Financial Independence - Your Mind or The Bank?

The last two months has been interesting for me as a person. Infact, it has not only being interesting but also mind blowing! I have witnessed a major change in my mind, concerning finance and money matters, that all I see now is possibilities. I have since realized that it doesn’t take time to change a man’s financial status. It takes the right information.

I have come in contact with vital information in the last couple of weeks that is changing my financial situation for the better. In all honesty, I thought I wasn’t doing badly in my finances even before now. I work for a multinational. I earn a fairly good salary (I hope my boss will not read this and delay my salary increase). I have a couple of investments here and there and they are not doing badly. I had plans to make more investments in the nearest future and had been saving for it. So, in my own opinion, I will gain the financial independence I have been craving for in the next 5-10 years. However, with what I have learnt in the last couple of weeks, it will be a crime against progress if I am not financially liberated in the next few months.

While talking to my friend Adeolu Akinyemi yesterday, I told him I had written a short testimony that I will post before the year runs out. It will have this sentence within it “I have made more money in the last 6 months than I have made earning salaries in the last couple of year”. Wouldn’t that be interesting? I am looking forward to that post.

Wait a minute. I am sure you will like to know what I know. It’s not anything new. It’s the power of information. Information is the hub on which every outstanding achievement rides on. Vision without the right information to match will lead to frustration! I remember when I was growing up. I attended a conference where we were been asked to confess financial success. The speaker asked us to write down our financial goals and even put a figure behind it. I wrote the figure “1”with several zeros behind it. Don’t ask me what happened thereafter. I only made that kind of money on paper! I didn’t have the right information then how to transfer the figure on paper to a “spendable” reality. Many people still live in such realms.

It is not difficult to make money. It was much easier for me to make a million naira in a week that it was for me believing that it could be done. Yes, it was. Let me share a powerful truth with you. Financial liberation is not in economic policies. It is not in bank consolidation. It is not in salary increases. It stars with your….thinking! Your mind is the greatest key that will unlock your financial resources. A wise man once said “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he” A man cannot be richer than he is in his mind! Powerful.

The place to start amassing wealth therefore is in your mind. What thoughts about money do you harbour in your mind? Several years ago, while I was growing up, I was taking a stroll one day with a friend. A very nice jeep passed by us. Immediately, my friend hissed and said “Ole” (meaning thief). In his mind, only thieves and armed robbers ride such nice cars! No wonder he has not bought any till date. In my mind, even before he spoke, I said “Wow. What a nice car. This is the kind of car we will soon be driving”. As a man thinks in his heart, so he is. Notice the use of the present tense here. It didn’t say “so he will be”. Your life will automatically move in the direction of your greatest thoughts. Your thoughts determine your actions. Your actions determine your habits.

Your habits determine your character. Your character gives birth to your destiny or your destination.

I believe strongly that God is raising a generation of people who will propagate his kingdom business with their wealth. I want to be part of this people. Do you?

The Law Of Multiple Rewards

Life is governed by laws. These laws are universally binding and have no respect for age, location, religion, nationality or financial status. Whether you throw up a stone in California or in Fiji Island, it will come down!

There is one of life’s great laws that I have particularly found interesting. It is called the law of multiple rewards. It is an extension of the Biblical law that says that if you sow well, you will reap well. However, it has a unique part. Here it is - not only does it suggests that we'll all reap what we've sown, it also suggests that we'll reap much more! No wonder when you plant seeds of maize, you harvest a tree or even a forest of maize. For every disciplined effort, there are multiple rewards.

What a concept! If you render unique service, your reward will be multiplied. If you're fair and honest and patient with others, your reward will be multiplied. If you give more than you expect to receive, your reward is more than you expect. But remember: the key word here, as you might well imagine, is discipline.

Everything of value requires care, attention, and discipline. Our thoughts require discipline. We must consistently determine our inner boundaries and our codes of conduct, or our thoughts will be confused. And if our thoughts are confused, we will become hopelessly lost in the maze of life. Confused thoughts produce confused results.

Remember the law: "For every disciplined effort, there are multiple rewards." Learn the discipline of writing a card or a letter to a friend. Learn the discipline of paying your bills on time, arriving to appointments on time, or using your time more effectively. Learn the discipline of paying attention, or paying your taxes or paying yourself. Learn the discipline of having regular meetings with your associates, or your spouse, or your child, or your parent. Learn the discipline of learning all you can learn, of teaching all you can teach, of reading all you can read.

For each discipline, multiple rewards. For each book, new knowledge. For each success, new ambition. For each challenge, new understanding. For each failure, new determination. Life is like that. Even the bad experiences of life provide their own special contribution. But a word of caution here for those who neglect the need for care and attention to life's disciplines: everything has its price. Everything affects everything else. Neglect discipline, and there will be a price to pay. All things of value can be taken for granted with the passing of time.

That's what we call the Law of Familiarity. Without the discipline of paying constant, daily attention, we take things for granted. Be serious. Life's not a practice session.

If you're often inclined to toss your clothes onto the chair rather than hanging them in the closet, be careful. It could suggest a lack of discipline. And remember, a lack of discipline in the small areas of life can cost you heavily in the more important areas of life. You cannot clean up your company until you learn the discipline of cleaning your own garage. You cannot be impatient with your children and be patient with your distributors or your employees. You cannot inspire others to sell more when that goal is inconsistent with your own conduct. You cannot admonish others to read good books when you don't have a library card.

The most valuable form of discipline is the one that you impose upon yourself. Don't wait for things to deteriorate so drastically that someone else must impose discipline in your life. Wouldn't that be tragic? How could you possibly explain the fact that someone else thought more of you than you thought of yourself? That they forced you to get up early and get out into the marketplace when you would have been content to let success go to someone else who cared more about themselves.

Your life, my life, the life of each one of us is going to serve as either a warning or an example. A warning of the consequences of neglect, self-pity, lack of direction and ambition... or an example of talent put to use, of discipline self-imposed, and of objectives clearly perceived and intensely pursued.

Keep on winning!