The Untold Story - Who is Nelsiwe part 3

You are the architect of your own future

Here I am today, having survived it all and I am at the peak of my life.

 I want you to know that if I could do it, there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t.

I am calling you therefore to move out of the past into the future, armed with knowledge and confidence. That means leaving behind old attitudes, old excuses, and tired alibis for not becoming as fully competent and able in the area of personal finance and your life as you are in any other role you inhabit. If you are asked to describe yourself without the word mother, father, daughter, son, or your job title, I want to hear you say “I am powerful, empowered and secure; I am in control of my life, of my financial destiny”. After all; every man/woman is the architect of his own fortune.

Every time I think back to my life’s journey, I am fulfilled. I remember to be grateful for all the experiences that I went through. After all, I wouldn’t be who I am today had it not been for them. I realize now, God was shaping me for the blessed life I get to enjoy today. He was refining my heart, enriching my spirit, teaching me that in life we can survive anything if we put our minds to it.     

My journey with life and finances was therefore very simple. My Motivators to Create Wealth and live comfortably was just as simple. These were

§  My Past Experiences  

o     I had to prove that background doesn’t matter

o    I had to heal and realized that the only way to get healing was to ensure that I never financially felt dependent on anyone but God

o    I was so tired of working hard, being told what I could and could not have, I was tired of being broke and simply wanted to change that.

§  My Aspirations

o    I wanted to be beyond average. Everything I had grown up around gave me the energy to want to push out of being average. I demanded the best for my own story.

§  I was told by my Father that I couldn’t wear pants at home

o    I wanted to afford the things that would make me happy, or at best boost my confidence, as well as define who I was, not who They wanted me to be.

§  I was told by a boyfriend that I wouldn’t amount to anything. This was my greatest drive believe me. it fuelled every fibre of my being

o    I had to prove him wrong

o    I had to rise above who he thought I was, and become who God says I am.

So – WRITE DOWN YOUR WHYS AND BE PASSIONATE ABOUT THEM. Remember that: WITHOUT PASSION IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING IN THIS LIFE!

I am not by any means claiming that is all going to be easy, but I promise that IT SHALL BE WORTHWHILE!

Still, while I was as driven as any person can be and had my list of motivators (yes, I almost always keep everything written down in scraps) I will admit that …. It wasn’t until I watched a man of former statue lying in Mbabane government hospital, all by himself, sick to his bone, left alone to basically die, that I fully appreciated the value money has in our lives. Seeing him there so broken literally broke my heart. My father at that point was lying in the same hospital battling diabetes. And while he didn’t win that battle and succumbed to his death that very year (God rest his soul), this other man’s state I think changed me more than my own father’s death. This was a man who before was chauffer driven, would never stand in line for anything and society had labelled him “Important”. I was awakened to the truth that “it doesn’t matter who claps for you today as you go up the ladder, who gives you the impression that you are important, it only matters what you provide for yourself, how you position your life for the future”.  

I realized right then that I had to change my stars that my story needed to try and have a happy ending. That, even if God forbid, life’s challenges found me, I should do my best always to prepare for my future while I still can and trust that God our provider will always be my guide and source. Yes, that I was going to not just pray, but get up and work hard, work smart and make sure that I smiled more, laughed more, dance and ultimately make some difference to this our world.

So true to my epiphanies, I from then onwards worked diligently, worked smart and today having worked for over a decade, I can safely say that – The journey has been FUN and I enjoy making Money. Not just for self, but for others that in my field we get to work with (I hope that you are one of the ones I get to influence somehow to make life that much more pleasurably somehow).

The conclusion to my story is that “Seeing your sweat turn into sweetness is the best Gift there ever will be to a life”. I am blessed. I do not lack for anything that I need. And therefore, I do believe that it was all part of Gods larger plan for my life.

 

So why do I continue to learn about Money?

In two sentences:

§  I never want to have to suffer because I didn’t plan for my life, or make a bad decision because of money (e.g. staying married to someone who is not worthy of me because I need his financial security, or more commonly still, staying at a job I don’t love because of car and or house payments).

§  I also want to live a life that will be filled with moments where I know that I made a difference to society. Hopefully live a legacy of positive living to many.

Note

“If your only goal however is to become rich, you will never achieve it,” said John D. Rockefeller, America’s first billionaire. His point was simple: when the only thing you care about is making money, no amount of money is ever enough. What you have always pales in comparison to what you don’t have and could have.

