Many people feel that a lack of money is what is holding them back when they are not doing as well as they want financially.
Harv Eker, well known Speaker, Trainer, and Author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, believes a lack of money is just a symptom and not the real cause of financial struggles.
And he would know, because he lived it.
Spending 12 years of rollercoastering between the highs of having money and the lows of losing money, he discovered how to get and stay rich in just 2 ½ years by getting rid of his bad money habits and applying simple principles in his everyday life.
He realized HOW he feels about money affected how went about making money, managing money and spending money.
The real cause is usually one of 3 bad habits.
If you can break these habits, you will see your chances of becoming wealthy skyrocket.
Harv advises that you:
Whether you are being held back by one or all of these unhealthy habits, if you truly want to become wealthy, you need to begin working on breaking them.
Today.
You must accept that nobody is holding you back other than yourself.
The universe doesn’t have it out for you.
The economy is not to blame. It’s not your parents.
It’s you.
This is not to say you are lazy or incapable in any way.
It’s about understanding that it is you who are responsible for working with whatever it is you have to get out of the position you are currently in.
How are you managing your resources?
And by resources, I mean everything from your thoughts and your time, to your money and the places you frequent.
Do you want to experience real success?
Then you must believe deep down inside that you are the one in control.
It is you behind the wheel.
Who controls your resources?
Because if it’s not you, then it is something or someone else and this is a dangerous position to be in.
You are the one that creates your success or your mediocrity.
Most people that you will encounter in life would rather play the role of victim and shift responsibility for their circumstances.
They blame their luck, fate, the market, or anything else they can point their finger at as long as it is pointed away from themselves.
Instead, take responsibility.
Understand that you are in control, whether it is in regards to money or relationships the same applies.
If you’re not the one in control, you have to take your life back and own what is yours, this includes the responsibility to make the necessary changes to your behavior and habits to take you closer to what you wish to achieve.
It is the blueprint that you create for yourself and your mindset that will determine your financial life.
Many people harm their own financial potential by clinging to beliefs like, “Money is not really important.”
As Harv says, people who say things like that usually do not have a lot of it.
This is pretty simple.
If you disavow the importance of something, chances are you will never have an abundance of it.
Don’t maim your chances of financial success and happiness by downplaying the importance of what will lead you to it.
Whatever you deem unimportant will not stay for long, even if you are fortunate enough to find it.
The key is sustainability and you are now learning that it is your habits that determine what you do regularly.
If you choose to abuse and take for granted the things that are very very important in your life, you will keep losing them and without realizing that replacing them with other things and people will anchor you to keep re-creating an abyss of misery.
The last bad habit you want to rid yourself of is complaining.
It is the worst thing you can do for both your physical and financial health.
Here is why complaining will hurt you.
What you focus on expands.
When you are complaining, what are you focusing on?
If you are complaining, you are inviting more of those problems into your life.
As Harv says, you become a “giant crap-magnet.”
If you’ve ever listened to a longplay on a gramophone, you’ll know that when the record is damaged, the needle gets stuck and it repeats repeats repeats repeats repeats until you lift the needle.
This record is your blueprint.
The needle is the action you take.
The playback is the result of your choice and action on the gramophone that is life.
Am I painting a clear enough picture with this metaphor?
Stop, take a breath and think about it.
What can you do to break these habits?
Here is an assignment for you: no blaming, maiming, or complaining for seven full days.
Start living by the motto, “If it is to be, it’s up to me.”
Repeat that motto aloud.
Repeat it every morning and measure even the smallest changes you can identify.
Of course it would be helpful if you truly want to see change and actually mean it when you say it.
Although very few people were given the best examples of how to generate and keep wealth, this world would be a much happier place if people knew how to manage their responsibilities and resources.
Bad money habits can be replaced with good money habits, millionaire money habits, and it might surprise you to know that good spending habits are essential to maintain balance - there's no need to hoard your wealth.
Not everyone has access to rich friends and family members to teach them, but there comes a time in every person’s life where they make the conscious shift to improve their circumstances.
They realize that learning from those who have gone before them is the fastest way to gain access to knowledge they missed out on.
It is never too late to start learning some practical money skills and cultivating better money habits.
Has your Mind ever wondered...
Stop blaming, maiming and complaining and start living by the motto, “If it is to be, it’s up to me.”
Follow the 6 Jars Money Management System to effectively allocate your earnings to your needs and wants.
Your first step is realizing you could do better and the next natural step is to take action towards deliberately doing better and being better so you may have better.
Replace your bad money habits with a supportive mindset and habits that build wealth.
Living beyond your means in any way, shape or form, regardless of how much money you have.
Remember, how you do anything is how you do everything and if you can manage a small amount of money, you can manage a large amount of money.
The key is to be an excellent money manager and the worst habit many people have is not managing their money at all, believing they are a victim of circumstance rather than taking control of their life and improving their habits.
People with bad money habits often blame others for their situation, exacerbate and exaggerate their circumstances and complain incessantly.
Has your Mind ever wondered...
When you persist to see the world through the eyes of a victim, believing that nothing that goes wrong in your life is your fault or responsibility, when everything that comes out of your mouth is bitter or poisonous and nothing can pacify or satisfy your insatiable hunger for self worth, you have 3 of the most detrimental bad personal habits to your health, happiness and finances.
Using student loans to fund education that will take most of your working career to pay off, studying in a field you might not be passionate about and thus cementing an overworked, overindebted, overindulgent unsatisfactory life that you probably would not have chosen for yourself if you had learned excellent money management skills earlier on.
Not having millionaire money habits will keep students who take loans in the cycle of debt repayment for years to come.