When you hear of becoming the 1%, what does that mean to you? The 1% of people do what 99% of the population is unwilling to do. If you think about Kobe Bryant and his level of success, he was practicing his craft each day to get just 1% better. To him, this meant being the first one at the court and the last one to leave the court. It meant practicing his free-throwing skills until he had put in his “10,000” hours to reach mastery.
How do you equate this to your own life? What is it that you would like to master? What is your purpose? A lot of people have lofty goals of where want to be in 5-10 years but have no plan of execution to get there. A common goal that I’ve heard people talk about is how they want to become “rich” or a millionaire. These goals are not inherently bad, however, if you feel any resistance and strong emotions when you read this, check out my blog post HERE.
So how would you go about becoming rich? Most people try these specific avenues:
- Working more hours
- Getting a higher paying job
- Working multiple jobs
Do you believe these things will make you rich? What does “rich” mean to you? A huge misconception is that working more hours will make you wealthy. Sure, you could do this, but you will essentially be trading time for money, and time is a finite resource. Do you truly think that the wealthiest 1% are working most of the time? If so, you are mistaken. The wealthiest in the world do not work “harder” than you. That is a fallacy. They make their money work for them instead. Their money is compounding while they sleep.
Getting a higher paying job temporarily works in the short-term to make you more money, but ultimately there is a ceiling that you will reach where you eventually be trading your time for money again, and soon you will need to break that ceiling by either gaining more expertise to be “qualified” to make more money, or back to number one and working more hours to earn more.
Hopefully you see why the third option falls into a similar trap to the first two. The best way that the rich become rich are through making investments that grow over time without their immediate oversight or effort.
Examine your beliefs around money. Do you believe that earning money needs to be “hard” or “stressful”? Where did you learn these beliefs? Many times, our attitudes and values around money have been learned through the people we grew up around – particularly our parental figures. What if abundance could flow to you – what if earning money could be something that feels peaceful?
Does that seem too far-fetched? What if we break it down another way. Going back to the first example of becoming rich. Say your goal was to earn $500,000 a year. How can you work backwards to figure out the steps to earn that much? $500,000 a year is about $42,000 a month. Let’s say you decide to work 40 hours a week, that would be $262.50 an hour. Does that number scare you? If so, there are some deeper psychological blocks that are preventing you from earning this money. The first step for you then, is to release any limiting beliefs that surround you around being wealthy.
What if what is preventing you from being wealthy is not that you aren’t good enough, but that you are missing the formula for becoming wealthy?
Think about anything you’ve ever learned how to do in life – there were some beginning stages and failures that needed to happen before you could become proficient. Take driving, for instance. The first time being in a car was overwhelming because of everything your brain had to compute. Not only did you need to pay attention to the back and side-view mirrors, but also the speedometer, what’s going on in traffic, the lights, and what street you are on. But if you have been driving a car for a while you realize that all those things are automatic. In fact, your brain hardly registers them at all. If you understand the principles of driving and have mastered them, you can understand the principles of money and master that. It’s a different game, but a game nonetheless.
$262.50 an hour – how do you suppose someone earns that? Could they have skills that allow them to earn that much? If so, what kind of skills would those be? What do you need to do to learn skills like those? How do you offer a service where people would gladly give you $262.50 for your time? If you ran into the richest person in your neighborhood, what would they tell you that they do? Chances are they have money habits they are implementing to make money work easier for them. What are those habits? Do they automate their bills? Is their mission so big that it trumps the pain in building it (and their accountability to knowing they have employees to pay keep them in the game?). Find a way to win. Don’t let your mind keep you small. Ask yourself questions that help you think outside of the box. Assume others want to help you. If you were in their position, would you want someone else to be able to enjoy the financial abundance that you have?
Think back to school – when you were learning how to add, did you ever think asking someone for help was inconvenient, bad, or wrong? No, right? Then get in a room where people know more than you about money and start asking questions. Find people who would love to mentor you. When you get on that same level, then go to a different room and learn more. This is how you break out of your matrix.
Did you know that the 5 people you spend the most time with influence not only your thoughts/beliefs, but also your bank account and your health/fitness? Be discerning with who you allow into your social circle. Statistics show that sitting next to a high performer at work can increase your own performance by 15%, but sitting next to a low performer can DECREASE your performance by 30%!
Don’t sabotage yourself by claiming loyalty to people and situations that don’t serve you. Respect your own boundaries and other people enough to maintain your standards. Really sit with your inward truth – are you striving for excellence or mediocrity? It’s okay if it’s the latter but be honest with yourself. This can help you really decide – do I want a better future and the commitment that comes with it?
