Wealth File #16
Rich people act in spite of fear. Poor people let fear stop them.
Earlier in this book we discussed the Process of Manifestation. Let’s review the formula: thoughts lead to feelings, feelings lead to actions, actions lead to results. Millions of people “think” about getting rich, and thou-sands and thousands of people do affirmations, visualizations, and meditations for getting rich. I meditate almost every day. Yet I’ve never sat there meditating or visualizing and had a bag of money drop on my head. I guess I’m just one of those unfortunate ones who actually has to do something to be a success. Affirmations, meditations, and visualizations are all wonderful tools, but as far as I can tell, none of them on its own is going to bring you real money in the real world. In the real world, you have to take real “action” to succeed. Why is action so critical? Let’s go back to our Process of Manifestation. Look at thoughts and feelings. Are they part of the inner world or outer world? Inner world. Now look at results. Are they part of the inner or outer world? Outer world. That means action is the “bridge” between the inner world and the outer world.
WEALTH PRINCIPLE: Action is the “bridge” between the inner world and the outer world. So if action is so important, what prevents us from taking the actions we know we need to take? Fear! Fear, doubt, and worry are among the greatest obstacles, not only to success, but to happiness as well. Therefore, one of the biggest differences between rich people and poor people is that rich people are willing to act in spite of fear. Poor people let fear stop them. Susan Jeffers even wrote a fantastic book about this, entitled Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. The biggest mistake most people make is waiting for the feeling of fear to subside or disappear before they are willing to act. These people usually wait forever. One of our most popular programs is the Enlightened Warrior Training Camp. In that training, we teach that a true warrior can “tame the cobra of fear.” It doesn’t say kill the cobra. It doesn’t say get rid of the cobra, and it certainly doesn’t say run away from the cobra. It says “tame” the cobra.
WEALTH PRINCIPLE: A true warrior can “tame the cobra of fear.”
It’s imperative to realize that it is not necessary to try to get rid of fear in order to succeed. Rich and successful people have fear, rich and successful people have doubts, rich and successful people have worries. They just don’t let these feelings stop them. Unsuccessful people have fears, doubts, and worries, then let those feelings stop them. WEALTH PRINCIPLE: It is not necessary to try to get rid of fear in order to succeed. Because we are creatures of habit, we need to practice acting in spite of fear, in spite of doubt, in spite of worry, in spite of uncertainty, in spite of inconvenience, in spite of discomfort, and even to practice acting when we’re not in the mood to act. I remember teaching an evening seminar in Seattle, and near the end, I was letting people know about the upcoming three-day Millionaire Mind Intensive Seminar being held in Vancouver. This one fella stands up and says, “Harv, I’ve had at least a dozen of my family and friends attend the course, and the results have been absolutely phenomenal. Every one of them is ten times happier than before, and they’re all on the road to financial success. They all said it was life changing, and if you were holding the course in Seattle, I’d definitely come too.” I thanked him for his testimonial and then asked if he was open to some coaching. He agreed and I said, “I have only three words for you.” He cheerfully replied, “What are they?” To which I tersely responded, “You’re frickin’ broke!” Then I asked him how he was doing financially. He sheepishly replied, “Not too good.” Of course I replied, “No kidding.” I then began ranting and raving at the front of the room: “If you are going to let a three-hour drive or a three-hour flight or a three-day trek stop you from doing something you need and want to do, then what else will stop you? Here’s the easy answer: anything! Anything will stop you. Not because of the size of the challenge but because of the size of you! “It’s simple,” I continued. “Either you are a person who will be stopped, or you are a person who won’t be stopped. You choose. If you want to create wealth or any other kind of success, you have to be a warrior. You have to be willing to do whatever it takes. You have to ‘train’ yourself to not be stopped by anything. “Getting rich is not always convenient. Getting rich is not always easy. In fact, getting rich can be pretty damn hard. But so what? One of the key enlightened warrior principles states, ‘If you are willing to do only what’s easy, life will be hard. But if you are willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy.’
Rich people don’t base their actions on what’s easy and convenient; that way of living is reserved for the poor and most of the middle class.”
