"Success comes in many shapes and sizes"

4 Ways to Systematically Replace Your Limiting Habits with Empowering Habits

Imagine this scenario…

What if you could systematically break down all of the bad habits that are currently holding you back from achieving your goals?

What if you could then re engineer those habits so that they actually supported your goals?

There are some habits that move us closer towards our goals in life, we’ll call those empowering habits. Then, there are some that move us further away from the achievement of those goals, we’ll call those limiting habits.

Your goal should be to constantly reduce the limiting habits, and maximize the empowering habits.

How do you accomplish this?

Step 1: Identify Your Limiting Habits

The first step is to simply identify which habits are limiting your success.

You identify these limiting habits by first knowing what goals you’re currently trying to accomplish. After you know your goals, ask yourself which actions you perform on a regular basis that are holding you back from achieving that goal.

For instance, say you have a goal of losing weight, but you also have a bad habit of eating unhealthy fast food. That habit is limiting the achievement of your goal.

Step 2: Identify The Cue for Your Limiting Habit

Once you know your limiting habit, the next step is to identify the cue for that bad habit. What is the trigger that sets your bad habit in motion?

Cues can come in many different forms, so it helps to narrow your focus on a few areas:

• Time – What time is it?
• Location – Where are you?
• Emotion – How are you feeling?
• Other People – Who are you with?
• Preceding Action – What did you just do?

The next time you catch yourself performing that limiting habit, take quick second and look at these 5 areas. You’ll eventually start to notice a trend.

Maybe your bad habit shows up every day at 2:00pm. Or maybe every time you’re with you one of your buddies, that bad habit shows up. Or maybe whenever you get upset or sad you fall into your limiting habit.

Pay close enough attention, for a long enough time, and you’ll eventually see the pattern.

Step 3: Identify the Reward for Your Limiting Habit

Once you’ve recognized the pattern and found the cue that’s setting your limiting habit in motion, you want to identify the reward you’re receiving from the habit. What’s the big, positive thing you get from performing that habit?

I know, this may seem a little confusing. I told you that limiting habits are moving you away from your goals, but now I’m saying they provide you with a reward?

Let me explain.

A reward is anything that brings pleasure. But just because something brings pleasure, doesn’t always mean it provides a positive outcome.

For instance, overeating is limiting habit many people deal with. It provides the pleasure of eating delicious food and filling up your body, but then there are also negative consequences, like gaining weight, and destroying your health.

The reward for your limiting habit could be social, like someone telling you “Good Job!” The reward could be something tangible like getting paid. And some rewards occur naturally as a result of habit. For instance, if you walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes, you’ll burn 300 calories.

Do quick “pulse check” on your limiting habit and see what reward it’s providing you with. What’s the good feeling coming from that limiting habit? Why do you keep doing it?

Step 4: Find a New Action

Once you’ve found your cue and your reward, the only step left is to then replace the negative action, with a positive one.

But there’s one caveat, whatever new action you choose, must provide the same reward and be triggered by the same cue.

Putting It All Together

So let’s look at an example that ties everything together.

I had a goal of increasing my health, but I also had a bad habit of snacking on junk food. Every time I caught myself slipping into the bad habit, I began to pay close attention to those five areas (time, location, emotion, other people, preceding action).

I eventually found the pattern. Every time I was hungry and tired, I opted for junk food instead of a healthier alternative.

So my cue was being hungry and tired at mealtime, and my reward was getting something quick and easy to eat.

I replaced that limiting habit of snacking on junk food, with a different, empowering habit, of eating a smaller, healthier snack that would hold me over until I actually cooked something healthy. I used the same cue, and the same reward. I just replaced the action I was performing.

Source: http://addicted2success.com/success-advice/4-ways-to-systematically-replace-your-limiting-habits-with-empowering-habits

3 money lessons your child should learn before college

College is an exciting time. New classes, a new atmosphere, and seemingly limitless possibilities. But with that new-ness, there can also be a lot of fear. In addition to worrying about their ability to handle the course load and thrive without their parents and friends, many students wonder if they will be okay financially.

