Self-knowledge. Strategy for achieving many goals/ Scraps from my book

Scraps from my book

You cannot reach your goals if you don’t do anything. After developing the right beliefs, action is the next step in reaching your goals. It is very difficult to find a right strategy. A lot of people cannot recognize it and ‘wander in the darkness.’ Before doing the new exercises, answer the following questions honestly: on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is ‘absolutely dissatisfied’ and 10 is ‘absolutely satisfied,’ how satisfied are you with your financial situation? Most likely, you will see that your financial situation is far from perfect. At the same time, if you do not do this, you will always live the way you are living now, and nothing in your life will ever change for the better.

If you turn a blind eye to your financial problems, your circumstances won’t change. Why do you need money? Write down your answer.

1. You are dissatisfied with your financial situation.
2. You need money, and you have a good reason for it.
3. You feel that you deserve a higher income, but you don’t have it!

Do you feel uncomfortable? Do you see the enormous difference between what you deserve and what you have? Do you agree? Something is wrong with your life. You know you need money. You need it very much. You understand that you deserve to earn more. Nevertheless, you don’t have a higher income. Why? I’ll explain why.

Take a sheet of paper and pen. Write two figures with a hyphen between them. The first figure should represent your current monthly income. The second figure should represent your desired monthly income. Look at these figures. You are most likely afraid of the second figure. You are not ready for it, although, I am sure you deserve it. This is the reason why you do not have it now.

Here’s the second exercise: Take a sheet of paper and a pen. Write your name and an estimate of your worth. For example, I am worth $500. Write what your price would be in the free market. You can write anything in your resume. You can write that you are smart, educated, determined, and bold. It won’t help. The market sees your worth as a sum of money. The number you write down in this exercise is your judge and executioner.

You have everything necessary to achieve success and increase your income. However, the weakest link in this chain is the way you think.

Why are 90% of the people you know unsuccessful? They stay poor because they are convinced it is impossible for them to have a better life. Why do they think this? They base this conclusion on their own mistakes and beliefs, as well as others’ mistakes and opinions. Why will they never fulfill their dreams? Because they use the knowledge they received a long time ago to build their present and future. They try to construct a new building with used materials, which isn’t possible. You can’t eat the same meal twice. You must make another dish and get fresh ingredients to do so. What will you put in your ‘grocery bag’?

You should start making new decisions. You won’t change your personality and image until you start acting differently. You will stay undeserving of the income you wrote on that sheet of paper. You keep the same salary because you have accepted your situation. The person you want to be earns more, because he makes bold decisions more often. You can begin to work on your new personality right now. You have just grown too familiar with your old image. We’ll call this ‘an avatar.’ You think you are incapable of changing your life because of what someone has told you. They lied to you. They constructed this image for you. You have accepted it, and now you live in accordance with somebody else’s expectations. Let me tell you a secret. Every time a person increases his income, he changes his image. He alters his avatar. He changes the way he thinks, his reactions, decisions etc.

However, an increased income is not a cause, but rather a consequence of these changes. You start earning more because you alter your image, your avatar. You won’t have to change dramatically. You shouldn’t be afraid. You simply need to start taking bold steps more often. Let me assure you, you will not feel stressed every time you do this. You will have to make such decisions several times in order to help your avatar grow accustomed to these decisions. You will feel comfortable again, but your quality of life will improve significantly. Your income will grow.

Making Decision to Gain New Knowledge

Some of my readers will probably say, ‘I am clever enough. It is no use teaching me anything else.’ Having such an attitude doesn’t work these days. Nothing remains stable. In our high-paced century, even a 24-hour break can cause you to fall behind in this rapid development and frequent change. It is a luxury nobody can afford. You will not be able to increase your income without learning new things at the same time.

If you wish to start making more money, you have to be ready to learn new things every day. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do. You may be unemployed. You may work for a company and try to improve your career opportunities. You may be an entrepreneur. Some readers will say, ‘Your advice is obvious.’ I agree. However, statistics show that 90% of people either don’t upgrade their qualifications or never apply new knowledge at work, and have developed various excuses for it. One excuse is their pride.

Making Decision to Gain New Experience

There are two ways to gain new experience. You can either test your avatar in a completely new area, or make your avatar implement new projects in your current field of work. Here is a more detailed explanation of both options:

1. You test your avatar in new fields of work to find out which area attracts you more than the others. Sometimes, we make mistakes when we choose our career paths. For example, I am an accountant, but I want to become the chief accountant. I have tried to receive this position for a long time, but I have never gotten it. At the same time, if I give up on this idea and apply my skills and knowledge in a new area, I may be able to achieve much more. I will make more money, I will receive more satisfaction doing that, and society will benefit from my efforts.
2. You gain in-depth knowledge about your field of work. You shouldn’t be afraid to upgrade your qualifications and become a better professional in your area.

