For those who want to stop wishing and start doing all that it takes to become financially prosperous, these 9 hacks are inevitable.
The problem is that most people keep wishing that their circumstances would magically change for them. They don’t have the desire or passion to improve themselves so they can proactively improve their circumstances. While the world teems of many people like this, you can choose to be different and even a reference point for others by seeking to become the kind of person equipped with the skills and abilities to change the direction of his life, transform, and do brilliant things with it.
“The greatest reward in becoming a millionaire is not the amount of money that you earn. It is the kind of person that you have to become to become a millionaire.”
Jim Rohn (Foremost American Business Philosopher)
You can become a problem solver, solution provider, and someone who does influential work in this world. To reach that quality as a person is something within your control. It’s all tied to personal improvement and your ability to invest in yourself. You can’t wish for it to happen. You must develop to become the kind of person who naturally attracts the success you seek.
Let me show you how this simple but absolutely effective personal development life hacks not only gets you into the millionaires club as fast as possible but improves the overall quality of your life and helps you reach other dreams in your heart:
1. Invest At Least 10 Percent of Your Income in Yourself
“To double your income and success, triple your investment in personal development and professional mastery.”
Robin Sharma
Do you know that you rarely pay attention if you don’t pay for something?
It is natural for us to want stuff for free. Interment marketers will always use free things as bait (lead magnet) to get your contact, most especially your email. But you would agree with me that many hardly take what is being sent to their mail seriously. But if they had paid for it, they would quickly hit the complaint button before checking their trash and spam folders.
Anything we get for free, we don’t take seriously.
So let me ask you this question: How much do you invest in yourself?
How committed are you to yourself?
If you are not investing in yourself, that means you don’t even care about what your life turns out to be. It means you can’t even stake a bet on yourself. It means you are not even sure of your own ability to become successful.
It’s a law of self-improvement that when you invest 10% of your income on yourself, will yield a 100X or more return on that investment. For every dollar you spend on your education, skills, refinement, and relationships, you’ll get at least 100 dollars back in return.
Whatever the figure is let 10 percent of it go into your personal development. You may not have the money to hire a mentor or coach, but at least you can buy a book. Imagine people’s time and money on entertainment, clothes, or groceries. It’s a matter of priority.
If you want to do something extremely well, you need to make an investment in that direction. It’s only when you invest in something that you have the motivation to make it happen. In life, your level of success can generally be measured by your level of investment. The reason you are not getting the results you want is that you haven’t invested enough to get those results. Invest in books. Invest in online courses. Invest in seminars and workshops. Your personal investment will end up shaping many things in your life such as the quality of marriage, the kind of parent you’ll become, the level of happiness you’ll have, the quality of work you produce, and the fatness of your riches.
When you spend on investing in yourself, you naturally become committed to yourself and your dreams. If you want a greater commitment, just invest more. You’ll get to a point of no return and you’ll become so passionately involved that withdrawing can never be an option. The moment you know what you want and why you want it (not knowing could result in the problem of over-commitment to the wrong thing), you can begin to invest in that direction so as to get the maximum results out there.
2. Invest At Least 80 Percent of Your “Off” Time Into Learning
“Most people you see are consumers rather than creators. They are at work to get their paycheck, not to make a difference.”
Jim Rohn
See, every time you spend on social media mindlessly, you can’t have it back, and that actually makes your future worse. Just like eating bad food, every consumed moment leaves you worse off. Every invested moment leaves you better off.
I am not saying you shouldn’t do entertainment. Good music and comedy are sometimes great for the soul. But it is better you are personal development conscious even in your desire to be entertained. Let it be the kind that leaves a positive impact on your relationships and other aspects of your life. Powerful documentaries can replace movies that make no real impact on your life aside from fun. Entertainment can also be a powerful area where you deliberately invest in yourself. A good way to know if it was an investment is when that entertainment continues to yield returns over and over in the future. That may include positive memories, transformational learning, or deepened relationships.
Place entertainment alongside learning and education. Which one do you think will provide far greater returns in your future? You know the answer. You can’t find a single successful person out there who doesn’t read and takes learning very seriously. Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa once said he was on a flight with Bill Clinton and when discussion shifts to any particular topic the next thing he hears is, “What book are you reading about that?” These are billionaires and what still dominates their chill time is personal development.
How much more are you?
