Are you a contender or are you a pretender?

If you are reading this, I hope you have gone through the previous postings on this blog. If you have not, I strongly encourage you to do so. This posting will make more sense to you if you do. So you say you are fed up with being just over broke. You wish you had more time with your loved ones instead of working for almost nothing. You are tired of the car you drive. You are tired of living in a house that is too small. You are tired of feeling like your one crisis away from financial ruin. You are just sick and tired of being sick and tired. So after seeing this blog and maybe other motivational content on the internet, you have made a decision: I want to be wealthy. You say to yourself, “I am not like those fleas in the jar. I am going to jump out of the jar!” The question now is are you a contender or are you a pretender?
If you compare the journey to wealth to the NFL season, right now you are at week 1. Everyone has hope of winning the Superbowl. The question is: will you still have that same hope during week 16? For 95% of people standing where you are, they have been eliminated from playoff contention by week 16. So, are you going to be part of the 5% that is in contention? That depends on you. It depends on how badly you want to succeed. It depends on whether you can change your thoughts and actions to produce a winning result. Just like an NFL football team you have to develop a winning game plan. Then you have to condition yourself to execute that plan. Finally, you have to believe you can succeed. In this post I will delve more in depth into exactly how you can condition your thinking to develop a winning attitude to carry you to the “Superbowl.”
You say, “I want to be wealthy!” Really? How badly? The answer to this question will determine how far down the road to wealth you will go. The key to going from rags to riches is desire. Not just a little, but a burning desire. Without burning desire, achievement at the highest level is not possible. The question you have to ask yourself is what I am I willing to do to become wealthy? At what point would you say I am not willing to do that?
Let me illustrate what I am talking about. I used to be a recruiter and trainer for the Kirby Company, the vacuum cleaner company. I was recruiting door-to-door salespeople. The recruiting process started on Sunday. We would run a help-wanted ad looking for “marketing personnel for a company selling home care products.” We would field the responses from the ad and bring in the interested recruits for a group informational meeting. At this meeting, before they knew what product was or what they would be doing, I would ask the group by a show of hands who wanted to make $50,000 a year. Of the hundreds of people that sat in my meetings, I never had a person that did not raise their hand. However, of a group of 30 people who would be in one of those informational meetings, I would be lucky to get 2 all the way through the two-week training. Over the two weeks, one-by-one they would give up on trying to earn that $50,000 a year. Why? Because they did not want it badly enough to be a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesperson to do it. How about you? Would you have given up during training?
If you have not already, go back to the previous post and watch The Pursuit of Happyness. This movie depicts very realistically what someone has to go through on the road to self-made wealth. As you watch, ask yourself if you were Will Smith’s character, would you be willing to go through what he did? Would your ending be the same as his?
Will Smith had a burning desire to succeed. He overcame every obstacle that was put in his way. He was willing to do anything legal and moral to succeed. This is the kind of desire you must have. If this is not you, give up now and prepare to die broke. Only you can make this decision. But without this burning desire, the journey will end early.
Once you have decided that you are willing to do anything legal and moral to become wealthy, you have to make sure you do not allow your mind to be changed. This can happen one of two ways. First, remember the flea analogy. You may remember that you “cannot” jump out of the jar. Let me illustrate how this can happen. Close your eyes. Picture the house of your dreams. Picture yourself walking through it. Picture exactly how it would feel to be in it. More than likely, you may not be able to clearly do this. It will take some work to be able to do this. When you have trouble visualizing yourself being successful, this is like the fleas not jumping out of the jar when the lid is removed. At times like this you have to find a way to forget your past and find reasons to believe that success is possible. If you are involved in a network marketing organization, stay plugged into the training. Take every training opportunity possible, online, conference calls, sales meetings. The more training you get, the more confidence you will have in your product and your ability to present it. As your confidence in these areas grows, your belief in a successful result will grow and you will be able to overcome the obstacles that will be put in your path to wealth.
The other way your mind can be changed is when others tell you that you cannot be successful. You must resist being subject to the negative influence of others. Staying plugged into training and motivational materials will help to offset these negative influences. As your belief in yourself and what your doing grows, you will not hear these voices. One other thing to keep in mind is that it takes 21 days to change a habit. It’s going to take 3 weeks of reinforcing these concepts before your thinking will change. Do it everyday. Do not give up too soon. Give your mind a chance to be conditioned. Resist your negative thoughts and the negative influence of others. Give these new thought patterns time to take root. Remember, anything that is just born is fragile and needs to be nurtured and strengthened. Thoughts and beliefs are no different.
So, do you REALLY want to be wealthy? Are you willing to do what it takes like Will Smith was? Are you REALLY up to the challenge? Are you contender or a pretender?

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