Money—401K (Flickr.com)

Part of creating wealth in your life is being aware of how money works.  Often we hear things that aren’t true and simply accept them.  Your attitude and beliefs about money determine how much of it you will have.  Here are 6 popular misconceptions that can keep you from achieving the level of wealth that you desire and deserve.

Are you being prevented from becoming financially prosperous? A false belief system about money can seriously affect both short- and long-term fiscal worth. But there’s a way out! Throw away these six money myths, and you’ll be on the path to prosperity.

Do you hold any of these common, money myths?

1. If I get a raise that moves me into a higher tax bracket, I’ll actually take home a smaller paycheck. Thankfully, this isn’t true! Being moved into a higher tax bracket only increases the tax rate on the income you earned in that tax bracket. Here’s how it works:

* Filing Singly, 2011:

o 10% on taxable income from $0 to $8,500

o 15% on taxable income over $8,500 to $34,500

o 25% on taxable income over $34,500 to $83,600

o 28% on taxable income over $83,600 to $174,400

o 33% on taxable income over $174,400 to $379,150

o 35% on taxable income over $379,150

o So, if you earn $25,000, the first $8,500 is taxed at 10%. Your income earned between $8,500 and $25,000 is taxed at 15%.

2. Renting is analogous to throwing money in the garbage. Compare renting to other necessities of modern living:

* Do you regard the money you pay out on gasoline to be the same as throwing it away? How about what you spend on electricity? These expenses are both examples of consumables without lasting value that you consistently purchase. However, these things are required for daily living in our society. Rent falls under the same heading.

* Even homeowners have to “throw away” money on items like property taxes and mortgage interest, quite possibly more than you’re using to pay your rent. In fact, for the first several years of most mortgages, you’re essentially paying primarily interest with your payments.

o For example, on a 30-year, $150,000 mortgage at 7% interest, your first 5 years of payments would total approximately $60,000. Of that $60,000, you “throw away” approximately $51,000 on interest payments.

3. Higher price means higher quality. More expensive items are not always of greater quality. For example, generic drugs are generally regarded to be just as beneficial as their name-brand alternatives.

* When determining an item’s value, look beyond the price and examine the true value to you. Does that generic brand pain reliever help your aching back? Don’t be so sure that paying extra is really getting you something extra. Spend your money wisely.

4. You need a lot of money to start investing. It’s true that some brokerage companies require a minimum amount of money to open an account. However, there are also many online brokers now that have no investment requirements to open an account. You can get started immediately, if you want to.

5. Keeping a balance on my credit card will help my credit rating. One of the factors that go into a credit score is the percentage of available credit that’s being utilized. So, you’re better off without carrying a balance. That’s not to say you shouldn’t use it; just pay it off monthly. There’s no benefit for you to pay interest to the credit card companies.

6. Home ownership is a guaranteed investment strategy. One only needs to look at what’s been going on in the housing market the last couple of years to see that’s not necessarily true. As with other investments, home ownership carries a risk that your investment may decrease in value.

* Although commonly reported data say that housing appreciates somewhere between the rate of inflation and 5% per year, this is not always true. In reality, your home can certainly lose value over time.

Exorcise these money myths from your beliefs

Did you believe any of these financial myths before you read this article? What’s most important is that you’re on the right track now. Continue educating yourself and always be open to learning more about money. It’s never too late to get on the path to real wealth.

It is important to ferret out false information and beliefs so that we always operate in the powerful realm of truth.  Sometimes these money myths have even come from churches. Here’s to your prosperity in 2012!

Jim Rohn Best Life Ever Part 1

Jim Rohn discusses how he became successful under the tutelage of Earl Shoaff.  Rohn discusses the many lessons he learned while working for Mr Shoaff.

Jim Rohn was headed in the wrong direction in life when he found Mr Shoaff.  Rohn was deep in debt and struggling unable to keep up with his bills.  One of the lessons is that time is more important than money and this presentation will certainly be worth the time to watch.  Rohn began his personal development career after being invited to speak at a local Rotary Club and soon others were offering to pay him to come and speak to their groups each time, distilling the wisdom of Earl Shoaff.

