October 28that Noon Pacific/3pm Eastern/8pm UK

The Art of Sprinting

When you see your life (or work, or marriage, or pretty much anything) as a marathon, you tend to conserve your energy. When you see your life as a series of sprints, you are able to give your all for short bursts. Listen in as Michael tells you how to train, rest, recover, and “leave it all on the track.”

To get coaching and speak with me live on air, phone:

Inside the US (Toll free)

1-866-254-1579

From the UK/Outside the US

001-760-918-4300

Did you miss last week’s show on The Eight Styles of Contribution?

For a limited time you can listen to it here. You can also download and listen to any of my shows at any time as part of your subscription to the new and improved Solutions Café – click here for details!

New! – You can now listen to the show from your iPhone!

Simply go to the Apps Store to download your free Hay House Radio App and within minutes you’ll be able to listen to great shows from Wayne Dyer, Cheryl Richardson, and of course, me!

(If you missed parts one to three, you can read them here: Part One, Part Two, Part Three)

The Fourth Mastery:
Managing Money

Managing your money is perhaps the most practical of the money masteries, and many of the basics of financial literacy can be easily learned online or over a coffee and donut at your local bookshop. (Just be sure not to get any donut crumbs on the books if you’re not planning on buying them later… :-)

So instead of spending a lot of time on the details of how to manage your money, let’s take a little bit of time to explore what it entails and why it’s worth doing.

In its simplest form, effective money management answers three questions and involves three basic skills:

1. What’s your current reality? (Seeing) Seeing involves looking at your current financial reality without attempting to make things any better than they are or any worse than they are. In short, it involves looking at your finances – what you’ve got, what you owe, what comes in and what goes out – without your story about “the way things should be” and “what’s wrong with me/the economy/my parents/my business/the world”. Seeing clearly matters because you can’t do anything about what you don’t see. If you don’t see the giant wrecking ball headed for your head, you can’t duck; if you don’t see the yellow brick road, you’re going to find it awfully difficult to get to Oz. 2. What do you intend to do about it? (Planning) Planning is primarily concerned with where your money will be coming from (i.e. business plans, career planning, and investment strategy) and where your money will be going to (i.e. budgeting and spending plans). Why does planning matter? Because, as the saying goes, failing to plan is planning to fail. And even though you might not follow the plan exactly as laid out, the act of laying it out is in and of itself an essential part of the creative process. 3. What are you actually doing about it? (Tracking) Tracking your income and expenditures can be as simple as carrying around a notebook in your back pocket or as complex as hiring a team of bookkeepers to pore over your receipts and deposit slips and create spreadsheets with full color pie charts. (To my dismay, my bookkeepers wanted to charge me so much extra for the full color pie charts that I opted to keep the extra money, buy some actual pie and share it with my daughter Maisy. We gave the receipt for the pie to the bookkeepers and it showed up as a “dining” expense on the next spreadsheet…) Simply put, what gets measured gets done – and not only does the act of tracking your expenses tend to reduce them, when you track your income it tends to increase! As your skill at seeing, planning, and tracking your finances increases, your mastery over money will increase as well. And as you begin to master creating, accumulating, using, and managing money, you will also begin to experience more and more of the wealth and freedom that is your birthright.

Because ultimately, the mastery of money isn’t about money at all – it’s about you being able to live your life from your authentic, wonderful self.

Money is not, as far as I can tell, the secret to happiness – but getting yourself to the point where money is neither what gets you out of bed in the morning nor keeps you awake at night is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Have fun, learn heaps, and may all your success be fun!

October 22nd at Noon Pacific/3pm Eastern/8pm UK

THE EIGHT STYLES OF CONTRIBUTION

Have you decided that you want to make a difference in the world?

Given that there are so many ways to contribute to the well-being of the planet, and so many seemingly good causes and worthy places to give of your time, your money, and yourself, how do you decide where, when, and how to make your difference?

