Many are programmed to fail and to be poor – unless they renew their mind to be wealthy.
When I was young, I learned about The Four Temperaments.
It is a well-regarded tool that has been widely taught by Tim LaHaye, a man I respect for his spiritual insights.
However, every use can be abused. In this case, I applied this tool wrongly.
It prevented an abundance of wealth from flowing into my life.
I learned that I was a melancholic. There are advantages and disadvantages of having such a temperament.
Like many people, instead of focusing on my strengths, I focus on my weaknesses.
A melancholic tends to be more of a gloomy loner. He holds a dim and more pessimistic view of life.
As a friend, you’ll probably jump in at this stage and say, “Patrick, this is definitely not you. You’re a fun-loving person. Definitely more positive than most people.”
You’re right and you’re also wrong. But, please let me finish my story.
A melancholic is inclined to be overly sensitive. He can hold two or more conversations in his mind.
I wasn’t sure if I became more melancholic because I was one.
Or, because I was mindful of it, therefore, I became more of a melancholic.
It was probably a combination of both forces.
Sadly, for a while, I manifested many weaknesses of a melancholic.
One day, I had a divinely-appointed “Aha!” moment.
I realized our Creator could change me instantly.
My negative beliefs didn’t have to make me, me. Self-talk might not be true.
Dominating negative thoughts did not have to become a reality.
My mind is only a part of a complete system that made up my being.
It can be transformed and disciplined to serve a higher purpose.
From that moment on, the ‘New Patrick’ replaced the ‘Old Patrick’.
I embarked on a journey to add more positive values in my life, and remove the negative values of the ‘Old Patrick’.
I began to renew my mind to be rich and wealthy.
To help me do so, I implemented what I called the “D.A.R.E.” system.
I needed courage to change my life, especially to change the way I have always lived.
Someone once told me, “Courage is not the absence of fear. It is having the commitment, initiatives and perseverance to pursue my dream despite of fear”.
By the way, I wrote this chapter furiously on my way back from Frankfurt. It was like the last thing I must complete in my life.
That’s how important I felt about the lessons in this chapter.
In short, the renewal of your mind will change your life.
D – Define Your Beliefs
“A problem well defined is half-solved”.
- Ted Engstrom, Founder of World Vision
To reprogram your mind, you need to be completely honest with yourself. Seek feedback from those who know you better than yourself.
Have clarity about the underlying beliefs that influenced your life – no matter how deep these beliefs are buried in your being.
Each of these beliefs has influenced you in different ways.
It has impacted you before and it may continue to do so throughout your life.
Choose the words that best described your belief.
Make sure that you’re very clear about the meaning of those words and how they have affected your wealth situation.
As you study the list of beliefs, be cognizant that behind your belief, there may be another belief driving and influencing it.
Examine the layers and hierarchy of your beliefs. Find out the set of core beliefs that is pulling many of the strings in your mind.
If you change these core beliefs, you can make major changes in your life.
The new beliefs act as fuel to combust your wealth-creating engine forward to success.
A – Analyse The Results
“Results are true measurements of life”.
After you have defined your beliefs, pose yourself a series of questions.
The quality of your life is determined by the quantity of quality questions that you ask yourself constantly (see Table 7.1: Questions to help redesign your beliefs).
Questions will direct your mind to find answers. It will drive you to seek help from our Creator and other wise counsels so as to find better solutions.
Questions
1
What are my beliefs about wealth?
2
What are my core beliefs about wealth?
3
How did I form these beliefs?
4
Why did I select these beliefs?
5
Are these beliefs from me or from others?
6
How did I live out these beliefs in my life?
7
What are the outcomes from these beliefs?
8
Are they motivating me towards or away from taking action?
9
Are they leading me nearer or further away from my vision?
10
What can I do to change and improve these beliefs?
11
How can I remove my limiting beliefs?
12
How can I grieve over these negative beliefs and still accept myself?
13
How can I replace them with empowering beliefs?
