Dare to Prosper - Part VI

We have all heard the expression “no pain – no gain” when we are shooting for some specific goal, whether it is getting fit or going for the gold at an Olympic event. Well in life it really is no different. If you read the biographies of great people you will find out that they all paid a price for their lives. Yet in that price was the greatest gift because it made them the people they are today. Someone once said you first have to be a millionaire in your mind and who you are before you can have the million dollars. Too often people who have won the lottery and instantly were millionaires lost all of it in a very short period of time all because they were not millionaires but poor people who happen to have a million dollars. So Step 6 is all about recognizing and determining what price are you willing to pay? This price may mean sacrifice, it may mean discipline it may mean changing certain habits or behaviors. On this side of the equation you still have to be an active participant in this program. There are no free rides, no magic genie that will grant you 3 wishes, and no white knight who will rescue you. This is all about how bad do you want it. Is this really a passion to live a better life or are you so comfortable in your current situation that even though you are living your dream life what you have is not so bad that you are willing to change. Being comfortable is the greatest challenge to one’s ideal life because you are not unhappy in it and there is not enough “why” to make you want to change. I hope that this is not you because you are among what I call the “quiet dead” not really alive but not dead. You are the ones that one-day wake up and say where has my life gone and is that all there is. You, my friend, are the ones who look at your past life and say things like “if only” or “why didn’t I” and have a mountain of regrets or blame. It doesn’t have to be that way so whether you are 30, 50 or 80 it is not to late to take control and live an amazing life, just realize there is a price to pay. But also realize that the price to pay is ounces to the price of regret that weighs tons.

Dare to Prosper - Part V

Okay so now your walls are filled with treasure books and wheel of fortunes but nothing is happening, what is wrong with this picture. Well, the first thing is you are only half way to getting the whole picture. It is like building a structure there are many moving parts and all of them are needed for the completed project.
Quick question are you still doing step 2 – being grateful? I hope that by now this is part of a life long habit for you. This step 2 along with steps 8 and 10 are the glue that holds this whole process together.

Each step is crucial but just like building a structure there are some things that are the bricks and others are the mortar. Each component is important and in some ways all are equal but I don’t care how great the bricks are if there is no mortar to hold it in place all you have are a ton of bricks.

Which is what is your plan? Here is where you explore the specific steps of action along with what are the obstacles you will need to overcome and finally what are the time lines to accomplishing your dream.

Now that you have determined your final destination of what it is you desire. Work your way backwards. What do you need to do to get there? Identify every component needed to reach your desire. Now list every obstacle for each of those components. Next list 3 things you can do to overcome the obstacle. Now determine to tackle one of those obstacles with a definite time frame. Once you accomplished this move on to the next obstacle.

Rome was not built in a day – the life you have today took many years to get to this point. So your future may take you some time but the nice thing is everyday you are moving to your ideal life – one that is filled with the desires of your heart.

Dare to Prosper - Part IV

Congratulations, now that you know exactly what it is you want, you have placed yourself in the 5% of the elite in this world. 95% of the population has no clue as to what it is they really want. They operate on living lives by default instead of by intention and wonder why life is not all its cracked up to be. They have chosen by not choosing to allow life to happen and not taking control of their future.

Step 4... Write it down!

Write it with all the descriptive adjectives you need to create a word picture that you can fix your mind and your future on.

I also recommend using pictures as advancement to your Clear Concise Mental Picture. One note when you do a “treasure map” of your desires make sure that you place you and anyone else you want to be a part of this final outcome. You can create several different treasure maps for each area of your life: future, family, finances, fun, career, health, and personal growth. You can create a “wheel of fortune” where you divide the wheel into 4 to 8 spokes and each area indicate what it is you want to see accomplished.

It doesn’t matter which you use but I have found combining both the written and the pictorial is an amazing combination and have found that my results come much faster utilizing both mediums.

Dare to Prosper - Part III

Hopefully you have been doing Step 2 and being grateful and already seeing some things changing for the better in your life and your finances.

The next step is where you “dare to dream.” This is where you ask yourself the following question... If I could do anything, have anything and be anything and I knew I could not fail and money, education, age, sex, race or anything else were not an issue what is it that I really want?

This is not a simple question or one that you want to be flip about but take some serious time and list everything that comes to mind. Please don’t filter anything but just list them. Do this every day for a week and see what keeps coming out to you. Is there a theme? Do you find yourself saying the same thing over and over again?

Now Step 3 is about getting definite about what it is you want. In the book by Napoleon Hill, "Think and Grow Rich", he talks about having a CCMP (clear concise mental picture of the thing that you want). Most people have not because they really have never figured out what exactly it is they want.

So your assignment this week is all about defining exactly what it means to be prosperous to you. The more specific and exact your definition the more you will be able to manifest it in your life. It is like going on a journey if you say you are going to Africa that is pretty generic, but if you are saying you are going to Nairobi and staying at the Hilton and you are going in January of 2011, now you are being specific. Do this for your definition of prosperity. Add as many details as possible to give you a Clear Concise Mental Picture of the thing that you want.
Assignment: Define prosperity for you – get specific