Creating Wealth Part 5 – Renewing My Mind To Create Wealth

I was programmed to fail and to be poor – unless I renew my mind to be wealthy.

When I was young, I learned about The Four Temperaments. It is a well regarded tool that has been widely taught by Tim LaHaye, a man I respect for his spiritual insights.

However, every use can be abused. In this case, I applied this tool wrongly.

It prevented an abundance of wealth from flowing into my life.

I learned I was a melancholic. There are advantages and disadvantages of having such a temperament.

Like many people, instead of focusing on my strengths, I focus on my weaknesses.

A melancholic tends to be more of a gloomy loner. He holds a dim and more pessimistic view of life.

As a friend, you’ll probably jump in at this stage and say, “Patrick, this is definitely not you. You’re fun loving. Definitely more positive than most people.”

You’re right and you’re also wrong. But, please let me finish my story.

A melancholic is inclined to be more overly sensitive. He can hold two or more conversations in his mind.

 I wasn’t sure if I became more melancholic because I was one. Or, because I was mindful of it, I became more of a melancholic. It was probably a combination of both forces.

Sadly, for awhile, I manifested many melancholic weaknesses.

 

One day, I had a divinely-appointed ‘Aha’ moment. I realized our Creator could change me instantly.

My negative beliefs didn’t have to make me, me. Self-talk might not be true.

Dominating negative thoughts did not have to become a reality.

My mind is only a part of a complete system that made up my being. It can be transformed and disciplined to serve a higher purpose.

From that moment on, the ‘New Patrick’ replaced the ‘Old Patrick’. I embarked on a journey to add more positives in my life, and remove weaknesses of the ‘Old Patrick’.

I began to renew my mind to be rich and wealthy.

To help me do so, I implemented what I called the ‘D.A.R.E.’ system.

I needed courage to change my life, especially to change the way I have always lived.

Someone once told me, “Courage is not the absence of fear. It is having the commitment, initiatives and perseverance to pursue my dream despite of fear.”

By the way, I wrote this Love Note furiously on my way back from Frankfurt. It was like the last thing I must complete in my life. That’s how important I felt it was to me.

I believe the renewal of my mind will change my life.

D – Define My Beliefs

“A problem well defined is half-solved’.

-                 Ted Engstrom,
Founder of World Vision

 

To reprogram my mind, I need to be completely honest with myself. I need to seek feedback from those who know me better than myself.

I need to have clarity about the underlying beliefs that influenced my life – no matter how deeply buried they are.

Each of these beliefs has influenced me in different ways. It has impacted me before and may continue to do in my life.

I choose the words that best described my belief. I want to make sure I’m very clear about what it means and how it has affected my wealth situation.

As I study the list of beliefs, I’m cognizant that behind my belief, there may be another belief driving and influencing it.

When I examine the layers and hierarchy of my beliefs, I will discover there is a set of core beliefs that is pulling many of the strings in my mind.

If I change these core beliefs, I can make major changes in my life. The new beliefs act as fuel to combust my wealth engine forward to success.

A – Analyse The Results

‘Results are true
measurements of life.’

After I have defined my beliefs, I will pose to myself a series of questions. I believe the quality of my life is determined by the quantity of quality questions I asked myself.

Questions will direct my mind to find answers. It will drive me to seek help from our Creator and other wise counsel so as to find better solutions.

S/N	Questions
1	What are my beliefs about wealth?
2	What are my core beliefs about wealth?
3	How did I form these beliefs?
4	Why did I select these beliefs?
5	Are these beliefs from me or from others?
6	How did I live out these beliefs in my life?
7	What are the outcomes from these beliefs?
8	Are they motivating me towards or away from taking action?
9	Are they leading me nearer or further away from my vision?
10	What can I do to change and improve these beliefs?
11	How can I remove my limiting beliefs?
12	How can I grieve over these negative beliefs and still accept myself?
13	How can I replace them with empowering beliefs?
14	How can I overcome the limiting beliefs when they reappear in my life?
15	How can I craft empowering beliefs?
16	Will the empowering beliefs help me achieve my dream and vision?
17	How should I live out the empowering beliefs?
18	How should I be passionate and feel excited about the empowering beliefs?
19	How should I think, talk and act with the empowering beliefs?
20	How can I improve my beliefs?

