“Ask and it will be given”. This pithy biblical verse from Matthew 7: 7 is the very foundation of The Law of Attraction. This terse biblical verse is used as a prop to validate the principles behind The Law of Attraction. “Ask and it will be given”, sounds nice. It makes us feel good because what it is really saying to us is “wish and you’ll get what you want in life”. This is what makes the Law of Attraction so compelling. The idea that you can think something into your life. It plays very well to the human frailty we all possess, which is the desire to get something by doing nothing. This human trait is the reason why the lottery and gambling are so rampant in our society. The Law of Attraction is no better than buying a lottery ticket. Despite all of its good intentions, it is nothing more than a false god. It is an energy drink at a time when your body needs a home-cooked meal. I have an unfortunate news flash for the disciples of The Law of Attraction: life does not give you things just by thinking those things into your life. If all we needed to do was to ask and it would be given, then most of us would be living in McMansions on the beach, with an SL 500 parked in the garage and passive income flowing into our bank accounts.
The only action will give you any shot at wealth. You need to take action if you want to achieve any real financial success in life. In a nutshell The Law of Attraction does not work, and “ask and it will be given” are just words from a very famous old book written by a human being many thousands of years ago, in a time very different than the one we live in today. We’ve come a long way since then. We’ve evolved as a species. We’re different today than we were 2,000 years ago. We’re smarter. We have more knowledge. We have better and more abundant information. We have an additional 2,000 years of human experience to look back upon. New, proven concepts abound and it is these experienced-driven concepts and principles that we should be adopted into our lives, not 20 words written a long, long time ago.
The secret to achieving financial success has always been called a secret. Why? Rich people will shower you with platitudes. They will beat their chest about hard work, commitment, intelligence, perseverance, good grades, on and on. The fact is the financial success has nothing to do with any of those things. It has nothing to do with the number of hours you work in a day, or your intelligence, or the college you graduated from or your profession, or your tenacity. The reason financial success has always been a secret is that rich people have no idea why they are successful. It’s a secret even to the wealthy.
If financial success is a secret, even to wealthy people, then we’re all screwed, right? Not exactly. It’s not a secret to everyone. It’s not a secret to this CPA, who has spent 25 years advising and studying wealthy people. I know the secret. Not very many people share my knowledge. I stumbled upon the secret to financial success after a client asked me five years ago, “what am I doing wrong?”. I spent five years trying to answer that question. It was a purely accidental discovery. But what an epiphany it was.
Financial success is directly tied to your daily habits of living. When your daily habits are constructive, good habits, you will realize financial success in life. I like to call these good habits, “The Rich Habits”. These are daily habits that lead to success. The byproduct of living The Rich Habits is health, happiness, nice vacations, modest, but nice homes, family time, numerous good relationships, plenty of savings, robust retirement plans, successful businesses, no debt and a general feeling of well being.
What are these “Rich Habits”? The Rich Habits represent five years of research into the daily habits of wealthy people. I’ve narrowed these daily habits down into ten principles I call “The Rich Habits”. If you live these ten Rich Habits every day you will, in time and without fail, become financially successful. You will see your wealth accumulate, day by day, year after year. Your mindset will change and you will see yourself as financially successful. For example, Rich Habit # 3 states: “I Will Engage In Self-Improvement Every Day”. Following this Rich Habit requires you to engage in the habit of improving your career/trade skills every day. This may include, for example, keeping up with industry changes through periodicals. blogs, Internet research or specific self-study material. You do this on a daily basis, which only requires that you commit to one half an hour per day of self-improvement. But the key is, you need to perform this task every day. It’s incremental but in the aggregate it is significant. You will begin to see opportunities you missed previously and this will translate into a financial reward down the road.
The main premise of The Law of Attraction is that you can attract wealth into your life if you think rich thoughts. According to the law, if your vibrational patterns are aligned correctly with the great ether, you will attract that which you think about every day. If you are not attracting those things you desire in life, according to the law, then you are doing something wrong. What you are doing wrong is hard to define and oftentimes leaves the follower frustrated. The main failing of the Law of Attraction is this: attracting wealth into your life requires action, not thought. You can not simply think your way into wealth. You need to develop good daily habits that are focused on the achievement of your goals.
Featured Image: Life in the Right Direction