Your Money Blueprint
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In my household, every time I asked my father for anymoney I’d hear him scream, “What am I made of... money?”
Jokingly I’d respond, “I wish. I’ll take an arm, a hand, even a
finger.” He never laughed once.
Here’s the rub. All the statements you heard about money
when you were young remain in your subconscious mind as
part of the blueprint that is running your financial life.
Verbal conditioning is extremely powerful. For example,
when my son, Jesse, was three years old, he ran over to me and
excitedly said, “Daddy, let’s go see the Ninja Turtle movie. It’s
playing near us.” For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how
this toddler could already be a master of geography. A couple
of hours later, I got my answer in the form of a TV
commercial advertising the movie, which had at the end the
usual tagline: “Now playing at a theater near you.”
Another example of the power of verbal conditioning came
at the expense of one of our Millionaire Mind seminar
participants. Stephen didn’t have a problem earning money; his
challenge was keeping it.
At the time Stephen came to the course he was earning over
$800,000 a year and had been doing so for the past nine years.
Yet he was still barely scraping by. Somehow, he managed to
spend his money, lend it, or lose it all by making poor
investment decisions. Whatever the reason, his net worth was
exactly zero!
Stephen shared with us that when he was growing up, his
mom always used to say, “Rich people are greedy. They make
their money off the sweat of the poor. You should have just
enough to get by. After that you’re a pig.”
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what was
going on inside Stephen’s subconscious mind. No wonder he
was broke. He was verbally conditioned by his mother to
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Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
Believe that rich people are greedy. Therefore, his mind linkedup rich with greedy, which of course is bad. Since he didn’t
want to be bad, subconsciously he couldn’t be rich.
Stephen loved his mom and didn’t want her to disapprove
of him. Obviously, based on her beliefs, if he were to get rich,
she wouldn’t approve. Therefore, the only thing for him to do
was to get rid of any extra money beyond just getting by,
otherwise he’d be a pig!
Now, you would think that in choosing between being rich
and being approved of by Mom or anyone else for that matter,
most people would take being rich. Not a chance! The mind
just doesn’t work that way. Sure, riches would seem to be the
logical choice. But when the subconscious mind must choose between
deeply rooted emotions and logic, emotions will almost always win.
WEALTH PRINCIPLE:
When the subconscious mind must choose betweendeeply rooted emotions and logic, emotions will
almost always win.
Let’s get back to our story. In less than ten minutes at the
course, using some extremely effective experiential techniques,
Stephen’s money blueprint changed dramatically. In only two
years, he went from being broke to becoming a millionaire.
At the course, Stephen began to understand that these
nonsupportive beliefs were his mom’s, based on her past programming,
and not his. We then took it a step further and
helped him to create a strategy whereby he wouldn’t lose his
mother’s approval if he got rich. It was simple.
Your Money Blueprint
. 23
His mom loved Hawaii. So Stephen invested in a beachfrontcondo on Maui. He sends her there for the entire winter.
She’s in heaven, and so is he. First, she now loves that he’s
rich and tells everyone how generous he is. Second, he doesn’t
have to deal with her for six months of the year. Brilliant!
In my own life, after a slow start, I began doing well in
business but never seemed to make money with my stocks. In
becoming aware of my money blueprint, I recalled that when I
was young, each day after work, my dad would sit down at the
dinner table with the newspaper, check the stock pages, slam
his fist on the table, and shout, “Those stinkin’ stocks!” He
then spent the next half hour ranting about how stupid the
whole system is and how you have a better chance of making
money playing the slot machines in Las Vegas.
Now that you understand the power of verbal conditioning,
can you see that it’s no wonder I couldn’t make any money in
the stock market? I was literally programmed to fail,
programmed to unconsciously pick the wrong stock, at the
wrong price, at the wrong time. Why? To subconsciously
validate my money blueprint that said, “Stocks stink!”
All I can say is, by digging out this massive, toxic weed from
my inner “financial garden,” I began getting inundated with
more fruits! Virtually the day after I reconditioned myself, the
stocks I chose began to boom, and I’ve continued to have
amazing success in the stock market ever since. It seems
incredibly strange, but when you really understand how the
money blueprint works, it makes perfect sense.
