What is rich? I want to be it but I’m not sure I can envision it. And if I can’t envision it it’s unlikely I can be it. So herewith I do my best to describe what it means to progress from my current financial state to the one I call “rich”.

Stage 1

The first stage of rich is freedom from worry. In order to accomplish this I need only to meet my financial obligation(s), which is currently a $2300 mortgage payment. In order to do that I need to be consistently good at my job. To do that I need to 1) be ever vigilant about my attitude and 2) make a habit of striving for excellence in every task I perform, regardless of how minute it may seem at the time. I will be free from worry when I have 3 payments, or $7,000, in the bank.

Attitude is critical, the A-#1 building block in the foundation for the wealth I’m building. Positive attitude will be maintained by 1) reminding myself frequently of all the abundance with which I have been blessed and 2) keeping the long-term goal of wealth at the forefront of my thoughts.

During this stage I will be preparing to receive my wealth. Developing a clear mental picture of what rich looks, tastes, feels, sounds and tastes like will also be accomplished during this phase. In other words, the Law of Attraction will be set in motion. I admit to not really knowing what rich feels, looks, etc. like, and I’m convinced that my inability to create mental pictures of it is why I am not.

Stage 2

During stage 2 I will begin rapidly eliminating debt. Part of my Stage 1 commitment is to live with the expectation that with my dedication to self improvement will come insights and opportunities that provide me with the means to drastically increase my income. I admit to not knowing what they are right now, but I live with Faith that they will present themselves to me. By the end of Stage 2 money will be rolling in faster than I ever imagined possible (which again is probably why it isn’t already!); this stage will be complete when I have no debt other than my mortgage. I might even take up golf!

Stage 3

At the end of Stage 3 I will be able to quit working. (I prefer not to use the term “retire” for that implies “old age” to me and I have no intention of waiting till I’m an old man to retire.) I’ll have enough money to cover daily expenses, a vacation or three every year, maybe some winter time in a warm climate. I estimate it will take $3-4 million to do this.

Stage 4

Luxury, elegance and exotic locales are now within reach if I choose to reach for them. More importantly, I will be able to give something back to the world that has been so generous to me. As before, I do not at this point know how my gratitude will be shown; but I await instructions from the Power that provided me with so much to glorify Him with my contributions.

“Wishin’, and hopin’ and thinkin’ and prayin’…”

…isn’t enough to get me rich. Today’s reading takes me back to “burning desire” which sounds like work—and as I’ve made perfectly clear several times now, I’m not into work. I want to get rich like I quit smoking, the “EasyWay.”

Every action is preceded by a thought.

That thought is the expression of a desire for something to take place.

The stronger the desire the more intense will be the action.

The more intense the action the sooner the desire will be manifested.

If the action is such that it is enjoyable it will not be “work” and the attainment of the desire will be pleasurable. (Imagine that: getting everything you want and having fun doing it!)

Desire > Thought > Action > Manifestation

Assuming the accuracy of the above statements it becomes apparent that advancing a spark of desire into a blazing inferno would be beneficial to my desire to get rich. But before desire can advance beyond the spark phase, a “wish” if you will, I must believe that I actually can get rich. Rich is alien territory to me so I will have to build a case for my ability to achieve this end using inductive reasoning. Let me construct some questions that will bring forth the answers I need. *I am dismissing lotteries and inheritances, i.e. “good fortune” from this investigation.

Q. “Who can get rich?”

A. Anyone with the mental and physical facilities to provide a good or service for which an adequate number of people are willing to pay.

That settles it, I can get rich.

Q. “Do I deserve to get rich?”

A. Wealth does not require worthiness. So yes, I deserve it as much as anyone.

Q. “Is money evil? Will having it make me less of a good person?”

A. Money is inanimate; therefore it is neither evil nor good. A person with money can afford the finer things in life and live easier than a derelict homeless man. Consequently, the desire for wealth has caused many of the world’s foulest deeds. But the yan of that ying is that wealth has financed much, if not all, of man’s benevolence. It is money that allows the building of hospitals and schools, commissions great works of art and finds cures for disease.