You can choose whichever option suits you more. Will you try to take a parallel path or widen the one you have already taken?

You need the following to make a right decision:

• A like-minded person, assistant or mentor. It can be your wife or girlfriend or somebody else who believes in you. Your assistant is a person who executes routine tasks for you and provides you with time to focus on something more important. Finding a mentor is the best option. This is, however, very difficult and sometimes very expensive. You can choose what type of like-minded person suits you more. You decide who you can look up to, and who will support you and broaden the limits your mind sets.
• You should be ready to go all the way and never give up. You should develop a strong intention. You should reject any possibility of failure. People who have such intentions can’t talk to losers. They can’t communicate with those who whine, exploit others, and say that something is impossible. These words make purposeful people feel as though they have just touched high-voltage wires. They experience this feeling because will stop at nothing to reach their goals, and they believe they can achieve anything.
• You should always take responsibility for every decision you make in your life. We realize that other people don’t have to help us. We are independent. Nobody is obliged to make us happy, feed us, pay for our education, respect us, or love and protect us. If one says that the government has a duty to take care of him, he won’t attain anything. He just doesn’t understand that he is the government. It is his state of mind. Any tiny idea that gets developed in this mood pushes you one step back from the income you wish to have. It is necessary to get rid of this attitude completely. You can only count on yourself.

Start making new decisions. This is the only way to change your current attitude. Our future depends on the decisions we make today. We make decisions every moment, although sometimes we don’t even notice it. These imperceptible decisions influence our future.

Remember that any strategy should always be followed by actions. I am not trying to convince you to create a winning strategy that will guarantee your success and bring you millions of dollars. It is a common mistake among beginners, which you shouldn’t make. Thousands of losers have fallen into this trap. They were afraid to take risks, they didn’t want to make mistakes or pay the price, or they didn’t want to be held responsible for their own victories or errors. Deep in their hearts, they were simply waiting for luck.

There are three steps one can take to improve his financial situation. They are as follows:

1. Develop a completely new idea. Create it just to see if it works. For example, you have created a plan in your mind, and you are eager to implement it. You invest your efforts into developing your idea, and you have great expectations. However, when your expectations get shattered against the wall of reality, you realize your idea is unrealistic. Next time you have such a project in mind, you will not be so passionate about completing it. If you wish to stay on track, you shouldn’t expect every strategy to bring you millions of dollars. There are no such ideas. They are just speculations. The more theories you have, the better. You should test them to see if one of them works.
2. Repeat something you have successfully done in the past. If you have already tried an idea that helped improve your financial situation, remember it and analyze this experience. Then, try to repeat it, or at least try to systematize your knowledge. Ask yourself what you did, who you talked to, who you learned from, what you learned, what experiments you conducted etc.
3. Repeat something you started in the past, but had to give up on or failed to implement. You can alter your initial plan a little bit or make no changes at all. This strategy is the most common. People often do something they have already tried. They slightly change their steps or repeat them one by one hoping to complete their project this time.
   The first and second options are the best ones. It works better if you implement new ideas or revisit an old idea that has proven to work.

The ‘My Avatar System’ Exercise

Draw a scale from 0 to 10 on a sheet of paper. Each point represents a type of avatar. The avatar at zero can’t do anything. He is lazy, he doesn’t like to learn new things, he doesn’t make any money etc. The avatar at 10 is a successful person. Think about your avatar. On this scale, where is he located? Draw a smiley face at this number. Look at your avatar and define in what ways he is better than those to his left. Think about it now. All these avatars are lower than yours on the scale. What is the difference between you and them? If you are at 5, then there are others at 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4. How, exactly, are you better than them? Think about it right now. Write down three qualities you have that these avatars don’t. Now look at the avatars to your right, and don’t pay attention to the avatar at 10. You should only be thinking about this avatar if you are at 9. Place your interest on the avatar located one step higher than yours. Look at him. What is the difference between this avatar and yours? Please keep in mind that we are not comparing you to this avatar. We are comparing your avatar to the higher avatar. You differ from your avatar. Your avatar is just a mask that represents your talents and hidden potential. Think about the difference between your avatar and the avatar positioned one step higher. The distinction between them isn’t too big, but it still exists. What is it? Try to imagine this avatar in your place. What bold steps would that avatar take in order to advance back to his number? Write down those steps. I know it’s stressful, however, you won’t feel stressed forever. You only need to take these steps once. Your stress will pass, and you will be comfortable again. These steps will become part of your routine, and at the same time, your quality of life will improve. Pay attention to the following areas when comparing one avatar to the others: time management, health, money, level of financial literacy, style and appearance, as well as the ability to set goals, take responsibility, support others, and delegate tasks.