Wealth Creation Blog

Some of you also follow along on my personal blog at SeanRasmussen.com. If you do, you probably are familiar with the Mindset Mastery series. For those of you who are not familiar with this series, this is a series of posts where we work our way through my updated version of the Napoleon Hill classic, Think and Grow Rich (I’ve edited and revised the book so as to make it more applicable to modern life, and offer it as a freed download with the newly revised named, Mindset Mastery).

While working up some posts for the Mindset Mastery series, I came across a couple of quotes by Napoleon Hill which inspired me for posts here on the Wealth Creation Blog. Not really a surprise, so much of Hill’s book is quote-worthy, but these two especially stood out as excellent stand-alone morsels of advice. I’ll dish up one of them for you today.

Only You Limit Your Mind

“There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.”

Think about this. As humans we are constantly thinking about what limitations are set upon us; about what factors may make or break something as a possibility or opportunity. It is our perceived limitations that cause us the greatest anguish in wealth creation. What we’ve learned through our studies and discussion here, from all the greats of wealth creation, is that those limitations are almost always just perception, and are hardly ever really reality.

With this quote Napoleon Hill takes this a step further—with our minds freed, we can do and accomplish anything we set out to do. Limitation is not an excuse because the limits of our minds are only set by our own acknowledgment—what we decide are or are not limits for us. We can just as easily choose not to limit our minds—to develop a confidence in our own abilities, and to shun those who would tell us that our hopes, dreams, plans, and wealth are not possible.

If you can learn to drown out the negativity and noise, you can look inward and put your energy into your own mind and opportunities. In all of life, you choose what your beliefs will be. Choose you! Choose to not limit your mind, and you can think your way to prosperity and financial freedom.

Join me again tomorrow and I’ll bring you another pearl from Mr. Napoleon Hill.

Sean Rasmussen
Success Communicator
SeanRasmussen.com © 2004 – 2009

People in all circumstances will often say that they came to their current state—be it wealth, poverty, or something in between—by some accidental course. Call it fate, luck, or other intervention, many people will say this. In many ways, this is just another form of an excuse. The truth of the matter is, though, that wealth and financial freedom is never accidental.

What Action Brought You Here?

Wherever you are, however you got here, and wherever you are going, some action precipitated that path. It may have been something as simple as the decision to click on a link to a wealth creation website, or an article, or a book about creating wealth on Amazon…or any other number of things. But somewhere, that action took place, and led you here—not just to this blog, but to the point in life that has you here reading, thinking, and changing (or at least considering changing) your life. To go even deeper, the circumstances that led to your interest in wanting to find wealth and financial freedom were not accidental, either. Your life, everything up to this point, is the result of all the cumulative thoughts and actions you have had up until now.

From This Point Forward

Does it matter what brought you here? Isn’t the important thing that you are here, learning to develop your mindset and succeed? Isn’t that what matters and not the path that got you here?

Yes and no. It is true that the most important thing is that you are here, and you are ready to take control of your life (or you are open to it, and ready to let this community help you get ready to take control of your money and wealth!). On the other hand, it does matter how you got here, for two simple reasons.

At some point, that past path, while we will not dwell and live in the financial past, will need reflection so as to plan, overcome it, and move forward to bigger and better wealth and living. But also it matters that you at least recognize that your life is not an accident, but a series of actions and events. When you start looking at life as purposeful and actionable, then you start to take more actions, and plan those actions with more care and focus. That level of attention is what will inspire you to make more of your life from this point forward, and to live with the action and purpose that you and your life deserve.

Sean Rasmussen
Wealth Creation Blog
UniversalWealthCreation.com © 2004 – 2009

I hope I can get this point across without confusing the matter too much. Let’s give it our best shot!

In the last post we discussed reasons versus excuses. We defined a reason (such as the reason for not achieving wealth prior to now) as something based in fact that can be changed; while we defined an excuse as a lazy justification (a bit harsh, but essentially true) for the current state of affairs. Today let’s take this a step further. The reason you are not wealthy (yet!) may just be that you make too many excuses for it.

Is Your Reason Too Many Excuses?

While your excuses may be weak and not based in fact, it could be a fact that you excuse away wealth by coming up with a list of excuses for not being wealthy. Think about it. Perhaps your point is that you’re not wealthy because you don’t need money. So you use that as a crutch to not have to put the work into learning how to make money and be rich. Of course, there could be any myriad of excuses, and if you are like the average person, you will have many excuses for not achieving wealth.

It’s important to recognize when you are making excuses and laying blame. For one, by doing that you are focusing your energy in the past and not in the future, so it cannot work progressively for you. Moreover, as long as you continue to justify away your lack of wealth, you will not be able to build wealth; you will not work towards achieving the lifestyle and financial freedom that you really want (and should have!).

No Shame In Past Excuses

I don’t write this to make you feel badly about yourself, I write it only to enlighten you as to why wealth has been elusive up to now. This is a topic that Jamie McIntyre discusses in depth (and in far more eloquence) in his book, What I Didn’t Learn At School But Wish I Had. You can download the eBook for free with the previous live link. You’ll find it right in the first chapter, in the discussion over why most people are not rich.

Do know this, though—this is perfectly normal, human nature. In fact, it’s one of the reasons that most people are not rich; and in most cases, one that every non-wealthy person experiences. So there is no shame in it, and you are not alone, but by recognizing the harm excuses and blame are doing to your wealth creation efforts, you can remove a huge roadblock to wealth, and start securing your financial freedom.

Sean Rasmussen
Wealth Creation Blog
UniversalWealthCreation.com © 2004 – 2009

This is a discussion that was started over at the 21st Century Academy blog, and yet again one that crosses over and merits discussion here as well.

The topic is reasons versus excuses, and how they relate to your success in creating wealth.

Reason Versus Excuse

There is one elemental difference between a reason and an excuse. If you look at the definitions of each, you see that an excuse is a feeling or perception of why something is the way it is. An excuse is a justification for something.

You could also say that a reason is a justification, but it is a justification that is based in fact. It would probably be more accurate to say that a reason is an explanation, and not a justification, which to most people really is just a fancy word for an excuse. While an excuse may just be someone’s personal version of events, a reason can be proved with hard facts. Of course, both of these are just paraphrasing the definitions, but that’s the gist of it.

Why Reasons Matter

So the big question is this: Who Cares? Why does it matter what a reason is versus an excuse?

It matters for one reason: correcting the mistakes of the past and improving upon them.

A lot of the discussions about setting goals and succeeding (in wealth creation or anything) hold that at some point you need to reflect on the current situation and figure out why your success has been limited. Through that reflection, you uncover the reasons for your current state of affairs, and then you begin to take steps to correct them. But here’s the thing: you can correct a reason, but you can’t correct an excuse. Why? Because an excuse is not really a reason. It’s just a justification—the easy way out of being to blame and making change. In order to make real change, and to find success—and wealth—you have to work to make true changes. And you can’t change something that never really existed to begin with, can you?

Sean Rasmussen
Wealth Creation Blog
UniversalWealthCreation.com © 2004 – 2009