So here it is, part IV and the final article in this series on how to make more money. If you’ve missed them you can get parts one through three here (I, II, III).

Step 6: Focus on how you will benefit.

So you’ve probably read The Secret no doubt or at the very least, you’ve heard of it. In personal development circles there has been a huge buzz about The Secret. In a nutshell it is all about focus and positive intention. You get what you think about most, in other words. A simple but effective approach and one worth taking on board.

In step 6 I want you to take some time to think about how you will benefit when you manifest the money that you want in your life. Few people are motivated by money alone. Few people find money a motivator in its own right.

People are motivated by what that money can do for them and how they benefit from it, not by the money itself.

What will you be able to enjoy in your life when you are rich that you can’t now? What car will you drive? Where will you live? Where will you holiday? What social events will you attend? What hobbies will you partake in? Where will you eat out? What charities will your give to and why?

You get the idea! It’s not the money that motivates, it’s these outcomes and benefits that fire us up and keep us going!

When visualising, take time to think about and focus on how you will benefit when you have more money. Without real benefits, you may struggle to stay motivated in the long term.

What’s more, as you start to see results, it is often wise to allow yourself to have and to experience some of those benefits…

Because of my good, old-fashioned “waste not, want not”, “money doesn’t grow on trees” upbringing, even when I started to earn more money I did not spend any more. I continued to eat at the same restaurants even though I would have liked to have gone to more expensive ones, I still stayed in cheap hotels even though I could “afford” nicer ones and I still travelled in standard class even though I wanted to sit more comfortably in first class and to get out my laptop and do some work!

I thought that I was doing the right thing, watching my expenditure, and to some extent I was but at some point you need to reward yourself, you need to allow your mind and body to experience the fruits of your labours, the reasons that you did it in the first place! If your motivator really is watching the dollars build up in your bank account then perhaps you don’t need to but for most people that’s not enough.

I’ve read a lot of books about being frugal, about what you can save if you stop lunching from Starbucks and start taking your own lunch to work. This is, of course, sound advice, but you need to balance this with treating yourself and with enjoying the fruits of your labours. I have certain standards that I reward myself with irrespective of the fact that I could save money and do things more cheaply. These “luxuries” serve to remind me and reinforce the positive mental image I have about money, what I deserve and what I need to focus on.

Step 7: Work out how you are going to get more money and take consistent action.

You’ve probably heard of a book which stormed the personal development world called The Secret. For a personal development book, this one has whipped a veritable double scoop choc chip of a stir! People have talked about it, blogged about it and lauded it with praise. I read it and liked it but it’s very basic. Far more basic than many other far superior books out there but where The Secret scored was in packaging, branding and viral marketing. The whole concept positioned basic personal development techniques as exciting, new and fresh. Just the video short that preceeded it was unprecedented in its Hollywoodesque trailer qualities and became a viral explosion.

The Secret in my opinion has one major flaw however… it implies that all that you have to do is focus on something and it will manifest itself in your life. If you trawl the outer regions of the “hug a tree” personal development world you will find that this concept and philosophy has been around for a while in various different guises… “the universe will provide for you”. I know plenty of life coaches who say this kind of stuff and most of them are not very well provided for I can tell you! They don’t travel first class, they don’t go on exotic holidays, they don’t drive nice sports cars and they don’t charge top dollar. Most of them are struggling for clients!

Nice as this concept is and important as positive intention and focus are there is another critical piece… Action!

I’m sure, like me, there are plenty of things that you have positive intention about but until you put your money where your mouth is and take action nothing is likely to happen. If you want to make more money you need to take action. If you want to have more money you need to take action. If you want to earn money you need to take action. If you want to bring more business in you need to take action. If you want to manifest good things in your life then you need to get focused and… take action.

Take some time now to work out what actions you need to take to start to create the wealth and finances that you desire and deserve. Plan your first actions, put timescales on them and get going!

Which leads us to…

Step 7.5: Keep getting up when everyone else stays down.

Here’s a harsh truth. Most people give up before they ever have a chance of succeeding. In today’s society it’s way too easy to give up. There will always be plenty of friends to commiserate with you in The I Failed Saloon. Plenty of people who will dust you down and buy you a point of despondency rather that kicking you up the ass and telling you te get up and have another try.

In today’s society of instant gratification most people want it all now. They expect instant success. They want to lose weight but they give up within days when they see no positive signs of weight loss. They want to save money but they splurge on something they don’t need before they ever invest. They want to make money but they fall at the first rejection and never spring back up again.

