Get R.I.C.H. Lesson #14 - Find Your Purpose

Last week's radio appearance on WJBC's "The Broad View" (thanks Susan!) was a blast and really made me think about my purpose for creating The Get Rich Girl.

What makes you feel alive!? Is there something, that when you talk about it, you just get a fire inside you and get so excited that you can talk about it all day? That's your passion! If your everyday life - especially your work life - doesn't include your passion, then you're cheating yourself of living the best life you can have.

My passion is helping people. I'm no Mother Teresa, and I don't claim to be, but I have been given so many opportunities in life and I want everyone else to have the same. Flying first class to a private yacht in the Mediterranean is FUN and COOL and there is NO reason why you shouldn't have the opportunity to do that - or anything else you want in life!!

I'm passionate about what I do because I used to be on the other side of opportunity. What I mean, is that I didn't really know what kind of opportunities were available in life until I went out and got rid of my self limitations and fears and started looking for them.

I spent a lot of my childhood in a trailer park. I used to have to pray that my car would start. I drove an entire winter with no heat in my car and actually used to have to scrape the inside of my windows to get rid of the ice. I drove 60 miles each way to school for a week holding the driver side door because it was frozen and wouldn't shut.

I've been poor and I've been rich, and let me tell you, it's a lot more fun being rich! Driving a Porsche is way more fun than driving a clunker! Those people that say money can't buy happiness have never really had it because it is tons of fun! Money won't make you a better person, but it provides security, fun and enables you to help others.

My purpose is to help you realize that you are just as able to have more money than you imagined AND you can have fun doing it! I'm no Harvard graduate - I don't even have a college degree. I certainly had no silver spoon or rich uncles to give me a head start.

What I did have was a desire to do great things and travel the world and be able to afford anything I want. I can now and so can you if you start to work on getting rid of the fears, worry and excuses that you've been making up in your head.

Find your purpose! Live your passion!!

Get R.I.C.H. Quote of the Day

Fall seven times, stand up eight. ~Japanese Proverb

Get R.I.C.H. Lesson #13 - Take a Baby Step

“One of my best moves is to surround myself with friends who, instead of asking “why?” are quick to say “why not?” That attitude is contagious. - Oprah Winfrey

So the discussion between my friend who is in (what she calls) a dead-end job, continued the other day. She said she really needed change, has never lived anywhere else and would love to move to Texas.

I said, “Great! When are you leaving?!” She said, “Well, I’m not actually going to do it!” When I asked her “why not” she said, “I just can’t!” And I said, “Ok, why not?” Then the conversation went something like this:

“I don’t have a job.” - Her

“Have you looked?” - Me

“Well, no.” - Her

“Ok, then look for one.” Me

“I can’t leave my job” - Her

“You said you HATE your job” Me

“It’s very hard to find a job” - Her

“How hard have you looked?” Me

Blank stare

“Do you really want to make the move?” Me

“Yes” Her

“Let’s get on the internet right now and look for jobs” Me

Internet opened - job search begins.....

Now she has actually moved forward and is applying for jobs and doing phone interviews. She has been talking about moving for 2 years and all it took was the first step. She now has an idea of what area she’ll live in and has someone lined up to sub-lease her current apartment.

Maybe living your dream isn’t so hard after all!? Maybe it just takes one baby step to get your thoughts focused and your plan into action!?

Your Get R.I.C.H. Action Step of the Day: Take your baby step right now!!!

Lessons From the Great Les Brown

I recently had the honor of spending a weekend training with Les Brown, one of the world's most successful professional speakers. He's been one of the top motivational speakers and authors for the past 30+ years.

Watching and listening Les speak was mesmerizing. When he speaks, it doesn't come from his throat or even his diaphragm -it comes from deep within his heart. And it shows. He gets a gleam in his eyes and gives off an energy that will make you want to run a marathon.

When you do your job, are you gleaming? The best way to be successful is to do what you love. When you love what you do, you have that fire inside of you that will prevent you from failing. That fire will keep you up at night because you're so excited to get to work the next day. (As I type this, it is 1:30 am!) There are times in the middle of the night when I think of a quote or phrase that I think may help someone deal with a difficult or challenging situation, and I can't help but wake up and get to work!

Within one minute of meeting Les, it's obvious why he has been so successful all these years. He loves what he does and he loves helping other people.

I'd like to share with you some of Les' powerful quotes.

"Commitment is the courage to go from failures, defeats, and disappointments to manifesting your destiny without losing your hunger from your dream. It is the willingness to do whatever is required."

"Passion is that magnificent obsession for a cause, an activity, or a purpose..that as much as we have chosen it, it has chosen us."

"Develop a vision of your greatest self that you pursue wholeheartedly, with an unstoppable spirit"

Get R.I.C.H. Lesson #12 - Get out of your own way

I was recently at lunch with a good friend who was telling me how miserable she was at her job and how disappointed she was with what she’s done in her life.  She told me she had so many things she wanted to do in life and asked me if I had any advice for her.  I simply told her, “Get out of your own way and make them happen.”  She looked at me blankly then said, “Oh, easy for you to say, the girl who makes so much money.”