14
How can I overcome limiting beliefs when they reappear in my life?
15
How can I craft empowering beliefs?
16
Will the empowering beliefs help me achieve my dream and vision?
17
How should I live out the empowering beliefs?
18
How should I be passionate and feel excited about the empowering beliefs?
19
How should I think, talk and act when I live with the empowering beliefs?
20
How can I improve my beliefs?
Questions to help redesign your beliefs
As a result of asking these questions, you will realise that you have not deliberately planned for and thought through your beliefs.
You did not carefully evaluate and select them in the past.
Many of your beliefs were the result of influences from your background, experiences, and people around you.
Those beliefs have somehow seeped into your mind and became a part of your life.
To reprogram your mind, you need to know why and how you developed and adopted these beliefs.
By doing that, it will help you evaluate their place and influence in your life.
Determine the bearing of these beliefs on your behaviour. How they have affected you in terms of taking the right or wrong actions to pursue your desired future.
Through this analysis, ascertain how you have lived out these beliefs in the past and the resulting outcomes. Determine what results you will get if you continue to hold on to these beliefs.
Match these results to see if they are in line with the fulfillment of your dream and vision.
This analysis will form the basis for you to develop a new set of beliefs to help you create optimal wealth.
R – Redesign My Beliefs
“If you do the same things, you will always get the same results.
In other words, to change the results, you must
change the way you do things”.
Beliefs are means to an end.
To start with the end in mind, as taught by Stephen Covey, you need to know the purpose of your life.
Find out the vision that you are aiming to achieve with your wealth.
Study the beliefs of successful people. Improve on their beliefs, and position yourself to achieve similar or better results.
Constantly redesign your beliefs so that they will fit your personality, the people you work with, the situation, and the tasks at hand.
These empowering beliefs will help you achieve your desired purpose and goal.
The new beliefs should meet the following criteria:
- First Person Pronoun
It should be crafted using the first person pronoun – i.e. “I, me, myself”. The beliefs are for you and not for others.
- Direct, Simple and Short
It should be direct, simple and short. If it is crafted with long sentences and not clear, it will be hard to remember and apply them.
- Results-Focused
It should support what you aim to achieve, and inspire you to fulfill your dream.
- Present Continuous Tense
When you use a present continuous tense, you’re committing your mind to turn your dream into a reality and to become more motivated to live out the dream in your life.
- Inspirational
It should be crafted in a positive, motivational and empowering way.
Specify what you want to achieve and not what you do not want to achieve in your life.
After crafting the new beliefs, believe in them and that they can be lived out in your life.
Be passionate about the values and feel excited about making them an important part of your life.
The new set of beliefs needs to be constantly improved on so that you can leverage on it to accomplish a higher level of achievements.
And be inspired to progress to a higher plane of life.
E – Entrench Your Beliefs
“The core strategy of the wealth-creation plan is execution.
Execution is the highway to take you from your dream
until it becomes a reality”.
It is one thing to craft an effective set of beliefs, it is quite another to be able to live out the set of beliefs and leverage upon them to achieve optimal financial results.
Therefore, commit to your set of beliefs. Be passionate about the beliefs and make them real in your life.
New Self-Talk. To do so, change your self-talk. The good news is that you can discipline yourself until you develop a new way to communicate with yourself.
Repeat your set of new beliefs passionately and regularly. Affirm your beliefs and feel good about them.
Through affirmation, it will help you to destroy the old neural pathways and create new ones that will support a financially brighter future.
When you voice each belief with positive emotions and feeling, it will strengthen your commitment to it.
Commitment will help you create better results.
With better results, you can further enhance your emotional muscles which will then help you achieve even better financial results.
Start a virtuous cycle with the empowering self-talk.
Train and Share. Train others to renew their minds and share about how to do it at informal discussions.
Make it a point to encourage others to adopt a better set of beliefs.
As you promote a better set of beliefs, you are also encouraging yourself and motivating yourself to live out the beliefs so as to set a good example for your children and friends.
