Define Ultra Wealthy

First, you need to define ultra wealthy for yourself.  Do you agree that it means you are worth $30 million or more?  Is the title of billionaire the only acceptable definition?  Is it more simple, such as being able to pay your bills and have plenty leftover to play with?  Does it mean owning property on each side of the country or being able to retire very early?

Set Goals

This one is of utmost importance.  You need to set goals and you MUST write them down.  Don’t leave them floating in your head.  Either you’ll forget them or you’ll start to feel overwhelmed and wind up never reaching your goal.  Chalene Johnson, my favorite motivator, is constantly reminding people to work on their to-do lists.  She claims she is average in every way, but her ability to write down her goals and follow through sets her apart.

Take a few minutes to write down some goals for today, then for the week, the month, and the entire year.  Break down the large tasks (such as “Save $10,000 by the end of the year”) into smaller ones to tackle on your daily or weekly lists.  It will make them more realistic and tangible—you’ll know you’re making progress.  And you’re not too busy to do this—in fact, you’ll either learn that you’re not as busy as you think you are, or you’ll learn better time management.  I guarantee from personal experience that you will feel LESS stress.

Take Action

Now that you have your goals on paper, it’s time to DO SOMETHING.  You will not become ultra wealthy by reading your to-do list.  You have to take action.  When you know you have to accomplish something by the end of the day and it’s staring you down, you’ll actually look for ways to make sure you get it done.  There are few things as satisfying as crossing a goal off of your list.

Once you’re a few months (or maybe years) in, it will still be important to set and go after goals.  To remain ultra wealthy, you have to remain active.  If you started a business, you can delegate responsibilities as much as you want, but you need to know what’s going on and continue to be creative and find ways to keep things running smoothly or even improve.  If you invested your money, you need to stay educated on companies and trends and know what moves to make when.

Maintain Good Money Habits

According to Forbes.com, the main reason people fall off of the Billionaire list is death; the next reason is allowing too much debt to accumulate.  You can’t control the first one, but you can control the second one.  You do this by continuing to set goals, taking action, and maintaining good money habits.  The ultra wealthy who remain on these top lists know how to protect the money they’ve made.  When you reach this point (or even if you’re steadily on your way), your risk of a sudden and dramatic loss increases.  Make sure you have a few safe investments and/or savings set up to avoid this danger.

If you’re still in the “pondering” phase, you’re likely to talk yourself out of taking the first few steps.  There’s no doubt that it’s a little scary to start on such an ambitious path as becoming ultra wealthy.  But don’t let that fear of failure get in the way.  If you don’t write down your goals, break them down into easily digestible steps, and take action now, when will you?  Small steps and small savings are always a positive start.  Aim big, but don’t be afraid to start small.

Reasons for Procrastinating

Start by asking yourself why you procrastinate.  It doesn’t matter if you’re procrastinating on daily tasks or general life goals.  Common reasons might be that you feel you’re too busy and just can never seem to get around to whatever it is you need to do, you’re too tired, or you’re a little too disorganized.  Maybe the path to your goal appears too long and difficult and you just don’t know where to start.  Or perhaps you’re putting off something you really don’t want to do, like visit the dentist or tackle that project your boss assigned you that you’re having trouble understanding.

Come On, What Are You Afraid Of?

If you dig a little deeper, your real motive for procrastinating might be fear.  It could be something as little as fear of the dentist (especially if you know you’ve been lacking in the flossing department) or something bigger such as fear of failure—are you a perfectionist?  If you are, I sympathize.  When you expect nothing less than perfection out of yourself, sometimes it can keep you from attempting new things if you don’t believe you’ll get it right on the first try.  Or maybe you’re suffering from a fear of change—you want to switch careers, maybe go after your true goals, but you’re comfortable and secure in your current routine, afraid to shake things up and risk struggling.

How to Overcome Procrastination

You, my friend, can make that career change and be successful.  You can finish that project at work and impress your boss.  You can even schedule that dentist appointment—it’ll be over before you know it.  It’s time to change your motto and get a move on.  Here are some steps to guide you.  Feel free to pick and choose; follow the ones that strike a chord with you, ignore the ones that don’t.