Ultra-successful people understand that education and learning determine how well they see the world. They know that what they know determines the quality of the relationships they can have and the quality of work they can do. In the next few years, who you would have turned out to be will be as a result of the books you have read and the people you have moved with.
For all the “off” time you get, please pour as much of it as you can into learning and education of self. 80 percent of it is recommended. Your input directly translates to your output. If you don’t like the outcomes you are seeing in your life, you’ve got to change the input. What you put in is what you see come out. It is from the abundance of what you have in you that your words, actions, attitudes, philosophy, etc. come out. Consuming junk media regularly isn’t going to do your world any good.
It’s simply Garbage in, garbage out.
3. Work To Learn, Not For Money
This is one personal development hack that many won’t understand unless they can access it at deeper levels. The temptation is to work for money and that is what poor people do. Wealthy and happy people work to learn. Unsuccessful and unhappy people work primarily for money. They trade their hours, energy, and strength for money.
Do you know the Pareto Principle? It says that it is only 20 percent of our efforts that actually guarantees 80 percent of the result we get. Going by this, I’ll say only 20% of your energy should be spent doing your actual work. The rest should be spent learning, improving yourself, and resting. Yes, resting is critical.
When you dedicate all your time to doing a work and not only a portion of it, how are you going to become better at the work? If you are asked to cut down a tree in eight hours, wouldn’t it be wise to spend the seven hours sharpening your saw? It is by “sharpening your saw” that you’ll continue to become a better and more capable person. Let your greatest motivator in any endeavor be to learn and I assure you the knowledge gained will draw far more riches towards you.
Many people think lack of money is their problem so they chase money. But if you chase money, it will grow wings and fly away. Instead of chasing, why not attract? And you can only do that by adding to your knowledge.
When you prioritize learning and education over money in your work, you’ll become a better thinker, communicator, and better at your craft, and the quality of your work will continue to increase. During the hours you are actually working, you’ll be in a deep flow state and connect seamlessly with your inner genius. You’ll be absolutely focused, your mind stimulated, and never be distracted like most people are when they work. While working, you can get more done in a few hours than most people get done in a number of days. And eventually, you’ll be able to charge really high fees for your work, because no one else can do it like you.
“Personal development separates you from the crowd.”
4. Learn To Create More Value, And Not Just For The Sake Of It
“The key secret to success is not excessive expertise, but the ability to use it. Knowledge is worthless unless it is applied.”
Max Lukominskyi
One of the greatest ways to get the best out of your personal development efforts is learning to create more value and not just for the sake of it. There are a million things you could learn in this media and information age, but if you don’t put that learning into immediate practice, it becomes shallow information.
Focus on creating more value in your life and becoming better. Be committed to learning with great intensity and have the discernment to ignore almost everything while learning that which will bring the highest return.
When you learn something, you should get a return on that learning. People that don’t care about the returns are those who love entertainment and learning just for the sake of it. You must have met people like that before who read books just to say they’ve read lots of books. In this light, what becomes the use of learning without application?
If you’re not applying what you’re learning, you are only consuming and wasting your time.
5. Set Aside At Least 10 Percent Of Your Income Into Stuff That Will Generate More Money
There are consumers and creators in this world and it’s absolutely your choice to become either of the two. Very few people create true wealth. Most people you see who have high incomes are not truly wealthy. What they have is high incomes that equally go down the drain through lavish and lascivious predilections. They go for lifestyles that match their incomes. And their expenses always rise to cancel out their income. When they make more, they consume more. In fact, the reason most people make money solely is to consume.
Only very few people in this world make money to invest that money.
How much of the amount you currently earn goes into any kind of investment?
The best time to start investing is now. Start today. Get yourself educated. Learn all you can. Create a vehicle, or several vehicles, where you regularly put at least 10% of your income. Eventually, as it has proven with so many successful people today, your investment vehicle may even start producing more profits for you than your actual business. Remember the power of compound interest. If you put 10% of your income into your investments over a long enough period of time, you’ll be very comfortable at the end of the day. You’ll be able to stop working and retire anytime you really feel like.
6. Shift From Being A Getter to A Giver
Never be like most people who are only focused on what they can get out of life. Their all-the-time language is me, me, and me. Their attention is only on what they can get and not what they can give. “Me” only makes you think of yourself and your family. Meanwhile, successful people think about providing solutions to the problems of many by creating products and services. They think beyond meeting their own and their immediate family’s needs. They think about the needs of the world or a group of people beyond themselves.
