Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, Part I

(ed. Note) In the interest of getting this posted, I have broken this into two parts. Part II coming soon.

"Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth"
by T. Harv Eker

This is not a book review. It is not a book report. To do so would be ignoring the value of this book. Instead, imagine that this is a mini-seminar, teaching you the book. Yes, it's that important. The reason is simple, he could have named the book differently, Secrets of the Mind. He chose money, because that's what he chose to have first. Believe me, I get it. And the book is really about understanding Mind, recognizing how it has held you back in the past, and upgrading, allying with it to create your highest choices.

Financial Blueprint

The first concept addressed, in Part One of the book, is a person's "financial blueprint". This is the combined sum of everything you know, have heard, have learned, and have experienced about money in your lifetime. And there are several tools to help the reader discover his own blueprint. Some sources for this? Chime in if these apply to you, I've included if they apply to me in parentheses.

Phrases you've heard (yes)
Parental influences (yes)
Societal influences, such as church and school (yes)
Personal experiences (yes)

What else?

"Money is the root of all evil."
"More money, more problems."
"Money can buy you happiness."
"Money can't buy you happiness."

Money is a necessary part of a large society. It facilitates trade, by allowing the easy movement of goods, so nobody has to figure out how many goats are worth how many cows. Now, stop. Money is nothing else, certainly none of those things above. That is programming, specifically your programming, and I will get to that in a bit.

Everything in your life up until now can be combined to create a basic "blueprint" for your relationship with money. Now this is one place to be completely Zen. It makes no difference what your past is. What your previous experiences and influences were. In fact, remember this one thing: all of these things got you exactly here. If your blueprint is small, your finances are currently small. If your financial blueprint leads to financial abundance, your abundance has already happened.

Your financial blueprint is the exact blueprint that creates your current scenario. How clearly you see this is up to you. When you sit down to think about/draw up your financial blueprint, I invite you to leave any mental baggage at home. The more honest and accurate your assessment is, the more you will be able to change it.

Following is the first of several "warning flags", which I am giving you to help you understand when you are you, and when you are your Mind. In most cases, they will help you to notice and discern when your Mind is likely deceiving you, and how.

Warning flag: if you find yourself saying, "that's not me", "that doesn't apply to me", I invite you to redouble your efforts on that exact point. The fact that your Mind is so quick to dismiss something often means that it is shielding a delusion. Delusions fade in the light of truth, and your Mind knows that dismissing the idea quickly is the only way you can keep the delusion it has substituted for the truth. So really check in, especially on the points that seem to be "not you".

So, you have a financial blueprint. Does the fact that your parents handled their finances badly mean anything to you right now? Yes and no. Yes, it likely affected every choice you've made about money since you started getting an allowance and before. No, it need not affect a single choice you make starting right now. And here is where I leave it to you to drop everything "you know". If you bring any "knowledge", or "truths" to this discussion, you are probably shielding delusions, or programming at the very least. Drop everything that was given to you, you already have every answer you require.

Enough preaching for now. You are ready, willing, and excited to discover your own financial blueprint, and see it clearly and accurately, so that you can upgrade it with full effectiveness. How do you go about doing this? Well, here I will defer to T. Harv. This is one of the major exercises of this book, and it will be different for everyone. I've given you the basic idea, which is to honestly assess your programming and stories about money, and how they affect your views of money, and choices about money. If you would like more specific help, read (and reread as necessary) Part One of the book.

The Wealth Files

The second concept (Part Two) details how you can upgrade your blueprint. For example, your Mom made you get money from Dad when you were a child, so now you have a blueprint about how men are providers, and women are spenders. And simply by naming it, you can see that it's patently false. What now? How do you move forward, how can you upgrade that?

The answer? SURPRISE! Enlightenment, awareness, self-honesty, consciousness. Who was surprised? Raise your hand, then remember your coat on the way out. Of course it all comes down to awareness. Which begs the first obvious question. If awareness is all it takes, what else is there to do? With your fully accurate financial blueprint, you have a road map of awareness on the subject. But your roadmap can only help you navigate where you've been. In Part Two, T Harv describes how we can upgrade our existing road map, replacing it with the maps that are used by the wealthy.

This process can easily be separated into two stages:

One, take the advice and suggestions offered, whether you believe them, understand them, or even despise them. If you resist, remember again where you are, and exactly how you got here. Are you really going to cling to those things?

Two, move past the idea that you need programming to help make choices. Realize that you need neither the old stories or the new ones. That you can write your own rules, and that rules are an unnecessary crutch, which are only ever partially correct. Be careful here, and really check in. This is the whole enchilada, and you need to make sure you are fully present before attempting to move into this space.

Warning Flag: If you are inclined to skip from Step One to Step Two, you are most likely still coming from a place of "knowing". You may think you are moving from Mind into enlightenment, but in this case it's likely your Mind choosing NOT to reevaluate the things it "knows". Again, if you've never been a millionaire, how can your Mind know what it means to "know being a millionaire"? It's not just "wanting", or "imagining" that makes it all happen, or how many zillionaires would be wandering the Earth? If you resist the ideas he puts forward, then you are clinging to the past, "already knowing" the very thing you choose to clearly see. It's not important that you accept these ideas as gospel, ultimate truths. As I mentioned, no matter which outcome you choose, these concepts can be extremely useful landmarks, to help you understand the terrain. Once you can see the terrain, understand how you can move from one place to another, only then do I advise you to toss the map and move like an eagle, flying directly to your new choices.