How do people get what they want? Is it even possible to get what we want when we have limited time and money? If I tell you I found the secret to how you can get what you want, you might not believe it. Here is the secret. You can have what you want if you learn how to think in the right way. I found the secret in this book, The Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace Wattles. In the book, he says it is perfectly right to want to be rich, and he helps your mind to get to the right place to do so. There is nothing wrong with wanting to get rich. There are many people who have mixed emotions about money, that somehow it's wrong to want more. Wallace says not wanting more is actually abnormal. It's completely right to want more. This is how we rise to our highest potential. Deep down, we all want to be all we could be. Wallace says by being the best you can be, you can help others to become the best they can be. Let's look at four key lessons that I learned from the book on how to acquire more riches.
Key Lesson #1: The power of thought: wealth springs from thought.
“See the things you want as if they actually were around you all the time. See yourself as owning and using them. Make use of them in your imagination just as you'll use them when they are your tangible possessions.” You'd likely heard about the power of visualization, about athletes who visualize the successful outcome of their competition, about public speakers who visualize their presentations before they actually give it. Wallace says that visualization can have an extraordinary effect on your ability to create wealth. “All the forms that man fashions with his hands must first exist in his thought. He can’t shape a thing until he has thought that thing.” “Man can form many things in his thought and by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created.” In other words, thoughts become things. You must be very specific with your thoughts and goals. Also, if you have doubts, you must be diligent about casting those aside. Focus on abundance rather than on scarcity, in your thoughts. This is an absolute key to your success. Do you have a clear goal for your financial success? Remember, you can’t hit a target if you don't know what it is.
Key Lesson #2: Gratitude matters: Being tankful brings even more
“There is a law of gratitude and it is absolutely necessary that you should observe the law if you are to get the results that you seek. The law of gratitude is a natural principle that action and reaction are always equal and opposite directions.” When you are thankful for what you already have, more abundance will come your way. When you are imagining your goals, not only imagine them as if you've already attained them, but also express your gratitude for their attainment. Wallace tells us “many people who order their lives rightly in all other ways, are kept in poverty by their lack of gratitude. Having received one gift from God, they cut the wires which connect them with him, by failing to make acknowledgment.” Think about it. Why would the universe give you more if you are not grateful for what you have now? No matter what your spiritual beliefs, it seems logical that if you are generally ungrateful, the negative energy that you are putting out into the world is not likely to draw positive energy and abundance your way. This principle holds true in almost every area of life. If you are not feeling and expressing gratitude with the people in your life, If you take them for granted, it's pretty likely that the relationship will start to go backward rather than flourishing. Wallace says, “the moment you permit your mind to dwell with dissatisfaction upon things as they are, you begin to lose ground.” We have two choices here. We can either raise our positive vibrations through the expression of gratitude, or we can allow our vibrations to lower into negativity, scarcity, and unhappiness.
Key Lesson #3: Focus on the present: now is where you find riches
“By thought, you can cause the gold in the heart of mountains to be impelled towards you. But it will not mine itself, or fine itself, coin itself and come rolling along the road seeking its way to your pocket.” Wouldn't we all love that gold rolling around the road and somehow flinging itself directly to our pocket? But that's not how it works. Even though thought is creative power, you must take action. Thought alone will not create success. Earlier we said that thoughts become things, but for that to happen, we have to take action. Once we can see our target with clarity, it's time to get down to business and start creating some clear roadmaps and daily action steps that will get us to our goals. “Whatever your action is to be, it is evident that you must act now.” You can’t act in the past. Let the past go. You can’t act in the future, for the future is not here yet. When your mind either dwelling in the past or dreaming of the future, you are not giving full attention to the present moment, which is the only place where things can actually happen. Take action right where you are. Don't wait until conditions are perfect. You can make changes right now in whatever situations you’re in.
Key Lesson #4: Efficient action: Every day is a success or a failure
“Every day is either a successful day or a day of failure. And it is the successful days which get you what you want.” If every day is a failure, you can never get rich. While if every day is a success, you can't fail to get rich. In the science of getting rich, we’re reminded of the power of efficiency. In fact, Wallace says we should look at each act as a success or failure. Every inefficient act is a failure, and if you spend your life doing inefficient acts, your whole life would be a failure. When you think about it, life comes down to a series of actions that while strung together, become your days, your weeks, your months, years, and ultimately your life. You might not think too much about whether you're being efficient with your actions today because, well, tomorrow is another day. However, if you take Wallace's point of view that every day is either a successful day or a day of failure, then the scorecard is viewed differently and with a little bit more urgency. At the end of each day, ask yourself, was today a success or was it a failure? Did you take efficient actions on your most important goals or were you inefficient and wasted too much time? What can you do differently tomorrow? Most of it depends on your doing very simple acts that can open the door of opportunity for great possibilities.
So to summarize:
1- All riches first originate in our minds.
2- The more you are grateful, the more you’ll have to be grateful for.
3- Present moment is all there is to find riches.
4- Every day is either a success or a failure.
There we have it. Wallace’s inspiring guide to increasing your wealth. The universe wants nothing more than for you to live an abundant life, and you should embrace your natural desire to be rich.
I've prepared a one-page infographics summary of the book. Click the link below and I'll be happy to send it to you.