“The world gives to the givers and takes from the takers.”
Joe Polish
Think of Steve Jobs’s Apple. Think of Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook and WhatsApp. Think of Jeff Bezos’ Amazon. Think of Jack Ma’s Alibaba and Aliexpress. Think of Bill Gates’ Microsoft. Think of Colonel Sander’s KFC. Think of Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich.” Think of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” track.
Then think about you!
Is there anything you have ever done with your life with the mindset of reaching a wide audience of people? Any product or service you ever created with the mindset of it providing solutions to many people’s problems whether at the local, national, or international level?
The reason you are poor is because you think only about yourself.
Your small-mindedness is your demon. Once you become more consciously awake to the world, your desire will shift from merely receiving to giving. You will think in terms of contribution, not acquisition. You’ll think in terms of giving, and not just taking. You’ll realize that it’s actually far more satisfying to give than to get.
This hack might be all that you’ll need to hear through this book.
When you open your mind as to what you can give, a single idea can be all that will do the magic. Shift your mindset to giving. Surround yourself with fellow givers and resent takers like a plague. When your motivation is to give, you’ll often get insights into how you can improve your relationships and deeper ideas about how you can improve other people’s lives and transform their businesses will come in handy to you.
I repeat: This hack might be all that you’ll need to hear through this write-up.
You’ll start contributing more. You’ll become a creator because your mind is open to other people’s problems. Far more opportunities than you can probably handle will come in your direction because the world now loves and trust you to come to its aid. Above all, you’ll become far more inspired and impactful.
7. Acknowledge That You Need Others To Thrive
You need the help of others to achieve anything in this world. Show me any successful person and I will show someone who has leveraged the strength of people around him. Likewise, show me a failure and I will show you someone who has nobody to learn from.
Just because you have steadied your mindset at being a giver and not a taker doesn’t mean you don’t also seek a lot of help. In reality, you are constantly seeking and receiving help. No one can survive in this world, personally or professionally, without depending on other people to do what only they can do best. But it takes wisdom and humility to openly acknowledge this dependence because many see it as a weakness, but really, it’s a strength.
On the road to your financial goal, don’t just be keen on acknowledging your dependence. Build up the habit of constantly expressing your appreciation to the people in your life.
I love the way Michael Fishman captured it brilliantly:
“Self-made is an illusion. There are many people who played divine roles in you having the life that you have today. Be sure to let them know how grateful you are.”
You are a relationship away from achieving your goals. You are a relationship away from living the life of your dreams. You are a relationship away from starting to make the kind of money you want to be making.
8. Settle On What “Wealth” And “Success” Means To You
Do you know that success and wealth are not all about money?
See, There are a lot of people who have money and have little “capital” in the other key areas of their lives. I don’t ever want you to become like such people.
I want you to make the money, save it, grow it, invest it, spend it, enjoy it, and do great things in life with it, but all these shouldn’t come at the expense of your relationships, spirituality, personal integrity, health and wellness, among many others.
Obviously, Money is very important. It makes the world go round. The Bible calls it a “defense”. It solves a lot of problems. It speeds up processes.
But know this also: Money is nothing but a tool. It’s not the end, but a means to it. It is a means of contributing to your world and making it a better place.
May you not turn out very wealthy at the end of your life for just having “money” only. At that point, you’ll finally realize that relationships and health are also forms of wealth. It’ll be a shame indeed to read this book from start to finish and still turn out to be like a man called very rich for only having money.
You need to define and settle on whatever wealth, money, and success means to you so that you won’t make 100k dollars and the first thing coming to your mind is to google the price of the latest Bugatti and an exquisite bungalow in Manhattan.
9. Know Your “Why” And Let it Drive You
“He who has a ‘why’ to live can bear almost any how”
Fredrick Nietzsche
Why do you really want to become rich?
Is it so that you can lead a better life? Is it because you want a better life for your kids? Is it because you want to live in opulence?
Whatever your reason is, if your “Why” is not strong enough, you’ll get tired along the way. When your “Why” is very strong, you’ll turn out a completely different animal in the pursuit of your goals. You’ll be invested in anything you have to do to achieve it. You’ll be totally motivated to pursue it and you’ll challenge yourself to pull it off.
No, will never be an answer. Until you get a Yes.