Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
9 Secrets of Achieving Financial Freedom - Part 2
What does it take to achieve financial freedom? What does it take to achieve anything that you truly desire? Most people haven’t a clue. I spent thirty years studying people who have achieved extraordinary success and found that they each consciously or unconsciously do and think differently from everyone else. I call these the 9 Secrets of Achieving Financial Freedom. Last week, I discussed the first two secrets: the Secret of Decision and the Secret of Total Commitment. To achieve any worthy objective it first requires that you decide what you want and then make a total commitment to making it happen. Not every successful person does this but you will increase your chances of success many-fold if you write it down. This leads me to the third secret; the Secret of Clarity. You must have a crystal clear vision of what you want to do, become or have. The clearer the picture, the easier it will be to attain. The Secret of Clarity includes seeing yourself ‘as-if’ you already are that which you wish to be. It’s ‘imagining’ yourself into the future to that time when you are what you set out to become. Your mind will then begin to make decisions towards that reality.
Perhaps my favorite story of clarity relates to a struggling Asian actor. In 1970, in a letter to himself, he wrote, “By 1980, I will be the best known oriental movie star in the United States and will have secured $10 million dollars. In return, I will give the very best acting I could possibly give every time I’m in front of the camera…” In 1973 Bruce Lee completed the film Enter the Dragon and became in instant mega-star and martial arts legend. Through hard work, Bruce Lee became who he had to become to be that mega star. And I love that he included what he’d give back in return.
It is said that the human mind makes a wonderful slave but a terrible master. What you tell your mind often enough, it believes. Successful people learn to control their thoughts so that roadblocks to success become ‘challenges’. And everyone loves a challenge.
In applying the Secret of Clarity in your personal finances, get perfectly clear on exactly what success looks like for you. Is it being debt free? Is it being financially free? And what exactly does each of these mean for you? Certainly ten people would arrive at ten very different answers.
I’m currently using the 9 secrets to transform my own heath and fitness over a 40-day period. I made the decision, am totally committed and have perfect clarity around what I intend to achieve. Using proper nutrition and exercise I’ll slash 20lbs of unwanted body fat and reduce my waistline three inches. I’m calling it the Ultimate Fitness Quest and invite you to join me in a quest of your own. A team of health and fitness experts is showing me (and you) how to turn my body into a fat burning furnace. They promise me I’ll never go hungry and won’t have to spend hours in the gym. Apparently, little changes can make a world of difference. If you’d like to join in the fun or just follow along visit www.StewartWelch.com.
Perhaps my favorite story of clarity relates to a struggling Asian actor. In 1970, in a letter to himself, he wrote, “By 1980, I will be the best known oriental movie star in the United States and will have secured $10 million dollars. In return, I will give the very best acting I could possibly give every time I’m in front of the camera…” In 1973 Bruce Lee completed the film Enter the Dragon and became in instant mega-star and martial arts legend. Through hard work, Bruce Lee became who he had to become to be that mega star. And I love that he included what he’d give back in return.
It is said that the human mind makes a wonderful slave but a terrible master. What you tell your mind often enough, it believes. Successful people learn to control their thoughts so that roadblocks to success become ‘challenges’. And everyone loves a challenge.
In applying the Secret of Clarity in your personal finances, get perfectly clear on exactly what success looks like for you. Is it being debt free? Is it being financially free? And what exactly does each of these mean for you? Certainly ten people would arrive at ten very different answers.
I’m currently using the 9 secrets to transform my own heath and fitness over a 40-day period. I made the decision, am totally committed and have perfect clarity around what I intend to achieve. Using proper nutrition and exercise I’ll slash 20lbs of unwanted body fat and reduce my waistline three inches. I’m calling it the Ultimate Fitness Quest and invite you to join me in a quest of your own. A team of health and fitness experts is showing me (and you) how to turn my body into a fat burning furnace. They promise me I’ll never go hungry and won’t have to spend hours in the gym. Apparently, little changes can make a world of difference. If you’d like to join in the fun or just follow along visit www.StewartWelch.com.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
9 Secrets of Achieving Financial Freedom- Part I
At the ripe old age of twenty-two I decided to study self-made millionaires in order to determine how they created their success. My hope was that by doing what they did, I could achieve similar results. Seems logical, right? I even hosted a TV show where I interviewed self-made millionaires including folks like the founder of Compass Bank and legendary banker, Harry Brock. While I made lots of mistakes, I learned that by modeling successful people’s behavior and actions you could get astounding results. I also noticed something else: virtually all self-made millionaires did a handful of things that other people didn’t do. Think of them as the ‘secrets’ of self-made millionaires. Most importantly, these secrets are skills that anyone can learn and use to create financial success in their own life.
