MONEY AND LEGACY

Is Your Legacy Defined by Dollar Signs?

 

“Man’s highest happiness is found in the bestowal of benefits on those he loves; love finds it’s most natural and spontaneous expression in giving. The man who has nothing to give cannot fill his place as a husband or father, as a citizen, or a man. It is in the use of material things that a man finds full life for his body, develops his mind, and unfolds his soul. It is therefore of supreme importance to him that he should be rich.”

-          Wallace Wattles

 

People are often under the misconception that money brings happiness and if they had more money, they would be that much happier. But does money really define who you are? Is your legacy made or broken because of the amount of money you have?

 

How does one achieve more money?

Money comes from your growth and your success. Money will not give you higher self-esteem, but higher self-esteem can lead to more money. Once you are successful, the money will then follow. Think of a high school diploma. You don’t get the diploma first do you? You have to go through the work first and the diploma is recognition for what you have accomplished.

 

How can money ruin a person?

We have all heard of those people who win the lottery and end up with nothing. Why does this happen? They were given the high school diploma first. They did not have to fail and succeed over and over again to achieve their diploma. There was no work involved. They were given something they didn’t know how to handle properly. You must work for your success and for your money. There is nothing given for free in this life.

 

You have the choice

In the end, happiness is a decision. You decide if you are happy and what makes you happy. Money will, at times, make you feel great. You can buy whatever you want whenever you want. If you think piles and piles of money is your happiness, then so be it. But money will not make you who you are and it does not decide who is happy and who isn’t.

 

What will your legacy if you were to stop living today? What would people say about you? Would they say, “Hey, David passed away today. You know, the guy with x amount of dollars in his pocket?” or will they say, “Hey, David passed away today. You know the guy who worked hard and gave so much to people. He cared a lot about everyone. I bet his family is devastated.” You make the choice and hold your fate in your hands.

 

 

Daniel is the leader and dad behind the dad-parenting blog www.daddydirection.com. Check out his blog for more parenting and dad specific techniques.

 

Leave a Legacy

Note to Alex

By Brian Parsley

November 3rd, 2009

A friend of mine wrote this amazing list for his young stepson.  It’s a set of principles he’s learned in his lifetime and wanted to pass along so his stepson would have the building blocks to living a positive, fulfilling life.  I thought it summed up how we should all live our lives.

1. Always Tell the Truth Even When it Hurts
Honesty is not a situational principle. In the end, it’s yourself you have to live with. Integrity is what makes you who you are. It’s what makes the pillow soft at night and the morning worth waking up for.

2. Give Love
Treat yourself and others with compassion, love and respect. Help a neighbor, help a stranger, and take care of yourself both physically and mentally. Remember, nothing is possible without first believing in love.

3. Treat People Fairly Fair
Be just, be compassionate and be equal. All situations are different but the manner in which you go about handling them should be the same. Don’t play favorites. If you show compassion, you will be able to treat others fairly, and they will respect you for it.

4. Never Do Harm to Anyone – Including Yourself
Don’t talk behind someone’s back, don’t cause physical harm and don’t let someone engage in any activity that you know will cause them or others harm. This has as much to do with action as intent. If you’re honest, loving and fair you won’t want to hurt others or let others be hurt.

5. Keep Your Promises
Your promise is your reputation. Others will judge you by your ability to follow through on your words.

6. Be a Positive Influence
Don’t just set out to make your life better. Help others live the best life they can too. Be a role model. Live the above principles and others will follow your lead.

7. Do the next right thing… always.
If you’re ever in doubt of any decision, do the next right thing.  Don’t worry about the “what if’s” or all the different ways a decision could take you – just do the right thing in that moment.  It will never fail you and there will never be regrets (especially in the long run).

Special thanks to Ben Vernon.

20 Steps to Compelling Goals

20 Steps to Compelling Goals

1. Have SMART goals
2. Have strategies that work– Make sure your goals are workable, realistic, and actionable.
3. Have good implementation—follow through and be methodical, sequential and incremental.  Start small and do not despise the day of small beginnings.
4. Accountability—be accountable to trusted advisors and mentors and those more experienced.  Coach and mentor others as well.  Hold yourself and others accountable to your goals.
5. Minimize distraction—focus on what’s important—keep the main thing the main thing
6. Commit to your goals and plans—daily review your goals and adjust as needed
7. Communicate your goals, with all stakeholders and family members—don’t do this in a corner.
8. Post written goals publicly—be very public and very accountable and very up front with  goals
9. Get family buy in and immediately—kid buying in and commitment to everyone involved.  Share what you have in mind with others who play a role in the plans success and achievement.
10. 10. Have daily, weekly, monthly meetings to review goals and progress
11. Develop reasonable implementation schedule and stick to it—calendarize!
12. Do your plans, see what happens, adjust as needed, and keep in touch with those who can help you stay on track.  Accountability works great!
13. Evaluate—revisit current goals and paradigms and find what works and what doesn’t.  Implement change immediately.  If it works.  Do not fix it.
14. Think out of the box—creatively brainstorm. Be fearless and try new things.  Get feedback from trusted advisors and mentors.
15. Go away—go somewhere way from all distraction and develop a compelling parenting plan.
16. Create a culture of accountability, celebration and clarity—celebrate achievement by awarding team and individual accomplishment.  Give public and private encouragement and praise. reward achievement
17. Communicate expectations—have courageous conversations and be clear on expectations. Communicate, communicate, and communicate.
18. Leverage your time and manager prime times of the day—the times where energy is the highest and most focused.
19. Just do it—plan the work and work the plan. Commit to high performance.  Kill procrastination and perfectionism.  Keep a sense of humor.  Learn to grow and change.  It back in action and get involved.
20. Dream it, write it down, and just do it— rediscover your passion, mission and purpose today.  You have a choice, time, resources, and ability.  Now it’s up to you.