When I started blogging a year ago on my personal site www.gaviningham.com I really had little idea what to expect. Many people who had not researched the world of blogging thought that this was a waste of my time and energy and would produce negligible results. I had done my research and for reasons that I will discuss another time believed that was the right action to take. I was not however 100% sure. With something as new as blogging how could I be! But… and it’s a big but… once I committed to do it I knew that I had to do it for long enough to give it a fair chance. Results were slow to start with but gradually they arrived…

I know plenty of employed and self-employed people who know that they need to demonstrate certain behaviours to be worthy of promotion and more money. For a while they try this out but when they don’t get the promotion that they wanted relatively soon they quickly fall back into their normal behaviours. If you want to earn more money you need to step up to the plate and keep on swinging until you get the results that you desire. For sure, tweak and tune your swing, try a different angle, a different back swing or a different follow through but keep on swinging you must!

Sitting in the Well I Tried Saloon might be warm and cosy but it is not the path to more wealth. As Yoda in Star Wars famously said, “Do or do not. There is no try.” Small and green he may have been but right he was.

Get up, take action, keep going.

Here’s the next part in our How to make more money mini-series of articles. Click on these links if you’ve not read parts I and II yet.

Step 4: Visualise yourself with that money.

I talk about visualisation a lot and that’s for one reason and one reason only. Visualisation works. I’m going to repeat that for you because it’s a really important point…

Visualisation works. It really, really works.

I have been using visualisation techniques for 15 years+ now and I use them nearly daily. Most of the time these are rapid, quick fix visualisations of less than 5 minutes but some are much longer. I have used visualisation techniques successfully to…

• win more sales
• close bigger deals
• negotiate more confidently
• make powerful and persuasive presentations
• plan my business
• see the big picture
• rapidly walk through details and problems
• find solutions
• see other’s points of view
• increase motivation
• build rapport with difficult people
• sharpen my focus
• target my actions
• find the right path…

Visualisation works.

In this case, we’re going to use visualisation for two main reasons…

1. To get us juiced up, psyched up and motivated and
2. To check for problems or self-imposed barriers..

Using visualisation is a great motivator. Visualising yourself earning the money you want and living the life you want in techni-colour detail is a real driver. Do it right and it will get you passionate about your mission. (BTW – if it doesn’t you need to be asking yourself whether you have set the right goals or not ).

I talk about visualisation extensively elsewhere but for those who are new to this here are some basic tips to help you visualise successfully…

1. Think consciously first about what you want so that you know what you need to visualise.
2. Take some time to relax through sitting still and breathing easily. Most people find this easier in a quiet and secluded place.
3. Form a picture of yourself earning and having this money.
4. Flesh out the picture and make it as detailed as you can. Think about everything. The more detailed that it is, the better.
5. Check for barriers and incongruencies. I have noticed that goals or visualisations that you still have limiting beliefs or barriers attached to are difficult to visualise in your head. Realising this now can save you a lot of grief and heartache. Also, notice if this “new you” fits with your values system. There is little point visualising something which is “not you” and which conflicts with your deeply held values about life as you will find ways of sabotaging this!
6. Step into the visualisation and really experience it as if it is now. This part of the visualisation is the really enjoyable bit. Rather than just seeing yourself doing it, actually step into the new you and experience it as if it is now. See things through your own eyes, hear what you will hear, feel what you will feel, experience what you will experience. You can walk through different scenes of your life and see how these changes have affected everything from what you drive to where you live and from how you live to what you wear.
7. Check the route map and take your own advice. From this new state look back to now and see how you got to where you’re going. Notice the key steps on the way, how you dealt with challenges and what you learned on your journey.

And then let yourself come back into now feeling positive and energised by the experience.

The more regularly you visualise what you want, the more powerful this technique will become for you. If at first your visualisation seems difficult to do, maybe because it is so stretching, then keep working on it until you have perfected it.

The experience that you can earn and have a lot of money is perhaps more important than actually having it. If you have a lot of money but you have no idea how to make more or where the next crate of money (!) is coming from then you are likely to be very cautious around money.

Self-made rich people do not like losing money but they don’t live in fear. Their “experience” of actually making their money is an empowering one and allows them to make bold and positive decisions in their relationship with money.

Most people who don’t have money, not surprisingly, have the attitudes and actions of someone with little or no money. It is these actions that got them where they are in the first place and it is these actions that will hold them there. Likewise, rich people have the attitudes and actions of people with money. It is these actions that got and keep them where they are.

As someone once said, “Money breeds money.” This is a great belief if you have money but not such a good one if you don’t!

Our visualisation exercises help us to reshape our negative feelings about money and to act and feel like someone who deserves and has more money.