Table 1: Questions To Help Redesign My Beliefs

As a result of asking these questions, I realized I have not deliberately planned for and thought through my beliefs. I did not carefully evaluate and select them in the past.

Many of my beliefs were the result of influences from my background, experience, and people around me. They somehow seeped into my mind and became a part of my life.

To reprogram my mind, I need to know why and how I adopted these beliefs. By doing that, it will help me evaluate their place and influence in my life.

It is important that I determine the bearing of these beliefs on my behaviour. How it has affected me in terms of taking the right or wrong action to pursue my desired future.

Through this analysis, I will be able to ascertain how I have lived out these beliefs in the past and the resulting outcomes. I need to also determine what results I will get if I continue to hold on to these beliefs.

I will match these results to see if they are in line with my dream and vision. This will form the basis for me to develop a new set of beliefs to help me create optimal wealth.

R – Redesign My Beliefs

‘If I do the same things,
I will always get the same results.
In other words, to change the results, I must change the way I do things’.

-          Anonymous

Beliefs are means to an end.

To start with the end in mind, as taught by Steven Covey, I need to know the purpose of my life. I need to know the vision that I am trying to achieve with my wealth.

To craft my beliefs, I need to study the beliefs of successful people. If I can improve on their beliefs, I will position myself to achieve similar or better results.

I need to ultimately redesign my beliefs so that they will fit my personality, situation, and tasks at hand. These empowering beliefs will help me achieve my desired purpose and goal.

The new beliefs should meet the following criteria:

• First Person Pronoun

It should be crafted using the first person pronoun, ie. ‘ I, me, myself’. The beliefs are for me and not for others.

• Direct , Simple and Short

It should be direct, simple and short. If it is not clear or crafted with long sentences, it will be hard to remember and apply them.

• Results-Focused

It should support what I aim to achieve, and inspire me to make it happen.

• Present Continuous Tense

When I use a present continuous tense, I am committing my mind to make it happen and to become more motivated to live it out in my life.

• Inspirational

It should be crafted in a positive, motivational and empowering way. I craft it to specify what I want to achieve and not what I do not want to achieve in my life.

After crafting the new beliefs, I must believe in it and that it can be lived out in my life. I should be passionate about them and feel excited about making it an important part of my life.

The new set of beliefs needs be constantly improved upon so that I can accomplish a higher level of achievements. I can be inspired to progress to a higher plane of life.

E – Entrench My Beliefs

The core strategy of the Wealth Plan is execution.
Execution is the highway to take me from my dream
until it becomes a reality.

It is one thing to craft an effective set of beliefs. It is quite another to be able to live it out and leverage upon it to achieve optimal wealth results.

I must commit to my set of beliefs. Be passionate about it and make it real in my life.

New Self-Talk. To do so, I need to change my self-talk. The good news is, I can discipline it until I develop a new way to communicate with myself.

I need to consciously and continually repeat my set of new beliefs. I need to affirm it and feel good about it.

I can affirm my empowering beliefs through my writings. For example, by crafting this series of Love Notes, I am entrenching these beliefs in my mind and my heart.

Through affirmations, it helps me to destroy the old neural pathways and create new ones that will support my wealthier lifestyle.

When I voice each belief with positive emotion and feeling, I will strengthen my commitment to it.

Commitment will help me create better results. With better results, I can further enhance my emotional muscles which will then help me achieve even better results.

I will start a virtuous cycle with the empowered self-talk.

Train and Share. I like to train others to renew their minds and share about it at informal discussions. I also make it a point to encourage others to adopt a better set of beliefs.

