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.

“…you can make excuses in your life and you can make money, but you can not do both at the same time.”

–What I Didn’t Learn At School But Wish I Had

We are continuing today to move on through Chapter One of Jamie McIntyre’s book, where the discussion is centered on why people fail to be wealthy. We are looking for the answers to why 96 percent of people (the people Jamie calls the “96 percenters”) end up dead, broke, or dead broke by the age of retirement. One reason for this that cannot be ignored is blame and excuses.

There’s Always A “Reason”

It seems almost human nature to create excuses and blame other people and situations for what we have not achieved. Mind you, when we do achieve and succeed, we are much less likely to do this, and much more likely to take the credit, but in the case of continued financial failure there is always a “reason” why things are the way they are (of course, these aren’t really “reasons” but excuses, but we’ll get into that later).

For example, Jamie used to say that the reason he wasn’t wealthy was that he was owed too much money by other people, or that he needed money to make money, or had too much debt, that he wasn’t born into money or handed a leg-up, or simply because he wasn’t interested in money (but we’ve already talked about living in financial denial). Or he would imagine that the solution was evading him, and if someone would just help him out, or if he could find the “right” career, then everything would fall into place.

A Familiar Feeling

I’m willing to bet Jamie’s litany of excuses sounds familiar to you; it seems as humans we are not all that original in finding excuses for why we are not wealthy. But whatever it is you are telling yourself, you need to start realizing that those are not reasons for your lack of wealth.

The only way these sorts of excuses become reasons you are not wealthy is because you give over your power to them. You allow them to become hurdles to success, but only because you choose to. These are hurdles that are easily removed because all you have to do is stop playing the blame game and stop making excuses. It may be a familiar and comfortable place, but it’s not a productive one, and it will never make you wealthy. Take back your power and start putting it to better use.

To Your Continued Success!
Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 – 2009

I’m going to start with a quote that is making its way around my blogs; it comes from Napoleon Hill‘s classic financial empowerment text, and it is a very good example of how simple wealth creation really is fundamentally:

“One sound idea is all it takes for a person to achieve success.”

One Sound Idea

Think about that. One. Sound. Idea. One single idea is all it takes to catapult your actions and efforts toward building wealth. All it ever took anyone to become rich was one sound idea. All it took Jamie McIntyre to be the millionaire and wealth mentor he is today is one sound idea.

This is very much related to our talks about how it only takes one step beyond the norm to be rich and successful. Taking a step indicates action. Before that you have to have the idea. One is no good without the other, but together they are a powerful team.

An Ocean Of Success Awaiting

When you put it like that, when you come down to the very basic fact that it only takes a single, solitary, sound idea to build wealth, it doesn’t sound that hard, does it? Anyone is capable of having an idea. More often than not people are absolutely bursting with great ideas; they just don’t act upon them.

Think about how many ideas cross your mind in the course of a day. Just one day. Expand that to a week, and a month. Now do you see the ocean of potential that’s waiting inside your head? Take just one of those ideas and couple it with the power of positive mindset and action that you learn from the 21st Century Academy—the guidance to guide your great ideas. What a winning formula for success!

Consider this one a post for anyone who ever doubted that they could succeed and be wealthy. Consider it a post for the overwhelmed, the financially struggling, the financially undereducated (which is everyone relying on an old-school education). Consider it proof that anyone can succeed and be rich. And now enjoy some time basking in a sea of great ideas, knowing that all you have to do to be rich is pick just one!

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