Step 5: Believe you can achieve your goals.

We talked earlier on about limiting beliefs and how they will hold you back. If limiting beliefs are like the braking system that holds you back, empowering beliefs are like the jet fuel that propels you forward.

I mentioned earlier on that I work with a lot of business people. Many of them do not have very empowering beliefs about what they can charge and how much money they can earn. Without the necessary beliefs they lack the jet fuel to propel their business and their personal finances forwards…

One business man I worked with was in a consultancy. He was adamant that $1000 (£500) per day was the going rate for consultancy and that was what he consistently charged. The more he asked for and received $1000 per day, the more he believed that was the going rate. The more he believed that was so, the less he could do about it.

After working with him to get him thinking about how much value he could add for his clients, how much they could make as a result of working with him, how much they all benefited, and underpinning this with evidence (real value in real monetary terms that he had added for clients); he totally overhauled and pimped up his belief system!

He went back out into the marketplace with a totally supportive and empowering belief system and his very next order was for $2000 per day.

Having the right belief system is the jet fuel behind helping you to make more money so get yourself down to the personal development gas station and fill up!

Take my personal situation as an 18 year old lad. If I had not listened to others and I had truly believed that I could earn $100k+ from selling vacuums then I would have gone for it. I wouldn’t have listened to others.

There are many beliefs that you need to work on cultivating if you want to make more money including…

• Being rich is my right.
• Being rich will allow me to live the life that I deserve.
• Being rich will bring me happiness and joy.
• Being rich will allow me to pursue my dreams and help others.
• There is unlimited opportunity out there for those who seek it.
• Anyone who applies themselves consistently to the right activities can be rich.
• I can earn X.
• I can bank X.
• I am worth at least X.
• I could go on…

Here’s the question to ask yourself…

“What do I need to believe to be rich?”

Many of the people that I work with who achieve quantum leaps in their business and personal success attribute this change in fortunes to the skills and techniques that I taught them. This is partly right as we clearly need the right skills and techniques for making money. I have however worked with people who I have taught little or nothing to in the way of skills or techniques and their personal fortunes have dramatically changed. I put this down to a change in their belief systems…

In a nutshell they move from, “I can’t” to “I can”. What do you need to believe to move yourself from doing the “can’t-can’t” to doing the “can-can”?

Continue to Part IV of How to make more money in 7.5 simple steps.

So here is the second part of my candid, no bs approach to how to make more money in 7.5 simple steps (Part I how to make more money here). No promises, no flannel just simple techniques and ideas that you can use to help you to make more money.

Step 2: Let go of limiting beliefs about money.

Having got a brief look into your own psyche it’s time to dig deeper still. We need to ferret out what’s holding you back. We need to take the brakes off your money earning motor and let it run more freely!

I’m not going to beat around the bush with you here as I won’t on any of this site because this site is about results and sometimes to get big results you need tough love…

You will have some limiting beliefs about money! Pretty much everyone does. I have never, to my knowledge, met anyone who doesn’t (although there will be a handful of people on the planet who don’t…).

If it makes you feel any better I’m going to put my hands up… despite the fact that I live and breathe this stuff I have limiting beliefs about money! They might not be as limiting as yours but they’re limiting none the less. Whether you think you can’t earn more than 50k, 100k, 250k or a cool million this year it’s still a limiting belief.

For several of the days I work each month, I charge for my time. I charge for a day more than most people earn in a month. When I tell people this figure most people think that it is outrageous. This is because they filter it through their own “limiting beliefs” about what they think is and is not an acceptable salary or charge out rate!

Conversely, if you asked Bill Gates to work for what I earn in a day he would laugh at you. His money probably earns more in interest in a few minutes that I earn in a day. He will no doubt earn in a day more than 99.9% of the population earn in a year…

Gosh!

So let’s look at some of the areas of limiting beliefs that will stop you earning more money…

• How much it is possible to earn e.g. “You cannot earn more than 50k doing this job.”
• How hard / long you have to work to earn however much you want to earn e.g. “If you want to earn 100k a year then you need to work every hour that there is.”
• What is and what is not an acceptable salary / wage e.g. “No-one is worth more than 100k a year.”
• How much you’re worth e.g. “I am not worth more than 100k a year.”
• How much you can charge e.g. “You cannot charge more than X.”
• What being rich means about you e.g. “Rich people are not nice people.”
• Etc. etc.

Only by becoming more aware of your beliefs can you break through the self-imposed barriers that you have placed on your earnings.

