21st Century Academy

Consistent thoughts are naturally followed by consistent behaviours that are conducive to generating wealth. This is an important aspect of money management. Consistency is a critical aspect of success, no matter what the endeavour. Managing finances is not a project that has a beginning, middle and end. It is an ongoing way of being.

Developing the right mindset for building wealth requires practice, as well as tenacity. Managing money is a way of being that stems from a well developed set of mental processes. Each time you have a thought neurological pathways are reinforced. New thoughts lead to new neurological pathways. It is necessary to repeat the thought new thought processes consistently in order to strengthen the pathway.

Neurological Pathways to Wealth

Consistency and money management, as all things, begins in the mind. You can create neurological pathways that reinforce the notion that you are deserving of wealth, and that you are capable of managing money well. Practicing this thought process builds the neurological pathway to wealth.

How does the neurology come into play with money management?

All of our beliefs, feelings and behaviours begin in thought. Each thought has the capacity to help us follow through with the appropriate behavioural responses automatically. Practising visualisations, thoughts and focus on building wealth naturally leads to appropriate behavioural follow through.

Learning Mental Money Management

Though this process may appear to be quite easy, it is important to note that some of the thoughts may not be supported by your underlying belief system. Simple exercises like 30 seconds of positive thinking can offer enough support to build neurological pathways for the things you want to achieve.

You are no different from any millionaire on the planet. Wealth can be a matter of perception. When you take a few moments each day to:

• Visualise your goals
• Feel genuine gratitude
• Believe in your ability to succeed
• Practice good money management

Gradually, the process of managing money becomes second nature, allowing you to achieve the goals that you visualise every day. Your thought processes naturally lead to behavioural follow through that is consistent with the ideas in your head. Focus on what you can accomplish rather that what you can’t. This is the fundamental element of consistently improving your finances.

bookmark this

In our last post we introduced the first video in the Wealth Vision 7-Day Minicourse; today, we are going to start looking more in-depth at the topics that Jamie McIntyre introduced to us in that video.

Welcome To The 21st Century

The first of the videos covers the first four chapters of Jamie’s book, What I Didn’t Learn At School But Wish I Had. It’s an aptly named book, as in all honestly it was written by Jamie and professional accountant Leigh Baker to fill in the gaps in our financial knowledge.

What Jamie found when he set off to learn how to build wealth was that the key factors are not so overly complex that the average man or woman should not be able to be rich, it’s just that we were never given a real, useful lesson in money and finance. What you need to know to be wealthy could be taught to the average ten year old (and should be). But wealth creation is not something we are taught at school, and so most of us are not wealthy.

Why Am I Not Rich?

This is the theme of the first part of the book, covered in chapters one through four. Many of us—particularly those with access to this book—can easily make this statement:

“I live in one of the wealthiest countries on earth—so why am I not rich?”

It’s a simple question, and there are many “reasons,” but the answer is simple, too—you are not rich because you have not been given the financial education to succeed in the 21st Century. School did not prepare you for success in this modern life.

The next several posts will be devoted to exploring this question. We will take a look at the answers and explanations Jamie gives us, and also take a look at Jamie’s story. As he says, his real-life story drives the reality of the situation, and the possibility and opportunity that is out there, home with its relatability.

For now I encourage you to read through at least the opening pages of the book, the Preface, Foreward, and Introduction. If you like, move on to the first four chapters as well, as that is what we will be discussing in the days ahead. Get a good understanding of what knowledge we are after, and why that is important to have in order to create wealth. It’s an exciting path through this mini-course, this topic, and this book, and I can’t wait to share it with you.

Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 - 2009

bookmark this

Motivating ourselves to achieve our goals is not an easy thing to do. Somehow, as conscious as we think we are of our plans and goals, we continue to lose sight of them as we go about our lives. Sometimes this is the result of not having set solid goals and not having planned for action on them, but sometimes it is just the result of too many other things getting in our way—of life happening.

We need all the tools we can get to help us stay focused and achieve the end we desire . Since we so often are putting ourselves last, one tactic that works (usually without your even realizing it) is to help others.

