Subscribe to this Feed by Email
Wow. Strange times. My experiences travelling have been a really great eye opener.
Wake up everyone, there is only now, I have met and spoken to lots of people from all walks of life, from people working on a wage, right up to some very wealthy people who have global interests and would have hundreds of millions in assets.
I know it is a well worn chestnut, but money has nothing to do with happiness, a man with 20 million, is no happier than someone with 19 million.
Happiness is the start of everything and I have discovered that it is the thoughts about money that depresses people. The person I mentioned earlier, who has global assets, and by the way, in obtaining his wealth, had a real cavalier character, spends his time worrying about holding his wealth together.
It is amazing how our mind plays tricks on us with regards the future. When this guy was amassing his fortune, he never saw any problems in the future, only positive outcomes, although there were many failures along the way, he just carried on. As time is taken away from us with ageing, that attitude that is so easy to adopt when there is time to put things right, suddenly gets eroded and we tend to start looking at all the negative things that can happen.
The universal law of attracting what your dominant thought is, does not go into hibernation just because you are getting older, infact in my experience, it seems to respond a lot quicker with age, or maybe it is the fact that you trust it working more if you have had years of results, both good and not so good.
Although this guy has all these assets, he is missing the greatest thing of all, passive income or cash flow. Access to actual regular income is the thing that everyone should be aspiring to. It is the greatest thing you can put in place while you are setting up your life and preparing for the time you decide to start fully living it. I have found that the amount of money required on a regular basis to live, (presupposing there is no debt that is not self servicing), is really a lot less than most people think.
I personally do not feel the need to have toys anymore, and on my travels I get to share wonderful things with people who have lots of toys, whether they be boats, villas in exotic locations, luxury cars, private planes, enormous houses etc. and a multitude of other things, but as with everything that has' toy' status, or 'look at me' status, you eventually ask yourself the question, "What else does it do?"
Most people in the financial situation that allows them to buy these things, very rarely purchase them for a need to satisfy any deep wish, it is invariably done to garnish their life, and as mentioned before does not give satisfaction or fulfillment on a long term basis.However if all that, is truly what you desire,and you genuinely will get long term enjoyment from it, go for your life, but be sure it really is what you desire.
I met a guy who collected vintage cars and the pleasure he got from his collection was obvious, and as he showed me round, I could feel the enjoyment he was getting as he told the history of each one, and how he had found it and rebuilt it. That is a totally different thing, because that is an interest that he has, and is also his hobby. It really was no different to someone collecting bottle tops or cigarette cards, the fact that his collection was worth several millions gave him the same feelings as the person collecting lower priced things.
The above is an example of making sure that you know what you want to do with your money, to give you enjoyment. It is no good just heading off and trying to get hold of as much as possible, and saying I will decide what to do with it when I get it. Invariably if you just set off with the intention of amassing money, you will usually find that you have not only lost the years that you spent getting it, you will more than likely have ignored your family and friends on the way through, so you eventually arrive at a very lonely place and somehow the money does not compensate for the position you find yourself in.
Always have what you want to do with the money as your goal, not the money itself.
Being rich means different things to different people, and those of you who have read any of my stuff will know that my definition of rich is very simple, and although money is part of it, it is only a tool to allow you to do the things you want to do. I believe rich is, being able to do what you want to do, when you want to do it, and have enough TIME and MONEY to allow you to do it.
I have had lots of toys and also lived in some beautiful houses, I owned a Bentley when I was seventeen, I drove Rolls Royces during my "look at me years", and always tried to have enough time to do the things I wanted to do, but looking back I enjoyed those things mainly because I wanted them at the time, and my goal was to get the money to allow me to have them.
It is very confusing trying to report on wealth, because many people think that lots of things I say are sour grapes, and I say them, because I cannot afford them, but I have made a conscious decision not to even try and get the type of money required to live like that. When I was about 20, I was seated next to one of the richest men in the world at the time, Tiny Rowland, and it was that conversation that actually shaped my views on mega wealth. He told me how fortunate I was to have time to do what I wanted, as his life was full of things he HAD to do, and he was lucky to get time to himself, even at weekends. From what I can gather he loved his wheeling and dealing, but he would still have loved the opportunity to have time to himself.
That statement affected my life, and although I did not realise how much until recently, I am very grateful for having taken on board the lesson I learned that day.
I said earlier that most stress is caused by thinking about money, either the lack of it, or worrying about losing it, it is an essential part of our lives, but just lately it has taken on a whole new aura, because it is now such an uncertain commodity, and people are in overdrive trying to decide what to do. Strange thing but the thing we have spent our lives trying to obtain so that we can relax in our later years is now the very thing that is causing worry and stress, and the more you have, the bigger the headache.
So what is the answer, how do we balance our lives and get a sense of harmony? Well the first thing to do is to re introduce yourself to you. What is it you really want, forget all the huge yachts and the big house in Hollywood (unless of course that is what you truly desire) and go deep and find out what it is you want to do, or where you want to live, who you want to be with, just let yourself go and find out what you really want out of your life.
Once you have got a clear picture of what it is you want, just fix that vision firmly in your head and try and feel how you would feel once you achieve it. There are many exercises and advice on the website to help you with this preparation http://www.croz.com.au and with the right mindset, there are many ways to sort finances out.
The reason for commenting on the upper end of wealth is to try and show that sometimes you can set your sights too high and feel that you are too far away to effect any change, when in reality the place you think you want to be is in fact not such a great place. It is in having your vision perfectly clear, that will ensure that you will eventually achieve it.
Guardian of Worry Free Island. Author, speaker, writer and guide to entrepreneurs, individuals and business, with a spiritual twist. http://www.croz.com.au/
0 comments:
Post a Comment