Battles Ahead. Will a limiting belief come into your mind again? Yes, of course!
Be vigilant and prevent the limiting belief from rearing its ugly head.
Avoid ‘energy vampires’. These are people, including well-intentioned people, who will suck your energy with their words and actions.
Don’t be a hero.
One of the best ways to handle them, unfortunately, is to “run” – as fast and as far as possible from them.
It’s not good enough to remove negativity. Negativity abhors a mental vacuum. It will return back to you.
That’s why, you may need to ‘force-feed’ yourself – through your five senses – with everything that is positive.
For example, carry a positive book with you all the time. In your free time, read the book so as to fill your mind with the right thoughts.
Removing Negative Beliefs. Very often, negativity comes from yourself.
Years ago, I developed an interesting and fun way to manage the negative beliefs.
First, I would tie a rubber band around my wrist.
Resist. Every time, I thought negatively or hear a negative word, I would respond immediately and with a strong emotion, “Stop!”
I would snap myself to further ensure it would not start a train of negative thoughts.
I would not allow the seed of negative belief to take root and grow until it became a monkey on my back.
Rationalise. Then, I would confront and challenge the negative belief.
I learned not to believe every negative information that my mind told me.
I learned to confront and reason with it.
Along the way, I discovered I have been immersed in many lies and half-truths about wealth-creation.
When I pondered over these negative beliefs, I discovered they don’t make sense and they have served me negatively.
Example:
Negative Self-Talk By ‘Old Patrick’:
Patrick, you can never be rich.
Positive Self-Talk By ‘New Patrick’:
“Why can’t I be rich? There are many people who are worse than me. If they can be rich, I can be rich too. If I work hard and smart, of course, I can be rich.”
Sometimes, I will confront my mind using a third party’s perspective.
Example:
“If the wisest person evaluates this belief, will he approve and adopt it?”
“Will our Creator want me to have this belief?”
Renew
After rationalizing and removing my negative belief, I would then replace it with an empowering belief.
I would leverage on past lessons to strengthen my resolution to live out a new belief.
I needed to keep replaying the new belief until it became a part of the operating system in my mind and heart.
Example:
“My loved ones are living a better and better life as I’m becoming richer and richer.”
“The world is a much better place as I’m donating more and more money.”
“I’m helping more and more people as I’m becoming wealthier and wealthier.”
As you remove negative beliefs and renew your mind with empowering beliefs, you’ll get better results in your life.
Remember and record positive experiences, especially the great feelings that resulted from these experiences. Anchor these memories deeply in your mind.
These memories will become a treasure cove that you can leverage on to overcome future negative beliefs.
Every time, when you feel down or when you’re challenging a doubt, an uncertainty or a fear, recall these positive memories. They will give you the extra energy to reprogram your beliefs and renew your mind.
To conclude, aim to renew yourself throughout your life.
When you reprogram your beliefs, it will renew your mind.
When you renew your mind, it will reengineer your thoughts, words, and actions. It will then redesign your behavior and reinvigorate your lifestyle.
Ultimately, it will help you to reinvent your life.
It will recharge you for a wealthier future.
Go4It!
I hope this message will find a place in your heart.
By the way, I have also recorded other reflections.
Please ‘Like’ me on https://m.facebook.com/patrickliewsg
Please visit my website, http://www.patrickliew.net
Follow me on:
https://www.quora.com/profile/Patrick-Liew-5
Visit my Inspiration blog at https://liewinspiration.wordpress.com/
For my opinions on social affairs, please visit my Transformation blog at http://hsrpatrickliew.wordpress.com/
Let’s connect on instagram.com/patrickliewsg – via @patrickliewsg
https: //twitter.com/patrickliew77
– via @patrickliew77
My LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/in/liewpatrick
My Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Patrick-Liew-5?share=24abf3c1&srid=uL2Gz
My YouTube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgyRa8WbYXHTtr39OUPCB2w
Please read my reflections and continue to teach me.
Life is FUNtastic!
Inspiration 