Intrinsic Assistants

If you think about, most people are intrinsically motivated to help one another. If you need an example of that, think about how quick you are to drop what you are doing, even though it may derail your plans, and help someone else out. Think how eagerly you will share your knowledge with someone who asks for your help, even though it is often a case of “giving away the goods.” As you think about that, think about how painless that feels for you to do.

Your Reward

Now think about how you could apply this same painless concept to creating wealth, or motivating yourself to create wealth. Even though you might find it difficult to attend to the tasks at hand, think about how much easier that might be just by sharing your knowledge, plans, and resources with someone else.

This is a great reason not to keep your plans and efforts at wealth creation to yourself; going public with your goals so that you can share that knowledge with others can have many return benefits. Not only do you get the satisfaction of helping another, but you also get the benefit of living, being what you want to be. Your selflessness becomes your reward, in more ways than you would ever have thought.

Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 - 2009

bookmark this

The snowball effect is something that applies to many of the concepts and ideals that you’ll learn throughout the course of your financial empowerment program. But what got me thinking about it today was something I ran across online that talked about the snowball method of getting out of debt. And it occurred to me that its opposite was very much true for building wealth.

The Financial Snowball Method Of Debt And Wealth

What this very popular method of debt reduction states is that a person should pay off their lowest-balance debt first, regardless of other factors like interest rates and so on, to capitalize on the psychological effect of accomplishing something very worthwhile. Once that is done, the action moves to the next lowest balance, using the newly freed cash to pay on that balance and make faster, more motivating progress.

There is a lot that we can learn from this method, and in many ways this fits collaboratively with exactly what Jamie McIntyre has been teaching us all along. Not only are you making and seeing real progress, but you are building that positive mindset of change and financial success that is so necessary for wealth. And all that progress and positivity is attracting more progress and positivity, so it is enhancing the snowball effect even more.

Throwing Snowballs At Creating Wealth

If you think about it there are a lot of ways you can capture the power of the snowball effect to create wealth and maximize this financial empowerment program. A few examples include

• Starting out small with wealth education, and snowballing that effort
• Starting small at saving, and snowballing that effort
• Starting small with investing, and snowballing
• Starting small with positive mindset
• Starting small with debt elimination, then transferring snowball effect to savings, investment, and creating wealth

I’m guessing that you can add to this short list, too (and please do in the comments below). And remember that when you apply the snowball effect to wealth-building, the effect grows more quickly and more beneficially, because you add the advantages of investment, interest, and dividends to the money you invest. So your wealth snowballs will grow bigger and even faster than those of your debt repayments.

Here’s to your snowballing success!

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

bookmark this

Many people do not understand a very simple concept that relates directly to success and financial freedom—the concept that their life is all about choice, and that any man or woman has choices. Choice is really what the 21st Century Academy is all about—it’s about giving you information so that you can make choices and achieve financial freedom, so that you can fully enjoy life. Once you understand that choice is yours, you’ll find the ability to do so many things.

Money Choices

Whether you feel it or not, you do have many choices in how you spend your money. Most people don’t think they do because they have many bills and financial obligations. But the fact is that you choose what you pay and how you pay it. So yes, you do have choice over your money. You also choose where you spend the remaindering cash, whether it is invested, spent on quality as Jamie would have you do, or squandered and never to be seen again.

You also have the choice to make changes to any of the above so that you can attend to your personal wealth. And there are ways to do that and still pay the bills, under any circumstances (and yes, this is addressed in the wealth homestudy publications).

Time Choices

We treat how we spend our time similar to how we spend our money—as dictated by others and outside forces. But that is not at all true. Very few people have the power and ability to physically force you into anything. The rest, while demanding, can certainly be managed so that you have the time to create wealth of your own.

Choice Is Power

Choice is power. When you understand that your life is all about the choices you make you gain a great strength of power that you can reshape and repurpose for your own best interests. Understand the power you hold over your own life and put it to its best possible uses.

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

bookmark this