The Untold Story - Who is Nelsiwe part 2

My Epiphany

It was a year after I started high school that I had an epiphany. I was just in Form 2 when I woke up one day and suddenly all was clear. It dawned on me that if I was ever going to change my past and fully embrace my mother’s teachings, I had to get out of  my self-pity mode; thinking that I was as stupid and poor as some the students had tried to make me feel.

I finally tapped into my inner strength, my God given talent to be a success “you’ll notice that I call it a God given talent”. Yes - I am true believer that God took his time to create and make me special, make me the best gift to my parents, friends and family. He had and still has a plan for my life, a plan to prosper and grant me peace, a plan to grant me joy.

In my imperfections in character He continues to make me perfect in my spirit and heart.

I was going to be the smart kid

All the experiences I went through as a teenager made me realize one thing, that if I wasn’t going to win the girls over, if I wasn’t going to be able to will my way into a rich family or worse still, find my way back home having run away from the challenge I was facing around the more popular girls, I was going to beat them by being the smartest student. I knew then that, if I paid attention to what was important to ensuring that I could build a secure future and grow to succeed in life, only then was I was going to come out a winner.

From form 2 to my final year in high school therefore I concentrated hard to the lessons from each teacher that took pains to stand in front of each of us trying to instill knowledge and shape our lives. I probed and queried any new concept and idea, I became the most attentive and inquisitive student and soon I was one of the best in my class. I don’t really believe that it was all because I was naturally gifted (of course I have been blessed with a good brain), but I do have confidence in that the ultimate outcome came from the drive and ambition to beat everyone else at the one thing that they couldn’t take away from me. It was more my hunger and desperation to succeed that propelled me and in time, centered me. I knew then that I only had myself to depend on, myself to determine and earn what I deserved from life. After all, I never had the cushioning that comes from having rich parents. To me the reality was - I simply had to find a way to improve my life, to foster success and from that I grew to believe in my own inner strength.

I wasn’t going to be the most popular
 

It wasn’t long after I was the smart student that I had “friends” stemming out from all corners of the school, mostly because they needed assistance in one subject or another. Although my profile grew, I still wasn’t the most popular student. I then also realized something profound. I didn’t actually have to become the most popular. I didn’t need to crave attention and want to be known, accepted or heard. I simply had to be the best at what I chose to do, in who I am, and concentrate all my energies to building a character that I would be proud of.

In my quest for more knowledge I discovered reading.

 

In the pages of a book I could become the star, heroine, senator, president, CEO; anyone that I dreamt and read about. In those pages I was beautiful, smart, rich, happy and mostly - truly alive. It was there that my passion for life was rekindled, my passion for writing instigated. I started teaching myself a new word every day, finding ways to apply it in every day life’s phrases and poems. I became a scholar of life and understood that if I was to build a successful future I needed to learn on a daily basis to be a better individual than I was before, and that I needed to depend on my own ability to turn a challenge into a lesson, my own passion for finding solutions to everyday life’s problems.

Once I fully embraced my strength, it was then that for the first time in my life I found life to be a splendor.

My last year in high school was simply a breeze. I was appointed Head Girl and for me that honor was the payoff that I needed to truly appreciate that dedicated effort and never giving up in life pays huge dividends. It was then that a new Self was reborn. I started appreciating every experience, every challenge as a chance to grow your soul and become even better at living than you were the previous day.

Soon I found myself in university and there I got to enjoy life. Somewhere in the process though I, like everyone else who is privileged, stupidly began to forget what was important in life. I had learnt to fit in, to be the best and as you know sometimes having it all can create a monster, I soon lost the values that I had learnt so hard in high school. I started thinking I was invincible and convincing myself that I was smart “stupid and childish me”. Today, thinking about it, I’ll blame it on the exuberance of youth.

Life will surely humble you

As I write today I will tell you this, I absolutely respect and love life. It has a way of teaching us hard lessons, humbling the most conceited of characters. It’s as if once you think you are a bird that can fly anywhere, you wake up one day to find your wings chipped off and there you stand, having to learn how to walk again.

I am grateful that I learnt my lesson quickly at a time when I was still young enough to be able to change and mold the person that I was going to become.

