Act Rich, Get Rich

Plenty of experts tell us that we need to act rich in order to get rich. I believe that, because I sure don’t know how to get a part without first knowing how to play the role. But how one can act rich when one is struggling to survive in today’s awful economy and/or drowning in debt?

Acting rich no matter what one’s current circumstances are is a mind game, one that I myself continue to play every day. The basic idea is to let go of the emotional charge that your financial condition and debt has over you. Say you’re worried and stressed about your current situation. Those emotions (remember that emotion = energy in motion) are radiating out from you and are actually attracting more of the same old problems.

First of all, emotions form chemicals that course through your entire bloodstream and attach themselves to opiate receptors in each cell of your body. These are the same receptors that get affected by addictive drugs. Feel a certain way long enough and you will literally become addicted to those feelings. If you’re worried and stressed all the time, you’ll eventually become addicted to that worry and stress. The chemicals produced by negative emotions are literally poisons that can shorten a person’s life span. The old expression “worrying yourself to death” is absolutely true!

Second, people pick up on emotions. Your words are 5% of what you are communicating and your voice tone is another 35% or so. The remaining 60% of your communications are in the form of subtle cues that are as clear as day to any observer. Have you ever interviewed anyone for a job? If so, then you’ve seen people who are desperate… and that desperation comes through loud and clear no matter how chipper and upbeat the person tries to act. Are you more or less likely to hire the desperate person or the one who is calm and enthusiastic? Apply this same concept to your life: If you’re desperate, worried, stressed, etc. then people will know, no matter how much you try to hide it.

Acting rich does not mean going out and throwing money around or buying all kinds of fancy stuff with abandon. It means letting go of the negative emotions. All negative emotions stem from fear. So, whatever bad emotions you may have about your situation translate into your being afraid of where you are and/or what could happen to you. Why are you afraid? If these bad things happen and your fears come true, then you will lose control of the situation and/or lose the acceptance of people around you. Losing control might be in the form of collection calls, bankruptcy, etc. and losing acceptance could be not keeping up with the Joneses or a dinged credit score. The bottom line is that all negative emotions stem from fear and all fear boils down to the fundamental human needs to be in control and to be accepted.

Acting rich is as simple as losing the need for control and losing the need for acceptance. It also means accepting responsibility, both for your current situation and for your future. You did this to yourself; nothing and no one did this for you or to you. If you want to know who is responsible (able to respond) to everything that’s wrong (and right) in your life, the answer is no further than your nearest mirror.

So here you are, fully accepting of responsibility, having let go of the need to control and be accepted. And you’re still in the same situation. What now?

Now you learn to manage what you do have. It’s like learning to fly a plane. Nobody starts off flying big jets. Instead, you learn to fly simple little propeller planes and eventually work yourself up to the big time. It’s the same with money. Learn to manage your finances and create a budget that pays you first, no matter what. I don’t care how little you make, take the top 10% of that and sock it away somewhere where you can never touch it. Everyone else can fend for themselves. What if you don’t have enough to go around? Oh well. Take care of yourself first. Do that and I will hazard the guess that there will always be enough to go around. Contact your creditors and work out reduced interest rates/settlements/etc. This recession is a golden time to negotiate a great deal for getting out of your debt for less. Talk to a financial planner. In other words, learn to get the absolute most from what you have. Once you are an expert at managing your little bit of money, you will be able to manage a little more… and a little more… and a little more… and so on.

Next, decide what really matters to you in life. Here is the simple truth: You are going to die. Not for a long time, I hope, but your end is inevitable. If there is nothing beyond this life, if it all fades to black, then every second that passes is a second gone forever and you literally have no time to waste. If, however, there is some form of continuity (as I believe there must be, for purely scientific reasons), then my analogy says that the better you do in first grade, the better prepared you’ll be to handle second grade.

This brings up a simple question: In your last few moments of this life as you look back from your deathbed powerless to do a thing… as you draw your last breath… what do you want to have taken, given, seen, learned, been, experienced, etc? What will it take for you to be able to die in peace? I think you’d agree that the last words anyone should die with are “if only!” This question therefore gives you a very simple test that you must always keep in mind: If anything in your life (job, money, friends, etc.) is not contributing to your desired final vision for your life, then let it go and move on. This involves nothing less than finding and living your life’s mission. Everybody has a mission and you are no exception. If you are not living in accordance with that mission, then no wonder your financial situation stinks.