WEALTH PRINCIPLE: If you are willing to do only what’s easy, life will be hard. But if you are willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy. The tirade was over. The crowd was silent. Later, the fella who’d started the entire discussion came up and thanked me profusely for “opening his eyes.” Of course he registered for the course (even though it was in Vancouver), but what was really funny was overhearing hi mon the phone as I was leaving, fervently giving the exact same speech I had just given him to one of his friends on the other end of the line. I guess it worked because the next day he called in with three more registrations. They were all from the East Coast... and they were all coming to Vancouver! Now that we’ve addressed convenience, what about dis-comfort? Why is acting in spite of discomfort so important? Because “comfortable” is where you’re at now. If you want to move to a new level in your life, you must break through your comfort zone and practice doing things that are not comfortable. Let’s suppose you are currently leading a level 5 life and you want to move to a level 10 life. Level 5 and below are within your comfort zone, but level 6 and above are outside your box, in your “uncomfort” zone. Meaning, to get to a level 10 life from a level 5 life, you will have to travel through your uncomfort zone. Poor people and most of the middle class are not willing to be uncomfortable. Remember, being comfortable is their biggest priority in life. But let me tell you a secret that only rich and highly successful people know: being comfortable is highly overrated. Being comfortable may make you feel warm, fuzzy, and secure, but it doesn’t allow you to grow. To grow as a person you have to expand your comfort zone. The only time you can actually grow is when you are outside your comfort zone. Let me ask you a question. The first time you tried some-thing new, was it comfortable or uncomfortable? Usually uncomfortable. But what happened afterward? The more you did it, the more comfortable it became, right? That’s how it goes. Everything is uncomfortable at the beginning, but if you stick with it and continue, you will eventually move through the uncomfort zone and succeed. Then you will have a new, expanded comfort zone, which means you will have become a “bigger” person. Again, the only time you are actually growing is when you are uncomfortable. From now on, whenever you feel un-comfortable, instead of retreating back into your old comfort zone, pat yourself on the back and say, “I must be growing,” and continue moving forward. WEALTH PRINCIPLE: The only time you are actually growing is when you are uncomfortable. If you want to be rich and successful, you’d better get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Consciously practice going into your uncomfort zone and doing what scares you. Here’s an equation I want you to remember for the rest of your life: CZ = WZ. It means your “comfort zone” equals your “wealth zone.” By expanding your comfort zone, you will expand the size of your income and wealth zone. The more comfortable you have to be, the fewer risks you will be willing to take, the fewer opportunities you will take advantage of, the fewer people you will meet, and the fewer new strategies you will try. Do you catch my drift? The more comfort becomes your priority, the more contracted you become with fear. On the contrary, when you are willing to s-t-r-e-t-c-h yourself, you expand your opportunity zone, and this allows you to attract and hold more income and wealth. Again, when you have a large “container” (comfort zone), the universe will rush to fill the space. Rich and successful people have a big comfort zone, and they are constantly expanding it to be able to attain and hold more wealth. Nobody ever died of discomfort, yet living in the name of comfort has killed more ideas, more opportunities, more actions, and more growth than everything else combined. Comfort kills! If your goal in life is to be comfortable, I guarantee two things. First, you will never be rich. Second, you will never be happy. Happiness doesn’t come from living a lukewarm life, always wondering what could have been.
Happiness comes as a result of being in our natural state of growth and living up to our fullest potential. Try this. The next time you are feeling uncomfortable, uncertain, or afraid, instead of shrinking and retreating back to safety, press forward. Notice and experience the feelings of discomfort, recognizing that they are only feelings—and that they do not have the power to stop you. If you doggedly continue in spite of discomfort, you will eventually reach your goal. Whether the feelings of discomfort ever subside doesn’t matter. In fact, when they do lessen, take it as a sign to in-crease your objective, because the minute you get comfortable, you have stopped growing. Again, to grow yourself to your fullest potential, you must always be living at the edge of your box. And because we are creatures of habit, we must practice. Iurge you to practice acting in spite of fear, practice acting inspite of inconvenience, practice acting in spite of discomfort, and practice acting even when you’re not in the mood.
By doing so, you will quickly move to a higher level of life. Along the way, make sure you check your bank account, be-cause, guaranteed, that will be growing quickly too. At this point in some of my evening seminars I ask the audience, “How many of you are willing to practice acting inspite of fear and discomfort?” Usually everyone puts his or her hand up (probably because they’re scared to death I’m going to “pick” on them). Then I say, “Talk is cheap! Let’s see whether you mean it.” I then pull out a wooden arrow with a steel-pointed tip and explain that as a practice for this discipline, you’re going to break this arrow with your throat. It hen demonstrate how the steel point goes into the soft part of your throat, while another person holds the other end of the arrow against their outstretched palm. The idea is to walk straight into the arrow and break it using only your throat before it pierces through your neck. At this point most people are in shock! Sometimes I pick one volunteer to do this exercise, sometimes I hand out arrows to everyone. I’ve done audiences where over a thousand people are breaking arrows! Can this feat be accomplished? Yes. Is it scary? You bet. Is it uncomfortable? Absolutely. But again, the idea is that fear and discomfort do not stop you. The idea is to practice, to train yourself to do whatever it takes, and to act in spite of anything that might be in your way. Do most people break the arrow? Yes, everyone who walks into it with 100 percent commitment breaks it. However, those who walk into it slowly, halfheartedly, or not at all, don’t. After the arrow exercise I ask people, “How many of you found the arrow easier to break physically than what your mind made it up to be?” All agree it was actually a lot easier than they thought it would be. Why is this so? Here comes one of the most important lessons you will ever learn. Your mind is the greatest soap-opera scriptwriter in history.