College costs a lot of money. So before you send your child off to school, make sure they are prepared to make good financial decisions that will allow them to have a bright financial future. Here are three money lessons your child needs to learn the summer before college.

Savings is more than “rainy day”

Most people would agree it is a good idea to save money, but not everyone agrees why. Before your child heads off to college, it’s important to talk about what a savings fund really does for you.

Some people believe you only need to save for a “rainy day,” and therefore only need a limited amount of money in your savings account.

Others believe a person’s savings account should go above and beyond the basics, to provide security and to enable you to take on exciting, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.

That’s just the conversation you need to have with your soon-to-be college student.

Ask your child to think of their current financial situations, with and without savings. What if they were offered a job or vacation opportunity right now in a desirable foreign country? Would they have the funds to make it happen? Would they be able to say “yes,” or would their lack of savings tie them to their current job or location?

The sooner your child begins to see his savings account as more than a “rainy day fund,” the sooner he will take saving money seriously.

Learning the value of an hour

Hourly jobs are staples of the college experience, so encourage your child to get a jump on it with an hourly summer job before he departs for college. This is a great way to meet new people while taking an active role in his or her finances. It’s also a great way for a college student to learn the value of an hour.

Everyone has the same amount of time in a day, even though some people make a lot more money than others. Use this example to teach your child about diversifying their income with passive income.  Also help them understand how developing a diversified set of skills / interests is important to wage growth and long-term employment prospects.

Passive income is recurring income you earn for work that you have already done. For instance, authors earning money from books they have written is passive income. Earning royalties for a product or idea you create is also a way to earn passive income.  Investing, though, is probably the most common form of passive income.

Over time, earnings from passive income can greatly outrun earnings from hourly jobs, allowing people to enjoy a higher quality of life and a better financial situation in retirement. So teach your child this lesson, and encourage them to prioritize working on ways they can reap the rewards of passive income.

It is also important for people to have a diverse set of skills / interests, because you never know if what is lucrative one year will be lucrative the next. For instance, knowing a great deal about how to make a typewriter work was a good idea in the 1970s, because it made life easier if you worked with a typewriter. But nowadays, not so much.

Help your child experience the difference between hourly work, diversifying their skills, and passive income to motivate them to build wealth early on.

Budgeting and buying low-cost

When children first head to college, it is common for them to discover large box stores that try to sell college necessities to them. From couches and mini-refrigerators to cutlery and coffee machines, students can end up with a large total just purchasing the bare necessities.

But your child does not have to pay the big tab when it comes time to prepare for college life.

Teach your child that new is not always worth the price tag, when a used item would do the same thing. Consider checking out yard sales, Craigslist, and thrift shops to compare prices for new versus used items.

While doing this, a fun game you can play is to teach your child the difference between purchasing new and used items in terms of how much money they save. Have your child shop and compare the prices of new and used items. Challenge them to find the items they want at the cheapest costs possible.

Then, have your child subtract the difference between the average cost of a new item and the lowest price they could find. After your child makes their purchases, reward your child with the difference in price, and tell them to use the money as a beginning to their savings.

Getting off to a good start with 3 basic money lessons

College is an exciting, scary, expensive time. So make your child’s college experience a worthwhile investment before they ever set foot on campus. Teach your child these three money lessons before you drop them off, so you will know you have set them on a path toward financial responsibility and success.

