21st Century Academy

What is it that is really, truly, keeping you from being wealthy? Or, what has it been in the past that has kept you from being wealthy that you have overcome to finally find financial success? Do the traces remain?

Finding The Real Reasons

For everything there is a reason. Whatever it is that has kept you from being wealthy in the past, there was something at the heart of the matter. Now, when asked the questions above, people will often, and often sarcastically, answer that money is keeping them from being wealthy. But that’s not really ever true. Consider two points:

1. There is a reason that you do not/did not have money
2. Many people with huge incomes are not wealthy, either

Money is an easy scape-goat for so much of what we do not have and/or what we struggle with in life. But money is a thing, not a being, so it cannot be to fault for our financial positioning.

What is really at fault is the reason that we don’t have money. Those reasons can be many and varied, and may include things like

• A lacking financial education—are you still relying on what you learned in school?
• A negative financial attitude—conscious or subconscious
• Poor savings and investment habits
• Lack of action
• The missing success mindset

I’m sure that readers here can add to this list, too. Please do below and we’ll discuss it further. But before we wrap this up, I want to go back to one question I posed in the opening paragraph.

Do The Traces Still Remain?

Even people who have gained that financial education, improved their attitude, constructed a mindset of success and positivity, and remedied their poor savings and investment habits, can still remain in a state of financial struggle. Sometimes people make headway, and then end up back where they always find themselves. When that happens, there is a reason, too, and to enjoy lasting wealth and financial prosperity you have to get at the heart of it and weed it out. You may think you have done all of this already, but the results of your efforts are a sure indication of what lies beneath.

So today, in order to help you succeed and build wealth, I urge you to take a step back and figure out if there is improvement, or if there is an underlying reason why you are not where you’d hoped to be. Then use that to get at the real heart of the matter, and enjoy real success.

Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 - 2008

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How are you feeling about the wealth education that you have decided to pursue? Excited? Enthused? Energized? Pumped? Psyched? Overwhelmed? Disheartened?

I hope the latter is not the case, but I’d understand if it were. It’s not uncommon to feel like this is a great opportunity, but at the same time it is one whose promise is just too far off in the future. Whose time to come is just too late. Whose answers can’t help you now.

Let’s put those feelings in their place.

One Step Closer

If you are at the beginning of your wealth creation program it may feel like achieving that wealth is very far off in the future. You have a lot of ground to cover and a long way to go. Maybe it’s not even worth reaching for. Nothing could be farther—from the truth, that is.

When things are far off, when they seem far off, the only way to get closer to them is to take one step closer. One step at a time, make forward motion towards what you want. One step isn’t too hard to do. You can manage that now. Right now. You can enjoy that result right now. And you can get that much closer to your goal, all the while being successful to that relative degree.

The Difference Between Average And Wealthy

Keep in mind as you keep this in mind that the difference between success and failure—between being average and being wealthy—is one step—that step beyond what the average person does. It’s that single step that puts you closer to financial success than those around you who are standing still.

A million dollars might be very far away from you right at this moment, but it will never get any closer if you do not move towards it. Funny enough, it will remain just where it is right now—too far off, too elusive. Unless you take that step. Take a step closer to your future. Reduce the distance between you and wealth, and arrive at your destination.

Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004-2008

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Understanding that you have choices is truly empowering. Just the knowledge that you are the one who really decides where your money goes, that you are the one who chooses every month to pay your bills, is empowering. And if you can make changes to the choices that you make, then you can start immediately to illicit a change in your financial future, and in your accumulation of wealth.

What Can You Change?

To harness the power of choice you first have to take a look at the way you currently spend and allocate your money, and then begin to change that practice in your favor.

On your list you surely have many bills to pay; many perceived necessities, and hopefully a column for you as well. Often the way that money is managed the bills and necessities get paid first, and you are paid as an afterthought, funds permitting. The problem with this is that by organizing your finances this way you hardly ever—if ever—get around to the “you” column. You are last on the priority list, and last to be paid. And when something has to give, it is you that goes without. And without paying you, you will never build wealth. As Jamie McIntyre says, saving is elemental to building wealth.

