit.

I’ve been on the success track for a while now, and sometimes it is hard to relate and to connect with those who are just starting out on their road to success. That changed today. As I had a very humbling experience; Today is the first day I proposed to have a fast on coffee. I enjoy it too much to quit parse, but I will go without it for an entire month. The first greeting that rewarded my efforts arrived as the typical caffeine withdrawal headache. Wow, it was intense. It reminded me of the reactions we receive when we start on the road to success from our bodies, minds, the people that surround us and the people that support us.
It fascinates me how the human mind and body work. If you get too use to something, (no matter how good or bad it is) it is very difficult and many times both mentally and physically painful to stop. From my studies I’ve seen that it’s a statistically proven fact that it takes about a month to quit (or more technically “replace”) a habit and somewhere around a year to make life long change.

Many people center in on the habit itself (I just need to not drink coffee today), when really what they need to be aware of is the deeply rooted conditioning that is supporting the habit (every morning I go to starbucks, I love the atmosphere, the community, the warmth, the music, the somewhat upscale atmosphere, etc.) and the reasoning behind the habit itself (I love the warmth of a hot drink in the morning, something that wakes me up and soothes me at the same time).

Conditioning plays a huge factor in all our lives. More so than most of us realize. And just as any habit you wish to quit needs to be both removed and replaced – conditioning requires a different condition or environment.
Let’s recap:
Surviving the Caffeine Headache
Think of a habit you want to remove. Think of what state of mind you’re in when you enter the desire for this thing or action that supports your habit. How can you change that mindset? What about the environment? Is there a certain place, maybe in your home or at work that you tend to revert to this old habit? How can you change your environment to support not being able to continue this habit?
Remind yourself, what positive habit have you thought up to replace this bad habit?
For me; I’m replacing coffee in the morning with machine blended organic fruit and organic matcha.
From there, it’s just enduring the change for a month. Which will be hard. But worth it.

If you’re trying to quit coffee... don’t hang out at Starbucks!
Tim Ferriss quotes AA meeting advice, “if you don’t want to slip – don’t go where it’s slippery”. Apply this to your habit. E-mailing too much at home? Stop sitting at your computer every night… or at least vow not to open outlook.
I will cut the café out of my morning routine, and make the morning lifestyle within my home more desirable. Yoga/Tai chi after waking up, something refreshing to read while I eat/drink breakfast, and then some more time to blog before heading off to work. Remember the new habit has to be more exciting or fulfilling than the old one.

Use your community to help you and support your decision.
My beautifully amazing girlfriend just went out of town for a month. I set my deadline and promised her that I would keep to it. It helps to share your plans with friends, coworkers and loved ones. The accountability makes it much harder to easily break and return to your old ways.

Always make sure to set a goal, quantifying it with a date and qualifying it with a strong reward.
April 24th says I can have another cup of coffee. Until then… it’s Lock Down!
Upon completion, I get to ask my girl on a coffee date over the weekend.
Set your goals, set dates, quantify them, be realistic yet aggressive, and remember to heavily reward yourself!

With a little bit of time, some information and a dash of passion – you can accomplish anything in life! What are you waiting for?

Moments of Inspiration

Last night was amazing.

We have them. Moments of inspiration. Friends, family, loved ones. A long conversation, a nice dinner, sharing intimate moments. Amazing subtle experiences. Set alone, they may be enlightening. But strung into the thread of fate and melded into your day to day – they become epiphanies. Strong enough to empower you to do great things!

Moments of inspiration are tools of momentum. When was your last moment of inspiration? What were you doing? Who were you with? What was your state of mind? Exploring further and writing these things down means that you will be able to call upon these experiences and memories later when you are in need of injecting passion into your flow. Take a moment today and explore how to bring more moments of inspiration into your life… and how you can share them with others.

Stop talking yourself out of Success!

With my entrepreneurial mindset, I’ve learned that many times having too much information can be a bad thing. But the concept that really fascinates me in business is that it’s human nature (due to low self esteem or confidence, etc.) to weed out and pull up all fragments of why we shouldn’t do what it is we want to do. Rather than concentrate on how many different potential paths there are to success.
People literally will convince themselves they shouldn’t have what they want in life. Its odd how quickly people jump to why things “won’t work” or “will never work”. And most of these people have no really facts to base their conclusions on… other than the occasional “he said, she said.”

In my consulting experience, I can usually tell the difference between a company that has a solid strategically successful future from one that is not in our first meeting. Usually we cover current challenges. If the company has three goals or less and we sit for an hour discussing all the reasons why it won’t work, this is not a good sign. But if the company has three or more goals and we spend the hour in an optimistic discussion of all the different possibilities of success and which to focus on, I know they’re going in the right direction.

Let’s apply this to you personally. Examples; looking for a new job or launching a new product, or being successful in general. Do you spend more time thinking about how things won’t work? Or do you spend more time opening all the exciting opportunities of how things will work out?
In career branding, a previous client said at our session, “Wow, $40k more than I’m making now? There’s no way.” Why? Who says there’s no way? Who do you know that failed? Who do you know that changed industries and failed? 2 or 5 people out of 300 million people in the country? Is that enough to base your so called “perception” on? Is this why you feel YOU will fail?
Have you ever thought about how many people have succeeded? Do you have any idea how many people get paid to do nothing in this world. You’d be surprised.

People are overwhelmed by info… and now we see they use that info to convince themselves they’re wrong. And most of the time, even the positive information is not used right. It’s not constructive. It’s used as a suicidal weapon!
This negative thought process will systematically convince yourself to fail out of an opportunity. Never put yourself in a position to doubt your goals. Never doubt your path. Never doubt your future!