Earl Shoaff quotes:

• Don’t trust your memory, keep a journal.”
• “This is not all the company pays…it’s all they pay YOU!”
• “Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.”
• “Profits are better than wages.”
• “It doesn’t cost too much, the truth is, you can’t afford it!”
• “The true mark of greatness is not found in what a person does with their own life. It is found in helping others discover that, they too, can become great.”
• “Nothing comes to us, everything comes through us from us. Everything in this world that happens to us comes from in here, not out here.”
• “Let’s not be moons, the reflector of the light. Let’s be suns. Let’s be the creator of the light – the creator of ideas. We all have the capacity.”

Jim Rohn Best Life Ever Part 2

Jim Rohn Quotes:

• A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.
• Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.
• Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don’t go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won’t laugh at you.
• Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said.
• Character isn’t something you were born with and can’t change, like your fingerprints. It’s something you weren’t born with and must take responsibility for forming.
• Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.
• Don’t bring your need to the marketplace, bring your skill. If you don’t feel well, tell your doctor, but not the marketplace. If you need money, go to the bank, but not the marketplace.

 Jim Rohn Best Life Ever Part 3

More From Jim Rohn:

• Don’t just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.
• Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.
• Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.
• Either you run the day or the day runs you.

 Jim Rohn Best Life Ever Part 4

Jim Rohn Again:

• Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don’t fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgement, repeated every day.
• Failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.
• For every disciplined effort there is a multiple reward.
• Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.
• Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention.
• Giving is better than receiving because giving starts the receiving process.
• Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.

A solitary fantasy can transform a million realities.  –Maya Angelou

What is your vision of the future?  You know it because you feel it.  How do you break out of your behavior pattern and actually make it happen.  Statistically, your odds of changing are 9 to 1 unless you know how to beat the odds.  You must first see it and then belive it and achieve it.  To achieve it, you must graciously ask and train  your brain to help you execute your vision.   How do you see your vision?  You draw a picture.  A picture can create movement and fill you with a deep desire to accomplish it.

Create Your Vision

How can you use a picture to get what you want.  When you draw where you are and where you want to be and your desired new reality you have a roadmap for change.  Don’t worry about making art, your drawing can be simple stick people.  What do you have?  What do you want to get rid of?  What do you want to have?  Draw your present using those questions.  Use the answers to help draw your future.   Draw your new reality and color it in.  Trick your brain with the colorful picture made by dreaming your new life with all of your imagination.  Is it a new job and a new boss?  Is your creativity unleashed in your future, do you have connection, purpose, freedom and love?

When you paint your own picture you create the most power as you color it and fill it up with emotion. Step into the picture and see it from the inside out.  You’ll feel happy, capable, creative.

Making Visualization Work

Then ask your brain how to get from the first picture to the second one in just three bold steps?  Your brain knows you, you just need to ask it to put the picture together for you.  Your brain will guess how to get there as it correctly guesses many things everyday.  Look at your picture and close your eyes and let the brain fill it in.  Relax and ask what is the boldest thing I can do to get from here to there.  See it, Believe it, and act on it.

If any step is too scary your rational brain will try to talk you out of it, it will rationalize why you should stay in the present.  Draw the most compelling picture you can and see yourself living inside of it.  Get up everyday and soak in your future and then act on it – do something, even a small thing towards it.  Become the one person in ten who will make it happen.

These steps are in line with The Science of Getting Rich and The Law of Attraction and as you see they are simple and doable.  Throw out any idea that it needs to be pretty, or be art, that is not the case, just do it as they say.

The Secret came on the scene in 2006 and changed forever the way that people view the way of achieving success.

Deciding your own fate with the law of attraction

The Secret put our futures back into our own hands.  No longer do we accept that life does it to you but rather life is a do it to yourself project controlled by our thoughts and feelings.  We need to monitor these things and use them to navigate to the things we want.

When you try to think about your destiny and your fate you have to realize that destiny is your frame of space, and the fate is what you make out of that space. You will need to work on yourself from the inside out to determine what your fate is, but you should have a good idea of who you are, before you decide who it is that you would like to be.   This is the basic premise of the law of attraction, the “Secret” that the movie popularized.

Wayne Dyer puts it like this: “You’ll see it when you believe it.”

It is a simple statement that encompasses the entire movie.

When it comes to the law of attraction you have to think of it as a real theory or truth. You will want to be able to give your focus on many things, but also be able to attract the things that mean the most to you. You will find that there are a lot of opportunities that you will be given, but you will need to learn how to get it to work for you through the empowerment of choice.

Keep in mind that the law of attraction is real and you need to take it serious. You can use it to do anything that you need to do or would like to do, but you have to realize that it is all on you. It’s all about being able to change your world through positive reflection and energy and through faith. You will find that there are many situations and opportunities that you can take advantage off, however, you will want to consider the fact that the universal law of attraction won’t give you what you want, but you have to earn it.