I was at the peak of my imaginary invincibility when I was dealt a hard hand. Just when I was thinking I’ve finally moved forward and had earned my being proud of whom I had managed to become, I failed my last year at university. Yes, I had to repeat my last year.

This was the much needed wake up call. Hard as it was, I am grateful for that experience for I would probably be a different person today had I not learnt that;

“as much as life can raise you up, if you are not careful and humble; if you forget to learn and appreciate more, if you don’t remember to continuously work harder and instead stop to be a human being with heart, you are likely to lose it all”.

I repeated my last year and that, while was a hard lesson, it also became my most valuable experience to date. Having been sponsored by government, the reality of how I was going to raise the money hit hard. I was desperate to complete and my family “though a bit better financially than they had been while in high school”, still struggled to make ends meet, least of all afford to pay for all my fees and accommodation. That year I truly grew up. That experience taught me a lot about life.

That is the year in which I became an Adult!

to be continued……..

The Untold Story - Who is Nelsiwe?

When I was a little girl

When I was a little girl, I was unkempt and like most, very naive. I grew up in the rural areas up north in an area where a car was a luxury to spot once a month (no, I lie, we did have an old looking Cressida – a class act at that time) but that was just about it around the area. Electricity was a privilege you only got to hear of and never had an idea of what it meant to get in a house on a cold winter night and turn on a heater, boil a cup of tea and relax. Our idea of warmth was a wild fire outside that would only be lit for the hour we were preparing a meal of pap and ligusha. After which, it had to go off because we needed to preserve whatever little firewood we had managed to pick on foot some 5kms away.

These were the longest winter nights of my life.

Any yet I am smiling as I write this, for they were also the most perfect demonstration of love from my family.

Our welcome to summer was a wakeup call from my father to direct us to vast fields that needed tendering and preparation for the planting season. As soon as we heard his voice in the wee hours of the morning roaring loud and telling us “get up, there is a lot of work to be done before you can get ready for school; time is of the essence”; right then we knew that was the beginning of the change of season.

It wasn’t until we had spent at least an hour in the fields that we were scampering to get water from the 25L buckets we kept to try and get ready for school.

School wasn’t any easier, after all we needed travel some 25kms by bus everyday to get there. Once there the obvious truth was hard to ignore, I was not the cleanest child. How could I be, having started work at 4am and because the water we could have on a daily basis was to be used sparingly, one couldn’t even afford to truly take a proper bath. Somehow though I grew up to be…….. Here I am today for you to decide!

 

Enter my Teenage years

As time is set to be a clock that ticks continuously irrespective of what we experience, it wasn’t too long before I was ready to start high school. I was luckier than most, I was – no I am blessed. I have a mother who even today inspires me. Hard as it was for all of us to make ends meet, she taught me the idea of hard work. She made me understand that I may not be the most beautiful, the most wealthy (close to the opposite actually), but I could work towards being the most driven human being, I could achieve just about anything that is deposited in my heart as a truth.

My dearest mother (I love her with all that I am) would risk her life in public transport month in and month out going to JHB and other South African cities looking for items to sell (she was a hawker), just so her children would get to enjoy a better life than she knew. She managed to scrap the last cents she could in order to send me to a better school.

There I was, a teenager with my broken English from the rural areas (who knew the true value of learning to be articulate back then) coming into an all-girls school in the suburbs of Manzini. If up till then I hadn’t realized just how hard life can be, there I truly got to Experience Life at Best. The girls there were beautiful, rich and articulate and made sure to make a girl like me (a Betty comes to town), know just how irrelevant they were. Some took pains to make me (and others like me, mind you we were a very select few then as St Michael’s specialized in only accepting certain grades and backgrounds) feel unattractive, stupid and most of all, POOR.

Don’t feel sad for me just yet. It wasn’t all doom and gloom. I was accepted by some loving ladies, who even today I have the privilege to call friends, though few. Point here though is

I WAS ACCEPTED INTO A GOOD SCHOOL and that was enough to make me push against any tide.

Till today I am grateful for Gods miracle for being accepted against all odds. Even though in the beginning, I was desperate to return home, desperate to experience anything but the cruelty that our young can instill on other less privileged children, I remained standing and grew a very thick skin thanks again to my mother. I clearly remember the first phone call I made to my mother sobbing and begging her to come pick me up. My mother was smart. She stood firm in her resolve and told me I needed to be stronger, needed to learn to be harder and survive any circumstance. She taught the value in never giving up.