I stopped and thought about which part of my journey in life that had actually been “easy.”  Was it the part of my life when I grew up in a trailer, watching my mom struggle and scrub other people’s floors to put food on the table?”  Or maybe it was the part when my dad spent most of my childhood in and out of prison? Or when I packed up my car with $1200 dollars to my name and moved across the country to pursue my dream of traveling the world?  At 22, it was pretty scary, and definitely not “easy.”

Nothing about living your dream is “easy.”  It never will be.  But you must have the courage and strength to take a chance and go after your dream.  Most of the ultra wealthy, successful people I know didn’t have anyone hand them anything.  They worked for it - and they worked hard!  They viewed their obstacles as opportunities and took charge of their life.  

Every single person on this planet has a “story.”  By story, I mean a struggle in their life that they can use to either paralyze them or catapult them to the road to living their dream and doing whatever they want with their life.  

The fact of the matter is that this girl and I grew up in the same area, with the same opportunities and the same education.  There’s no real reason why she can’t get what she wants out of life.  She’s healthy, she’s smart and she is living in a land with endless opportunities - if she decides to take them.

No one is going to come knocking on your door and make your dream happen for you.  You’ve got to take action - today and every day - to make it happen.  Or you can continue to make excuses and watch other people live your dream.

One of my dreams is to empower as many people as possible to live their dream.  I want you to be able to travel anywhere you want to go, to buy what you want to buy, to do what you want to do and to be who you want to be.  Do you want that for yourself?

 The great motivational speaker Les Brown said, “A negative person will look at opportunities and all they see are the obstacles.  A positive person will look at obstacles, and all they see are opportunities.”

Acknowledge your opportunities, have faith in your abilities and make your dream happen!

Get R.I.C.H. Lesson #11 - Perseverance

I was just being interviewed for a magazine and the journalist asked me to sum up the reason for my success in one word.   I had to think about it for a minute.  A one word description for everything I've been through in the past 15 years was tough.   Then I thought back to when I first moved away from my hometown and everything I owned fit into my Geo Storm.  (A car I had for 8 years and 108,000 miles!)

I thought about how scared I was moving away from my family, friends, my steady job and everything familiar to me.   I thought about how many times I cried and wanted to turn around and come home but didn't.

Then I started thinking about how I later moved to Florida, again, everything I owned fitting in that same Geo Storm.  I started my fitness business and didn't really know what was going to happen, but knew it was what I wanted to do more than anything at the time.  I called a Realtor to see if I could buy a little condo and her response was, "you'd be lucky to afford a car."

So how did I get from that Geo Storm to today?  Perseverance.  I looked up the word on dictionary.com and it fit my life so well I got goose bumps.  Perseverance -steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, in spite of difficulties, obstacles or discouragement.

What if I would have turned that car around the first time I got scared and moved back to Bloomington?  I have amazing friends and family, but I have no doubt that if I would not have persevered then I would not have travelled the world, proven to myself that I could get R.I.C.H, own homes across the country and have the experiences I have had.  Life was never bad - I just never would have understood how amazing life can be and all the opportunities it has to offer.  And how anything is possible.

Perseverance got me from the Geo to the Porsche.  I've been told "no" a thousand times, but I knew it would only take a couple  "yes"s to get what I wanted.  I've been laughed at, talked about, felt sorry for and insulted.  But I knew that for every person that didn't think I was good enough, there was one who thought I was.  And all those "no"s made me stronger and better and when I focused and persevered, I made over a million dollars in three quick years.

If you want a better life, whether it's better Relationships, Inner Peace, Cash or Health, (RICH) you can.  But you can't give up on your goal or dream the first, or the second, or the 50th time it becomes hard for you.  You'll never know just how close you are to your dream if you turn your back on it!

Your Get R.I.C.H Action Step of the Day:  Try again at something you've given up on.  Try again to get that job you've been turned down for or that friendship you've given up on, or those last 5 lbs you want to lose.  

Get R.I.C.H. Lesson #10 - Why Do People Fail?

I spoke to a good friend yesterday who is having trouble making it in the real estate business.  To supplement her income,  she started selling pre-paid legal services a couple of years ago,  and last year she started selling some juice or vitamin product.  She told me yesterday that she's not doing well at anything and she doesn't know what to do.  She then asked me to get into some multi level marketing program selling this juice.  I told her that there is no way I would be successful at selling juice and when she asked me why, my answer was simple.  "I'm not passionate about juice."  

She then realized that is the reason she's not doing well at it either.  If you're not passionate about something, it's going to be really hard to be successful.  If you're chasing something for the money, the money will probably never come - or it will be short lived.  

If you're doing what you truly love, not only do you never have to work another day (because work turns into fun), the money will follow.  I have success in real estate because I'm passionate about helping people get into  good situations and helping sellers get out of bad ones.  And I know that I'm good at what I do and will make sure my clients are exceptionally taken care of.

My book is coming out tomorrow and I know I'll be successful with that because I am so passionate about helping others succeed that I can hardly get myself to sleep at night.

Do you love what you do so much that it keeps you up at night!?  If you're not, then you should find what it is you love to do and stop making excuses.  Don't blame you're economic situation because it will never improve until you're doing what you truly love.

Your R.I.C.H. Action Step of the Day: Take a step to work in your dream career.  Research what is necessary to get started and sign up for a class, read a book or go to a seminar.  You can't afford NOT to! (And books are free at the library so you really have no excuses!)