Over the years as a motivational speaker I have seen many salesmen and women earn 20k in their first year, 35k in their second and then be pushing 50k in their third. They look to be flying but then they take their foot off the pedal, stamp on the brakes and cruise at 50k for the next 10 years…

This is probably the limiting belief that 50k is all they are worth kicking in and holding them back..

What you believe about money will play a large part in determining how much of it you get. Gaining more self-awareness about your limiting beliefs is critical in how to make more money.

Step 3: Decide how much money that you want.

No seriously… you need to decide and only you can decide. This is a big moment! Choose wrongly and all you do is set another self-imposed barrier to your performance!

There’s no point in saying, “I want to be rich.” It doesn’t give your brain anything to work with. Nothing! Also, your concept of “rich” might not be enough!

I remember when I went for my first sales job. I was actually 18 and I was still living at home. There were a few “sensible” jobs lined up with “sensible” salaries but I still went for this interview selling (Dyson I think) vacuum cleaners. The job was self-employed, commission only and I was told that I could earn £50k+. That’s about $100k and this was 1984.

I was excited but several of the “grown up” people that I knew told me “not to be stupid” and “no-one earns that really” so, being a good boy, I didn’t take the job. Maybe I would have succeeded, maybe I would have failed but I allowed other peoples’ limitations and beliefs about money to stop me having the chance of earning what I wanted to earn. What’s worse I carried those limiting beliefs around for several years.

When you set yourself figures for how much money you want to earn and have, stretch yourself and shoot for the stars. Don’t let yourself be held back by past experiences, limiting beliefs, fear of failure or others.

Go for it!

Hey look, if you’re on 30k and you shoot for 100k and you “fail” and end up with 75k would that be such a bad thing?

Probably not!

Once you get going you’ll probably wish you set yourself a bigger target anyway so you might as well do it now! When I “upped” my daily rate a few years ago by a significant amount I fully expected that I was going to struggle to get the new rate (limiting belief). I didn’t and within weeks I was thinking that I should have set it higher!

Many people underestimate what they can really achieve if they truly go for it. Don’t be one of them! Look out for part III of How to make more money in 7.5 simple steps coming soon!

Have you ever asked yourself any of the following, “How do I make more money?, “How do I become a millionaire?” or “How do I get myself out of the financial mess that I am currently in?”

Or have you ever said to yourself, “I want to be rich!”, “I need more money” or “If only I could afford…”

Do any of these sum up your feelings and thoughts towards money?

If they do, then you need to keep on reading! In my “other life” as a motivational speaker I have the joy and pleasure of working with thousands of individuals and teams every year on a variety of subjects but despite this most have one thing in common – they would like to earn more money!

Some of them will. Some of them won’t. It’s that simple.

In “How to make more money in 7.5 simple steps” I am going to outline seven and a half simple yet profound strategies that you can use to improve your financial well being, your prosperity and your cash-flow. Whether you achieve that success or not however is down to you…

In my experience, most people seem to have an, at best, uneasy relationship with money. This is not surprising as many of our attitudes and feelings about money are determined unconsciously as we learned them from our parents, our teachers, our friends and our peers.

If they’re all loaded and have fabulous attitudes towards money then great but if they’re not then… oh dear!

But don’t worry because it’s never too late to start to reprogramme your mind, your feelings and your actions to set yourself off on the path to earning the money that you truly deserve.

Step 1: Assess your current beliefs about money.

As I already said, many people have an uneasy relationship with money. Much of this stems from our inherent beliefs about money and what it means to you.

Let’s have a look at a few common beliefs about money…

“Money doesn’t grow on trees you know?”

I was certainly told that as a child! If you accepted that as the truth, how do you think that would affect your attitude towards money? Would it be fair to say that it might make you cautious about how and what you spend money on? Would it also be fair to say that it might stop you spending money unneccessarily? On the other hand, might it not also make you cautious when investing in new ventures?

“Easy come, easy go.”

What would this tell you about money and about how to behave when you’re in its company! I have friends who say this every time that they get their cheque book out to buy something else that they don’t really want and they don’t really need. Most of them don’t have a bean to their name and if they lost their jobs they would be out on the streets within a couple of months… not good.

“Money is the route of all evil.”

Oh dear. Might this belief subconsciously sabotage you and your ability to earn more money? You betcha it might.

I could go on but I think you get the picture.

The first key to a financial makeover, or indeed for any major change in your life, is to assess and become more aware of where you are today. I want you to have a good old look at yourself and your relationship with and beliefs about money. Don’t cut corners on this exercise, it’s well worth the effort…

Continue on now to read part II of How to make more money in 7.5 simple steps.