Aug 05 2008
Evaluate Your Path to Wealth
Now (not at the end of the year) is a good time to check in with your wealth goals. Notice I did not say career, work or money goals. Wealth is the abundance of anything.
If you are reading this, there is a pretty good chance that you have set goals you wanted to achieve this year either formally or in your head. I usually set quarterly goals that support the year goals, as well. Being specific about your wealth goals is definitely the most important step in the process. But it can’t stop there. You have got to be in action. The actions must be totally aligned with the goal. But in order to take the right action for your goal, your head must be thinking thoughts that align with the goal. If your head isn’t thinking like a wealthy person, how in the heck do you think you will ever be wealthy?
Quite frankly, I’m sick and tired of watching people struggle along their path to their wealth goals. I am very clear that it’s your personal perspective that causes you pain, rather than the events or the absence of events in your life. Now, I completely admit that I am the first to get irritated when I find myself in some money glitch. I get angry because I know better and it’s this emotional knee jerk reaction when I find that I want more money than I have. My emotional reaction is not at the money, but the fact that I even reacted to money. For goodness sakes, money is actually easy to attract or even to stumble upon. It is only our perspective that makes it hard or easy to obtain. When I get committed to acting like a powerful woman and start thinking like a wealthy person, I am surrounded by abundance of all things. My friends even tease me about how easy I manifest. But when I forget to act wealthy, it is downright painful.
I went off track there for moment, so let’s get back to evaluating where you are with your wealth goals. Let’s say you wanted to achieve a certain amount of sales in your business this year, say $500,000, you wanted to buy a duplex as a rental property, and you wanted to go on a three-week vacation to Europe. Maybe you also wanted to feel more at ease and trusting with regard to your relationship with money. It wouldn’t really serve you to set these goals and then check on them at the end of the year. You would need to constantly ask yourself, the following:
- Am I thinking like a person who thinks they are worthy of having big sales while staying in balance?
- Am I taking actions that would support making $500,000 in sales this year?
- Do I have an anxious feeling about money or am I in complete confidence that I will have all that I need?
- Am I using all of my resources to make this easy?
- Who else has expertise in this area?
- What are out of the box or off the beaten path ideas in relation to my goals?
- Who is keeping me accountable to what I say?
- How much attention do I give my goals each week (both in my mind and taking action)?
- Do I have systems in place to support $500,000 in sales?
- Do I have a plan of action for each goal?
- Does my plan work for me?
- What thought patterns do I still have that are not supporting my goal?
- What new practices or habits do I have to be fierce about practicing?
- Am I spending more time focused on the end results or perceived obstacles?
You can probably create more of your own empowering and clarifying inquiries to support you. You need to be willing to answer truthfully because I think it is easy to be dishonest with yourself and not know it. I’m not even talking about denial. There are just some things we can’t see when we are in the middle of it. You must be willing to have a bird’s eye view of the situation and your life. This is where a coach or partner is invaluable. They have an outside view, and they are not emotionally attached to your goal. They are objective (well, at least most of the time they are!).
At any point during the year you have to be willing to change your path. If you were driving to a wedding and knew you made a wrong turn, would you continue going in the wrong direction? No! You’d correct your course. Sometimes you may even have change the goal, but that’s a whole different topic. It is not to late to achieve a goal that you set for this year. Haven’t taken any action on the duplex goal? Maybe one of the obstacles is not having enough money for the down payment or closing costs. I guarantee, if you go out and look for duplex deal that fits your criteria, you will be motivated to find a way to create the money to do the deal. Wealthy people know there is always a solution. You have to have confidence that you will find the solution. From that perspective, you will start thinking of kinds of creative ideas to get the cash. You have to be willing to not be attached to the way the deal plays out. Just keep your focus on the goal and what this property will make for you, knowing you will only say yes to something that feels good.
Let’s say you are in a service business, like me. I do have learning products, but most of my revenue comes from me being in front of people, whether it’s on the phone coaching or teaching a live workshop. Honestly, I will not be set up for true wealth just by coaching people one on one. It means that my wealth would depend on those 10 people and it’s on a month-to-month basis. And, unless I plan on charging each client a million dollars each a year, my income is pretty limited. If I take a month off to go to Europe, then I don’t get paid. This is a great indicator that I need to think of a different path. So, now I put on my thinking cap and decide that I should put a bigger emphasis on creating & selling products, coaching and doing workshops with bigger groups and creating “Jeanna” in a box. Meaning more people have access to my coaching and teaching, without me having to be in front of people live 6 days a week.
The famous question that most seminars, books and coaches ask is still one of the best, “If you continue being and doing what you are doing now, will you get to where you want to go?” If so, will you feel good in the process? I know many years ago, when I was a workaholic, I could have reached my goals, but my personal life was suffering and relaxation was something I only dreamt of. So, that path had to change. One of the biggest ways to change your path to the desired goal is simply be willing to have no regrets about what you have or have not done thus far. “So what, now what?!” Is another great question? It means, get off the past, except to get the lessons learned to make things better now. Let it go and get present to this moment.
Many times, there are very valid reasons why our goals are still off in the distance. Not good or bad. For instance, a couple of years ago, my life was mostly focused on my personal life rather than my business. My business was still very much a passion but my relationship was getting most of the attention because it felt like a crisis. Therefore, there was less attention on other goals. Was there other ways to handle my situation? Of course! The point here is, get here, in this present moment, and choose how you want to move forward. It’s never too late, and you never miss your ship. Abundance is knowing that you have, and always will have, all that you need. It’s only your perspective that plays the worst tricks on your emotional state. Money is only one aspect of wealth, and I want you all to get your emotional charge off it. Money, goals and relationships are taken way too seriously. We can have fun with all of them. We kill off our creativity when we get really heavy and place too much importance on things.
Take some time this week to evaluate your path. Be willing to change your thinking and/or actions. Throw in some fun and get support from wherever you feel best. Lots of great things are ahead for you.