• Make a to-do list.  Yes, I need you to actually take a few minutes to sit down and write out your goals.  (You’re not too busy, either.  You’re dilly-dallying on the internet right now, and you’re already sitting down.)  What do you need to get done?  What do you WANT to get done?  These might turn into two separate lists for you, and that’s fine.  Do your best to prioritize—maybe keep it to a top 5.  It’s been proven that people who write down their goals are more likely to accomplish them than people who don’t.  And there’s something to be said for that wave of satisfaction that comes with crossing your goals off that list.
• Schedule it on your calendar.  You schedule your doctor appointments, mandatory work meetings, your kids’ sports games, etc., and you make sure to arrange your day or week around those engagements.  It can help, then, if you schedule the tasks you need to complete and goals you want to accomplish, too.  For example, if you need to complete a project for work, schedule an hour in your day during which you’ll work on the project.  Don’t let yourself get sidetracked or allow something else to take priority.  You’d make sure you’re at a meeting at 10am when your boss holds you accountable; now hold yourself accountable and be at your desk working on that project at 11am.
• Make it public.  Tell someone else you’re going to exceed your sales quota by 10% today, get that business plan together by the end of the week, or lose 10 pounds by the end of the month.  This is especially helpful if you have trouble holding yourself accountable—maybe you’ve learned that there aren’t always devastating consequences when a deadline is purely self-imposed.  Now by telling someone else what you’re going to do, you’ve got some showing off to do.  Not only do you risk extra disappointment if you don’t follow through, someone else has rights to make fun of you.
• Be like Bob Wiley.  If you’re unfamiliar, that’s Bill Murray’s character in the movie “What About Bob?”  Bob learns to overcome his fears and accomplish his goals by taking baby steps.  If you’re putting off a particular task or goal because it’s overwhelming, try breaking it down into smaller tasks.  This can make it seem less daunting, and you’ll feel more productive as you get each little step crossed off that list.  Don’t aim to have a record deal for your band by the end of the year, aim to complete those two unfinished songs by the end of the month.
• Take a look at how much time you waste by procrastinating.  You might need to change your overall mindset here.  For a personal example, when I first began my journey into fitness, I had a difficult time getting my workout started.  I loved it once I got going, but it took a lot of willpower to get myself off the couch.  I would wind up watching a tv show that I was only mildly interested in, get sucked into the next one, and then look at the clock and realize I just wasted an hour.  More importantly, I could have been exercising and already been done by now.  While that thought was a little depressing, I found it motivating overall.  The sooner you get going, the sooner you’ll be done.  This mindset can help especially on those projects you’re dreading.

At minimum, I hope you’ll make that to-do list.  It can really put things in perspective for you and potentially help you stay organized and motivated.  There are a lot of negative consequences that come with procrastination, and I believe the worst one is regret.  I also believe that opportunities only come to you when you’re actively working toward your goal.  You’re not going to get that promotion simply because you arrive at your cubicle on time every day, and you’re not going to sell the greatest invention of all time to millions of people across the world by sitting on the couch.  What are you waiting for?

You business plan is a description of what your company is, what you provide and how you plan to do so.  If your home business requires loans from outside investors, you absolutely need a business plan (no exceptions), and a professional one at that.  Your proposed investors will want to know exactly what they are getting into and how likely it is that your business will be successful enough to repay them.  You can find many books, websites, and downloads that can give you standard outlines to follow to get started.

If you don’t require investors, some might say you don’t need a business plan.  But if you read carefully, most advice will still tell you that you should have a plan.  Well, you’re starting a business and need a plan in place?  That’s a business plan no matter how you slice it, my friend.  The only difference between you and the ones that need investors is the how professional and in-depth you are.  Your plan doesn’t need to be 50-100 pages long or more, especially if it’s solely for you.

Your plan, long or short, will provide direction for you.  Your idea may sound amazing in your head, but once it’s on paper, you may find that it needs a little tweaking or it’s unfortunately implausible.  Write down exactly what your company is and what you offer to the public.  When you begin to expand, you’ll be able to estimate your chances of success.

Know your market and include that in your plan.

• Who are your customers likely to be?
• How will you find them?
• Most importantly, how will you attract their interest?

Get to know your competition.  You’ll need to know what you’re up against.  What are their marketing strategies?  Why were certain ones successful or unsuccessful?  When you know what your competition is all about, you can effectively answer potential customers when they ask you how you’re different or better.

Set goals in your plan.  They’ll be easier to achieve and track when they’ve been fully thought out and written down.  You’ll feel the crunch when you’re near the deadline, but you’ll also feel that sense of accomplishment and see your success when you can cross that goal off the list.  Even if you only finished a group of small goals instead of a large one, you can see your progress.  Include a budget in your goals to help you stay on track and monitor your profits.

Every step in writing your plan will activate your brain and force you to think creatively about your business goals.  Plus, if you don’t have a complete understanding of your company and its future, how will you successfully explain it to customers or potential investors?  Even a few strong paragraphs can suffice when you’re starting out by yourself.  You don’t have to treat it like a Masters’ thesis.  Just spell out your intentions, set your budget and goals, and implement your marketing strategies and you’ll be better prepared for success and your company’s future.

