Wealthy Goals

I want to talk about goals … look at it as a belated conversation about New Year’s resolutions if you will. A resolution is typically nothing more than a commitment to a goal. In my coaching practice, I often talk to people about how to get balance in their lives. They feel overwhelmed with work, don’t make enough time for family or themselves, etc. One of the first things I try to find out is what they do to identify goals. A high percentage of the people I work with actually do pay attention to their goals and have some kind of system they use to identify and track them. This is actually not that surprising. A good number of my clients are self-employed and as such have a higher than average level of motivation and have been working on self-improvement, increased productivity and such more so than the general population. However, it doesn’t matter how aware you are of what should be done, it’s whether you do it. The challenge is, that like many other things in our lives, its the tools you use that are the ones that count.

I have the same issues myself - I get into hyper busy mode and forget about the goals and routines I have committed to and just keep pushing through whatever is on my plate. I’m supposed to be setting an Read more

Article 2: Wealth is created by the transformation of energy

There sure is lots of talk these days about energy: the cost of energy, the need for renewable energy, saving and conserving energy, investing in energy - not exactly new subjects but they sure are getting a lot of attention. What’s the big deal anyway, why is energy so important?

Well, for starters, all living organisms rely on energy to grow and reproduce. Whether it’s radiation from the Sun causing photosynthesis in green plants or chemical energy from food firing the metabolism of animals, we all depend on energy to survive. From the astronomically huge world of galaxies to the infinitesimally tiny world of subatomic quanta, energy relationships are perfectly balanced to provide us with the world we live in. Everything is energy. Energy is everything. Energy is the currency of wealth, literally and figuratively a factor in all aspects of our lives. Read more

Zen, Motorcycles, Mud and Quality

That should get someone’s attention. This is not one of those “MAN BITES DOG!” headlines … these things are actually very definitely connected….

Anyone that read books by Vonnegut and JD Salinger in High School back in the ’70s probably came across Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. It is a semi-autobiographic, road trip, father-son bonding book about Pirsig and his son Chris. It’s is about Zen, some about motorcycle maintenance. And a good bit about Pirsig’s emotional and mental breakdowns that led him to spend part of the early ’60s in and out of mental institutions (with Electro Shock Therapy thrown in as well). But the book is really about is Quality.

Which is why I was assigned the book as a text for a Ceramics class. Read more

Values and the Dimensions of Wealth

If wealth is multidimensional, how do we find out what those dimensions are? Are they the same for everyone? How do we prioritize?

To create a more holistic concept of wealth, each of us must look at our system of values. We must identify and prioritize the things in our lives to which we attach meaning. After all, how can you create a Wealth Manifesto and declare your intention to become wealthy if you don’t know what being wealthy means?

Our system of values is fundamental to who we are. Values guide us in deciding what kind of food we eat, how we discipline our kids, how we behave in business negotiations, the amount of time we spend learning, the role of spirituality in our life and just about everything else we do. Even the most basic day-to-day decisions are reflections of our values, whether we acknowledge this or not. Values determine how we prioritize what is important, where we put our energies, and how we focus our intentions. Values lay the foundation for how we define our wellbeing and provides us with the “why” when we set goals for ourselves.

In short, our values provide us with the “categories” of our wellbeing and are the guidelines we use to measure the breadth of our interests, passions, and in short, the Quality of our lives. Read more

The Dimensions of Wealth

In the last post, I talked about wealth having many dimensions and not being confined to the financial domain. Somehow the idea of wellbeing was hijacked a few centuries ago and the ‘wealth=money’ idea entered into popular thinking. I see this changing. I started in on the idea of wealth beyond money going on 3 years ago. I just saw an interview in Inc. magazine with Bill Zanker, one of the guys that founded the Learning Annex. They were talking about real estate and how with the market downturn the attendance at the Learning Annex seminars for real estate investing was waning. The interviewer asked him what was next (or something to that effect) and Zanker said they were putting together something “…called ‘How to Attract Wealth’ - It’s different from getting rich. It’s a different mindset.”

There a bit of jumping on the bandwagon here with the popularity of things like the Law of Attraction and other new thinking beliefs such as was seen in The Secret. That’s fine … anything that gets more people thinking outside the religion-specific Dogma Box is OK by me.

Back to wealth. OK, so there are many dimension…what the hell does that mean. The different dimensions of wealth are identified by our system of values. This is how we identify and include what is important in our lives as well as how we prioritize and make decisions (often in the form of some kind of tradeoff). What specifically are those dimensions? They can be very high level: financial (yes, it’s still very much in there), physical (fitness and health), relationships, spiritual etc are all aspects of our wellbeing. If you want to go down another level, you can start talking about things you want to do or learn about but dont take the time (e.g., musical or artistic wellbeing). It can be specific relationships: with your kids, spouse, or parents. Your relationship with God is apart of your spiritual wealth.

Wealth covers everything about our lives. This is the first thing we have to understand before we can keep the dialog going. And I could talk about it all day long ….
Let Bill Zanker know I’m ready.

Article 1: Wealth is the Quality of Your Life

That title sounds like a quote or something, doesn’t it? It’s supposed to: it is the 1st Article of The Wealth Manifesto: Transforming Your Life from Survive to Thrive, my upcoming book on creating Quality of Life based income. Let me start with a simple question:

Are you wealthy? Well, are you?

Before reading any further, think for a minute about what “being wealthy” means to you. Close your eyes and imagine that fabulous wealth is yours. Where are you standing? What are you doing? What’s going on around you? Who you are with? What is your state of mind?

Done? When imagining wealth, you may picture yourself on a yacht in the South Pacific, throwing a big party in your Park Avenue penthouse at Christmas time or golfing at St. Andrews in Scotland. Others imagine thrilling lives filled with momentous events such as climbing Mt. Everest, ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange or traveling into space. The vision is frequently accompanied by a substantial sum of money in the bank. Read more