The kind of person I become once I’ve accumulated wealth will be entirely up to me. I like to think that my core values will remain intact despite my ability to fly first class.

Q. “What do I believe would have to happen for me to get (stage 2) rich?”

A. Step 1: Build desire.

Step 2: Listen. Pay attention to inner voices, intuitions.

Step 3: Heed voices and intuitions; take action based on their inputs and have fun!

Step 4: Think right.

Step 5: Go to the bank.

An eventuality that has been looming for over a year is taking place. We were in serious financial straits last year so in order to stay afloat we cashed in some retirement accounts—sorry, I just can’t bring myself to say the numbers. It was a lot, and now the taxman wants his share. And guess what I’m going to have to do to pay those taxes? That’s right! I’m going to cash in my 401K!

I’m nearly out of money but I’ll have a few thousand left over from the aforementioned 401K cash-out, and my brother has volunteered to contribute (again) to my “stimulus package” by loaning me some money against my share of the proceeds from the sale of my dad’s house. Those two combined should get me to the first of the year, about 10 weeks from now. Time to man-up!

I need to create a success and I need to do it fast.

Fortunately, I’m confident that I have all the things necessary to accomplish the task, namely; how to do it, when to do it and the tools to get the job done. Additionally, I have complete faith in the process I will be following and my ability to carry it all out. But this time I’m going to follow the advise I gave in the article “Setting Personal Goals” back on the website. My first step will be to create as accurate a picture of the finished product that I can. The finished product will be a website tentatively titled “Dog Training For Dog Lovers.”

I love dogs and I’ve trained 7 of them to varying degrees of canine proficiency. The topic is rather competitive but equally lucrative and the site will be highly monetizable. This will require clear vision and highly focused concentration. The end result? A profitable website showing the potential to generate a generous income. Stay tuned…

I’d sold Hondas at the same store for 13 years and on that morning I found myself standing in front of my chicken-shit sales manager and the guy he had to ask for help doing the hatchet job. Frankly, it’s not like I didn’t know it was coming; I knew my Dad’s death was imminent too, but that didn’t lessen the emotional impact.
I was rattled.

My wife’s lease would expire in two months and I likely would be unemployed. I live in the country a long way from everything so I needed a car, too. I had to buy two cars in one day and it was not the least bit pleasurable. I felt abandoned and betrayed even though I completely understood why I had to go. I went to clean out my office, 13 years of accumulated trinkets and memories. Fuck it!” I said, “let the people who did this to me deal with my stuff.”

I was broke.

I’ve never been very good with money but always seemed to have enough to pay the bills and buy a guitar or take a vacation. The deal was that I would be responsible for the “rent” and my wife would take care of the other stuff. Said “rent” would be due in 3 weeks and I didn’t have it; that, however, did not release me from my responsibility.

I had to ask my brother for money to live on.

Remember the guy in chapters 1 and 2? That’s the one. He was gracious and generous and even admitted to being happy he could help. I paid the rent and set about working on the website that led you here. And that brings us to today.

I’m facing a real challenge.

I have enough money to get me to the first of the year. I do not have a job, nor do I have any prospects for employment (lots of age discrimination–I’m 58!). However, I have been studying intently the field of Internet Marketing and after an arduous time disseminating its intricacies I believe I’ve wrapped my brain around it. So I’ve set a goal:

On Christmas morning I will give myself the gift of “never having to worry about money again.”

Which I have most of my adult life. Nothing has caused me more stress and duress than worrying about money. I have been blessed with a loving wife and good health, so money remains the sole source of daily worry. Well I’m sick and tired of it and in 2 months I will have slain the fiduciary beast and be on the road to complete financial freedom. And there’s one more thing…

On Christmas morning I will give myself the gift of a body that is 20 pounds lighter than the one I’m lugging around now.