Every time my mind wanders to my Form 1 experience, I first shudder to realize just how any child is expected to survive such horrid experiences and grow to become the best that they can be, but then I smile.. for to learn survive skills early on in life is not just a privilege, it is a GIFT. Those are exactly what will work to distinguish the winners from the rest. So survive we must, for I learn that life, even as we become adults, can just be just as hard for those who fail to learn survival skills early on. I toughened up. I developed a harsh resolve and yes – as I think of those senior girls (I still remember their names of course) I for a second falter but then I smile.

 

To be continued…………

Let your fear be an enabler

Face up to your fears

I once read something like this “if your dreams do not scare you, then you are not dreaming enough”. Yes, if your motivations for making money are not scaring you, if these do not actually make you to have sleepless nights, then you are not yet ready to truly explore the journey of Financial Success. Yes it’s true as I said before; we are only limited but our thoughts, our minds, our beliefs. Do not therefore be deterred by your fears of failure; do not let fear cripple your ability to create, to become the best that you can be.

Fear is good, it reminds you that you have a dream that you need to attain, it reminds us that we are human and allows us to learn to trust in a power that is greater than we are. Use fear therefore to fuel your energies and push you to move further than you ever thought possible – to break through the ceiling.

 

The art of war

It is not the absence of fear that builds character. It is rather our ability to master that fear and use it to empower and position our minds to find creative ways to conquer the challenges that we face. The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy not coming but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have our position unassailable. Expect fear in your life, welcome it, get to know its seed and understand its target (which is to immobilize you), and instead learn the tact of using it for your own benefit.

In order to defeat an enemy, you need to first know who he is, study his moves and learn his weaknesses. Once you know these weaknesses and can map his next probably move, only then can you create strategies to defeat him.

It’s a similar concept that applies to women trying to win a man’s heart, men working at impressing a girl. The critical issue here is making sure that you know your man/woman, anticipate his/her needs and be in a position to cater for those needs.

The other most important side to this coin is to know your competition, find out what their strengths and weaknesses are, figure out a way to be better at what they do _ do it smarter, faster and more satisfactory than they do. Only then will you succeed. It’s exactly the same concept in business, if you do not know what your competition is doing you are bound to be swallowed whole. In more definite terms “he who exercises no forethought but makes light of his opponent is sure to be captured by them”. So understand that the competitor to your success is poverty, lack and neediness. Ask yourself; is that even an option in life? What value will you be if you allow these instead to be your guide?

 

So what exactly am I saying?

I am encouraging you to know and accept your fears, face them upfront and believe in your own abilities to conquer them.

Stop telling yourself you cannot change, you cannot make money, you cannot be Rich. Believe that You Can! President Obama captured this concept fully in his campaign slogan “YES WE CAN”.

Easy to say Nelly you are thinking. After all you have already achieved financial security and don’t need for anything. Granted, I am blessed. I have most the things that make for a comfortable life. But, that wasn’t always the case.

• Do you think I was raised in a family that had a lot of money and could afford all the fabulous education?
• Do you think I had an MBA from some fancy business school where I got a lifetime map on how to build a financially secure future?

Nothing could be further from the truth.

• Maybe some of you think I inherited a bucket full of cash, or that
• I married into money.

Not true. In actual fact, I waited till almost my last breath to get married, which is probably why I have some money today! (I hope you get the humor in this).

I digress……. Back to the story of Nelsiwe, bear with me, it shall I hope open our hearts a little….

What Motivates you?

Common Motivations

The motivation to become wealthy, though as simple as can be for most it may seem, when you really take the time to think about it, I find that, for it to have a lasting impression and chance to succeed, it must be governed by more than just having money that will allow one to buy the things that they want as and when, to buy for comfort. It must however be rooted on a bigger dream, a goal that serves to Change, not just one life, but many more lives. It is true that ‘the bigger the motivation, the higher the chances that it succeeds”.

Think about the people that have made real money, the Bill Gates, Patrice Motsepe and others. Their dream, or should I say motive was not just to feed their mouths, it was ultimately so big that they today are the reason we (at least most) strive to work hard and believe that it is possible. Theirs was ultimately the motivations that would change the world. Their journey was not just in pursuit of money so that they could buy the most expensive cars or jewelry, theirs was so that they could leave a legacy behind them. A legacy of Creating and Becoming! A legacy of Being Leaders and in some cases Innovators.