Source: http://blog.wealthminder.com/goals/education/3-money-lessons-child-learn-college

How Not To Die Full Of Regrets

If you ask anyone what they want in life, chances are they will tell you one of the following things:

• More money
• Peace/happiness
• Better physical and emotional relationships
• A sense of purpose
• More freedom
• Passion for life
• Better health
• More energy
• Control over their time

These are all wonderful things and in a perfect world, we would have them all. How many of you can say that you wouldn’t like more of any one of them? Of course you do.
Everything on that list can change your life significantly for the better. So why aren’t we doing them?
We all want these things, but don’t think we need them. I beg to differ. Wanting is never going to bring us happiness. Wanting is for the lazy. If we make the decision that we need these things in our lives, amazing things will happen.
For example, if we needed $10,000 for an operation that would save the life of our child, we would find the money. Regardless if we were flat broke and $50,000 in debt, we would get that money. Why? Because we needed it.
You might be thinking “nobody is going to die if I don’t have freedom over my time or I don’t have a sense of purpose” but you’re wrong.
We are dying. Each and every hour we spend wallowing in mediocrity and in the servitude of someone else, we are dying. What’s worse is that it’s not a quick and painless death. No, it’s a 40 or 50 year painstakingly slow death that slowly transforms your mind and body into the living dead.
Our society has taught us that this is not only OK, but is the way things should be done. We should find a job and work our way up the ranks. We should allow others to control our financial futures. We should spend 40+ years working a job whether we actually like it or not.
That’s being responsible. That’s taking care of your family. That’s providing security.

That’s bullshit!

Working a shit job your entire life does not do anyone any good, especially you! Being unhappy for years on end because you’re “stuck” in a job you hate is no way to live.

The Age of Opportunity

There is no (good) reason that in this day and age that anyone needs to feel hopeless in their search for more meaning, passion, and excitement in their lives. I don’t care if we are in the middle of another Great Depression, there is always a way to make money doing something you have a burning passion for.
We have more resources, tools, and opportunity at our fingertips than at any other time in history. Yet, we are still sitting on our asses and waiting for things to change. The waiting game will cost you a lot more that you think.
It very may well cost you your life.
How many times have you put something important off because it was too hard? “I’ll do it tomorrow” you say. Well, tomorrow never comes.
Life will not give you a second chance. You have to make your life work for you, not the other way around.

Don’t Die Full of Regrets

If you enjoy your job and are happy with your current path, then great, I’m happy for you. I’m talking to the tens of millions of people who aren’t; the ones who celebrate TGIF, dread Sunday nights, and have to punch a clock for someone else every day.
If you subscribe to the theory that this is how life is supposed to be and “work” is not supposed to be enjoyable, that why they call it “work”, I have news for you.
It’s not. Not by a long shot.
Whether or not you agree with me is inconsequential. It’s a stone cold fact that the majority of people will piss away their lives working meaningless and unfulfilling jobs and it’s a travesty.
Do you envision yourself in your final years to be wishing you had done so many other things with your life? Of course not.
You believe that you’ll have lived a good life and will die with few regrets. We all want to believe that will be the case, but the sad fact is that we will die with some major regrets.
But you don’t have to…

Fear is Stopping You

The reason people die with significant regrets is because they lived in fear.
The only thing between living the life you want and living the life you have is fear. And it’s OK to be afraid, but if it controls you, it has won.
Fear has many faces:

• The fear of criticism
• The fear of failure and
• The fear of the unknown
• The fear of change
• The fear of dying
• The fear of living up to our potential
• The fear of poverty
• The fear of being alone

This list could go on in perpetuity. There are so many things that you allow yourself to hold you back and in order for you to move forward, you must face them.

Belief is the First Step

In order to make any change in your life, you must first believe it’s possible. The human mind is an incredibly powerful tool. Of course belief alone will not get you anywhere because it has to be followed up with action.
Because you are conditioned from a young age to believe that the best path in life is the one most traveled, many of you cannot comprehend the idea of living a life completely on your terms.
What if you could do something that lit you up inside and get paid well for it? What if you could feel confident and in complete control of your life? What if you wake up every morning with a sense of purpose and full of vibrant energy?
You can.
The only thing holding yourself back is you.
What are your fears? What’s really holding you back from living the life you want?

