More money: that’s what 81% of Americans want. That’s probably what you want.
And it’s not for fancy vacations, or boats, or big houses, either. Most people have already given up on that. They are struggling just to pay their rent and basic expenses.
Most people are struggling to save anything at all because their expenses are so high and their jobs don’t pay enough.
It gets worse…
85% of folks are feeling so much anxiety over money, it is actually having a negative impact on their health and relationships.
For many Americans, the answer is simply adding more to their plate. They pick up extra hours at work, get a second job, start a home business – some sort of money-making activity. They think that working longer and harder, hustling and grinding is the only way out.
More hours at work means fewer hours with friends and family. It means less time for yourself and the things you really enjoy. It means more stress, more pressure and more anxiety.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds like an exhausting – and frankly, truly unhappy – way to live. Are you there right now?
Here’s the good news: more hours are not the answer. Becoming a millionaire is not about doing more, working more, adding more to your already overloaded plate.
Now, here’s the part you might not want to hear. More money isn’t the ultimate answer, either. Sure, more money can help you pay the bills. It can help you get a nicer car or a bigger house. But it also means higher bills, more stress and inevitably, working even more hours trying to keep up.
The answer to getting ahead is living like a millionaire.
You might be saying, “but I don’t make anything close to the money a millionaire makes.”
That’s okay. Most millionaires don’t become millionaires by actually generating millions of dollars in income. There are millionaires who make less than $60,000 a year! The key to becoming a millionaire is learning the principles that millionaires know and use every day.
I want you to imagine something for a minute. Imagine what your life would look like if you didn’t have to stress out about money.
Imagine feeling confident that your bills would get paid, your kids would get fed and the money you already worked for was reproducing itself for you.
Imagine spending more time with your friends and family and doing the things you actually enjoy doing. I mean really picture yourself living that life. Got it?
Now, what if I told you that life was not only possible, it’s actually simple. (Notice I didn’t say easy, there is a difference). It starts with reshaping how you think about your day-to-day life in three key areas: your spending, your earning, and your time.
1. Spending
Do you imagine that eating like a millionaire means steak every night, fancy meals out and expensive wine? Nope. Not so. People who are truly wealthy aren’t blowing chunks of cash on new Mercedes, designer clothes and yachts, either.
Here’s the secret: ready for it? Living like a millionaire means living below your means. If you want more money, you simply have to start by spending less of it. Society has sold you a lie about what it means to be successful. Society tells you that success is a big house, a nice car and a bunch of stuff.
What they don’t tell you, is what you sacrifice to attain all those things. I don’t know about you, but success for me is happiness. It’s quality time with my family. It’s working without the stress of keeping up with endless bills.
It’s not owing a single dime to anyone. It’s spending time cooking good meals for my family. It’s taking care of the poor. It’s traveling the world with my husband.
It’s living in peace, not striving to maintain a lifestyle that someone else told me I should want.
What is your personal definition of happiness? Get a piece of paper and write it down. I bet it has less to do with spending money on a bunch of expensive junk than you might have thought.
When you want to spend that extra three or four dollars at the grocery store on some processed convenience food, or you are really dying for that cute pair of shoes, or the latest and greatest smartphone, think about your personal definition of happiness. Is spending that money going to help you get there? If the answer is no, put it down and step away!
True wealth is built in those tiny decisions. Those decisions become habits, and those habits become second-nature. Before you know it, you are well on your way to building that bank balance and accumulating wealth.
2. Earning
Making more money is totally useless if you don’t master the millionaire success secret of spending less. Did you know that 70% of lottery winners go broke within the first few years of winning? There is a shift that has to take place in your mind before earning more money will actually help you solve any of your problems.
See, millionaires see their money differently than most people. Money is not happiness, love, safety or security. Money is not the secret to a better life. Money is a very powerful tool that can do great things, but it’s not the end-goal. Remember that definition of happiness you wrote down? That’s the end goal. And making more money CAN help
But, the secret to making more money is to stop stressing out about making more money! I know I know. “Dani, I’m in over my head. I’m drowning. I can’t pay my bills.” I understand that money can feel like a life preserver. But, if you want to make more, you have to stop working under the stress and pressure of striving to make more, thinking it’s going to bail you out.
Instead, focus on raising your value. Your value is what determines your paycheck. Yep, it’s that simple. So, what makes you more valuable? Your skill set.
The number one thing that will raise your value to your employer is to become really good at solving problems. And don’t try and guess about what those problems are. Go straight to your boss and ask:
“What problems are you running into? What will help you reach your goals? What will take some of the stress and pressure off of you?”
Get really good at helping other people get what they want. That might mean you learn some new professional skills that are sorely needed in your company. It might mean learning better people skills that will help resolve conflicts and create a more peaceful work environment.
It might mean learning some time management strategies so you can take a few tasks off your boss’s overloaded plate.
The same principle applies if you are a business owner. Find out exactly what your clients want, and then help them get it. Don’t badger and beg them to do what you want. Aren’t you turned off by a pushy salesperson trying to convince you to buy something you aren’t sure you want?
Helping other people succeed has always worked for me. It’s my number one key to building my businesses, and I’m now a multi-millionaire who is completely financially independent and has all the things I included in my personal definition of success.
Which brings us to…
3. Time
In your personal definition of success, what does your time look like? Does your definition of success include working 80-100 hours a week? Mine sure does not.
We’ve all heard the expression “time is money.” That can be true, to an extent. But only if the things you fill your time with are producing results.
Those of you who get paid hourly are saying, “Nuh-uh, Dani. If I work more hours I get a bigger paycheck.” Wouldn’t it be better to make the same amount of money working fewer hours?
Let’s talk about some things that do not produce results: scrolling through social media, taking personal calls and texting during work hours, gossiping, researching, planning and strategizing without ever taking action, analyzing meaningless data, checking your email every 5 minutes, multitasking, procrastinating, especially on big projects, meetings without a purpose or scheduled stopping point, inefficient processes.
[RELATED: Learn how to truly maximize your time to get more done with this free checklist.]
Some of those things are obvious, and some of them are less obvious, but it’s easy to let your time get sucked away into meaningless tasks if you don’t have a plan for it. The most efficient team in our office right now is the team that works on The Dani Johnson Show, and it’s because we can only focus on the things that bring us the desired result.
We have time blocked out for each task (show) that must get accomplished that day, and a plan for exactly how to accomplish that goal. Each one of us involved in the process has one task to focus on for that block of time, and there is zero room for distractions. At the end of every day, we have a win in the form of five recorded episodes of The Dani Johnson Show.
What if every person ran their day like that? Try it. For each day or week, write down the tasks that must get accomplished. Now, this is the important part: make appointments for each one of the tasks you just wrote down on your calendar.
During that appointed time, you are 100% focused on completing that task. You will be amazed how much you can get done! Not to mention how much time you have for other tasks.
Next time your boss says, “Hey, can you take on this project,” you’ll be able to say, “No problem, I can fit that in right here on my calendar.”
The result is, well, more results! The more results you produce, the more you raise your value. And, as we just discussed, the higher your value, the higher your paycheck. On top of all of that, you’ll be way less stressed out because you have a simple action-plan to tackle everything you have to get done.
When you reduce the hours you spend working, you increase the hours you spend doing the things you actually enjoy: time with your family, playing a sport, learning to cook, spending time outdoors, reading a good book, volunteering, getting involved in a ministry, traveling, whatever it is you want to do. All without guilt, pressure, and stress about making more money.
Okay, ready to live like a millionaire? The first step is pulling your money out of the hands of the people who are trying to trick you into buying into their definition of success.
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