To get coaching and speak with me live on air, phone:

Inside the US (Toll free)
1-866-254-1579

From the UK/Outside the US
001-760-918-4300

Did you miss last week’s show on A Thousand Minutes a Day?
For a limited time you can listen to it here. You can also download and listen to any of my shows at any time as part of your subscription to the new and improved Solutions Café - click here for details!

New! – You can now listen to the show from your iPhone!
Simply go to the Apps Store to download your free Hay House Radio App and within minutes you’ll be able to listen to great shows from Wayne Dyer, Cheryl Richardson, and of course, me!

Finish the year with a lifetime’s worth of confidence in your ability to create change and a solid framework for a sustainable, highly profitable coaching, training and/or writing based business.

This full-year course is for those who want to incorporate advanced skills training and turbo-charged business development alongside personal coaching.

http://www.geniuscatalyst.com/apprentice.php

There are currently only three spots available.  Program begins December 2009!

(If you missed parts one and two, you can read them here and here)

Thus far, we’ve talked about the two masteries of money that most people who struggle with money claim to struggle with – creating it and accumulating it.  This week and next, we’ll move into two of the subtler masteries.  Without next week’s mastery, it won’t matter how much you earn or how much you keep because it will continue to mysteriously disappear.

Without this week’s mastery, it won’t matter how much you earn or how much you keep either – because you haven’t yet made it matter…

The Third Mastery:
Using Money

I’ve always suspected that the first official “financial” transaction between nations involved the trade of several chickens for a goat, and that both nations (or what we would today consider to be “tribes”) had members who violently protested that “our chickens are worth way more than their goats” and vice-versa.

Far fetched though that may seem, compare it to this highly-abridged history of currency in the modern world.  In some ancient Oceanic cultures, conch shells were used to facilitate the exchange of goods and services, as people “shelled out” for food and lodging.  Later, workers in the salt mines of Mesopotamia were paid in salt, or “salarium”, creating the first “salaried” workers and no doubt the first grumblings of comparative salt envy.

As trade grew more complex, and it became completely impractical to carry shells, salt, or even chickens in your purse for barter, precious metals began to be the universal currency, leading to the establishment in the 19th century of the gold standard system that enabled easier international trade.

In the last 70 years, what we call “money” has changed forms again, and the coins and paper we carry around are no longer backed by gold but rather by faith – our faith in the government’s ability to continue to back our currency at a comparable level to other government’s ability to back theirs.

So if what we use as money has progressed over time from chickens to shells to salt to gold to faith, what exactly is this money stuff that seems to have everyone all worked up?

Well, one answer is “whatever we make it up to be”, and while this is essentially true (see the launch of Brixton’s own internal currency last month as a startlingly modern example), it might be useful to create a shared definition, at least for the purposes of our conversation through these tips.

So here is what I’m talking about when I use the word “money”:

Money is a practical tool created to facilitate the exchange of goods and services.

When viewed in this way, much of what we believe and/or worry about money becomes nonsensical.

One of my favorite money experiments, which I first came across in the book “Money Freedom” by Patricia Remele, involves substituting the word “shovel” (another practical tool) for the word “money” into many of the most limiting beliefs and ideas that are present in our culture.

Here are a few of my favorites…

• The love of shovels is the root of all evil
• It takes shovels to make shovels
• Shovels don’t grow on trees
  
• Shovels are a corrupting influence in our society
• He is better than me because he has more shovels than I do; he is worse than me because he has more shovels than I do

So if money is just a tool, how do we decide where to place it in the hierarchy of values of our life?  In the grand scheme of our lives, how important should money be?  How do we evaluate the value of a tool?

The answer is surprisingly simple: by its suitability for the job we are using it to do.

How valuable is a hammer?

If we are looking to pound nails into wood to construct the frame for a house (or stakes into the ground to hold up our tent), incredibly valuable.  If we are looking to  turn a screw, screw in a lightbulb, or get a table at our favorite restaurant, not very valuable at all.

How valuable is a paintbrush?