Source: http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/how-not-to-die-full-of-regrets

Self-Motivated? 4 Science-Based Secrets To Achievement And Success

I run every other day.

However, only about a quarter of the time do I feel motivated to run before I begin. Even less so in the winter. It’s cold outside, and I’m quite comfortable inside. Most of the time, I’d rather stay put than put on my running clothes and push my body. But I do it anyway.

At the beginning of every single run, no matter how I’m feeling, my body is resistant. It feels like I’m running through quicksand, and everything hurts. Within thirty seconds, I want to stop. In fact, before I became a more consistent runner, I would stop.

I thought that resistance was a sign I just wasn’t a good candidate for running. Fortunately, a friend told me that everyone feels resistance at the beginning of a run. You just have to push through it until your body warms up. I finally tried it, and she was right. After about a mile, sometimes less, I get in the running groove. My joints loosen up, my breathing is less labored, and I pick up my pace.

I’ve learned to be patient and wait for it. Even when I don’t have the power of motivation inspiring me, I still know to keep going just a bit farther and the pain will let up. As my body and my mind are screaming, “Stop! Stop running right now!” — my higher self reminds me that I can do it. I’ve done it before, and I know I’ll feel better in just a few minutes.

I also know how I feel after a run – how a run gives me energy, helps my creativity, and makes me feel physically and mentally better in general. I also use this information when my body and mind are screaming at me.

So why am I sharing this with you?

I’m sharing it because I want you to know that there’s far more to accomplishment and learning than just motivation.

In fact, motivation has very little to do with creating new habits, acquiring skills, or reaching your goals.

Motivation is certainly the cherry on the cake when it happens to show up — but we can never predict when it will appear. We must be able to get things done even when motivation is a no-show.

What is self-motivation?

I believe self-motivation isn’t some elusive feeling of power and excitement. Instead, self-motivation involves knowledge and momentum. You must have thorough knowledge about the behavior or skill you want to undertake.

When I first began running, I didn’t do any research or ask any questions. I just slapped on a pair of old running shoes and started running. No wonder I kept failing at it. I wasn’t fitted properly for shoes. I didn’t know how to prevent injury. I didn’t know proper technique. And of course, I didn’t know about the resistance I’d encounter.

Momentum comes in by simply taking the first action. Once you take the first step, the subsequent steps aren’t nearly as daunting. With knowledge and momentum, you have just about everything you need to accomplish a goal.

But there’s one other skill set you need in order to be successful. You need to understand the specific skills involved in creating new habits.

The power of habits

Yes, there are some very specific skills involved in forming new habits, and without knowing these skills, you will likely fail at achieving your goal. Even with knowledge and momentum, you still need sustainability. You need a way to stick to the program after momentum fails you and motivation disappears.

Eventually, just like my body resists running, your mind will get tired of a new behavior, and you’ll drop it. So how do you keep momentum going and push through the challenging times when you want to give up? You have to retrain your brain. You have to build new neural pathways to reinforce this new behavior until your mind accepts it as automatic. And scientists have found a very specific way to do that.

Ann Graybiel is a neuroscientist at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, as well as an Institute Professor and a faculty member in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. She’s an expert on the basal ganglia and how it functions to support new habits.

According to MIT’s McGovern Institute website, “Graybiel believes that the core function of the basal ganglia is the type of learning that leads to the formation of habits.” Her team “uses electrical recordings, behavioral tests, and gene-based approaches to study these issues. They recently demonstrated dramatic changes in neural activity in the striatum as animals learned new habits.”

As we practice habits, the brain literally changes, and the main component of fostering this change is early, consistent repetition. It is through repetition that we create new neural pathways, making our behaviors more and more automatic. But as you know, when repetition gets boring or difficult, staying the course is nearly impossible. You need some strategies to help you perform your habit every single day until it becomes easier.