It makes up incredible stories, usually based in dramas and disasters, of things that never happened and probably never will. Mark Twain said it best: “I’ve had thousands of problem sin my life, most of which never actually happened.” One of the most important things you can ever understand is that you are not your mind. You are much bigger and greater than your mind alone. Your mind is a part of you just as your hand is a part of you. Here’s a thought-provoking question: What if you had a hand that was just like your mind? It was scattered all over the place, it was always beating you up, and it never shut up. What would you do with it? Most people answer something like “Cut it off !” But your hand is a powerful tool, so why would you cut it off ? The real answer of course is you’d want to control it, manage it, and train it to work for you instead of against you. Training and managing your own mind is the most important skill you could ever own, in terms of both happiness and success, and that’s exactly what we’ve been doing with this book and will continue to do with you should you attend one of our live programs.
WEALTH PRINCIPLE: Training and managing your own mind is the most important skill you could ever own, in terms of both happiness and success.
How do you train your mind? You start with observation. Notice how your mind consistently produces thoughts that are not supportive to your wealth and happiness. As you identify those thoughts, you can begin to consciously replace those nonempowering thoughts with empowering ones. Where do you find these empowering ways of thinking? Right here, in this book. Every one of the declarations in this book is an empowering and successful way of thinking. Adopt these ways of thinking, being, and attitudes as your own. You don’t have to wait for a formal invitation. Decide right now that your life would be better if you chose to thinkin the ways we’ve been describing in this book, instead of through the self-defeating mental habits of the past. Make a decision that from now on, your thoughts do not run you, you run your thoughts. From now on, your mind is not the captain of the ship, you are the captain of the ship, and your mind works for you. You can choose your thoughts. You have the natural ability to cancel any thought that is not supporting you, at any time. You can also install self-empowering thoughts at any time, simply by choosing to focus on them. You have the power to control your mind. As I mentioned earlier, at one of my seminars one of my closest friends and best-selling author Robert Allen said something quite profound: “No thought lives in your head rent-free.” What that means is that you will pay for negative thoughts. You will pay in money, in energy, in time, in health, and in your level of happiness. If you want to quickly move to a new level of life, begin dividing your thoughts into one of two categories—empowering or disempowering. Observe the thoughts you have, and determine if they are supportive to your happiness and success or not supportive. Then choose to entertain only empowering thoughts while refusing to focus on disempowering ones.
When a non supportive thought bubbles up, say “Cancel” or“ Thank you for sharing” and replace it with a more supportive way of thinking. I call this process power thinking, and mark my words, if you practice it, your life will never be the same again. That is a promise! So what is the difference between “power thinking” and “positive” thinking? The distinction is slight but profound. Tome, people use positive thinking to pretend that everything is rosy, when they really believe that it’s not. With power thinking, we understand that everything is neutral, that nothing has meaning except for the meaning we give it, and that we are going to make up a story and give something its meaning. This is the difference between positive thinking and power thinking. With positive thinking, people believe that their thoughts are true. Power thinking recognizes that our thoughts are not true, but since we’re making up a story anyway, we might as well make up a story that supports us. We don’t do this because our new thoughts are “true” in an absolute sense, but because they are more useful to us and feel a heck of a lot better than non supportive ones. Before we leave this section, I must warn you—do not at-tempt the arrow-break exercise at home. The exercise has to be set up in a specific way or you could hurt yourself as well as others around you. At our programs we use protective equipment. If you have an interest in these types of break-through exercises, see the description of the Enlightened Warrior Training Camp on our Web site. This program will give you all you can handle and more!
DECLARATIONS:
Place your hand on your heart and say...
“I act in spite of fear.”
“I act in spite of doubt.”
“I act in spite of worry.”
“I act in spite of inconvenience.”
“I act in spite of discomfort.”
“I act when I’m not in the mood.”
Touch your head and say...
“I have a millionaire mind!”
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