In September of 2007 I sat next to my wife, my father and his wife, and listened to an oncologist read my dad’s death sentence. I proclaimed myself his sidekick and stopped caring about much else. I excused myself the Taco Bell and Wendy’s lunches; I deserved a break today, right? And for two years now I’ve been living with the same rationalization; the cost has been 15 pounds, none of which is muscle, I assure you.

So stay tuned. I’ll keep you posted on my progress and perhaps will share a cyber-toast on December 25th!

Through a series of incidents that are not relevant to this essay Janet and I
met again via a social networking site; she was a friend of a friend and when I
saw her picture I clicked on it to visit her home page. While there I discovered
that she was an artist with a website and a blog. It was on the latter that I
found the quote.

There are a couple of important implications in Janet’s statement.

The first is that we have a choice as to what we pay attention to. And the
second is that how much or how well we create is dependent on the first
implication—what we choose to focus on.

“But”, you say, “I’m not a creative person; what does ‘focus’ have to do with
me?”

Ah, but you are in fact a creative person! You do not have to be a painter or a
writer or one who sculpts figures from stone to be ‘creative’. You’ve been
creating since you were born—you’ve been creating your life.

Creation is the process of turning thought into substance.

Everything that man has created from the beginning of time originated in
thought. It would have been impossible for Henry Ford to build the Model “T”
without first having worked out every detail of its construction in his head.
And it would have been equally impossible for you to have created the life you
now live without having worked out every detail in your head. Earl Nightingale’s
adage was right; “You become what you think about most.”

The idea of creating my life hit home about a day after I was introduced to the
Law of Attraction (does it really deserve to be capitalized?). In case you’ve
missed the hoopla its basic premise is that we attract the events and
circumstance of our lives by what we think. The idea is nothing new and has been
around since recorded history began. It’s recently been cleverly re-packaged by
a TV producer from Australia who made a very popular DVD entitled “The Secret.”

I watched “The Secret” video with my wife and while I agreed with the core
philosophy, the cynic in me dismissed much of what I heard as New Age drivel.
Would you really suggest that losing my mother to breast cancer as a
two-year-old was something I created with my thoughts? But after dismissing the
chaff I began to think about my dreams and aspirations when I was younger in
regards to how my life would play out.

As college students my (now) wife and I imagined a place in the country where we
could live peacefully with dogs and cats and horses and gardens and open spaces.
After eight years in the suburbs we found that place and I had to admit that
we’d spent the last twenty years living a part of our lives that once existed
only in thought. Neither of us have anything against children but I don’t
remember ever dreaming about or even seriously discussing having any. The
household we created with our thoughts did not include children and we are one
of those rare couples who are childless by choice.

A roommate once asked a group of us how much money we thought we’d be making
when we were fifty years old; had I known then what I do now I’d have predicted
something significantly higher because as I recall my prediction turned out to
be fairly accurate. My clothes are LL Bean; neither Wal-Mart nor Ralph Lauren.
The car I drive (a Honda) sold for about $23,000 brand new; more than a Ford
Focus with crank windows but a lot less than a 7-series BMW. I remain madly in
love with a woman I first met in high school; I am not obese; I still play some
guitar; I enjoy being outdoors; I exercise some but not a lot; no surprises. I
came to realize that my life turned out pretty much the way I thought it would
turn out—I had in fact created it with my thoughts.

How different is your life than you thought it would be?

Are you richer, healthier, happier? Are your clothes and cars of
substantially different quality or condition than you envisioned as a child? How
about your home; did you think about living in something bigger or smaller,
maybe in a different type of neighborhood? Would you consider yourself of a
different socio-economic class than you grew up in?

Have you ever noticed how infrequently people “jump class”? Kids who grow up
poor tend to become poor adults. Substitute “rich” or “middle class” for “poor”
and the statement tends to still be valid. I wonder how many teachers, doctors,
lawyers, salespeople, thieves, child beaters, and businesspeople had a parent
that did the same thing. I believe the reason this happens so often is that we
create the life we know. I grew up in a middle-class household where I learned
how to think middle-class. I did not know how to think rich and I did not know
how to think poor. I did not know how to think teacher, doctor, lawyer, thief or
child beater—but I did know how to think “salesperson”. And despite hating
sales, it’s what I’ve done for most of my adult life.