Again, your subconscious conditioning determines your
thinking. Your thinking determines your decisions, and your
decisions determine your actions, which eventually determine
your outcomes.
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Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
essential in reprogramming your financial blueprint. They are
simple but profoundly powerful.
The first element of change is awareness. You can’t change
something unless you know it exists.
The second element of change is understanding. By understanding
where your “way of thinking” originates, you can
recognize that it has to come from outside you.
The third element of change is disassociation. Once you
realize this way of thinking isn’t you, you can separate yourself
from it and choose in the present whether to keep it or let it
go—based on who you are today, and where you want to be
tomorrow. You can observe this way of thinking and see it for
what it is, a “file” of information that was stored in your mind
a long, long time ago and may not hold any truth or value for
you anymore.
The fourth element of change is reconditioning. We will begin
this process in Part II of this book, where we will introduce
you to the mental files that generate wealth. Should you want
to take this a step further, I invite you to attend the Millionaire
Mind Intensive Seminar, where you will be led through a series
of powerful experiential techniques that will rewire your
subconscious on a cellular and permanent level—retraining
your mind to respond supportively in terms of money and
success.
The elements of frequency and ongoing support are also
important for lasting change to occur, so I’ve got another gift
to help you. If you go to www.millionairemindbook .com
and click on “FREE BOOK BONUSES,” you can subscribe
to the Millionaire Mind “thought of the week.” Every seven
days you will receive a profound lesson that can assist your
success.
Your Money Blueprint
- 25
Meanwhile, let’s go back to our discussion on verbal conditioningand the steps you can take now to begin revising
your money blueprint.
Steps for Change: Verbal Programming
AWARENESS: Write down all the statements you heardabout money, wealth, and rich people when you were
young.
UNDERSTANDING: Write down how you believe these
statements have affected your financial life so far.
DISASSOCIATION: Can you see that these thoughts
represent only what you learned and are not part of your
anatomy and not who you are? Can you see that you have
a choice in the present moment to be different?
DECLARATION: Place your hand over your heart and say...
“What I heard about money isn’t necessarily true. I
choose to adopt new ways of thinking that support my
happiness and success.”
Touch your head and say...
“I have a millionaire mind.”
The Second Influence: Modeling
The second way we are conditioned is called modeling. What
were your parents or guardians like in the arena of money
when you were growing up? Did one or both of them manage
their money well or did they mismanage it? Were they
spenders or savers? Were they shrewd investors or were they
non investors? Were they risk takers or conservative?
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Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
Was money consistently there or was the flow more sporadic?Did money come easily in your family, or was it always a
struggle? Was money a source of joy in your household or the
cause of bitter arguments?
Why is this information important? You’ve probably heard
the saying “Monkey see, monkey do.” Well, humans aren’t far
behind. As kids, we learn just about everything from modeling.
Although most of us would hate to admit it, there’s more
than a grain of truth in the old saying “The apple doesn’t fall
too far from the tree.”
This reminds me of the story about a woman who prepares
a ham for dinner by cutting off both ends. Her bewildered
husband asks why she cuts off the ends. She replies, “That’s
how my mom cooked it.” Well, it just so happened that her
mom was coming for dinner that night. So they asked her why
she cut off the ends of the ham. Mom replies, “That’s how my
mom cooked it.” So they decide to call Grandma on the phone
and ask why she cut off the ends of the ham. Her answer?
“Because my pan was too small!”
The point is that generally speaking, we tend to be identical
to one or a combination of our parents in the arena of money.
For example, my dad was an entrepreneur. He was in the
home-building business. He built anywhere from a dozen to a
hundred homes per project. Each project took a huge amount
of capital investment. My dad would have to put up everything
we had and borrow heavily from the bank until the homes
were sold and the cash came through. Consequently, at the
beginning of each project, we had no money and were in debt
up to our eyeballs.As you can imagine, during this period my dad was not in
the best of moods nor was generosity his strong suit.
Your Money Blueprint
- 27
If I asked him for anything that cost even a penny, his standard replyafter the usual “What am I, made of money?” was “Are you
crazy?” Of course, I wouldn’t get a dime, but what I would get
was that “Don’t even think of asking again” glare. I’m sure you
know the one.
