Behavioral Science

How to Become Rich: Changing your Mindset

by . July 24th, 2014

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Ansel Edwards
Tell me if this sounds familiar. You check your calendar and it’s the release date of that thing you’ve been waiting for. You head towards the store and there’s a huge line or crowd. However, you realize that you forgot to save and your debt is high. You simply can’t afford that thing. The next day, you head to school or the office, and everyone who knows what’s up is raving about this cool new thing.

If that ever happened to you, or is happening to you right now, that’s okay. It happens to the best of us. But that doesn’t mean we have to just let it happen. No. We have to make sure that we improve daily, not only so that the situation never repeats itself, but to feel secure, content, and fulfilled. I’m not saying money is the root of all happiness, but it helps you get and secure things that are.

But rather than making a post about some elaborate get-rich-quick scheme, or step-by-step instructions on exploding in money, I’m going to give you some advice on how to think of the whys and hows that matter.

The difference between you and your future rich, successful self is that you just think differently.

Part of the reason why self-made millionaires post articles on how to get rich is because even though they’ve been where you are before, they find it difficult to empathize with you being poor. After all, they and some other people made it not too long ago. It wasn’t a breeze, but it was possible and they made it happen.

The very first thing you need to decide on is the choice to become rich.

This decision is not as simple as choosing your OotD, and is as heavy as choosing if you’re going to move in or not. Making money is a way of life and you have to remind yourself day in and day out that this is now part of who you are. Don’t tell yourself that you will be worth millions, but rather that you ARE worth millions today.

Ask yourself if your expenditures will improve your life.

We’ve all hand that moment when we spent a lot just to have 15 minutes of enjoyment to realize just a bit later that we totally wasted cash and wish we had it back. In order to reach your goal of becoming wealthy, you need to think deeper about your purchasing decisions. Make sure that whatever you spend on will push you to becoming a better person. Another way to look at this is also that things that produce income have greater benefits in general.

Think of how to turn your life into money

Yeah. This kinda sounds like it’ll turn you into that stereotypical evil corporate monster we want to avoid, but it can actually be a fun practice. Is there a way to monetize your dinner? How about your sleep? Of course you want to actually prioritize family when you spend time with them, but this is more for of a creative experiment. Keeps your mind flowing towards new business ideas while reminding you of your daily goal.

Next, stop relating everything to poverty.

Children in Africa will not starve because you didn’t finish your Big Mac and Venti soy chai latte. You won’t solve life’s problems by pack-ratting every object in your house until they grow moldy. And despite common thinking, a lot of money IS actually made from trees. You won’t get anywhere by staying put or thinking “What do I have to do to not be poor or even survive?” Run to your goal and don’t look back.

Remember that friends are investments.

This doesn’t mean treat friendships like x-deals. It does mean however that you should make friends that are a lot more successful than you. Surrounding yourself with people that have already made mistakes helps prevent you from repeating the same thing. They’re also a bunch of wisdom and knowledge, so they can sometimes act like angel investors without the actual financial investment (unless they want to).

Multitask.

When you look at someone who’s rich, very rarely will you see someone with one stream of income. Zuckerberg bought Whatsapp and Disney had the amusement parks and merch. Having multiple flows is not only safer, but is actually a lot easier than scaling a single company a zillion times. Even very successful companies tend to plateau after a while, so getting that second and third push does help a lot.

 If you’ve got any more advice, please comment below.

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