As I promote my new beliefs, I’m also encouraging myself. I’m also motivating myself to live it out so as to set a good example for my children and colleagues.

Battles Ahead. Will a limiting belief come into my mind again?

Yes, of course!

That’s why I need to be vigilant and to prevent it from rearing its ugly head.

That’s why I consciously avoid ‘energy vampires’. These are people, including well-intentioned people, who will suck my energy with their words and actions.

I don’t want to be a hero. One of the best ways to handle them, unfortunately, is to ‘chow’ (Run!) – as fast and as far as possible.

It is not good enough to remove negativity. Negativity abhors a mental vacuum.

That’s why, I ‘force feed’ myself – through my five senses – with everything that is positive.

For example, I carry a positive book with me all the times. In my free time, I will read it so as to fill my mind with the right thoughts.

Removing Negative Beliefs. Very often, negativity comes from myself. That’s why I developed an interesting and fun way to manage it.

First, I will tie a rubber band around my wrist.

Stop. Every time, I think negatively or hear a negative word, I will respond immediately and with a strong emotion, “Stop!”

I will snap myself to further ensure it will not start a train of negative thoughts. I must not allow the seed of negative belief to take root and grow to become a monkey on my back again.

Challenge. Then, I will confront and challenge the negative belief.

I learn not to believe every negative thing my mind tells me. I learn to confront and reason with it.

Along the way, I discover I have been immersed in many lies and half-truths about wealth. When I thought more deeply about these negative beliefs, I discovered they don’t make sense and have served me negatively.

Example:

Negative Self-Talk          
By ‘Old Patrick’:                Patrick, you can never be rich.

Positive Self-Talk             
By ‘New Patrick’:              Why can’t I be rich? There are many people who are worst than me.
                                            If they can be rich, I can be rich too.

                                           If I work hard and smart, of course, I can be rich.

Sometimes, I will confront my mind using a third party’s perspective.

Example:

                “If the wisest person evaluates this belief, will he approve and adopt it?”
                                                               
                “Will our Creator want me to have this belief?”

 

Renew

After I rationalize away my negative belief, I will then replace it with an empowering belief. I will leverage on the negative thought to strengthen my resolve to live out a new belief.

I need to keep replaying the new belief until it becomes a part of the operating system in my mind and heart.

Example:

“My loved ones are living a better and better life as I’m becoming richer and richer.”
                                                                                               
“The world is a much better place as I’m donating more and more money.”
                                                                                               
“I’m helping more and more people as I’m becoming wealthier and wealthier.”

When I decided to remove negative beliefs and renew my mind with empowering beliefs, I got better results in my life.

I remember and record these experiences, especially the great feelings that resulted from it. I anchor these memories deeply in my mind.

It became a treasure cove that I can leverage upon to overcome future negative beliefs.

Every time, when I feel down or when I’m challenging a doubt, an uncertainty or a fear, I will recall these positive memories. It will give me the extra energy to reprogram my beliefs and renew my mind.

To conclude, I aim to renew myself throughout my life.

When I reprogram my beliefs, it will renew my mind.

When I renew my mind, it will reengineer my thoughts, words, and actions. It will redesign my behavior and reinvigorate my lifestyle.

Ultimately, it will help me to reinvent my life. It will recharge me for a wealthier future.

 

 

Definition

Wealth                                 Wealth refers to the condition of well-being. It includes my physical, emotional, social and environmental well-being

Wealthy                               Having the resources to help others and myself live a meaningful, exciting and fulfilling life in a healthy environment

Asset                                     Anything that grows wealth

Liability                                 Anything that decreases wealth

Rich                                        Having the money and material possessions to achieve the same aspiration for being wealthy

Money                                 Money is the instrument to facilitate transaction of products and services. It is a measurement of the results of a Wealth Plan

Wealth Plan                        An effective and an ever-improving blueprint to create wealth