What 3 compelling things did your dad do well when raising you? Part 1.

3 Things:

1.  He loved me unconditionally, he taught me, “yagottawanna”,

2. He let me work along side him in the yard and shop.

3. Silent commraderie got us through a lot of difficult times!

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3 Things:

1. My father modeled kindness.
2. He treated my mother with respect.
3. He stood for something, even if it hurt him personally or politically.

He instilled a fierce desire in me to be neither sick, poor, or unschooled. All of which he grew up with and could not stand to see carried on into future generations. Sick because illness we bring upon ourselves, poor because no man owes another a living, and unschooled because nobody can take away an education. He was, and still is, a devout individualist.

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3 Things:

1) You need to “get out of your skin” every once in a while and take a look around. If you like your life the way it is – good! If not, you better fix it!

2) The best opportunities come out of left field. Everyone gets opportunities – EVERYONE – but you have to be ready to take advantage of them. The best opportunities come when you least expect them and may be least prepared to take advantage of them, but the most successful people go for it when they come around!

3) Do what you love – the money will follow.

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3 things:

1.  He said to always “Leave the camp site better than when we found it.”

This means to always improve things rather than merely use things.

2. Democracy is for those who participate. Be active in our democracy or it will die.

3. Always do something whether it’s school, work, travel. Don’t be complacent.

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3 Things:

1. He included me in his projects without being patronizing. he depended on me to help wash the car and he didn’t let anyone else redo my work.
2. He had me do a demonstration to his sales team of how he wanted them to memorize a presentation.
3. Most valuable: he was passionate and committed to his values and demonstrated that to me every day with his words and actions. He was who he was with me all the time and I trusted him.
Wow!  thanks guys……

The Outcome Frame Tool

C:\Documents and Settings\Dr. Richard Borough\My Documents\MY DOCUMENTS\MASTER-MIND\Outcome Frame2.doc Created 2/28/00, Edited 5/3/2008

THE OUTCOME FRAME

The Outcome Frame is a planning tool. It is a simple to use set of questions that will help you bring more of what you want into reality. This positive process takes you from an idea or a dream into a set of specific actions steps including ways to quantify or measure your progress.

Always respond to The Outcome Frame in writing. That’s right, respond IN WRITING. And use enough words and specific details that most anyone who read what you’ve written would understand most of it. If others can understand what you have in mind, you’re well on your way.

1. WHAT do you want? State positively and specifically what you want?

2. WHEN do you want to have that?

3. How will you KNOW when you get it? What can you measure?

4. When you get what you want, what ELSE will change?

5. What RESOURCES can you use to get what you want?

6. How will you best UTILIZE these resources? Be specific, use enough words.

7. What is the FIRST step? Second step? Third Step?

Of course, you can put a mountain of detail into this. And perhaps you should. The devil it seems is often in the details. That’s why writing enough words and being specific enough helps.

Most people don’t have an idea problem, but many people have an implementation problem. Whether you have an implementation problem or not it can be helpful to talk with other people about what you’re trying to do. People from outside the loop can help you identify things you may have overlooked. And they can encourage and support you in whatever it is that you’re trying to do. Perspective is a very good thing.

Once you have done The Outcome Frame you’re ready to take all the appropriate actions to make your dreams come true. And making your dreams come true is also a very good thing!

Have fun with this and good luck to you!

Your Future Based Self Worksheet

YOUR FUTURE BASED SELF & PROMISE

by Dr. Richard Borough

Your answer to the FBS Question will drive your business behavior for months to come. This is

very important, so practice on scratch paper first, then enter your response into the form.

“Three years from today, what will your business & life need
to be like in order for you to be deliriously happy?”

Business: annual gross, main products/services, # employees, amount of time you work/wk, etc.

Life: family/home, recreation, vacations and all the things that you enjoy.

__________________________________________________________________________

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TO GET THERE FROM HERE

MORE: What’s the first thing you must do MORE of, or MORE often right now?

__________________________________________________________________________

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LESS: What’s the first thing you must do LESS of, or LESS often right now?

__________________________________________________________________________

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START: What’s the first thing you must START doing right now?

__________________________________________________________________________

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STOP: What’s the first thing you must STOP doing right now?

__________________________________________________________________________

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OBSTACLES: What obstacles must you overcome to begin making progress?

__________________________________________________________________________

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Describe how you will overcome whatever is holding you back.