So what on this list can you change? You have a few choices. You can

• Change the order to make you a priority

• Change who you decide to pay (wipe some things off the list entirely)

• Change how much you pay (decide on an amount that you are willing to budget to each)

You do have bills and financial obligations, but you do have the ability to choose how that is done, and the ability to do it in a way that makes space for wealth and prosperity in your life—in a way that makes you a top financial priority. To learn this more specifically, I encourage you to check out the free eBook that Jamie offers over at the 21st Century Academy; he gives some very specific ways to deal with bills and debts and allocate money to you. If you find yourself struggling to find the money to be the foundation of your wealth, this is something you’ll want to read.

Just remember the choices are all yours. And those choices are power—the power to create wealth and live prosperously. Get yourself on a power trip to financial success!

To Your Continued Financial Success

Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 - 2008

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“You are the company you keep.”It’s sort of like “you are what you eat.” Today we’re talking about the people that surround you and their impact on your financial life.

Who Are The Company You Keep?

Take a look at your life and think about the company you keep. Think about all the company you keep, including

• Online friends

• Blog communities (like this one)

• Offline relationships

• Personal relationships

• Business associations

• Work relationships

Think about all the people you talk, read, or listen to, and the overall types of company you keep. You may not even have directly communicated with any of these people (such as when you read a blog or forum…), but if you follow what they say, you are keeping company with them. And the kinds of company you keep will have a very strong impact on your financial success; more than you might realise.

Keep The Company You Want To Be

Those of us following men and women like Jamie McIntyre, or programs like the 21st Century Academy, have been introduced to the power of attraction. In this case that power is the power of like attracting like. Applied to your personal associations and building wealth, that translates thusly: keep company with positive and successful people and that is what you will become. You will attract positivity and success to you and into your life. But keep company with negative and unsuccessful people and that is what you will draw to you.

This does not mean that negative people are bad people, just that they are bad for you in terms of success and wealth creation. You need to limit those influences in your life and focus on building an influence of wealth.

We can not entirely avoid negative people, but we can decide what affect we will let those people have on our lives by deciding the role we let them play in ours. Focus on building relationships with people who are strong, motivated, supportive, and focused on the good, and that is the type of person you will become. Choose your company carefully, as when you look back at yourself, you will see that you certainly do become the company you keep.

To Your Continued Financial Success

Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 - 2008

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In each of the 21st Century Academy courses, Jamie McIntyre has outlined an effective, yet beautifully simple way to reveal your true financial attitude and rewire your financial subconscious. It starts very easily with a process of holding a candid interview—with you!

Qualify ‘Easy’

I feel I should qualify that statement a bit. By ‘easy’, I mean that the process itself is simplistic (yet effective). It’s a simple question and answer process. And I’d love to tell you it is painless, too, but as we all know, sometimes reigniting old thoughts we’ve worked to forget can cause some emotional pain. I hope for you that this is very limited. But above everything, I do not want that to deter you from this process. You cannot heal something that you cannot confront. And like so many others, I do believe that you will find that pain to be therapeutic. And through this process, you can let go of it once and for all.

Ask Yourself This

Do you equate money with pain or pleasure? What do you really equate money with? Not sure? You’re not alone. Start this process off by figuring out what you really think of money. Ask yourself a few questions:

• When is the last time money made you feel pressured?

• Are you experiencing financial pressure right now?

• If you had more money, would that relieve the pressure?

• Was there a time in memory that you felt no pressure from money at all?

Of course, there are no right or wrong answers here, just yours.

When you reflect upon these answers, you will gain some perspective on the pain vs. pleasure that money represents to you. From there, you’ll have to work to make sure that money represents more pleasure to you than pain. That’s quite a process, but it can be and is done. And you can do it too! Join us again and we’ll start talking about some ways to bring more pleasure into your life than pain—to stop letting pain and negativity rule your world, both financially and personally. Come back and we’ll talk more about the methods that Jamie McIntyre has used in the 21st Century Academy to improve financial attitudes, and bring more positivity to life.

To Your Continued Financial Success

Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 - 2008

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