Here are 4 science-based secrets to be self-motived and stay the course:

1. Start small

You might be able to run for thirty minutes right out of the gate or write several pages of your novel in one sitting at the beginning. But within a few days or weeks, you’ll feel overwhelmed as your enthusiasm wanes and resistance sets in. So begin with just five minutes for the first week or so of a new activity.

This may seem like a ridiculously short amount of time, but the goal is to establish a pattern of repetition and create a “no excuses” system. Anyone can do something for five minutes a day. You can slowly increase your time in subsequent weeks.

2. Trigger your habit

You’ll need a reminder to perform your habit, and the reminder needs to be the same every single day. So choose a trigger that’s a previously established habit you do daily, like brushing your teeth or putting on your shoes.

Then perform your habit immediately following the trigger. When you attach a new habit to a trigger, it affords a mental cue that it’s time to work on this new activity.

3. Reward yourself

As soon as you finish your new habit, immediately reward yourself with something you already crave or enjoy. It could be checking your email, having a cup of coffee, or even putting a gold star on your calendar.

The reward is most effective when it’s something you look forward to but you know you can’t have until you perform your new habit.

4. Create accountability

Be sure others know you’re committed to your daily new behavior. Create self-motivation by going public. Think about how much better you do at anything when you know someone else is paying attention.

Announce your goal publicly on social media, or share it with friends and family. As soon as you perform your habit and reward yourself, report to your accountability group about your success or failure.

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Once you learn these skills of habit creation, you can apply the skills to bigger goals and more challenging accomplishments. Any big undertaking is comprised of dozens of small habits.

When you start small, creating manageable actions that you repeat daily, you’ll find in time the actions become automatic, making it easier to begin the next piece of your goal. You won’t necessarily need motivation to begin. You just need to practice and have patience as you wait for your brain to take over.

When you feel bored, challenged, or discouraged, use your new knowledge and remind yourself that in time, the work will be far easier and you will become more skilled — just as I remind myself at the beginning of every run.

Use the science of habit creation to serve as your self-motivation tool, and you’ll be amazed at all you can achieve.

Source: http://liveboldandbloom.com/07/habits/self-motivated

What is your reason for waking up in the morning?

Seven Secrets of Self-Made Multimillionaires

First, understand that you no longer want to be just a millionaire. You want to become a multimillionaire.

While you may think a million dollars will give you financial security, it will not. Given the volatility in economies, governments and financial markets around the world, it's no longer safe to assume a million dollars will provide you and your family with true security. In fact, a Fidelity Investments' study of millionaires last year found that 42 percent of them don't feel wealthy and they would need $7.5 million of investable assets to start feeling rich.

This isn't a how-to on the accumulation of wealth from a lifetime of saving and pinching pennies. This is about generating multimillion-dollar wealth and enjoying it during the creation process. To get started, consider these seven secrets of multimillionaires.

No. 1: Decide to Be a Multimillionaire

You first have to decide you want to be a self-made millionaire. I went from nothing—no money, just ideas and a lot of hard work—to create a net worth that probably cannot be destroyed in my lifetime. The first step was making a decision and setting a target. Every day for years, I wrote down this statement: "I am worth over $100,000,000!"

No. 2: Get Rid of Poverty Thinking

There's no shortage of money on planet Earth, only a shortage of people who think correctly about it. To become a millionaire from scratch, you must end the poverty thinking. I know because I had to. I was raised by a single mother who did everything possible to put three boys through school and make ends meets. Many of the lessons she taught me encouraged a sense of scarcity and fear: "Eat all your food; there are people starving," "Don't waste anything," "Money doesn't grow on trees." Real wealth and abundance aren't created from such thinking. 

No. 3: Treat it Like a Duty

Self-made multimillionaires are motivated not just by money, but by a need for the marketplace to validate their contributions. While I have always wanted wealth, I was driven more by my need to contribute consistent with my potential. Multimillionaires don't lower their targets when things get tough. Rather, they raise expectations for themselves because they see the difference they can make with their families, company, community and charities. 