You will find that a lot of the power cannot be denied. Have you ever just had a great morning and soon it became a great day?  This is because you will find you energy will make things go right for you. You will want to keep in mind that the way that you look at life will also reflect the way that life gives you.

There are also a lot of things that you may be trying to change and it just won’t work. You will want to make sure that you are trying to do something that you can exactly change. Even when it comes to thinks like sickness there is a lot of things that you can do for each other by staying positive, but you can’t just believe that if you think that it does not exist, then you are not going to help relieve the situation. Also, you have to think about ways that you can give yourself the appropriate time and energy to change as well. You just may be having difficulties because you are not making realistic goals.

There are a lot of ways that you will be able to use the law of attraction to benefit, however, you will want to consider all the ways that you can change your life, but keep in mind that change is not an easy choice. You will want to make sure that you consider that change will not happen over night, but change is something that you need to take slowly.

Defining the law of attraction and what it means to you

Keep in mind that the law of attraction is apart of our reality. The theory has just currently become popular and you will notice that it is all because of the way that the media portrays as “The Secret”.  When it comes to what it means to you, there are a lot of things that you will want to do in order to prepare yourself for some change.

The first thing that you will need to do in order to use the law of attraction to help you get what you want in life is to learn how it is that frustrates you. You will want to make a long list of everything at you would like to change in your life. You will find that there is going to be a lot of things that surround work, your personal time, and your family time.

You will also need to list your positive attributes. You will need to keep yourself positive in each situation that you are put in and you will need to learn to make lemonade out of most of the lemons that life deals out to you. You will need to think about the benefits of being positive and you will also be able to use the positive energy to grow personally.

For you to get trhe law of attraction to be more than just a normal goal that you would set, you will need to learn how you can maintain your positive attitude. You will need to learn how to focus on your feelings and replace the negative energy with positive opportunities and energy. You will want to make a list of things in your life that are great and these things are some items that you don’t have to work on either.

For you to get the law of attraction to work for you, you will need to visualize the change to make your life better. You will need to think about the way that your life will change and then act like the changes have already occurred, so that you can make yourself a better life.

You will want to think, feel, and be whatever it is that you wish you could be. You will want to make sure that you think about the ways that you can focus on the goals so that you can make a positive change. You will want to make sure that you work on yourself by staying positive. You will want to use the positive energy to make true progress in your life.

To show your progress, you will want to keep a journal to record all the things that you love and appreciate and all the things that you need to do in order to use the law of attraction to help you to get what you want out of life. You will want to make sure that you consider all of the ways that you can improve your life, but keep in mind that it all can be turned around with a bit of determination and positive reflection.

You will want to make sure that you adjust the attitude at the door and you figure out what it is that you are looking for in life so that you can change the way that you see yourself and the way that you feel about life. You will want to keep in mind that there are many ways for you to use the law of attraction for your benefit and to also make your life everything that you would like it to be. Basically the law of attraction can mean anything to anyone.

The Law of Attraction

Bob Proctor And The Science of Getting Rich

Wealth is an intersting subject, did you know that 1% of the population earns 95 or 96% of all money. Yet for most people it is difficult to believe that you can have anything you want. Bob Proctor says that money can’t talk but it can hear, if you call it, it will come. Bob has dedicated his life to studying the work of Napoleon Hill. Napoleon Hill studied 500 of the worlds most successful people and wrote Think And Grow Rich which is a treatese on success and prosperity.

The Law of Attraction

Another of Bob’s favorite books is The Science of Getting Rich. Wallace Wattles says, “You get rich by doing things in a certain way.” Most people doubt and worry when they don’t understand something, they setup a vibration of fear. This negates the law of attraction which is what The Science of Getting Rich is all about. For example, if your goal is to get out of debt it is guaranteed that you will stay in debt. Most people have difficulty comprehending this but the facts are that you get more of what you focus on as stated in the law of attraction.