Start saying, “I can”, “I will” and asking yourself “How will I do this?”
The other guy is not better than you. They are not faster than you, smarter than you, or stronger than you. They just had the right perceived talent at the right time. Maybe they even fit one given opportunity better than you did. But we’re all unique and there’s a better opportunity out there for you. All you have to do is look and be ready to accept it!

“90% of all failure comes from quitting” - Paul J. Meyer

A follow up to a few of my previous posts: once you’ve “shown up” and are beginning a successful opportunity, statistically speaking, most of all failure is rooted in people simply quitting.
People quit for a number of reasons. Tired, burnt out, exhausted all of apparent options, lost, success is nowhere in sight, not really sure what the fight is for, no set goals, etc.
All people really need is basic motivation. A message, most of the time ridiculously simple… but delivered in a special way at just the right moment results in moving mountains and Olympic potential!
Remember Newton’s 1st law: “A [Person] in motion, tends to stay in motion… “
What would you say to someone about to quit, to encourage them not to give up, to help keep them in positive motion?

I know what I would say.
“Anything is possible.”
I love the photo of the cat hanging by one claw on a tree limb titled “Never Give up”.
There are NO wrong decisions (except for obvious physically dangerous ones – but even then if performed by an athlete…). There are only decisions that bring us that much closer to our goals. That’s why failure is so important. Without the process, you’ll never know if the goal you started out with is really the goal that you’re meant to achieve. If there was no failure, we wouldn’t truly know the miracle of life and the sweetest taste of victory.

“Lottery Mindset”: only 1 way to fail, but millions of ways to succeed!

Life’s little known secret; it serves us well to remember that there is only one way to truly “fail”.
The only way to fail is to give up and not learn from “failure”. And to top this exciting news off, there are millions of ways to succeed!
I find it so fascinating that most of the people on this plant think the opposite. People think that there are millions of ways to fail and only a few ways to win. In my audio program, I call this the “lottery mindset”.

Most people fail from giving up. How quick and easy do we all say “I quit”, “never mind”, or “whatever”? And how rare and difficult do we say or hear “I’m going to make this work”, “what will it take to succeed?”, and “I will win”?
Sad truths. It’s too easy to throw in the towel and back away from a challenge. Trying and then giving up is the only real way to “fail”.

Looking deeper into the only way to fail is to think of the word “failure” in a negative way and not to see how much opportunity and educational value is in the action of failing. When learning from failure we must be prepared to potentially fail multiple times before a lesson is learned. Indeed, we may even fail the same way several times. I disagree with the second part of this phrase: “learn from your failure and don’t repeat the same mistake twice”. It’s far more valuable to understand the “mistake” than to overly focus on not repeating it. Repetition, if approached from a scholastic level, also leads to learning. Repetition is bad, if it leads to negative conditioning (repeating a mistake or harmful choice without learning and acting in a positive direction). But pushing hard for a goal or result only to fail several times in the same general way - gives us a study and examples to figure out what’s going on. Pushing several more times may lead to new ways of failure and greater learning potential. If you’re taking the time to study the “failure” and strategizing new efforts to solve the problem, you will eventually break through and succeed.

Then, when we succeed, it helps to remember this is only 1 method of success. Later when we have time, studying our other failures may lead to different methods of success granting us more profound results. These additional results may apply to the same challenge or even new and more complicated challenges. When we examine challenges and failures deeper we realize that there are infinite methods of succeeding. So many different ways to succeed, we as human beings will never be able to explore each and every one.

Next time you’re “failing”, learn from it. Explore it. Flip the equation around. Instead of just buying another “losing” lottery ticket, look deeper into the game. Find a better way to invest your resources, learn from the game, apply your findings to other challenges, and ask yourself why you’re playing the game in the first place. You may realize you could get the same desired result from a different course of action.

Open your mind. Most of the people around you are in the “lottery mindset”. They have odds stacked against them due to their own choices and yet still throw a dollar a day away. Today is your day to play a different game using the same game board. A game board where there is only one way to fail and millions of ways to win. How do you want to win?

“Everyday Normal”: your 2009 Success Strategies

A favorite nutrition and fitness teacher at SJSU coined the phrase “everyday normal”. When you say it, think of brushing your teeth. You don’t question this. It’s routine. You wake up, and at some point early in your day, you brush. You brush again before bed. And some even work brushing into their lunch hour at some point. Most of us do not skip this “everyday normal” routine. And many of us have other things we do, everyday, that's normal.

This is a great example of how one should work routine exercise into their lives. A little bit, EVERY DAY. This strategy if far more effective for a broader range of people.

For me, it really hit home when I was studying Japanese characters (Kanji). I tried every morning to learn just a few Kanji. And failed. Three days in I found other things that were more important for me to spend my morning time. This was not the “everyday normal” for me. The key is to find the method that feels “normal” to you. Ultimately I ended up watching a lot of Japanese TV and listening to a lot of Japanese music. That was normal. And it propelled me into a conversational fluency in the language.

“Narau yori narerou”.

This is a famous proverb in Japanese. It means “more important than ‘learning’ is to become conditioned to or use to”. Now, apply this strategy to your success! What can you do a little of EVERYDAY that will move you closer to your 2009 goals. What can you implement in your life to move you forward. Something clear, simple and concise that can be accomplished in under five minutes every day that will help you with your goals.

- Exercise

- Writing (blog, newsletter, poetry/fiction for creative relaxation, etc.)

- Positive reinforcement as the day starts and as it ends

- Telling someone you appreciate them (I love you to my wife/family, thank you to coworker, etc.)

- Goal setting (daily & weekly checking that you’re moving toward your purpose in life… or taking time to learn what your current purpose is)

Remember, it’s more than a habit – its everyday normal!