In the DIY Wealth Accumulation course, we start off with your beliefs about money, wealth, and yourself.  I have found that the success rate for my students that really do think about this section, has more than doubled since I added it.  In this section, we also look at the WHY of wealth accumulation.

Getting a firm hold of the WHY, in your mind, is also one of the keys to success.  There will be setbacks, and difficulties, along the way.  The WHY has to be big enough and important enough to see you through those times.

Accumulating wealth will definitely mean making changes.  Change is a hard thing for people to accept.  It is said, that any change, requires 21-30 days to be accepted.  If you have ever moved, it will take that much time to have your new house, feel like your “home”.

Even something as simple as a new route to work.  It will take about 30 days to feel “comfortable”.  Understanding this small titbit of information can make the transition easier.  Since you’re expecting it, it will not feel as strange.

That is the reason that the WHY is so important.  When you are looking at the WHY, I want you to only think about how the WHY applies to you!  That may sound selfish, but there is a good reason for that.  The only person that you can actually control is YOU.  When you change, so does your world.

If you are happy, your friends and family are also happier.  If you have more resources, so does your family.  A great teacher of mine proved to me that when I change, my whole world changes.

That does not mean, that one of your WHY’s can not be, having more time to spend with your family. If YOU really want that, it should be one of YOUR WHYs.  You do not need a list of 10 WHYs.  Often one or two are more than enough, if they are powerful motivators for you.

I have one main WHY.  I don’t want to have to get up to the sound of my alarm clock.  All my life, the sound of the alarm (I have had the same clock for over 30 years) has meant the beginning of a day full of things I HAVE to do.  Whether I want to or not.

I want to be able to get up to a day full of whatever I WANT to do.  My second WHY, is that I have the funds to DO what I WANT to do.

The WHY has to help overcome setbacks.  Like when your stock portfolio just took a $1000.00 hit in a day, you need a really good WHY not to feel depressed and want to give up.

One of the assignments I was given during a Rich Dad Real Estate course was, to answer questions about the WHY.  Here are some of the questions that apply just to you:

1. What will it cost me if I don’t change?
2. What will I miss out on by NOT changing?
3. What is it already costing me:

Mentally –

Emotionally –

Physically –

Financially –

Spiritually –

4. How much better will I be if I make this change now?

Mentally –

Emotionally –

Physically –

Financially –

Spiritually –

As long as we are talking about WHY, let me bring up goal setting and planning.  It has taken me a long time, but I finally understand about goal setting.  We need to set an outcome.  What we want to have happen.  We need to have that clearly in our mind.  We need to see it, feel it, taste it, hear it.  We need to use all of our senses to experience what our goal or WHY is.  We need to KNOW not just believe, that it will happen.

But do we have to, or even, should we plan, how to obtain it?  The answer is NO.  When you firmly set a goal, the universe hears it.  When you make a plan, the universe laughs.  What is the difference?

The universe understands a destination.  It can handle that.  It will send you small and large opportunities to help move you towards that destination.  It just does.  What we have to do in return, is to be open to seeing, and then seizing, those opportunities.  Each one will move us closer to the goal.  Some will even seem inconsequential.  But if it in some way, moves us, or enables us, to move closer to our goal, we need to seize those opportunities.

What happens when we plan every step of the journey, is that we have a tendency to ignore the opportunities the universe sends us, because they are not part of the plan.  We expect things to happen the way that we planned.  Like we can control the universe and make it do our bidding.  I still haven’t mastered this less planned approach, but I have enough personal evidence that says it works.  Now I concentrate on the GOAL, and stay open.  That doesn’t mean I just sit back and wait.  I still go out and do things that I hope will move me towards my goal, but I stay open to unexpected opportunities.

The WHY and the Goal are very important, the exact plan of execution, not so much.