I find therefore that, your motivation, while it may start from the most basic of things must, for you to really get up and work, be grounded on acts that will allow us to “change not just ourselves, but the lives of those around us”.

So how do you become super rich? First embrace one fact that –

You WILl never get there on salary alone

Now I will tell you my short personal story with life and money – my background and well some of the motivations that pushed me to this I see as my life today.

Am I successful? I figure that, the answer to that question always depends on which view point you choose to look at my life from. I admit that I live a comfortable life and yes have had the privilege to enjoy a few of the niceties that Money can buy. But from where I stand, I do not believe that I am as yet Successful….But I personally am fulfilled and would not want for a different life. A Topic for another day!

The Nelly Story

I tell you my life story not to brag, but in the hope that from Who I am, one may get to understand that anyone can grow to enjoy a comfortable life, to be successful. I tell you my story not to IMPRESS BUT TO HOPEFULLY INSPIRE YOU. I want you to understand that:

It is not our education or what society has handed us that determines what we can create for ourselves. It is about the story that we write for our lives, the choices that we make each and every day, choices we sometimes have to make in sight of seemingly insurmountable challenges.

 

Financial Freedom - Why?

The key to Gaining Financial Liberation

As previously stated, the Key to Making Money is not to be greedy, or to want to be seen but to have a specific and an achievable goal in mind. We have asked ourselves and said “how much money do I intend to make?” Now it is time to ask the next and most fundament question....

WHY?

Once you know exactly how much money you want to make I will teach you to follow certain strategies to generate income.

The first of which WILL BE……. Okay, before we get to the strategies - Know the Question to Ask Yourself

Until you take that very initial step your life will only move from bad to worse, your life will seem like its voodooed as most people seem to want to believe. Yes, as African we are quick to see evil and witchcraft in our lack of finances, love and everything else, rather than take responsibility for our “inactions and/or poor actions”. We are always quick to look outwards of self instead of realising that we are our own enemy, that our thoughts shape the actions that we take, and ultimately create the world that we live in.  

Many people waste precious moments asking the wrong questions of themselves, the wrong questions about their life and all that pertains to it, including Finances – questions like “where is God in all this? Many forget to accept that God already wired each of us for success, that we are to have dominion over all things, including Money and be the light of the world.  

So what is the question to ask?

To be liberated with your finances, you need to start asking the question WHY? Ask and answer your WHY and do not worry for a start about the How? Why do you want to make money? Yes, Why?

It sounds simple I know, but most people never actually realize that without asking and answering their why, the how itself will not matter. And even if by some miracle they get to make some money “save for winning the lotto”, they (without the why?) tend to lose it just as quickly. It’s exactly the same principle with driving a car without a known destination – you do most times, get lost along the way or suddenly find yourself in territories you wouldn’t otherwise enjoy or want to have been at.

So take some time and think about the Why?

§  Do you want to have a luxurious lifestyle?

§  Do you want to travel, to eat at nice restaurants?

§  Maybe you want to start your own business?

§  Maybe you want to provide for your children, OR

MAYBE like me You want to ……………. WE WILL COME BACK TO THAT!

I believe that it is really important to consciously think about why you want to be rich, to define why you must actually effect the changes that you need for your life. If you don’t, it becomes easy to get caught up in a rat race to get more and more money without ever knowing why.

Take some time therefore and write your answers to the why? Compare your answers to what you are currently doing. How feasible, how far are you to realization? What do you need?

I admit, easier said than done but it is a necessity to unlocking your wealth.

The Concept of Change

Change is in all of us – We must consciously want it

Now we have defined exactly how much money we need to make, and have understood that in order to make that money (realistically as it should be), we need to change, we must then accept that Change is possible, and it is a part of who we are.

Why do I say that? I say that because each new days sunset brings with it the reality that we are to be a day older the next morning, our eyes have seen a day’s more figures and things, our ears heard a day’s more sounds, our hearts have experience a day’s more emotions and therefore  have hopefully acquired, just a day’s more knowledge. These days experiences imply that we are different from the person we were just a day before.