I distilled these secrets down into what I call the ‘9 Secrets of Achieving Financial Freedom’. Once I had written the 9 secrets, it dawned on me that they are universal secrets to success and you should be able to use them to create success in any area of your life. So as a personal experiment, I intend to use the 9 secrets to transform my own fitness level over the next forty days. In this column over the next six weeks I’ll share both the 7 Secrets to Achieving Financial Freedom as well as my progress regarding my own fitness quest. By the way, wealth without health is not really wealth or said another way, “If a man has his health, it is said he can have a 1,000 wishes. If he has lost his health, he will have but one.”
The first two of the 9 secrets are the Secret of Decision and the Secret of Total Commitment.
One of the first observations I had regarding self-made millionaires was that they decided specifically what they wanted to accomplish and then became totally committed to their success. They displayed an attitude of certainty about their outcome. In Harry Brock’s case he was totally committed to changing the face of banking in Alabama from the stogy, ivory tower, white-shoe atmosphere that prevailed at the time to one focused on customer service and rapid expansion through a sales oriented approach to acquiring customers. He ruffled lots of feathers and fought many battles both in and out of the courtroom but prevailed and built one of the largest banks in America.
Knowing that the first two secrets, what achievement would you be willing to be totally committed to? In my 40-day experiment, I’m committed to reducing my body fat by 20 pounds while increasing my level of strength and cardiovascular fitness. I’ve brought in a team of health and fitness experts to coach me… and you too, if you’d like to shed inches from your own waistline. I’m calling it the Ultimate Fitness Quest and I’ve set up a web site with lots of resources to help you in your own quest. It’ll be an opportunity to test the 9 secrets in a realm other than personal finances and test myself at the same time. So if you’re ready to create your own 40-day transformation just in time for summer, visit www.StewartWelch.com and be sure to read my column each week here in The Birmingham News!
I distilled these secrets down into what I call the ‘9 Secrets of Achieving Financial Freedom’. Once I had written the 9 secrets, it dawned on me that they are universal secrets to success and you should be able to use them to create success in any area of your life. So as a personal experiment, I intend to use the 9 secrets to transform my own fitness level over the next forty days. In this column over the next six weeks I’ll share both the 7 Secrets to Achieving Financial Freedom as well as my progress regarding my own fitness quest. By the way, wealth without health is not really wealth or said another way, “If a man has his health, it is said he can have a 1,000 wishes. If he has lost his health, he will have but one.”
The first two of the 9 secrets are the Secret of Decision and the Secret of Total Commitment.
One of the first observations I had regarding self-made millionaires was that they decided specifically what they wanted to accomplish and then became totally committed to their success. They displayed an attitude of certainty about their outcome. In Harry Brock’s case he was totally committed to changing the face of banking in Alabama from the stogy, ivory tower, white-shoe atmosphere that prevailed at the time to one focused on customer service and rapid expansion through a sales oriented approach to acquiring customers. He ruffled lots of feathers and fought many battles both in and out of the courtroom but prevailed and built one of the largest banks in America.
Knowing that the first two secrets, what achievement would you be willing to be totally committed to? In my 40-day experiment, I’m committed to reducing my body fat by 20 pounds while increasing my level of strength and cardiovascular fitness. I’ve brought in a team of health and fitness experts to coach me… and you too, if you’d like to shed inches from your own waistline. I’m calling it the Ultimate Fitness Quest and I’ve set up a web site with lots of resources to help you in your own quest. It’ll be an opportunity to test the 9 secrets in a realm other than personal finances and test myself at the same time. So if you’re ready to create your own 40-day transformation just in time for summer, visit www.StewartWelch.com and be sure to read my column each week here in The Birmingham News!
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