If we want to change the color of a room or forge a copy of our favorite Picasso, indispensable.  If we want to learn how to dance or go traveling to the South Seas, utterly useless.

How valuable is money?

It depends entirely on what you are trying to use the money for.

Here are some of the most common things people attempt to use money for with a few of my thoughts on the relative value of money as a primary means to that end:

1. Using money to get security

In Supercoach, I tell the story of a client with a net worth of nearly 600 million dollars who told me that he woke up every morning wondering if today was going to be the day that he lost it all.  In my research into the differences between miserable millionaires and happy ones, it quickly became apparent that financial security doesn’t come from the amount of money in your bank balance, it comes from your ability to create more of it whenever you want.

In this sense, money is as poor a substitute for the mastery of creating as the handle of a screwdriver is for a hammer.  You can sort of get the job done with it, but it won’t last forever and it won’t necessarily work for you when the going gets tough.

2. Using money to get power and/or freedom

Any time you attempt to create an internal experience (power, freedom, etc.) through external means (accumulating a certain amount of money), you are bound to struggle.

There is a famous story of Alexander the Great’s encounter with the ascetic philosopher Diogenes.  When Alexander asked Diogenes what he could do for him, Diogenes’ only request was that Alexander step out of his sunlight so he could continue to enjoy the day.  So impressed was Alexander by this encounter that he is reported to have said “Truly, were I not Alexander I would have wished to be Diogenes.”

What did the most powerful man in the world admire about this poor philosopher who lived in a barrel (literally) by the side of a road?  He was as free to live his life on his own terms as Alexander himself.

While it is certainly true that you can use your money to influence the actions of others, it cannot ultimately take away from the ultimate power within each individual, what holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl called  ”the last of the human freedoms – the freedom to choose.”

3. Using money to save time

One of the interesting things that came from my research is that happy millionaires don’t value money nearly as much as they value time. While many people will spend hours and hours to try and save a few hundred dollars, the happy millionaire will (happily) spend hundreds of dollars to save a few hours of their time.

4. Using money to get stuff and/or experiences

This is the specific use money was actually designed for – to facilitate the exchange of goods and services.  Using money to get experiences (like a great vacation or an amazing seminar :-) or stuff  (like food, clothing, and shelter) is the equivalent of using a hammer to pound a nail.

Which nails in particular you choose to pound (and of course which experiences and stuff you choose to use your money for) is a function of what you’ve decided is important.  And as always, the most important choice you make is what you choose to make important.

5. Using money to get money

The comedian Jerry Seinfeld used to do a routine about why he wasn’t an investor:

People always tell me, you should have your money working for you. I’ve decided I’ll do the work. I’m gonna let the money relax. Youknow what I mean?

‘Cause you send your money out there – working for you – a lot of times, it gets fired. You go back there, “What happened? I had my money. It was here, it was working for me.” “Yeah, I remember your money. Showing up late. Taking time off. We had to let him go.”

While many people in the current economy could find cause to agree with him, there is no question that one of the ways you know you have mastered money in your life is when a certain portion of your money is working to earn more money for you while you sit back and relax at home.

The only danger with getting too caught up in the investor mindset is that it is easy to lose sight of what the money is for – that is, why are you seeking to accumulate more money in the first place?

If it is for greater security, power, or freedom, well, as the disclaimer always says, “the value of your investments can go down as well as up and cannot be guaranteed.”

If, on the other hand, it is to purchase a more diverse set of stuff and experiences for yourself and others and your experience of the creation is a joyous one, well, the more the merrier!

6. Using money to give hope, possibility, and a chance for a better life

Most books I have read on charity or philanthropy talk about the value of giving of yourself, rather than of your money. While there is no doubt that giving of your time, energy, and attention can be a wonderful gift to both yourself and your community, what nobody ever talks about is how much fun it is to put your money to use, even if you don’t yet have very much of it!

Each December, we give money to each of our kids with the instruction that they find a way to use it that will create a better world for others.  Last year Oliver used his to support Breast cancer research; Clara used hers to support a children’s hospital and 6 year old Maisy split her money between a charity that prevents cruelty to animals and one that builds schools in impoverished areas because she couldn’t believe there were kids who didn’t have the chance to go to school.