Still, there are principles one must adapt to if they are to Change. These being the Truths that we must believe and embrace about Change for it to manifest and have a lasting positive effect on us. Those who have tried to create a new habit know that it is said that for any habit to become a norm, one must consistently do it daily for at least 21 days. Those that are ahead of us tell that after 21 days, that habit becomes a part of who we are. Similarly, if we are have Lasting Change.

While there are no set time schedules on my side, while I do not have the magic wand to the future, I do know, that Change by its own essence is a daily target and that there are principles that we can apply and accept if we are to make Change effective. These are guidelines that we need to understand if we are to succeed in this Change, if we are develop a different lifestyle.

 

The principles that guide change are  

1)    Change is systematic

The most broadly valid definition of systematic change is “change that pervades all parts of a system, taking into account the interrelationships and interdependencies among those parts.” Systemic change recognizes those interdependencies and makes the necessary changes in those other parts and their interrelationships.

For change to be useful it needs to result in a paradigm shift in our way of thinking. We must change all aspects of who we are. We must understand and embrace the truth that real sustainable change starts from the inside. We must appreciate the Need to Change and apply the principles required to effectively do differently and effect this change in all areas of who we are.

2)    Change is evolutionary not revolutionary

No one can force you to change. A more sustainable and useful way to Change is for one to do it gradually and with collaboration. Identify your triggers, your weak spots and start from there, involve all parties. Negotiate new loan term if necessary, consolidate what you owe, engage your family on spending patterns and agree on a formula that will best serve all.

 

3)    People take care of what they own. You do not wash a rented car

Change must be personally driven and you as the concerned individual must take ownership of the reasons to change. Each person must find the motivation and understand that, I could give you the steps, but unless and until you OWN them, there will be no change.

4)    Sustainable change is culture driven

For you to succeed in this process, change must become a lifestyle. Like a runner – you practice, try, fail, try again and again until you get it as part of the fabric of who you are. To change and become a financially liberated person, realize that even where you make mistakes and fall back into a debt trap, you must go back to your original plan and start again, until being become a part of who you are, a Culture for you.

5)    Change is a journey not a programme

Have you ever heard that change is the journey, not the destination? What people mean by this is that change is a means to an end, not the end itself. In other words, don’t get too excited about change; get excited about where it will eventually take you. If there is no compelling reason to change, why go to all the trouble?

Increasingly in this day and age, your end point is unlikely to be your final destination. You may set a goal or pick a place you want to be in your financial journey but if you attempt to put down roots and stay there forever, you will surely run into problems. Things change, and we must change with them. In reality, ends are almost never destinations – they are goals; points along the way that may be good to reach, but will also eventually be good to leave behind.

Always strive therefore to Change, to Adapt with the Times.

Strategies - How much money do you want?

Challenge 4 – How much money do you want to have? WHY?

I will at this point therefore prompt everyone to ask themselves the very critical question:

How much money do you want to make for yourself?

Decide on the exact amount and be specific. Of course you should not shoot in the sky and start building castles on sand. While I prompt all of you to be ambitious, to dream big and believe that you can achieve whatever goals you set, you also need to be realistic about your capabilities.

The fact is that, for you to be able to start the process of making money, and have answered the question of how much, CHANGE is supposed to happen in your lifestyle, and being.

The Convictions we must Attack

Many people fail to Change because they insist that they were born like that, and therefore cripple their ability to learn new things, to explore and enjoy the new opportunities that life is always throwing at them. They instead convince themselves that “I can never be an Entrepreneur, I wasn’t born with IT?” Born with what exactly, a brain, eyes, ears, a brain and a heart? I thought we all were – so wake up from that Nightmare of “I wasn’t born with … I am not… I can’t do… I can’t be…) wake up right now!

The debate on whether we are born with certain character traits and therefore behaviors and actions or we instead acquire them through exposure, experience and choices has been ongoing for as long as mankind lives. I believe that while there are certain traits engraved in our DNA, any and all human being can become whoever they choose to become once the motivation to change is greater than that which they believe themselves to be, that which they hold as their Truth. Common phrases like, I just cant help myself, when I see a beautiful shoe, I just have to have it. These are just lies that through repetition and familiarity we have set in our hearts as Truths.

It is true that "It is just as easy to form the habit of succeeding as it is to succumb to the habit of failure. Habits are not instincts; they are acquired reactions. They do not just happen; they are caused."