Those are tough words to swallow when we are already facing the worst employment numbers in a long time. The Washington Post’s headline on Saturday read, “Monthly loss of jobs worst in 34 years.”

Over 500,000 jobs were lost just last month, and things are going to get worse?

If things are not getting better any time soon, it’s not a bad idea to prepare for the worst. The reality is that your safe, secure job today may not exist tomorrow. So what can you do to avoid your own personal recession?

1. Make Yourself Valuable: If you are an employee, it is absolutely necessary to make yourself an asset to your company. By either finding ways to save money or bring in more revenue, you can make yourself stand out from your peers. During times of downsizing, very tough decisions are made and sometimes the difference between you and someone else losing their job virtually comes down to a coin toss. Be sure you’re giving yourself an edge by increasing your company’s bottom line.
2. Build Up Your Cash Reserve: Now is not the time to reduce your 401k contributions, but it is a good time to cut back on discretionary spending. Put money aside that you would normally spend on entertainment, for example, to be prepared for worst case scenarios. If all else fails, then you still have your 401k to borrow against if absolutely necessary.
3. Diversify Your Income: Whether you are an entrepreneur or not, now is a good time to bring in additional revenue streams. If you have a business, you’re probably feeling the slowdown. Think about other markets you can tap into or where you can expand services. If you don’t have your own company, start thinking about how you can monetize your free time. It’s easy to start your own business from home by creating signs for local businesses or producing an income online. With some creativity and effort, you can easily bring in a few hundred dollars a month, which can go a long way.

During the Great Depression and other tough economic times throughout history, some people became incredibly wealthy. They were able to achieve this by being prepared and taking advantage of opportunities that no one else could.

Just because the over all economic environment is not positive doesn’t mean it has to affect you. Protect yourself, provide value, and produce your own income and you’ll be able to sleep soundly at night as things continue to worsen.

Here are a few strategies that you can put into action right now to improve your success — the first is a strategic, actionable method, the second method describes how to keep your goals on track, and the third is the Super Ninja Method to quickly reaching your goals.

These strategies are not limited to creating wealth either. You can use these methods to improve your relationships, increase self-confidence, or push yourself to lose more weight.

First the strategic method…

The first step is to identify your goal. What is it that you want to accomplish? Make sure these are measurable goals that you can achieve. Go ahead and write it down — even if you think it is a far fetch goal, give it a shot.

Now, paraphrasing Timothy Ferriss, if you you absolutely had to achieve this goal, you would find a way to reach it. If a gun was to your head and the trigger would be pulled unless you achieved this goal, your creativity, resourcefulness and motivation would reach new levels.

1. Think about your goal and what the outcome will be like. What circumstances need to be in place in order to help you reach your goal? What has to change, what do you need, what resources do other people have that you could tap into to help you reach your goal? Write them down.
2. Now that you know the circumstances that need to be in place in order to make your goal a reality, start thinking backwards from the end result to where you are today. Try to “reverse engineer” the achieved outcome in your mind and think about what steps will you need to take?
3. Now take action and and move the gears in motion. If your goal is properly set, it will require you to step outside your comfort zone, make yourself growth and think in new directions, and will require a level of determination that you may have not realized you had.

Creating the right mindset…

To keep yourself engaged and on task, it will take as much mental energy as it does physical. Reaching your goal will take planning and preparation, some sacrifices, and at times will be exhausting. There may be days you lost track of benefits and decide to give up your pursuit.

The only thing worse than not achieving your goal is looking back 10 years from now and thinking to yourself “I can’t believe I quit then. If I just stayed the track I could have accomplished this a long time ago.”

Now there are a couple ways you can keep yourself motivated:

1. Keep a picture or some reminder with you at all times that triggers an emotional response
2. Create additional goals that go beyond your primary goal, which cannot be accomplished without first reaching this primary goal
3. Generally speaking, we will do more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure. Set up a system to reward yourself when you accomplish tasks, but also have a system that punishes you for going off track

Super Ninja Method…

Some of the most successful people I know create their own reality. By visually achieving your goals, you can accomplish things you had no idea you were capable of. Watch this short video from an Aussie named Ryan Higgins to see what I’m talking about…

 
==> Make Your Mind Movie
 
 
There’s literally hundreds of Mind Movies on YouTube. Visit Mind Movies to get started with making your own (they have a 2 month test drive), or just borrow a movie already posted on YouTube. Here are a couple I enjoy…

Make Mind Movies Here