Change Your Perception; Change Your Life
Did you realise that you have the power to change your life by changing the way in which you view the world?
We view the world based on an internal map of rules that we have developed over the years. This is comprised of personal experience and beliefs we have gleaned from parents, friends, teachers etc.
Some of our rules are based on what society has determined is the correct way to behave, and are necessary to ensure we can all live and prosper together. This is our reality. We use this framework on which to base our decisions.
You can have two people with contrasting views, who both feel that they are right. This is because they have contrasting perceptions of reality. They see the world through different coloured lenses and they think their perception is ‘The Truth.’ However the term truth has no singular definition on which philosophers and scholars can agree.
Events, of themselves, are not good or bad; right or wrong, they just are. It’s the way we view them that makes the difference.
Because what we focus on expands, our perceptions of reality and thus our experience of reality, attracts more experiences that validate that perception. In other words, our thoughts lead to actions, which lead to results which cause us to prove ourselves right.
A life changing and empowering way to view any negative event is to ask yourself is, “what is good about this?” You may find this a hard question to answer at first and may not come up with anything positive, however keep asking yourself the question and your mind will give you the answer. The seeds of success are often hidden in adversity.
Learn to question your perceptions and assumptions. Become aware of the way in which you are seeing the world. Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world. Changing your perception puts you on the path to deliberate creation of your life.
Fun photo by -RobW-
CashFlow 101- How to Play It
In I Don’t Want to Retire Old and Broke I said how I decided to follow Rich Dad’s philosophies on real estate to escape the rat race and become financially free.
The very first step is to get financially educated. Put down that glossy magazine; throw out that new boat catalog and learn to read financial statements. To be successful in life you need to know how to look after your money.
We actually went as far as employing a successful property investor (who had the same approach as Rich Dad) to mentor us for a while. He helped us find our first rental properties in Auckland. It’s imperative that you start right if you want to build a successful property portfolio.
We also bought the game “CashFlow 101″ , an educational board game which Robert Kiyosaki built to help teach the concepts of passive income and financial freedom, to get you out of the ‘rat race’ forever.
The game takes a bit of figuring out in the beginning. Make sure you have a calculator! As you progress you learn about income statements and how to fill in a balance sheet, and the difference between assets and liabilities.
Firstly, you get given an occupation. You may draw an airline pilot, a nurse or a janitor etc (a tip here..the higher paid occupations have high expenses too and aren’t necessarily the best job to have cash flow wise). The game pieces are coloured rats; you throw the dice and the rats go around the circle (rat race), picking up opportunity cards (much like monopoly…which was Robert’s favourite game!) until you make it onto the fast track, where money is plentiful and life is easy!
The ‘opportunity cards’ are frought with peril…getting downsized, having children, the compulsary buying of doodads (money wasters like wide screen TVs or eating at expensive restaurants) can suck up all your income However, there is the chance to make a lot of money on property, shares and business!
This game can take hours to play and until you learn its lessons, it can even take days! However, once my husband made it out of the rat race and onto the fast track in the first ten minutes! (I recall he did this by having very low expenses and drawing a card which allowed him to buy some cheap shares. The next card allowed him to sell them for a huge profit so he could purchase a high cash flow business which, in turn, gave him a large passive income that covered his outgoings. Financial freedom)!
Playing this game regularly changed our spending and investment habits for life. It’s an entertaining way to learn about finance and turns a ‘dry’ subject into a motivating and fun experience.
Make sure you heed the warning on the box as, in real life, you must deal with sharks as well (tell me about it)! It says:
“Some people have gotten so excited playing this game that they have gone out and made foolish decisions. This game teaches the foundations of wealth. We recommend further education as well as always seeking competent advice before making any financial decisions.”
You have been warned!
Beware of Your Dreams
“Beware of Your Dreams Lest You Achieve Them,”
my father used to say.
It wasn’t until many years later that I truly understood the meaning and importance of his words. In place of ‘dreams’ put ‘ thoughts’ and you have The Law of Attraction!
If you hold something in your mind, visualise and feel it in your being for long enough, it will manifest itself into your life. If you believe it you will see it!
So, now you know this don’t dwell on anything that you don’t want! Things are not brought into being by thinking about their opposites. If you want to be healthy don’t concentrate on sickness; if you want to be rich don’t think about poverty. Don’t put anything into your mind that you don’t want to perpetuate or experience.
