MaXIMIze - True Wealth

Today, I'm going to share some of what I've learned from Mark T. Rafter's book, The Wealth Manifesto.

Mark starts off strong from the get-go. In his introduction, he lays out these three steps to achieving your goals:

1. Creating/refining your intention. Once you have what true wealth and financial freedom means to you crystal clear in your mind, then you can move on to the next step…

2. Which is declaring your intention. Write down what true wealth and financial freedom means to you. Also, lay out your major goals in this area AND the steps you need to take to get to those goals. Which means the last step is…

3. Taking action. Begin taking the steps you need to take to reach the goals you've laid out.

Remember - how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

It is up to you to take those first steps toward true wealth and financial freedom.

In his book, Mark lays out what he calls "The Articles of the Wealth Manifesto." There are 14 articles in total, reminding us that wealth, true wealth, has to do with the quality of our lives as they relate to our personal values. Money is just a tool to use in garnering true wealth.

When we hone down to what our core values are in life, and live our lives in sync with those values, we tend to be happier and more content with ourselves and our lives, which equates to coming from a place of abundance rather than a place of lack.

Also, when we are living our lives in sync with our personal values, we are building our lives on a solid foundation rather then the shifting sands of society's values and mores.

In order to determine what your core values and principles are, you can go through the exercise laid out in this post from January 2014.

When we are sure of our footing, of our foundation, we can truly begin to grow, stretching ourselves to reach whatever goals we have set for ourselves.

True wealth begins by taking the first step - what step can you take right now toward living your best life now?

Until next time, Namaste!

MaXIMIze - Overall Well-Being - Coming From a Place of Abundance

We started the year by looking at our Circle of Perception and the six segments that make up the circle.

Over the last few months, we've focused on our financial segment (April), our physical health segment (May), our spiritual health segment (June), our career segment (July), and our relationships segment (August).

Now we've come to the last segment of the circle - our overall well-being.

Over the course of the year so far, we've gone deep into ourselves to understand where our actions and reactions - or responses - come from in each of those areas. Now we bring that all together in order to look at and address our overall well-being.

Back in January, we talked about our core values and principles, and vetting our goals against them to make sure our actions were in alignment with those values and principles.

In February, we discussed identifying and assessing the roadblocks to our success, and increasing our awareness by moving from unconscious incompetence to conscious competence.

In March, we talked about getting back up when we fall off the wagon, developing our follow-through, working through fear, and doing the spring cleaning necessary so that we can grow our best lives now.

One of the ways we can aid the growth of our best life now is by coming from a place of abundance. I touched on that theme in all of our discussions, and the post that most sticks in my mind and reinforces this is the one from May on Self-Image!

Positivity is a conscious act, and one that must be practiced on a daily basis.

I'm sure many of you have seen, and may even have been tagged for, the exercise of coming up with three positive things in your life right now every day for the next seven days. If you are not already doing this, I challenge you to do so for the next week. You don't have to share and tag others to keep the exercise going, though...

What we focus on is what we bring into our lives.

What are you focusing on - the actual abundance already present in your life right here, right now, or the perceived lack in it?

Over the next few weeks, we will discuss Journaling, Balance, and Harmony & Sync.

Until next time - Namaste!

MaXIMIze - Values, Goal Setting, and the Five Whys

Last week we worked through the Circle of Perception, and now we are ready to do the work to move forward with MaXIMIzing our lives! Yes, we are going to talk about setting and achieving goals. First though, we are going to talk a little bit about values and principles.

Each of us has a set of core values and principles that guide our lives. We know when we drift away from these core items because we feel "wrong" when we do - something feels off, we may even go so far as to feel sick to our stomachs or have other physical manifestations, depending on how far we have drifted.

Why is this germane to goal setting, you ask? In order for us to be successful at attaining our goals, those goals need to be in alignment with our core values and principles.

In order to determine your core values and principles, think of ten ideals that you aspire to and/or that are important to you - things like honesty, integrity, faithfulness, honor, love, peace, just to name a few. You can Google values and principles if need be to find others.

Then, take that list of ten ideals and pick the top five that are most important to you. Now, narrow that list to three. You can even go a step further and narrow those down to the one value or principle that is most important to you, but that is not necessary for what we are doing today.

Now that you have your top three core values and principles, you can vet the goals you develop against them to see if the goals you come up with are truly in alignment with your core values.

And how you vet them is by asking the five whys - this is a deceptively simple method to get to the deepest reasons for wanting to achieve your goals. Here is an example of how this method works, as show by a comedy bit I wrote:

"Excuse me, but you're sitting on my hat."

"That's a hat. Oh, now I see...very cool. Can you tell me where I can get a hat like that?"

"Why?" (first one)

"If you tell me where, I'll tell you why I want a hat like that."

"Why?" (second one)

"The ladies like the look of a well-fitting lid."

"Why?" (third one)

"I don't know, Herby, now where'd you get that derby?"

"Why?" (fourth one)

"Because old chap, I need me a new cap."

"Why?" (fifth/last one)

"Because, some young cat took off with my hat, and that's that."

Yes, even when you are asking yourself the hard questions, and sometimes because it is you asking the question instead of someone else, there can be some evasion, however, if you keep asking why, you will get to the root of the issue and see if why you've set a particular goal fits with your core values.

Okay, on to the science of setting goals that are achievable!

Some of you may recognize the following acronym from the business world - yes, many of the tools used in the business world can be used in our personal lives as well (like the five whys).

S - Specific - answer the five Ws - who, what, where, when, which (how), and why.

M - Measurable - how many/much, when; be concrete, make it tangible.

A - Attainable - one step at a time; break goals down to the smallest steps.

R - Realistic - aim for something just out of current reach, but doable. Goals should not be low-hanging, easy to reach fruit, but rather the fruit in the higher branches - reaching for them will make you stretch and grow.

T - Timely- a saying I came across recently is: "Someday is not on my calendar." Set reasonable timelines - Rome was not built in a day, and neither was your life to this point.

By using the tools I've shared above, you'll be able to achieve the goals you set for yourself because they will be in alignment with your personal core values and principles and you will ask the questions and do the work to make them SMART goals as well!

Next week we will address manifestation boards as a tool to keep your goals visible. You may know them better as vision boards - I'll explain the difference!

Until then, Namaste!