This scenario would last for about a year or two until the
homes were finally sold. Then, we’d be rolling in dough. All of
a sudden, my dad was a different person. He’d be happy, kind,
and extremely generous. He’d come over and ask me if I
needed a few bucks. I felt like giving him his glare back, but I
wasn’t that stupid so I just said, “Sure, Dad, thanks,” and
rolled my eyes.
Life was good... until that dreaded day when he’d come
home and announce, “I found a good piece of land. We’re
going to build again.” I distinctly remember saying, “Great,
Dad, good luck,” as my heart sank, knowing the struggle that
was about to unfold again.
This pattern lasted from the time I could remember, when I
was about six, until the age of twenty-one, when I moved out
of my parents’ house for good. Then it stopped, or so I
thought.
At twenty-one years of age, I finished school and became,
you guessed it, a builder. I then went on to several other types
of project-based businesses. For some strange reason, I’d
make a small fortune, but just a short time later, I’d be broke.
I’d get into another business and believe I was on top of the
world again, only to hit bottom a year later.
This up-and-down pattern went on for nearly ten years
before I realized that maybe the problem wasn’t the type of
business I was choosing, the partners I was choosing, the
employees I had, the state of the economy, or my decision to
take time off and relax when things were going well. I finally
recognized that maybe, just maybe, I was unconsciously reliving
my dad’s up-and-down income pattern.
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Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
All I can say is, thank goodness I learned what you’re
learning in this book and was able to recondition myself out of
that “yo-yo” model and into having a consistently growing
income. Today, the urge to change when things are going well
(and to sabotage myself in the process) still comes up. But
now, there’s another file in my mind that observes this feeling
and says, “Thank you for sharing; now let’s get refocused and
back to work.”
Another example comes from one of my seminars in Orlando,
Florida. As usual, people were filing up to the stage, one
by one, to get an autograph and say hello or thank you or
whatever. I’ll never forget one older gentleman because he
came up sobbing. He could barely catch his breath and kept
wiping his tears with his sleeve. I asked him what was wrong.
He said, “I’m sixty-three years old and I’ve been reading books
and going to seminars since they were invented. I’ve seen
every speaker and tried everything they taught. I’ve tried
stocks, real estate, and been in over a dozen different
businesses. I went back to university and got an MBA. I’ve got
more knowledge than ten average men, yet I’ve never made it
financially. I’d always get a good start but end up emptyhanded,
and in all those years I never knew why. I thought I
must just be plain old stupid... until today.
“Finally, after listening to you and doing the processes, it all
makes sense. There’s nothing wrong with me. I just had my
dad’s money blueprint stuck in my head and that’s been my
nemesis. My dad went through the heart of the Depression
era. Every day he would try getting jobs or selling things and
come home empty-handed.
Your Money Blueprint
. 29
I replied, “No way is your knowledge a waste of time! It has
just been latent, waiting in a ‘mind’ bank, waiting for the
opportunity to come out. Now that you’ve formulated a
‘success blueprint,’ everything you’ve ever learned will become
usable and you will skyrocket to success.”
For most of us, when we hear the truth, we know it. He
started to lighten up and began breathing deeply again. Then a
big grin came across his face. He gave me the biggest hug and
said, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Last I heard from
him, everything was booming: he has accumulated more
wealth in the last eighteen months than in the past eighteen
years combined. I love it!
Again, you can have all the knowledge and skills in the
world, but if your “blueprint” isn’t set for success, you’re financially
doomed.
We often get seminar participants whose parents were involved
in World War II or who lived through the Depression.
These people are often in shock when they realize how much
their parents’ experiences have influenced their beliefs and
habits around money. Some spend like crazy because “You
could easily lose all your money, so you might as well enjoy it
while you can.” Others go the opposite route: they hoard their
money and “save for a rainy day.”
A word of wisdom: Saving for a rainy day might sound like
a good idea, but it can create big problems. One of the
principles we teach in another of our courses is the power of
intention. If you are saving your money for a rainy day, what
are you going to get? Rainy days! Stop doing that. Instead of
saving for a rainy day, focus on saving for a joyous day or for
the day you win your financial freedom. Then, by virtue of the
law of intention, that’s exactly what you will get.
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