A Few Brilliant Books
Here are some of many great titles that I have read and recommend:
Rich Dad Poor Dad ~ Robert Kiyosaki
Cash Flow Quadrant ~ Robert Kiyosaki
Retire Young Retire Rich ~ Robert Kiyosaki
Think and Grow Rich ~ Napolean Hill
The Science of Being Rich ~ Wallace D. Wattles
The Secret ~ Rhona Byrne
The Power of Intention ~ Dr Wayne W. Dyer
Conversations with God 1-3 ~ Neale Donald Walsche
Your Best Life Now ~ Joel Osteen
The 4- Hour Workweek ~ Timothy Ferriss
These books have been indispensible to us on the path to financial freedom; a quick precis:
Firstly, Rich Dad paved the way with his lessons on handling money and the importance of being financially literate.
Napolean Hill introduced the importance of the “Power of the Mind”‘ along with Wallace D. Wattles who had a mental and spiritual approach to getting rich. His ‘thinking stuff’ later became the basis of the “Law of Attraction”, a la “The Secret”. The LOA is a very popular concept nowadays and rightfully so, though it’s nothing new.
Dr Wayne Dyer’s book is in a similar vein, the “Power of Intention” being a force in the universe that allows the act of creation to take place. I love his meditation CD, “Getting in the Gap” also.
The “Conversations With God” series is for the open minded. Neale Donald Walsche talks to God! The ‘conversation’ is riveting and answers many questions to life, the universe and everything. I really enjoyed these though they made my head spin for a while.
Joel Olsteen is a senior pastor at Lakewood Church, Houston. His book, about living at your full potential, is inspiring.
Tim Ferriss is a radical (in the nicest way of course!) and wraps up this list nicely. “The 4-Hour Workweek” is about throwing out old outdated concepts and living your life as you want it. He calls it ‘lifestyle design’. Read it!
Read them all!
The “Law of Attraction” Works!
I’ve got another hot tip for you; the Law of Attraction works!
Now, I’m not going into a lot of detail about LOA here. For that I suggest you read
“The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne. But, in short, the LOA states “Like attracts Like” so whatever you think about comes about. Your thoughts create your reality. It’s the secret to life.
Now for all the doubting Thomas’ out there, I thought I’d give you a few examples of what the Law of Attraction has done for us, but firstly I want to say that we were quite a long way along the track to financial freedom by the time we learnt about the LOA, but somehow we couldn’t make the final break-through. The LOA did it for us.
When we first started out we watched “The Secret” DVD over a dozen times. On the DVD Joe Vitale advocates just asking the Universe for what you want “Like you’re ordering it from a catalogue”.
As a test run we decided to ask for $50,000. We had no idea where it was going to come from, but we gave ourselves til the end of the month to achieve this. Only a few days later my husband’s superannuation statement arrived in the mail. There was exactly $50,000 more in the account than we expected. We were blown away!
For several years now we’ve had dream boards (also known as vision boards) on which we’ve pinned pictures of all our goals and dreams. They were on our dining room table so we saw them constantly throughout the day. One board had all the things we wanted regarding our future life in Australia.
The other was more general; places we wanted to visit etc. I had a picture of a Mazda MS3 car that I really liked, with a little picture of me pinned on it (our son called it “tiny mummy”!). Well, within a couple of months I got an Alfa Romeo TS147 (similar shape to the Mazda!)! The business had done well and my husband decided it was time to reward me for all my efforts! We never spent money on extravangances like this!! I’d driven rust buckets all my life. Wow, I liked this LOA stuff!
Another bit of magic happened when we were marketing our house. We decided we needed more furniture for a ’second lounge’, but we didn’t want to buy anything, especially as we were planning to move overseas. We decided to ask the Universe for help, envisaging what we wanted for the room.
A few days later we passed a few streets that were cluttered with old furniture and other junk, as they were having an inorganic rubbish collection. We saw a sofa on the side of the road in exactly the colour of our decor! “We just need a TV cabinet” I said…there was one around the next corner! We squashed them into the car (not the Alfa) and took them home. Perfect! Thank you Universe!
See this photo of Sunshine Beach in Queensland, Australia? It was on our dream board. We now live there. We walk on this beach every day. It really is so astounding that we pinch ourselves (well, we pinch each other actually…ouch!) to make sure we’re not dreaming!
We’re still creating our life. Our goals are getting bigger and better. We’ve proved the LOA works and it’s a lot of fun to boot.
You can attract what you want too. See/read “The Secret”. It’s quite entertaining! Know what you want and visualise it as though it’s already happened; as if you already have your goal.
Ask, Believe, Receive! It is yours. Let me know your experiences.
Gidday Mate!!