For more on this subject I would recommend reading “The Science of Getting Rich” by Wallace D. Wattles. “The Secret” is also excellent, concentrating on The Law of Attraction.
“The pre-dominant thought or the mental attitude is the magnet, and the law is like attracts like, consequently, the mental attitude will invariably attract such conditions as correspond to its nature” ~Charles Haanel
PS My father always dreamt of owning a large sheep and cattle farm. For a boy brought up just north of London, this was indeed a grand vision. He took a ‘ten pound passage’ on a boat to Australia in his early twenties; later moving to New Zealand and working as a farm labourer until he built up a down payment for a small farm. These days he farms 7000 acres of land in the South Island of NZ. Dream achieved!
Paint Your Own Life
“Life is a great big canvas
And you should throw all the paint on it
You can.”
~ Danny Kay
Colourful picture by ajagendorf25
Pamela Starr ~ Dreams
“Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul.
Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal”
~ Pamela Starr
Another wonderful picture by alicepopkorn
Don’t Teach Pigs to Sing…
- Unknown
If you take this on board you will save yourself a lot of frustration. People in general don’t want to be ‘converted’ so don’t bash your head against a brick wall.
Take the property market. There are a lot of ’spruikers’ (usually with a vested interest) who would have you believe that real estate is a great investment (as indeed it can be if you do it right: see Robert Kiyosaki’s books on Cash Flow) come what may. It is blatantly obvious that property prices can’t always increase but you can’t argue with these people so you might as well give in.
I was just reading in Money Morning (an Australian ‘market news’ website) one chap’s response to these spruikers. He said “You’re right! Go ahead and buy before prices go up again!”
He has long since given up on teaching pigs to sing! Oink oink!
I Don’t Want to be Old and Broke
This is where it all began about nine years ago…
Financial freedom had never even crossed my mind, until one evening my husband said “You know, we won’t have much money when we retire”.
I was floored by this remark. We were both on excellent salaries and were good savers, and we faced a government pension (if we were lucky) and an old people’s home in our old age? I was not at all happy with the idea but didn’t know what to do about it.
Interestingly, not long after I caught a snippet of an interview by Robert Kiyosaki on Morning Radio. He was talking about his new book “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” He said he had toyed with the idea of calling it something along the lines of “If you want to Be Rich and Successful don’t go to School”!! Interesting!
When I saw his book at the airport bookstore, I bought it and the journey to financial freedom (and face it, there is no true freedom without financial freedom) began:
“Rich Dad Poor Dad” is a great for someone starting out. Some people find it pretty basic but the ideas are important. Don ‘t toss it to one side. Persevere. I know some people who started with this book, who are now very rich!
His next book “The CashFlow Quadrant” digs deeper. Which quadrant does your cash flow come from? How do you get paid? Are you an employee, self employed, a business owner or an investor?
The whole idea is to build enough passive income i.e money you don’t have to work for, to cover your expenses. Rich Dad’s message basically is; to get financially free you must get your money to work for you, not the other way around.
What is the best way to do this? Rich Dad and Robert did it through real estate, so we decided we would do that too. Following Rich Dad’s rules, we started a property portfolio. The secret to success is to buy ‘below market value’ and make sure your investment is ‘cash flow positive‘. This means that the rental must cover all expenses and give you money leftover.
Apart from reading these books the other important thing is to become financially literate. If you want to be rich you need to be able to read a spreadsheet. Just knowing the difference between an asset and a liability is invaluable (one puts money in your pocket and one takes money out of your pocket…so, your house is a liability!). Controversial stuff and the cause of much heated debate.
Another good tip at this stage is to watch where your advice comes from. Free advice is often the most expensive advice. Make sure the person giving the advice has actually done it themselves. Don’t be afraid of paying for good advice if you have to.
Of course everyone has a different path and yours will no doubt be different from ours. Some people make a lot of money out of business, or out of stocks and shares. We did have a lot of shares at one stage but I wasn’t really interested enough to learn a lot about them and eaving your money in someone else’s hands is risky. No-one looks after your interests as well as you can. We did OK with shares but I was a lot happier when we got rid of them and focused on property investing. I liked property and it’s a good way to build passive income.
These were our first steps toward financial freedom. We won’t retire old and broke. Bring it on!
Photo by kevindooley
Set Your Goals High ~ Quote
“All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible…”
- Orison Swett Marden
Great shot by Randy Son Of Robert
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