“You come in here with a skull full of mush and you leave thinking like a
lawyer.”

That was professor Kingsfield addressing a room full of freshman law students
on their first day of class in The Paper Chase. What Kingsfield said was nearly
as profound as Janet’s statement. He knew a vital secret of creation: that in
order to change the creation you must change the thought process that initiates
that creation. You want to create wealth? Start thinking like wealthy people do.
You want create a doctor? Learn to think like a doctor wannabe.

Reprogram the software that’s running your creation computer. You’ll play hell
trying to create a document in a spreadsheet program and you’ll play hell
getting out of the ghetto with a gangsta’ mindset.

“As I have shifted my focus…”

You have a choice as to what you pay attention to. And what you pay attention to
will affect the way you think, which will affect what you create. Most people
have an innate sense of the first part, that they can choose what they focus on,
but that’s where their understanding ends. It’s like an unused talent, something
that if they developed would make a seismic shift in their life.

Imagine walking in a room with two TVs on. One is airing the CBS evening news
and the other is showing “Wheel of Fortune”. Your family members are glued to
the news, captivated by the story of an earthquake in China that collapsed a
school building and killed 200 children—and there’s lots of gory video.

“What’s everybody watching?” you wonder. You’re vaguely aware that someone is
having great fun while getting fabulously wealthy on the other TV but without
making a conscious choice you join you family members and view the carnage with
them.

What are you thinking about as you watch? What is that creating? Is it creating
a mental state that you find enjoyable and empowering? My guess is that your
life at this moment is overcome with sadness, despair and anguish; you may even
be angry at God for creating this disaster. Not fun.

What would you have created if you’d made a conscious choice to watch “Wheel”
instead? Amused, happy, entertained, excited all come to mind. Much more fun.

We are not accustomed to exercising our option to change our focus. Our lives
are on auto-pilot much of the time as we’ve developed ways of doing things that
produce predictable, if not totally desirable, results. Consequently, we create
much mediocrity. Or in worse cases, we focus on that which is negative and
emotionally debilitating; then we create internal anarchy. But just as not
choosing our focus has become a habit so can making a conscious effort to do so.
How?

Feelings are our internal barometer that let us know if what we’re focusing on
is inspiring thoughts that aid or abet our desired creation process. For
example; while driving to work I was able to create a state of apprehension and
anxiety in less than two miles from my home. While this is not terribly uncommon
for me, the suddenness and intensity of the mood caught me by surprise. “What
the hell are you thinking about?” I asked out loud. And the forthcoming answer
read like a litany of petty, inconsequential annoyances. At that point I
chuckled at the absurdity of the situation and chose instead to focus on the
multi-colored canvas that Mother Nature was providing. My heart rate slowed, my
blood pressure ebbed and I began savoring feelings of joy and gratitude.

Pay attention to your feelings.

Begin to think of negative emotions as a trickle of blood from an open wound.
When they appear ask yourself “What am I focusing on, what am I paying attention
to?” Wait for an answer. As you do this a couple of things will become apparent.

First, you’ll begin to recognize habitual patterns in your thoughts.

Next, you’ll realize that what you’re concerned about is likely either something
trivial or something you can do nothing about.

Then ask yourself “What is this frame of mind costing me? What is the price I am
paying for focusing on these things? What am I creating by allowing these
thoughts to dominate my thinking?”

The answers to those questions should allow you to segue nicely into the fun
part. Find something to focus on that brings you joy; who do you love? Who loves
you? What can you be grateful for? Listen to music. Read something uplifting and
inspiring. Take a walk. Enjoy Mother Nature. Or just do what I did—realize the
absurdity of focusing on those things which sabotage the process of creating the
life you want and say “Screw ‘em!”

Your life is your art.

Begin to choose consciously the colors and textures you will apply to your
palette and create the masterpiece that dwells within you. By focusing on that
which uplifts and inspires you your life will become a pursuit of passion and
pleasure.