Cause & Effect

How much money you have depends on your actions.
Your actions depend on your thinking.

There are only 3 ways your actions affect money:

1. They make money

2. They don’t make money

3. They use money.

If you look at your finances it is very easy to see which of these three actions best describe your results in general.

Make a list of everything you do in a day.

Write it on a time chart or note how much time was spent on each action. Be thorough. Include time spent sleeping, grooming, dressing, cooking, eating, driving, phone calls, visiting, shopping, computing, and, of course, working.

Not every minute of your life needs to be spent working to become affluent. As a matter of fact, it is a sickness and detrimental to your mental and physical health to work too much.

However, there are countless activities we engage in every day that make us feel busy but, in fact, accomplish nothing.

Resting does not fall into this category. Resting is essential and accomplishes strengthening and rejuvenating you.

Your inner self is very truthful and already knows which things we do effectively and which things we do that make us feel busy and which we use as excuses when we complain, “I don’t know why I can’t get ahead. I work so hard. I’ve got so much to do!”

In truth there are a lot of things we do out of habit or a sense of duty that actually don’t contribute anything to bringing us closer to the lives we want to live. In fact, they use up so much of our time and energy that they prevent us from achieving or attaining what we want.

Take one step forward and you move forward.
Stand still and you don’t go anywhere.
Take one step backward and you move backward.

We all know and understand this.
The results are not from wishing or luck or divine intervention.
The results are from our actions.

So, on your list, which things that you did all day actually brought you money?
Which things didn’t bring you money?
Which things used money?

Did you do some work, provide a service, sell something or invest in something that made money here, now, today?

Did you spend time to do some work, provide a service or give away something that didn’t make or use money?

Did you work on something or provide a service that actually used some of your money? Did you buy food or gas or travel, pay bills or go shopping and spend money?In any given day, most of us actually do all of these things where we get money, don’t get money, or use money. The balance of how much we do of each will determine the state of our finances. It’s as simple as that.

Are you out of work?
are your bills too high?
Do you or did you spend money you don’t have?
Are there services you pay for that you don’t really need?
Do you need more things? More stuff?
Do you already have a bunch of stuff – perhaps in storage that you pay for?

Is there an imbalance in your finances in favor of accumulating money?
Good!

Is there and imbalance in your finances in favor of using money?
Not so good.

If you’re headed toward a cliff and you keep walking, you will eventually fall off.
If you’re headed toward a mountaintop and you keep walking, you will eventually get to the top.

You don’t have to be going fast to make either of these happen, but making your list or chart will help raise you up high enough to see where you are currently headed.

If what you see is good, keep going.
If what you see is not good, don’t panic.
Just change direction.
Maybe even just a little adjustment is all it would take.

The world is big and it is round.
You won’t fall off.