Quotes From The Science of Getting Rich

• There is nothing wrong in wanting to get rich. The desire for riches is really the desire for a richer, fuller, and more abundant life; and that desire is praise worthy.
• The ownership of money and property comes as a result of doing things in a certain way; those who do things in this Certain Way, whether on purpose or accidentally, get rich.
• You may be the poorest man on the continent, and be deeply in debt; you may have neither friends, influence, nor resources; but if you begin to do things in this way, you must infallibly begin to get rich.
• If getting rich is the result of doing things in a Certain Way, and if like causes always produce like effects, then any man or woman who can do things in that way can become rich.
• Getting rich is not dependent upon your engaging in some particular business, but upon your learning to do things in a Certain Way.
• Every thought of form, held in thinking Substance, causes the creation of the form, but always, or at least generally, along lines of growth and action already established.

You can download The Science of Getting Rich by entering your information on the opt-in form on the side of this page.

Last Tuesday we held the first webinar of our three part series on getting what
you want out of life.

How To Get What You Want Out Of Life

Renee is business and life coach, she is my coach.  One of her greatest joys
is seeing other realize their dreams and goals become reality.  She will talk
about the steps you need to change and live the life you want , because she has
taken these very steps herself.

When you join this webinar you will hear the joy in her voice and the passion that she brings to the subject.  You’ll feel better just hearing her speak.

Join us Tuesday, April 10, 2012 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT Register Now at:

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/166512878

Oprah Winfrey sharing her story explaining why you can’t get what you want in life.

God can dream a bigger dream for you than you can ever do for yourself.

When you have worked as hard and done as much and strive and tried and given and plead and bargained and hoped – Surrender. When you have done all that you can do, and there is nothing left for you to do. Give it up. Give it up to that thing that is greater than yourself and let it then become a part of the flow.  The law of attraction is an effortless process, no hard work needed.

Make God’s Dream Your Dream

Use the law of attraction to get the things that you want, listen to Oprah’s story again and model your use of the law after it.  She saw and believed in what she was seeking and it came to pass.  She was all in for it and no possibility for failure.  Yet the goal wasn’t achieved untill she released it, until it was OK for her not to get her part in the Color Purple.  It is an amazing story and one that you can benefit from.

Mans Desire To Succeed

All great achievements begin with an idea and a desire to carry it out.  Perhaps when the idea first appears it holds no appeal but then by musing over it, by turning it over and over in one’s mind it gains a familiarity, an appeal.  If the idea holder is fortunate the appeal turns to love for it and hence a desire to succeed at implementing it.

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

Thomas Jefferson

The Will To Prepare To Win

Is success a crap shoot?  Does everything depend on luck?  High achievers know that clear plans and goals are responsible for their success and not day dreaming or luck.  Define your objective and put a definite date on it for it’s achievement.  This was Napoleon Hill’s advice in Think And Grow Rich and it can also ensure that you reach your objectives.

When you set goals you create a map to follow so that you will always know where you are on your path to achievement and what you need to do next to take you closer to completing your goals.  You will know when you can ease off and when you have to work flat out to get your project back on track.

A good plan will consider what obstacles may get in the way and include a plan to deal with them. In this way you need not fear when a challenge comes up because you already have a strategy to deal with it. This is being proactive in a very real sense and though you may be taking a risk by embarking on your plan you have a very clear plan to get there.

Why Should You Set Goals?

Having your goals set down will let you keep track of your progress no matter what it is that you are after.  This will build your confidence and allow you to stay motivated during your quest.

Goal setting alone goes a long way toward achievement but you need to add self-discipline and a positive outlook.  Lacking these two qualities you may not follow through on your goal.  The discipline gets you to work everyday and the positive outlook lets you enjoy doing it as it is your expectation of success. It will help you persevere in the face of problems and put one foot in front of the other while you pull things together again.

Successful goal setting means picking the right goals for you.  Goals that are ambitious but not overly ambitious.  If your goals are unrealistic and difficult you shortchange yourself by not allowing yourself to build up the goal achieving muscle before you are ready for such a goal.  On the other hand, too small a goal will not have the power to pull you in and motivate you toward its attainment.

A Burning Desire to Succeed

Goals can be used in every part of your life – from your career and finances to your family life.  You can set fitness and weight goals, getting organized goals, goals for anything you want to achieve even earning your first million.

Write your goals down and follow Napoleon Hill’s advice by visualizing their successful achievement both morning and night.  See them as already accomplished so that you can jack your confidence sky high.  All of this will work together to create a burning desire in you to succeed.  This too is an important part of the process.

You can use goals to make of your life any thing you want. Here is another tool to help you, The Science of Getting Rich Hypnosis. It combines hypnotic suggestions with cutting edge binaural beats to help you attract and achieve your goals. Visit http://www.TheRealMikeGriffin.com and find out all of the details.