Over the years I have given away as little as $10 to feed a hungry child and so much to one organization that they thought we were joking, but in both cases the fun we had doing and the sense of contribution it engendered were the same.

So whether you’re struggling to make ends meet or pretending you don’t have ten years worth of savings put by and need to continue to struggle, consider borrowing this line I wrote on the back of my checkbook nearly twenty years ago:

“A portion of all I earn is mine to give away.”

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TODAY’S EXPERIMENT:

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1. Write down the amount of money that you would love to create in the year ahead. Now, spend that money in its entirety – that is, write down exactly what you will use every penny for.

By doing this, you transform money from an object to be hoarded back into a tool to be used. And while a great workman may love his tools, he’s unlikely to ruin his (or anyone else’s) life in order to get more of them.

2. If you knew that a portion of all you earn was yours to give away, who would you want to give it to?

Make your list, get out your checkbook, and write out a check today.

I once asked a particularly persistent fundraiser what the smallest amount I could give was that would make a worthwhile difference to her cause. She replied, “Even if it cost us more to process your gift than the amount you gave us, it would make a difference to our cause because by giving us money, you are enrolling your heart.”

Have fun, learn heaps, and use your money wisely and well!

October 15th at Noon Pacific/3pm Eastern/8pm UK

A Thousand Minutes a Day

Every single day, we are given approximately a thousand minutes to spend on whatever we want. Join me live this week for insights on how to get a higher rate of return on your investment!

To get coaching and speak with me live on air, phone:

Inside the US (Toll free)
1-866-254-1579

From the UK/Outside the US

001-760-918-4300

New! – You can now listen to the show from your iPhone!
Simply go to the Apps Store to download your free Hay House Radio App and within minutes you’ll be able to listen to great shows from Wayne Dyer, Cheryl Richardson, and of course, me!

(If you missed part one, you can read it here.)

Last week, I shared some ideas on how to begin creating more money as and when you need it – and indeed, whenever I teach the four masteries of money that is the skill that people seem most interested in learning. Yet I have always found it curious that most people in the United States will earn over a million dollars in their lifetime and still somehow manage to retire in debt or with less than $50,000 in assets.

Why is that?
Because they never got around to developing the next mastery of money…

The Second Mastery:
Accumulating Money

My 14 year old son Oliver has already begun to master the art of creating money. He looks for additional ways to help out around the house and in my business, and makes proposals based on the positive difference he can make in our lives.

Which is why it drives him crazy that his younger sister Clara always seems to have three or four times as much money as him just sitting around in her room. (In fact, if we ever need someone to loan us lunch money for school we know exactly where to turn!)

This is not because she is any more skilled at creating money than him; quite the contrary. It is because she seems to take more pleasure in accumulating a surplus of money than she does in spending it.

Why (based on their current patterns of spending and saving) is Clara more likely to wind up with more money than Oliver, despite his greater facility at earning?

Because the more money you have accumulated, the less likely you are to get caught up on the emotional rollercoaster of fear, greed, lack, or neediness. This emotional stability in turn makes you far more likely to make smart financial decisions going forward. In addition, your accumulated financial “cushion” will provide you with the funds to put into developing your business, product, investments or services.

While any pattern of spending or saving can become a problem when taken to an extreme, there is a simple balance to be struck between the two that will enable you to create a plump financial cushion without having to scrimp and sacrifice your way to success.

Here are a couple of simple systems you can use to begin accumulating money beginning this week, regardless of your current level of income…

1. Pay yourself first

One of the most oft repeated phrases I came across when I first became interested in mastering money in my life was this:

A portion of all you earn is yours to keep.
While a decade or so passed before I actually began to heed this particular bit of financial wisdom, there are two ways of doing this I have experimented with for myself and my clients over the past several years to good effect:

a. 10-10-80

In The Richest Man in Babylon, author George S. Clason proposes that a formula for wealth is to take the first 10% of everything you earn and put it into some form of long-term savings or investment fund. The second 10% is to be given away in the form of a gift or a tithe; the remaining 80% is then available to pay bills, buy stuff, and generally enjoy your life.