__________________________________________________________________________

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SCHEDULE: To start winning bigger tomorrow, what’s the best schedule for your most productive business behavior?

__________________________________________________________________________

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HABITS: What new habits will you promise to start developing?

__________________________________________________________________________

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COMMITMENT: What will you absolutely promise to do, starting immediately, to begin these improvements?

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

Your Name _____________________________________________

Your Signature: __________________________________________ Date: ______________

Planning Tools

 

MONTHLY PLAN – (Month)

ANNUAL GOALS: PERSONAL	ANNUAL GOALS: BUSINESS
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.	1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
MONTHLY GOALS: PERSONAL	MONTHLY GOALS: BUSINESS
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WEEKLY PLAN ~ (Week)

WEEKLY GOALS: PERSONAL			WEEKLY GOALS: BUSINESS
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Your Vision Statement

 

                                                                                        

(Your Name)

 

Personal Vision Statement

 

I look at life as an adventure and a journey to be experienced and enjoyed right now. I live a balanced life and enjoy the passage of time. I believe my thoughts will attract my life circumstances and, in order to create the results I desire in my life, I must align my thoughts, words and actions with my desires. I make decisions and choices in harmony with what I believe to be true principles of life. My ongoing purpose is to…        

 

 

 

 

 

I am solely responsible for the choices I make. The choices I have made in the past have gotten me to where I am today. The choices I make in the present will create my future. I intend to spend my time…

 

 

 

 

 

 

I enjoy the following choices:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                               

Instructions:

 

Use this template to develop a first draft of your personal vision statement.

 

The main point of this exercise is to spend some time thinking about what kind of life you want to live. Write the statement in the present tense (as if everything you describe about your life is already happening) and then work toward closing the gaps between the life you described in your personal vision statement and your current reality. Remain flexible and be willing to revise (improve) the statement as events unfold in your life. 

Thanks to Chris Crouch

 

Even Simpler Goals

An Even Simpler Business Plan

AKA: Your Make More Money Plan

Answer these questions and keep this document in front of you and up to date.

1. WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 3 TO 5 SMART GOALS?

· What’s your plan for achieving each of them?

· List the resources you’ll need.

· How will you get the resources you may not now have?

2. HOW MUCH MONEY?

· How much gross income do you want to make in an average month?

· What do you expect your average monthly overhead cost to be?

· How much money do you want to take home each month?

3. WHAT’S YOUR MARKETING PLAN?

· Who are your most likely buyers?

· How will you attract them to you?

· How will you organize your marketing activities?

· Scorekeeping: how will you know if you’re even, ahead, or behind, and by how much?

4. WHAT OBSTACLES (WEAKNESSES/THREATS) NEED TO BE OVERCOME?

· What’s your plan to overcome each of these?

· What resources will you need to do so?

5. WHAT SPECIFIC STEPS WILL YOU FOLLOW TO GET WHAT YOU WANT?

· What must you do first?

· Second?

· Next, and so on?

6. WHAT’S YOUR WEEKLY TIME ROUTINE?

· What is the best schedule for your Show Time, Prep/Detail, and Free Time periods?

· When will you hold Private Office Hours?

7. CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR PROGRESS…

· Besides more money, how else will your life improve in the coming months?

Courtesy Dr. Richard Borough Mastermind Alliance

Goal Setting/Planning for Business

A Simple Business Plan

by Dr. Richard Borough

AKA: Your Make More Money Plan

To create your Simple Business Plan, write complete answers to these seven questions. Keep this document up to date and in front of you every day. It matters.

1. What do you sell?

· If this is likely to change in the next year or so, describe how will it change?

· What’s the mission (or purpose) of your enterprise.

· What’s the vision (your direction) for the next 12 to 24 months?

· How will you communicate mission and vision both internally and externally?

2. How much money will your enterprise make?

· What will be your Gross Income & Net Profits/mo? 12 months out? 3-5 years out?

· How much money will you personally take home/mo?

· When you are earning what you want, what life style will you enjoy as a result?

3. How will you sell your products and services? Marketing plans:

· What is your Sustainable Competitive Advantage?

· Who are your most likely buyers and what needs of theirs do you satisfy?

· How can you cost-effectively reach out to your best buyers and attract them to you?

· How do you collect your money?

4. What’s the most cost-effective manner for you to provide your products and services?

· What human, financial, facility and equipment resources will you utilize?

· How many hours/wk will you work? By when would you expect the option to work less?

· What’s your weekly time schedule? What is the best schedule for your Show Time, Prep Time, and Free Time periods? When will you hold Private Office Hours?

5. To consistently reach your Net Profit goals, what obstacles (weaknesses/threats) need to be overcome and how will you overcome each of them ASAP?

· How will you keep on track with your personal money making activities?

· Product and service delivery activities?

6. What new/better behaviors will you need to implement in order to get to the next level?

· What must you do MORE often or better? LESS often? START doing? STOP doing?

· How will you measure progress on this? Who can help you do this?

7. What series of goal driven steps will you follow to get you what you want?

· What must come first?

· Second?

· Next, and so on?