No. 4: Surround Yourself with Multimillionaires

I have been studying wealthy people since I was 10 years old. I read their stories and see what they went through. These are my mentors and teachers who inspire me. You can't learn how to make money from someone who doesn't have much. Who says, "Money won't make you happy"? People without money. Who says, "All rich people are greedy"? People who aren't rich. Wealthy people don't talk like that. You need to know what people are doing to create wealth and follow their example: What do they read? How do they invest? What drives them? How do they stay motivated and excited? 

No. 5: Work Like a Millionaire

Rich people treat time differently. They buy it, while poor people sell it. The wealthy know time is more valuable than money itself, so they hire people for things they're not good at or aren't a productive use of their time, such as household chores. But don't kid yourself that those who hit it big don't work hard. Financially successful people are consumed by their hunt for success and work to the point that they feel they are winning and not just working. 

No. 6: Shift Focus from Spending to Investing

The rich don't spend money; they invest. They know the U.S. tax laws favor investing over spending. You buy a house and can't write it off. The rich, in contrast, buy an apartment building that produces cash flow, appreciates and offers write-offs year after year. You buy cars for comfort and style. The rich buy cars for their company that are deductible because they are used to produce revenue.

No. 7: Create Multiple Flows of Income

The really rich never depend on one flow of income but instead create a number of revenue streams. My first business had been generating a seven-figure income for years when I started investing cash in multifamily real estate. Once my real estate and my consulting business were churning, I went into a third business developing software to help retailers improve the customer experience.

Lastly, you may be surprised to learn that wealthy people wish you were wealthy, too. It's a mystery to them why others don't get rich. They know they aren't special and that wealth is available to anyone who wants to focus and persist. Rich people want others to be rich for two reasons: first, so you can buy their products and services, and second, because they want to hang out with other rich people. 

Source:  http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222718

How to Create an Empowering Vision Board

http://www.bizfilings.com

Your brain will work tirelessly to achieve the statements you give your subconscious mind. And when those statements are the affirmations and images of your goals, you are destined to achieve them!

Creating a vision board is probably one of the most valuable visualization tools available to you. This powerful tool serves as your image of the future - a tangible representation of where you are going. It represents your dreams, your goals, and your ideal life.

Because your mind responds strongly to visual stimulation-by representing your goals with pictures and images-you will actually strengthen and stimulate your emotions...  and your emotions are the vibrational energy that activates the Law of Attraction. The saying “A picture is worth a thousand words,” certainly holds true here.

If you have already defined your dreams, it’s time to illustrate them visually.

How to create a vision board that depicts the future you wish to create.

Find pictures that represent or symbolize the experiences, feelings, and possessions you want to attract into your life, and place them in your board. Have fun with the process! Use photographs, magazine cutouts, pictures from the Internet--whatever inspires you. Be creative. Include not only pictures, but anything that speaks to you.

Consider including a picture of yourself in your board. If you do, choose one that was taken in a happy moment. You will also want to post your affirmations, inspirational words, quotations, and thoughts here. Choose words and images that inspire you and make you feel good.

You can use your vision board to depict goals and dreams in all areas of your life, or in just one specific area that you are focusing on.  Keep it neat, and be selective about what you place in your vision board. It's a good idea to avoid creating a cluttered or chaotic board… you don't want to attract chaos into your life.

Use only the words and images that best represent your purpose, your ideal future, and words that inspire positive emotions in you. There is beauty in simplicity and clarity. Too many images and too much information will be distracting and harder to focus on.

If you are working on visualizing and creating changes in many areas of your life, then you may want to use more than one vision board. You might use one for your personal goals and another for career and financial goals. You might even want to keep your career vision board at the office or on your desk as a means of inspiration and affirmation.