Remember that wealth has nothing to do with money. Wealth is a state of spirit, not of bank account. For example, if your mission in this life is to hang from a tree and study exotic reptiles in a distant land, then do it! Your bank account will probably be next to empty most of the time but so what? You will be living your passion and thus infinitely rich. Get the huge bank account and fancy stuff without living your life’s purpose and you’ll be even more miserable than you are right now (or, more accurately, you’ll feel whatever negative emotions you currently feel, only far more strongly).

What this all boils down to is:

- Learn to manage what you do have.
- Pay yourself first
- Find out exactly(!) what matters to you in this life and embrace that with all you have.
- Let go of and forget about all else.

This is what it means to act rich. Act rich and I dare say you’ll find yourself becoming wealthy.

To jump-start your path to being rich, find and learn from rich people. By “rich”, I mean someone who has both a big bank account and a big heart. Someone like that is truly wealthy and also truly believes that a rising tide lifts all boats. I have a college degree and am in grad school… and here I am learning from a high school dropout. Jim Britt (who leads the MOXXOR WORKS Team) had everything going against him and he turned that into a life that has touched over a million people while also making him financially independent. I had a lot more going for me than he did and here I am having never touched a million people’s lives nor been overly generous to my finances.

The lesson here could not be any clearer: Throw out everything you’ve been told about money and everything you’ve been told to expect and all the measures by which you judge your own success. Hey, if any of those had worked, you wouldn’t be reading this article now, would you? Then go out and learn from people who are where you want to be, both financially and in life overall. The best ones to learn from are (not coincidentally) the ones who will be most interested in teaching/mentoring/guiding you. Jim and I co-founded the MOXXOR WORKS Team along with Louis Volpe and Sid Smith to do just that.

I am practicing what I preach as a co-founder of the MOXXOR WORKS Team, and I can truly say that I have never had the door of opportunity opened wider than I do today. I am impatient and I feel that my success is taking its sweet time when I want it NOW, but I counter that by remembering to let go, surrender, and take action with no expectation of any particular result. I am reminded of the words a pastor spoke one Sunday: Every day, the Creator (however you define that concept) is trying to give each of us a blessing. The problem is that we place so many expectations and demands that the blessing arrives either mangled beyond recognition or not at all. This lesson is also clear: Everything that happens, no matter how dire, is a blessing if (and only if) you choose to see it that way. It doesn’t matter if what happens is you going broke, a death in the family, disease, anything. You can interpret everything as a blessing and learning opportunity and be thankful for it… or not.

Surrender!

Let go of your need to control and your need for acceptance. As I said, both of those stem from fear and fear is the source of all negative emotions. Fear is the veil that shuts you off from your inner light. And I mean that absolutely literally (read The Field by Lynne McTaggart). The need to control stems from the fear of drifting along in the current and being swept out to sea. The need for acceptance comes from the fear of ostracism, which is the worst thing short of death that can befall a social animal like a human. Consider moments when you have truly surrendered… when, for example, you stood before someone and said, “I love you” with total openness. In that moment you surrendered control and had no idea if your love would be accepted or not. You bared yourself beyond naked and exposed your innermost self. That took strength! That opened you up to receive a blessing far, far greater than any kind of expectation or fear ever could.

Recall how you felt in those moments, and learn to observe your feelings moment by moment. When you catch yourself feeling a certain way, ask, “Does this move me closer to, or further away from, that feeling of total fearless surrender?” If closer, fine! Experience the feeling and let it flow through you. If not, find a way to channel the energy you have built up (again, emotion is defined as energy in motion) into a more positive place. It takes practice, but you can do it. You can channel your emotions however you see fit. Reward yourself when you do well, and forgive and be extra good to yourself when you don’t. You’ll get there.

Your needs to control and be accepted (your fear) exist because at one point you faced real or perceived dangers. The distinction between “real” and “perceived” is blurry at best because everything is perceived. Thus, you faced danger and your fear developed to protect you. In other words, your fear helped keep you alive. Therefore, it is critically important to love your fear just as much as you love your “good” feelings. It has done its job of protecting you to perfection and now that job is done. Treat your fear with love just like a delicious meal that eventually ends, leaving you with all of the benefits of a full tummy, happy memories, and resources for the future that you would never dream of feeling bad about. You’ve eaten the meal of fear, which has kept you nourished… and now it’s time to leave the table because you don’t need it anymore. OK, that’s a bad analogy but you get my point: Acting rich is as simple as letting go of your fear.