Success And Achievement

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• Northside Achievement Zone – Program and Clinical Manager – The Northside Achievement Zone – Program and Clinical Manager. The NAZ Promise Neighborhood is a collaboration of over 50 organizations and schools who work with children and families in a geographic area, or “Zone” …
• Age and Achievement… | The Unofficial Stanford Blog – I suppose going home for break made me realize that parents get old and careers end. Which makes you wonder – when do you make your best work? Is it halfway through your career, a quarter of the way? I posit that it depends if you’re Brett Favre or Michael Crichton. Comments are moderated and will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
• Why use Achievement Stripes in your belt rank system … – In America alone there are about three million children involved in the martial arts today. Most of them are in programs that use traditional sewn belts, and most of their instructors either already use tape or would like to have an easier and cheaper way of handing out rewards. The main reason for this is that retention is the single most important success factor in any school, and most experts agree that providing short term rewards and recognizing achievement keeps kids motivated and coming back for more.

Lack of energy is a big issue in todays world. Many people go through life like zombies, moving from day to day and yet not really living. This is because a lack of energy has removed the joy from their lives. If you are in this crowd, read on and get the stratigies you need to improve your life.

Do you sometimes feel like you’ve run out of gas? Do you have to push yourself to get going and accomplish your goals for the day? Well, you aren’t alone.

Most people experience bouts of fatigue once in a while, but you can take steps to guard against low energy.

Consider these suggestions to spark your energy level:

1. Eat right. Your body requires certain nutrients to stoke your intellectual and physical fires and to keep every part of you operating smoothly.

* Most of us know what we ought to be eating each day: at least a couple of fruits, four or five servings of vegetables, one or two small servings of meat, poultry, or fish, plenty of fiber from healthy cereals, breads, and brown rice, and a couple of servings of dairy in the forms of low or no-fat milk, cheeses, and yogurt.

* The reality is most of us don’t eat all these foods daily, or we eat other, unhealthy things.

* Do what you can to eat in ways that support your energy. Avoid foods with high sugar content as they will initially provide a glucose rush, after which you’ll bottom out and feel a huge drop in energy.

* Whether you choose to eat 3 larger meals a day or 5 or 6 smaller meals, refrain from going too long without eating. The food you eat is your body’s fuel.

2. Consider meditation and/or yoga. Techniques rooted in Eastern philosophies have long been known for enhancing health and relaxation as well as boosting your energy levels.

3. Take a multi-vitamin. A daily vitamin is your safety net against less-than-perfect eating habits. You’ll experience steadier levels of energy if you consistently take your multi-vitamins.

4. Have a positive attitude. How you approach life and see the world can either propel you forward or leave you sitting on the sidelines. Having a positive attitude about what you will do each day goes a long way toward keeping your energy flowing. Think positive!

5. Exercise. Although exercise sounds like it should be a drain on your energy, getting physically active helps you build strength and stamina, which will actually increase your get-up-and-go.

* According to the latest research, even if you start with just 15 minutes of walking a day, 5 days a week, you’ll probably notice your energy lifting the very day you start.

6. Get enough sleep. With all the gadgets around us plus the television on in the background, you have plenty of excuses to stay up late. Make the effort necessary to obtain the amount of sleep you need to feel invigorated the next morning.

7. Consider a 1-hour nap. Some people find they can take a nap and feel instantly refreshed. Plus, there’s medical research that says a nap can be quite helpful for those who manipulate and process an overload of information in their work. You can boost your energy with a snooze. If an hour’s too long for you, try power napping for 30 minutes or so.

8. Allow time to rest each day. Whether you build in a 15 minute break at work or 30 minutes of propping up your feet at home to have an iced tea and read the news, take a little break to relax each day.

9. Avoid a sedentary lifestyle. Sitting for hours depletes your energy. A healthy goal is to stay moving at a reasonable pace throughout the day.

10. Limit stressful situations. Stress and anxiety are huge drains on your emotional energy, which works in tandem with your physical energy. To increase your enthusiasm for life, avoid people and situations that trigger feelings of stress and anxiety.

If you experience an occasional bout of fatigue and no medical cause has been determined, it may be a result of your lifestyle. Practice several of the above strategies to help you pump up the volume on what keeps you going all day: your energy.

Give up fatigue and live in a state of energy. Live a truly inspired and empowered life by tapping into the energy that is yours.