Once you determine the original cause of a habit, it is within your power either to accept or reject it. Become that which you want and choose to become. It is within your power irrespective of who your mother father or friend is, or what they say for that matter. 

The Fundamental Truth

Many people do not understand the fundamental Truth that, unless and until you are Motivated to Change, you may talk about change, but you will never actually attain it.

It begins with you

While there are clear guidelines to effect Change is one’s life, the Key is in understanding that IT ALL BEGINS WITH YOU. Only you can make the necessary changes that will bring you financial liberation. It is not enough to get someone to monitor you; someone to manage your finances, you personally need to Start being a Different Person.

 

Strategies to Making Money - Who are you?

Challenge 3 – Define who you are

These last few weeks, we have reviewed the idea of money, discussed how to get comfortable with money while developing an enhanced level of prosperity consciousness. We were reminded to value ourselves, be positive thinkers and not let other people set our VALUE (at least I hope that we were). After all “if you undervalue what you do, the world undervalues who you are. And if you undervalue who you are, the world will undervalue what you do”.

All of you were implored through the engagements and writings to grow to the levels that - If you are ever asked to describe yourself without the word mother, father, daughter, son, or using your job title, you are heard proudly saying

“I am powerful, empowered and secure; I am in control of my financial destiny”.

The Question you should be asking now knowing all we’ve discussed up to this point is

·         How should I use this knowledge and renewed confidence to create wealth for myself and my family?

 

Be conscious of achieving prosperity

To grow and continuously make money, one needs to realize that the concept of money making demands that One:

·         first and foremost want to make money, to believe they can and then to follow certain strategies that will enable them to start the process of getting wealthy.

·         Review their money making skills, and give more service and heart to whatever you do

·         Master the courage to ask the relevant questions regarding your level of consciousness with respect to money,

·         be very honest with yourself and look at your results

·         studying the patterns in your life – and

·         adopting money making strategies

Truth is that, until you answer the above you can’t really begin to understand money, nor make lots of money for yourself.

If you want to improve your financial position in life, focus your attention on creating a higher level of prosperity consciousness

and then

be in control of your financial destiny.

You are the Artist to your Bank balance

paint your own money story!

What you need to understand is that all of you already have what it takes to own the power to control your financial and life’s destiny.

What you need to start with is to harness the incredible intelligence and competence that has served you so well in other areas in your life. If you have run a department in your work place, run a household, run a marathon like my friend Nyakwesi Keregero has, raised your children, I believe that you certainly already have all it takes to take control of your finances and life in general.   

And yet; until you can get comfortable with the idea of money and what it can achieve for you and all the people you would like to assist, until you can appreciate that as long as you have an internal environment that has gotten comfortable with this notion, you as well have the power to attract money, all your education will go to waste.

How to start:

§  Learn to be excited by the idea of money,

§  Call it upon yourself, see yourself rich powerful and living a luxurious life,

§  take the time to familiarize yourself with the concept of managing your finances, budgeting for your essentials and investing for a rainy day.

Only once you get comfortable with the idea of having money will you find the fortitude to harness your ability to build a happy and financially secure life.

Remember once again that:

•          Earning money has nothing to do with age, formal education, gender or geography _ or even your level of intellect.

–         It has to do with prosperity consciousness.

–         It also has to do with spiritual connection to Money and the promises that God has for us all. Where there is no spiritual growth, there is no spiritual strength, there is no lasting happiness and no real or lasting wealth.

•          To accumulate wealth, a person must become very comfortable with money.

–         The cause of poverty is poverty consciousness. IT causes a person to see, hear, smell, think and feel…lack and limitation.

The late Mike Todd said, "Being broke is a temporary situation. Being poor is a mental state." He was correct. There are wealthy people who lose every cent they have through a series of mistakes in judgment...but that does not make them poor.

To improve your financial position

–         Focus your attention on creating a higher level of prosperity consciousness

–         How much money do you want? Decide on a figure and be specific

–         INCREASE MONEY MANAGEMENT SKILLS

–         INCREASE INVESTMENT SKILLS

Remember though, be realistic and be wise and realize that – You must earn it.

I am not advocating for people to get conceited here. If you truly succeed in this exercise, the world will not have to know that you have money. The successful individual is not the one who will stand high up on the mountain and shout for the whole world to see, but rather the one who will quietly make their money and build a strong future for the people they care about.