While it may seem impossible to put aside the first 10% of a paycheck that barely even covers your current expenses, I know from personal experience that the moment saving that first 10% becomes a true priority, the money to pay for everything else has a way of showing up when you least expect it.

b. The F.A.S.T. system

I was first introduced to this variation on “the first 10%” in a book by John F. Demartini entitled How to Make a Hell of a Profit and Still Get to Heaven and used it as my primary method of accumulation for several years. Simply put, DeMartini suggests setting an amount of money that you will have automatically deducted from your checking account each month and then increasing that amount by 10% every three months.

For example, if you began by saving $100 a month in January, in April that would go up to $110; in July to $121; and in October to $133. If that seems to small a jump to make much of a difference, think about this: if you began this program in January, 2010, within five years you would be effortlessly saving over $600 a month and would have accumulated over $17,000 before adding compound interest, which Albert Einstein called “the eighth wonder of the world”.

2. Financial Reservoir

This was the very first system I developed for accumulating extra money, and I have been using and teaching it to great effect over the past 20 years. (Members of the Solutions Cafe can read about this system in more detail in two tips – “Cash Flow Management for the Self-Employed” and “The Freedom Fund“).

In a nutshell, your financial reservoir is some form of instant access savings account into which you deposit all of your income as directly as possible until it contains an accumulated sum of money equal to 6 to 12 months of your average monthly income. This then allows you the freedom to use your income to top up your reservoir while the money in the reservoir funds your lifestyle.

Most people are surprised at how quickly their financial reservoir fills up when they simply change the order in which the money comes in.

Instead of this:

Income -> Spending -> Reservoir (Saving)
you begin to do this:

Income -> Reservoir -> Spending
One of the reasons this works so well is that it taps into some fundamental human psychology.

Let’s face it – would you rather have money taken away from you each month “for your own good,” or to get to decide each time you’re thinking about spending money on something how much extra you want to keep?

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TODAY’S EXPERIMENT:

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(Adapted with permission from the book I Can Make You Rich by Paul McKenna)

1. Make a list of 50 things you would love to do, be or have in your life if only you had more money in the bank. Examples:

• Drive a nicer car
• Take more vacation time
• Learn to fly a plane
• Get a second home

2. Now, make a list of 50 ways that having more money in the bank would help you achieve your highest values.

Examples:

• I could spend more time with my family
• I’d be able to contribute to my church or favorite charity
• I’d be less stressed, which would make me healthier and happier

3. If you’re ready to commit to mastering the accumulation of money, begin implementing one of the above accumulation strategies into your life over the next week.

Have fun, learn heaps, and enjoy creating your cushion!

I first met Larry Crane about 8 years ago, and in the first year I knew him I was able to use what he taught me in his Abundance Course to produce over $111,000 in just under six weeks.  Since that time, I have delighted in his curious blend of street-smart common sense and profound spiritual wisdom – and wondered when he’d be willing to share more of it with the wider world.

Last week, Larry finally released a new book where he shares more of the magical work he’s been doing with individuals and groups around the world, demonstrating how loving and approving of yourself not only feels good, it produces tangible benefits for ourselves and others.

Click here to grab a copy of this wonderful new book, let go of disapproving of yourself, and as Larry puts it “Let the other person have it your way…”

Thursday, October 8th at Noon Pacific/3pm Eastern/8pm UK

The Circle of Success

In any job that must be done, there are certain key actions that MUST be taken in order for that job to be completed successfully. Identify those actions correctly (and take them regularly) and your success is just a matter of time. In today’s show, Michael coaches you on what belongs inside your own circle of success!

You can listen to the show this and every Thursday – simply go to hayhouseradio.com at Noon pacific/8pm UK and click on the button marked “Listen Now”.

