ATTAINING WEALTH IS A CONSCIOUS CHOICE

Brian Tracy says, “You are not born a winner; you are not born a loser, you are born a chooser.” This also applies to attaining wealth. “Knowledge, skills and decision making processes ultimately determine your level of success.” James Oh

Since you have decided to live a purposeful and meaningful life, you might as well grow your wealth exponentially at the fastest and highest rate possible. Therefore, it is appropriate for us to make an informed and intelligent decision right in the first place.

There are plenty of ways to build wealth. You can choose the one that you are comfortable with. Examples are through new business, job, investments and etc. Attaining wealth simply means that you need to generate income that is much larger than your expenses.

It is a learnable skill to make appropriate decisions in managing your personal finances. It is basically the choice you make on every money matter.

Similarly, would you agree that life is a choice? Every day, we have to make many decisions, one way or the other, knowingly or unknowingly, impliedly or expressly. No action is also a decision. If you do, what will you choose?

Let assume that you are given two companies to invest and you tell me which one is a more viable business;

Assuming that company A with sales revenue of USD 100 million but with no profit. However, company B with a profit of USD 20,000 out of USD 100 thousand sales. Which company is a more viable business? Of course the answer is A.

You may ask why? Profitability is actually a measurement of efficiency, efficacy and effectiveness whereas the revenue is a measurement of market catchment. Company B with small market catchment can be easily removed from the market, no matter how high the profit is. Does it make sense to you now? In short, company B may die off easily. Hence, company A is more valuable than company B.

YOUR CHOICE HAS EFFECT ON YOUR WEALTH

“May your choices reflect your hopes and not your fears?” Nelson Mandela.

In short, we need not only look back and get experience from our pasts but look forward and see hope in our future. No one can live life without hope and faith. Meanwhile, stay vigilant, resilient and look around to find means to grow wealth explosively and exponentially. Most importantly look within ourselves and find our self through listening to our inner voice. Stop thinking too much and just go where your heart takes you.

By doing so, you will then turn away from your worries and focus your energy in building your wealth instead. Bear in mind that worry will not add any value to your issue, but it will drain out your time, energy, resources unnecessarily. Therefore, it is wiser to use these saved resources for other useful purposes.

By knowing our true selves and passions, we can then serve with utmost might and without much effort. This is because we will truly enjoy what we are doing. That is exactly what we want from life and we must be grateful with what life is giving us.

Otherwise, we are just swimming against the current and feel unhappy all the while. Our Conscious Choice will determine what our choices will be and we will never regret what we have chosen. We will respond to it without any resistance and objection. In fact, we shall make the best out of it, making us lack nothing. We will either chose to live now or never. Because there may not be any second chance.

At times, it may involve simple choices and at times it may be a difficult one. You may look back and think a situation more complicated despite it being a simple one. Be cautious with our thoughts. The greatest enemies we have to overcome on the way to success are not lack of ability or lack of opportunity but fears of failure and rejection and the doubts that they trigger.

Our mind is like a garden, we either grow flowers or weeds. The choice is yours. Make yours a conscious decision. Act wisely and boldly.

You may ask yourself honestly several questions below:

1. Is your mind your slave or master?
2. Is your vitality equal to the universe?
3. Are you aware that the way life treats you mirrors the way you treat yourself?

Your answers to the above indicate how you are wired. Mental wiring is the mental conditioning, education, life experiences, institutional learning and external influences in the course of life. People knowingly or unknowingly wire themselves up for success or failure, accomplishment or disappointment. And they are not aware that their false beliefs, concepts and learning are destroying their opportunities, and fullness of self-expression.

At times, we do not want to make a stand, but rather find an easy way to resolve it. It is worthy to note that it is easy to compromise, but it comes with a cost, at times it may be very costly. The easy way may not be the right path. The right path is usually the narrow lane and not like the highway. But the truth is that the choice is very much dependent on the individual's past experience, background and other reasons best known to him.

To make our discussion much clearer, below are the two examples:

i) When it comes to matters of life and death, do you seek the best doctor or the cheapest doctor? I guess any normal and rational person will firstly opt for the BEST because they want the specialized knowledge and precision. This is because you can't afford to compromise after all, there may not be a second Chance.

ii) Another good example is planes. Do the engineers or technicians do a thorough and precise check before certifying the plane fit to fly? Absolutely yes! This is because we cannot afford to let the plane drop from the sky. Here, is another clear example of no compromising on standards.

So what about in life when it involves loved ones? Do we compromise on that or insist on the best? There is always a "cost" hidden, implied or express for every choice we made. We either pay it now or later....later always being the higher and longer and sometimes bigger price.