How to use your vision board.

Try keeping your vision board on the nightstand next to your bed. Leave it standing in an open position as often as you are comfortable with, and spend time each morning and evening visualizing, affirming, believing, and internalizing your goals.

The time you spend visualizing in the evening just before bed is especially powerful. The thoughts and images that are present in your mind during the last forty-five minutes before going to sleep are the ones that will replay themselves repeatedly in your subconscious mind through¬out the night, and the thoughts and images that you begin each day with will help you to create a vibrational match for the future you desire.

As some time goes by, and your dreams begin to manifest, look at those images that represent your achievements, and feel gratitude for how well the Law of Attraction is working in your life. Acknowledge that it is working. Don't remove the pictures or images that represent the goals you've already achieved.  Achievement of the goals in your vision board are powerful visual reminders of what you have already consciously and deliberately attracted into your life.

I recommend you write down the date you created your vision board. The universe loves speed, and you will be amazed at just how quickly the Law of Attraction responds to your energy, commitment, and desires. Much like a time capsule, this board will document your personal journey, your dreams, and your achievements for that particular year. It will become a record of your growth, awareness, and expansion that you will want to keep and reflect back upon in years to come.

It’s a good idea to create a new vision board each year.  As you continue to grow, evolve and expand, your dreams will too. Your Vision Board is meant to be kept and cherished. They chronicle your not only your dreams, but your growth and achievements.

Final thoughts on using your completed vision board:

• Look at your vision board often and feel the inspiration it provides.
• Hold it in your hands and really internalize the future it represents.
• Read your affirmations and inspirational words aloud.
• See yourself living in that manner.
• Feel yourself in the future you have designed.
• Believe it is already yours.
• Be grateful for the good that is already present in your life.
• Acknowledge any goals you have already achieved.
• Acknowledge the changes you have seen and felt.
• Acknowledge the presence of God in your life.
• Acknowledge the Law of Attraction at work in your life.
• Look at it just before going to bed and first thing upon rising.

Source: http://jackcanfield.com/how-to-create-an-empowering-vision-book

Below, we present you a few examples of good vision boards:

http://www.digitalaptitude.com

Wealth Creation, Becoming Rich and the Purpose of Life: Stop What You're Doing and Consider This

This sounds like a peculiar title for an article. What has Wealth Creation got to do with the purpose of life you might ask? I'm gonna argue that it has a lot to do with it. Wealth Creation at its core signifies the creation of something of extended value. It's amazing how much mediocrity we put up with. We don't really want to live humdrum lives. We put up with the humdrum just so we can enjoy exciting, meaningful and adventurous episodes in our life.
I like the broader, far-reaching concept of wealth creation much more so than narrow, limited notion of just making money. There is nothing noble in being superior or wealthier than someone else. But there is great nobility and purpose in being superior to your former self.
Simple, seemingly trivial acts like falling in love, dancing, listening to music and so on, I believe, have shared motives with earning more money, building a career, creating wealth i.e. the pursuit and expression of more life. The purpose of life is essentially to create and experience more life - to enable the true expression of life. Wealth creation in its fullest, broadest meaning fosters this expression.

The Purpose of Life

The meaning of life is that which you give it; but the purpose of life, it could be argued, is something altogether more certain. Your own individual purpose may take time to figure out as you journey through life but in general terms I think it's fair to say, your purpose is, to transform yourself from who and how you are now, to your next highest ideal of who and how you want to be.
Every parent wants to give their child more and better than they themselves had. This is a natural biological and sociological imperative. Every individual wants to give and have more life than they currently have. The attainment of riches and wealth is simply part of this expression.
Whilst transformation isn't exclusively the domain of wealth creation...if you are creating more life, creating more value than you will automatically become wealthier. So, in a sense, wealth is a measure of the increased value you create during your life, the depth and fullness of expression in your life and the fostering/creation of more life.