Did you miss last week’s show on The Four Masteries of Money?
For a limited time you can listen to it here. You can also download and listen to any of my shows at any time as part of your subscription to the new and improved Solutions Café – click here for details!

Are you a slave to money?

I don’t mean in a literal sense, but how much of what you do around money is because you feel you have to?

Do you do pretty much whatever you’re told to do at work, even when it makes no sense or is even counter-productive?

Do you keep your head down and your opinions to yourself, trying to get through the day without getting in trouble so you can collect your paycheck at the end of the week or the month?

The opposite of slavery is mastery – and when it comes to money, there are four masteries worth mastering so that money stops being an oppressive force in your life and goes back to doing what it does best – helping us exchange goods and services without having to carry live chickens around for trade.

Over the next four weeks, I will be sharing what I consider to be the four masteries of money – that is, the four aspects of money which once mastered, enable you to stop working so hard for money and begin putting money to work for you.

The First Mastery:
Creating Money

One of my favorite stories told to me by my coach, Steve Hardison, was of his first job as a young child.  His mother arranged with a neighbor for Steve to mow his lawn and to be paid for the work that he did.

“Make sure that lawn is beautifully mowed,” his mother told him, and indeed he did a thorough and wonderful job.

After he got home, his mother asked him if he had done the job and done it well.  When he told her that he had, she said “What about the other neighbors lawns?”

“But they haven’t asked me to mow their lawns,” said Steve.  ”And besides, they’re not paying me.”

His mother just looked at him and said “Mow them anyway.”

As you might expect (although he certainly didn’t), a couple of neighbors chased him away, a few watched him suspiciously from behind the curtains, and the rest were sufficiently appreciative of his hard work and their newly manicured lawns that he soon had a series of regular jobs and his first weekly income.

This echoed something I once heard in a recording of Earl Nightingale talking about why most people struggled to make money:

Your success will always be measured by the quality and quantity of service you render. Most people will tell you that they want to make money, without understanding this law. The only people who make money work in a mint. The rest of us must earn money. This is what causes those who keep looking for something for nothing, or a free ride, to fail in life. Success is not the result of making money; earning money is the result of success — and success is in direct proportion to our service. Most people have this law backwards. It’s like the man who stands in front of the stove and says to it: “Give me heat and then I’ll add the wood.” How many men and women do you know, or do you suppose there are today, who take the same attitude toward life? There are millions. We’ve got to put the fuel in before we can expect heat. Likewise, we’ve got to be of service first before we can expect money. Don’t concern yourself with the money. Be of service … build … work … dream … create! Do this and you’ll find there is no limit to the prosperity and abundance that will come to you.

This made a huge impression on me when I first heard it nearly twenty years ago, because I recognized myself as the man in front of the stove, waiting for someone to recognize my talents, offer me a job, or hire me as their coach.

In fact, it led to the insight that began my own journey to mastery and has guided me in business ever since – that whatever it is I “do for a living”, my real job is to focus on what service I can offer that will make a positive difference in the lives of others, perform that service as best I can, and name my price for doing more of it going forward.

And for those moments when I get a bit fearful or begin to question whether wood precedes fire and fuel precedes heat, I have a simple handwritten slogan on the wall beside my desk:

When in doubt, mow lawns!

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TODAY’S EXPERIMENT:

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1. Ask yourself the following wealth-creating questions (and any others that may occur to you):

• Who would I love to serve with the gifts that I have?
• What do they want or need that I would love to provide?
• What would I love to do that they would love to pay money for?
• What would be a fun thing to offer?
• What would make them jump up and down with delight if I could find a way to provide it for them?

2. Choose your favorite possibility that emerges from the questions above and make someone a proposal – that is, offer a product or service to them in exchange for money.

3. Go out and mow a lawn this week.  You can do this literally, or simply find some place to go and be of service before you’ve been asked.  Spot a need, meet the need.  See what happens next…

Have fun, learn heaps, and let the mastery of money begin!