What would you do for those matters that affect you most? Compromise or do your best? What cost might be reasonable for your loved ones?

CAUSE

You have to be clear how your decision affects your life. So, you tend to be the master of your mind to stay in control. You will then be more conscious and cautious of your choice. This is because you will exercise your discretion wisely knowing that it will somehow affect your wealth as well. You will either adjust and align with the new reality and keep yourself relevant at all times. Stay ahead and keep abreast of the new development and grasp every opportunity that comes along.

This is because we rarely do what we “should”. We do what we “must.”  Creating wealth is a must. The harder you work, the luckier you get. When the winds of change blow, you will build windmills instead of walls. By strengthening your mind, you are more capable of making best use of every opportunity to progress and build your wealth. In this manner, your chance of growing explosively is much higher. You know from inside that the cause is far more important than the consequence. This is because the cause will determine the consequence of each decision you made.

CONSEQUENCE

The consequence is something you can see, just like the tip of the iceberg. Success is the result of your sacrifices, efforts, hard work, actions you put on your every action. All these are hidden. It is a natural result of the accumulation of your tiny decisions you made each day. Every day you waste is a day you will never get back! Now is the best time to get to work. Time is essence of growing your wealth explosively from every resource you have at that material time and the focus you made by directing all these resources to the area which have the highest potential growth in term of product, magnitude and opportunity in the long run.

“Wealth is not the goal; the goal is what you can do with your wealth.” Brad Sugars.

COMMITMENT

Making a commitment to your purpose, mission and goal is having a life of richness that comes from nurturing, caring relationships and from seriousness in pursuing your dreams and goals.

It is impossible to have commitment without involvement. To put yourself in control of your life, you either make a promise and keep it or work to achieve your pre-set goal. By following through your commitments, you are establishing your honour, courage and strength to make yourself ever more responsible and respectable. You must understand that the power of your commitment lies in the strength that comes from doing what you say, making something happen, and living in a way that is true to your beliefs. Such power of honouring your commitments will enable you to develop the attitudes and habits that give you what you desired in life.

I must confess that my achievements are mainly due to my commitment to everything I desired in my life. I can sense that my commitment provides me the necessary power and propellant to live in a way that is true to and befitting the values and what matters in my life. So, don’t just gain ground, gain height and depth.

CONDITIONING

To achieve that effect, we need to strengthen and recondition ourselves to learn and practice the newly desired attitudes, mind-set and skills.

No matter what expertise you acquire, you will probably agree that conditioning plays a huge factor in how you perform. If you are not conditioned properly, you will never achieve peak performance in the area you seek! In short, conditioning is a process to equip a person to achieve excellence in that particular area of expertise.

Have you ever pondered why the small rope can hold a huge elephant?

Well. The truth is when they were very young and much smaller; their master tied them up with the same rope, which was strong enough to hold them at that age. As they grew up, they were conditioned to believe they cannot break away and escape due to their past failures. They believe the same rope can still hold them, and so even as adults they never try to break free.

It is amazing to think that these animals can choose to break free at any time, but because they believed they could not, they remain stuck and shackled right where they were. These powerful and gigantic creatures have limited its present abilities by the limitations of its past.

Like the elephants, how many of us go through life holding onto a belief that we cannot do something or anything, simply because we failed at it once before? How many of us refuse to attempt something new and challenging because of our so called inhibited mind-set?

I failed to enter Form 6 in public school due to the National Policy, but luckily I did not fail to make an attempt to continue my studies despite strong objection from my family, due to our financial constraints. I chose not to accept the false boundaries and limitations created by my past to pursue my future.

COURAGE TO CHANGE

Do you have the courage to do all the necessary changes about your financial status? If you don’t, how do you expect your finances to change? The secret of financial freedom is the courage to make changes.

You must not think courage is the absence of fear. In fact, courage is having the audacity to take steps in the presence of fear. Therefore, it is normal and understandable for anyone to experience fear, phobia, discomfort or displeasure when making changes.

Many still lack courage to effect changes despite knowing that they have the calibre and consistency to effect change.

Acknowledge your feelings but move forward anyway. Regularly pick a new behaviour or thought pattern and focus on it every day to ease your discomfort. Begin now so as to build a new professional, positive and profound habit.

What lies ahead will always be a mystery. Don’t be afraid to explore, dream and discover.

Remember always that a man’s world is the projection of his mind. When his mind is weak, he sees a problem. When his mind is balance, he sees a challenge. When his mind is strong, he sees an opportunity.