A Broader Definition of Wealth

Whilst wealth is most often associated with money and the accumulation of assets; I see wealth (and its opposite, destitution) as pervasive in everything in life; in people' s mindsets, in the way people behave, in the forces and laws of nature, and in every human interaction. For the purpose of this article, we are largely focused on the definition of wealth creation as associated with money and assets. However, it is worth bearing in mind that wealth is not merely about the accumulation of money and assets but also perhaps a reflection of something deeper, some inner drive and pursuit far nobler than we might think.
So, we don't have to limit the definition of wealth creation to pure economics. For the purposes of this article, we can say that wealth comes in many different forms. Life is not just about what you have or achieve; it's also firmly about who and what you become. Perhaps even more importantly who and what other people become as a result of your being.
In a sense, wealth creation is a measure of the length and distance you've come in life in all aspects....personal growth and development, spiritual growth and development etc. Wealth doesn't just reside in your bank account; it's in your spirit, your mindset, your behavior and your actions.

The True Purpose of Getting Rich

The reasons for getting rich and wealth creation are much more than the simple attainment of money and wealth. Getting rich enables us to increase life and live more. I believe that one's desire for wealth and riches is rarely, if ever, specifically about the money, but rather it is a measurable way of expressing our desire for a fuller, better, more meaningful life i.e. the increasing of life.
Personally, I have no interest in money as a means of possession. My wealth creation pursuits are driven by a need to discover more life. Assuming, that your basic Maslow hierarchy of needs are satisfied (food, shelter, sex, love etc)...then the pursuit of money is matched by a pursuit of self-actualization. Continuous advancement and increase in life is what all men and women are seeking. People are attracted to those who can give them more of the means of life and this attraction will result in the creation of wealth and you becoming rich.
Concerning yourself with the attraction of money and wealth as a means to the experiencing and contribution to the extension of life is far more worthy pursuit than the love of money as a possession. What you want for you, you must want for everybody.

Creation Not Competition

It's called Wealth Creation and not Wealth Competition. We must create rather than compete for what is already created. If you look around you, you will notice that the most successful businesses in the world create value that is hard to compete with. People have a need to be creative and spiritual, rather than destructive and unspiritual. People are therefore attracted to creation. If your business is creative rather than merely competitive it stands a greater chance of success. The people who make the most money in the world are state changers; they create changed states, new experience, increased experience of life. They essentially give and promote more life. They create more value in life. Wealth creation in its fullest meaning not only creates wealth but also contributes to creation of more life.
That part of us that's always trying to articulate itself and connect back up with and join with some greater expression of life is a deeply spiritual force of nature that simply must express itself. To deny it, would be denying yourself of who you really are.

Financial Freedom - An Alternative Perspective

We often associate the expression "financial freedom" with some notion of limitless wealth and money. However, an alternative perspective on financial freedom is whereby your fullest expression of life is not limited by your financial circumstances. I would argue that, if your present financial circumstances somehow prevent you from allowing the fullest expression of yourself, then you will be driven by the pursuit of financial freedom and the creation of wealth to enable this. You obtain absolute financial freedom when you are certain that you can do virtually whatever you want, whenever you want, with whomever you want, in a way that empowers both you and everyone else.

In Summary

Whether you're herding goats in the Himalayas, working in a sweet shop on some street corner or trading stocks on Wall Street there's no getting away from the subject. Wealth creation is everywhere. People may have different ways of describing it (e.g. paying the bills, saving for a rainy day, building wealth, building a future, getting rich, making money, making ends meet, building a nest egg etc), however, essentially they are different ways of describing the same thing in accordance with your current circumstances. Why not give some thought to why you do what it is you do, what is the connection between your daily money-making pursuits and your deeper life purpose? Wealth creation is at the heart of the very purpose of life....the true purpose of life is to create yourself as you want to be. The true purpose of wealth creation is to enable this for yourself...and for everyone else!

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