How To Become A Financial Hero

I have a confession to make…and perhaps it’s something you can relate to and has happened to you in the past.

Although I generally consider myself an extremely positive and optimistic person, over the past few weeks I’ve found myself in somewhat of a slump…

There have been a few events in my life recently that have taken me off kilter and have greatly impacted my overall mood and attitude.

In brief to name a few of them: 1) I had to take the love of my life – my girlfriend – to the emergency room this week which nearly led to surgery 2) I had a few partners back out of a joint venture deal that looked as though it was a “sure thing” and would’ve led to huge growth for our company 3) I had a major fight with a family member over something that I felt was not a huge deal (but evidently to them it was).

Because of these and other events, I’ve found myself lately dwelling on the future and “what if” scenarios.

These thoughts which I continually focused on over and over again began creating excuses in my mind for why things were not working the way that I wanted them to.

As I created more excuses, I began to feel immense internal conflict within myself and lately I’ve felt a reluctance to do the things I know I need to do in order to move forward with my life and go to the next level. These feelings of apathy started to negatively impact the results I was getting in all areas of my life which only fed the fire that was burning in my mind.

While all this was going on, it started to become very apparent to people that are close to me that something was off about me and that I wasn’t being myself. When they asked if I was alright, I pulled the classic man card and responded, “I’m fine…just let me figure this out on my own…”

But the truth was I needed help…badly. As much as I thought I could handle these challenges on my own, the more closed off I became, the more stressed out I felt, and then the cycle repeated only taking me deeper and deeper down into a hole of negativity and worry.

It wasn’t until I had a conversation with my girlfriend that finally snapped me out of my funk and got my thinking straight once again.

Just this morning as she was getting ready to go off to work, she came to me and said, “You know… the only person that is making you feel the way you do is you… And you’re the only one that can change that…”

At that moment I realized that I had broken my cardinal rule not just to abundance and wealth building, but to my life as a whole.

Although I’ve written about this rule in the past (you can read about it by CLICKING HERE), today was a powerful reminder of a lesson that I needed to hear again… And it was simply this:

You alone are solely and completely 100% responsible for your life and results.

You see what I was doing for the past couple weeks and up until this point in time was what the majority of people do every single day for their entire lives…

HOW THE MASSES HANDLE CIRCUMSTANCES

Once you understand what I’m about to share with you next, you’ll realize exactly why the masses not only get the results that they don’t want, but continue to get them over and over again.

Here’s what happens…

When people look at their results and present circumstances that are not favorable to them, this immediately generates a series of thoughts around those results. These thoughts lead to feelings which cause the person to feel bad about where they currently are.

Because they feel bad, they are unlikely to engage in any sort of behavior to change where they are so their actions do not change.

Because their actions stay the same, their results either don’t change or they continue to get worse which in turn causes the negative spiral to accelerate (hence why I got myself into the funk I was in).

In essence, it looks like this:

1st: Present Results ==> 2nd: Thoughts ==> 3rd: Feelings ==> 4th: Actions ==> 5th: Same/Worse Results

When you hear people complaining about a certain area of their life, you now know that this is exactly the reason why they’re doing it. They look at where they currently are and allow that to dictate their psychology and behavior.

Know this: If you allow your present circumstances to dictate how you think and how you feel, you’ll never be able to get the results you want.

MOVING FROM A COMFORTABLE VICTIM TO A FINANCIAL HERO

Now that you understand why the majority of people don’t get the results they want, the question now becomes, how do we change this?

While there are many people who have their own set of answers to this question, if you boil it down to its core essence it looks like this…

Rather than allowing your present results to determine how you think, feel, and act, instead start to build a vision in your mind of the type of results you would like to achieve and then allow that to guide your thinking, feelings, and behavior.

Now before you dismiss this as some lame positive thinking exercise or mere “wishful thinking”, know this: Everything that has come into our world first began as an idea in the mind of a man/woman.

Before we enjoyed the benefits of flight, the Wright Brothers first had to build an image in their consciousness of what type of machine would be capable of travelling off the ground and overcoming the force of gravity.

Before we had the ability to talk to people on the other side of the world with the touch of a few buttons via a telephone, Alexander Graham Bell had to build the idea in his mind of a device that was capable of connecting two people through sound across long distances.

While I could give many other examples to illustrate my point, I think you are starting to get the idea…

So rather than the starting point of the creative process beginning at your present results, here is where you have to get to in order to turn things around.

First, build the image in your mind of the kind of results you want to achieve. If you want to increase your income, imagine your life if you were already earning that kind of money and how you would feel if that was the case.

Don’t worry if you can’t see a clear path to how exactly this is going to happen. Just trust and have faith within yourself that the way will be revealed to you (as it must by universal law).

Second, as you start to create this picture, you then have to get emotionally involved in this image because that will begin to change how you feel.

Third, when you begin feeling different, you’re going to start entertaining new possibilities of exactly how you can achieve this desired result (there is a very definite reason why this happens however we will cover that in a future post…).

As your feelings change, you will start to alter your behavior and begin doing things that will produce the result you want.

Finally with a sustained effort of concentration, eventually you will wake up and realize that the idea you built in your mind, has suddenly become your reality.

This is how it looks:

1st: Thoughts (aka Ideas) ==> 2nd: Feelings ==> 3rd: Actions ==> 4th: Results

See the difference?

Understand that the beauty in this lies in its simplicity. By over-analyzing this model and trying to find the flaws, you are merely re-affirming that you’re doing things the right way, or so your mind would have you believe…

If that were true however, then why aren’t you getting the financial results you want?

Understand that I’m not trying to discredit anyone’s point of view, but rather I’m trying to open your eyes and show you why things are the way they are. More importantly though, I’m trying to show you how you can begin to turn things around so you can begin getting the financial results that you want.

YOUR ACTION STEPS

1) Acknowledge and realize that until you learn the lesson I just gave you, things are going to continually be the same for you. If you want things in your life to change, you have to start changing things in your life.

2) In the words of Mark Ford, “Cast aside the comfortable shoes of victimization. Put on the working boots of a financial hero.”

From this point forward, refuse to condemn, criticize, or blame anyone else for why you’re not getting the results you want. Remember, complaining about what you don’t want only creates more of the same – what you don’t want.

3) Accept 100% complete and total responsibility for your own financial situation. The sooner you take charge, the sooner you will break out of the shell of your comfort zone and start to do the things you know you need to do or learn the things you need to learn to get the results you want.

Remember: Victims make excuses. Financial heroes get results.

4) Make a decision right now to become your own financial hero. Decide exactly what you want your financial life to look like, and then begin building the image within your mind. See this image as often as often as possible and trust that the way to achieve this vision will be revealed to you.

5) Once you get an idea that you believe can lead you to your desired vision, follow your gut instinct and act on this idea immediately… The sooner you start changing your behavior, the sooner your results are going to change.

So what was your big takeaway from today’s lesson? Share your comments and feedback in the box below and let me know what you thought. I’ll be answering questions and reviewing comments personally.

To your abundance,
Michael Stead
Founder, The Abundance Society