There’s a ‘fair dinkum’, Australian greeting for you! It makes me laugh when they call me ‘mate’! In NZ only men call their male friends ‘mate’! I’m not complaing however. Everyone is very friendly here in the “Lucky Country”. It’s a great place to live and enjoy the great outdoors.
Now life has settled down a bit, I am really going to strive to do a least one post a week. I have a lot more time now I’m not twitting or tweeting!
You can’t follow me and my profound (!) comments anymore, however I’d love to hear your profound comments here! Even non-profound ones will do…
Great to see you . 
Dale Carnegie on Happiness
Remember happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think.
~ Dale Carnegie
All Thanks to Rich Dad!
Have you planned for your retirement?
Are you planning to live on welfare or would you like to be financially free? That’s when your passive income (i.e money you don’t have to work for) exceeds your outgoings, so your money works for you instead. If this sounds good I suggest you go to a book shop or local library and get a copy of “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki.
When you’ve finished that read “Cashflow Quadrant” and then “Retire Young Retire Rich”. You will learn that it is possible to be financially free and out of the ‘rat race’ of life if you follow Rich Dad’s philosphies.
For those of you who’ve been in outer space for the last ten years or so this is the story: Robert had two dads (Rich Dad was the father of his best friend)) who had opposing views about money. One dad would say “I can’t afford it” and the other dad would say “How can I afford it?” He decided to listen to Rich Dad.
The “Rich Dad” book series focuses on Cash Flow and Leverage. It’s about building your asset column so the money keeps coming in even if you’re not working. An example of this is a rental property where the rent covers all the outgoings and gives you some cash to put in your pocket as well.
As well as books, Robert devised an educational game called “CashFlow.” See my previous post here. It is well worth investing in if you are serious about becoming financially free.
As you probably know I’m a great fan of the ‘Power of the Mind”. This is what Robert has to say about our thoughts shaping our lives:
The power of our thoughts may never be measured or appreciated, but it became obvious to me as a young boy that there was value and power in being aware of my thoughts and how I expressed myself. I noticed that my poor dad was poor not because of the amount of money he earned – which was significant – but because of his thoughts and actions. As a young boy, having two fathers, I became acutely aware of being careful in deciding which thoughts I chose to adopt as my own and to whom should I listen – my rich dad or my poor dad? At the age of nine I decided to listen to and learn from my rich dad about money. In doing so, I chose not to listen to my poor dad – my real dad – even though he was the one with all the college degrees.Being a product of two strong dads allowed me the luxury of observing the effects that different thoughts have on one’s life. I noticed that people really do shape their lives through their thoughts.
I’ve been lucky enough to meet several people lately who have escaped the rat race by following Rich Dad’s teachings. Actually, they’re more than financially free, they’re rich.
I’d like to say a huge thank you to Robert Kiyosaki for writing these books. Rich Dad’s wisdom has helped a lot of people.
To everyone else; this is a strategy which works. Read these books; get financially educated. Start as young as you can. Good Luck!
Success in Life
“I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
~ Henry David Thoreau
Wonderful picture by alicepopkorn
“It is your mind that creates the world.” ~BuddhaHow to Feel Happy at Least 80% of the Time
You’ve read all the helpful articles about ‘how to make yourself feel happy’ (I might have written some of them myself!), and know we should be thankful for our blessings, play upbeat music to cheer ourselves up etc. These things help, but I’m going to tell you the number one reason I manage to feel pretty happy around 80% of the time.
How to not get in the unhappy state in the first place…
I BANISH ALL NEGATIVE THOUGHTS before they have a chance to take hold.
If a violent story comes on the TV News, I mute it! If I see disturbing images, I turn away! If my friends are bitching and moaning about all the things they hate, I change the subject (or leave the room!). I never ponder upsetting scenarios. Especially ones that don’t exist!
DO NOT watch, read, listen to or think about anything that gets you down. You don’t have to be ignorant, but don’t take all that negative stuff on board. Sift it then dump it.
If banishing the thought isn’t appropriate or possible, change it instead. Recently my father had a heart attack. Of course I wanted to think of him, so I changed the way my thoughts went. I imagined him saying “You’re not going to get rid of me that easily” and filled my head with a vision of him 100% well again.
A week or so later, after a successful operation, I called him and he said those exact words!
So, what about the other 20% of the time? I believe it’s close to impossible to be happy all of the time (with the exception of a few monks who live in caves) because, let’s face it, we still face plenty of adversity in our day to day lives. Recognise the adversity for what it is. It will pass.
Remember, you get what you focus on so the more unhappy thoughts you have the more you get. Mentally, put up a ‘Negative Thoughts Not Welcome’ sign and you will be amazed at how much better you feel!
Try this for a few days and let me know how you get on.
Lovely photo by Nattu
The Serenity Prayer (all of it)
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway
to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
I surrender to His will
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.
~Reinhold Niebuhr
Stunning Photo byTroyMason
