There has mostly likely been hundreds of thousands of books written on the topic of money. Most of these books focus specifically on how to make money. It is the force that runs our world wither we like it or not. This may not always be the case, but for now it is one of the driving forces that motivates us on a daily basis.

What most people don’t understand, is that its not really money were after at all. Its a feeling. We see money as the means be which we may achieve a specific desired feeling. A way to make us feel good, or any number of the other desired positive emotions that define our own personal pleasure. What we are after is a feeling. At the end of the day, don’t we all just want to feel incredibly happy? Of course! I think anyone who is truly honest with themselves would agree to this notion. Knowing this, I would like to make the assumption that, in most cases, it would be near impossible to be blissfully happy without having enough money to pay your bills. Fair enough?

With that said, let me give you a few helpful pieces of information to point you in the direction of financial independence.

The first battle that must be won on the war path to great wealth, is between you and your own mind. You must make it your belief that you can and will succeed from the very beginning. Once you have said to yourself “I’m going to do it, that’s it, period!“, you will have an easier time with this next potential road block. Remember, you never fail until you quit!

Mastery of this next mental skill, in itself, will propel you with lightning speed toward achievement of your financial dreams. Understand that, the excitement of winning must always be greater than your fear of losing. If you can train yourself to think this way automatically, you will become very wealthy in a relatively short period of time. However, if you let fear continue to run your life and keep you from taking calculated risks, you will most likely never achieve anything substantial in the financial sense.

The next habit you must remove from your unconscious is that of comparing yourself to other people when evaluating your financial success or progress. One of my very wealthy mentors once told me, ” Success is not what you’ve done compared to what other people have done. Success is what you’ve done compared to what you COULD HAVE DONE.” Always keep this in mind when trying to determine if your taking the appropriate action steps toward success. This is truly the most effective way to judge yourself if you want to achieve a great financial outcome.

Finally, this last concept is, by itself, the biggest reason why 95% of people in the United States make less than $100,000 a year. Don’t look outwardly and blame everyone else for why you are not making as much money as you should be. If you truly believe that everyone else is to blame, then your only option is to try and change everyone else. This is not an easy task. I would go so far as so say its impossible. Once you come to the realization that you are the problem, you can change, learn something, and grow wiser. It is far easier to change yourself, than it is to change anyone else. That is where your power lies. I cannot place enough emphasis on this. Without this, you will never create wealth in your life.

I hope that you see these last few concepts for how important they really are to your success. Please do not consider them simplistic. They will take time to master, however the rewards of your efforts will be life changing. I will go into greater detail in forthcoming blog posts on the specific mental and physical exercises you must master, in order to attract money into your life. Until then I will leave you with a statement of universal truth; The Poor and Middle Class Work for Money. The Rich Have Money Work for Them. More on this next time.