Identifying Time Wasting Activities

How much did you put in today to achieve your life's dream or goal? How much time did you put it into yesterday and how much time have you put into it over the last month. Chances are, if you've come to this blog, you know you are not achieving the full potential out of yourself and you could actually put a lot more time into achieving the novel you want to write, the business you want to create or the promotion you want to get.

In this post I've identified key time wasting activities that if abolished from our daily lives, have the potential to free up a massive amount of time. Spotting these time wasting activities, eradicating them and filling the time with useful activities is key to achieving a great amount of success and getting through the workload that comes with it.

10 Time Wasting Activities

Internet :

Even I can be a slave to this one. I hear many people say that they often log onto facebook or twitter, and forty five minutes later they realise they haven't actually done anything.

Whether you are browsing the news channels, catching up on your social media or just surfing the web, you can waste hours of your day on pointless exercises. Try to give yourself a limit of fifteen minutes a day on social media sites, or only allow yourself to check the news headlines during your lunch break. If this is hard to do, use your parental control devices on your browser and ban the time wasting sites all together. Although you will know your password, having to put it in will at least make you think about what you are going to achieve by going on the site.

Television:

I cannot see a bigger waste of time than sitting in front of the box. The average American watches 153hours of TV a month. That's over six days of TV, which is nearly a week just sat in front of a box, not achieving anything.

Imagine gaining a week of your life back, how much can you achieve in six days! Start by not allowing yourself to watch TV during the weekdays. Anything you really must watch, you can record and watch at later date when it's suitable for you. Instead of watching TV, dedicate that time solely to achieving your goal, whether it's setting up a business, or writing your novel. If you have six days of writing a novel every month, you could easily have it finished by the end of two months.

Telephone:

There is no bigger distraction than a mobile phone going off when you're in a meeting or getting on with some work. Ignore it! It's very rarely more important that the thing you are doing now yet we automatically put the person ringing us first.

Change your answerphone message to this. "Sorry, I'm too busy to answer the phone right, please leave a message and I will aim to call you back within three working days. If it is urgent, please email me and I will reply at the nearest opportunity"

Nine times out of ten a conversation that can last ten to fifteen minutes could actually have been dealt in a two minute email reply. If it's important you can ring them back, and if it isn't important, they won't bother leaving a message.

Computer Games:

Whilst they are fun to play, and help you relax after a hard days work, they can often take over peoples lives. Set yourself a time limit on the computer or games console. Remember games are there to entertain you and help you relax on your time off. When the games themselves become your ambition, you start to waste a lot of life.

Worrying:

Worrying causes us to be indecisive and prevents us from taking the first steps into achieving our life's ambitions. Try to imagine your life in ten years. What would you tell yourself to do? The answer will either be, go for it or, it's a stupid idea and you know it. Chances are, if you are dreaming of achieving something, and you've thought about it for a long time, it's not going to be a stupid idea, so what are you waiting for. Life is long enough to rectify mistakes but it will run past you if you don't take the opportunity to do something now.

Commuting:

The UK has the longest commute time in Europe, boasting 45minutes a day. This adds up to a day a month just travelling. If you are able to, work out what jobs you can get done whilst on the commute. If you can afford it, hire a driver. You may see this as an expense at first, but if you work out how much you can earn in a day, and how much a driver would cost for a day, and what you can earn is higher than the price of a driver... it makes sense to get a driver.

Hobbies:

It's great to have hobbies, and whilst I would never say cut them out all together, a lot of people spend far too much time on their hobbies. If you are one of those people that obsesses about your football team, or has to play guitar every second of the day, try to schedule in two or three hours a week. Failing that, why not make your hobby, your job. That's what I did and now I get to do all the things I love doing, all the time and get paid for it.

Meetings:

Don't get me started on meetings. Donald Trump says that a meeting shouldn't have to last longer than fifteen minutes and I have to agree. Meetings are disruptive, unproductive and mostly irrelevant to the goals you are trying to achieve, whether that's at work or elsewhere in your life. If you can't get across your point in fifteen minutes, chances are, you don't really have a point.

Next time someone asks you to come to a meeting, ask them what it is about, assess whether it's important, and if it is, tell them that you can spare fifteen minutes for them and explain that you have important work that has a tight deadline. A good boss will appreciate your time management and if it's not important, they may tell you that you don't need to be part of it.

Daydreaming:

There is a big difference between dreaming and visualising. Next time you catch yourself daydreaming, pick up a pen and paper and write down the daydream. Then write down a couple of actions you need to do to achieve what you are dreaming about and schedule those actions in. Now it's not a daydream but a few steps towards achieving something. Now you can stop daydreaming about it and get on with some work!

Planning:

Or more the lack of it. It is one thing to say you want to achieve something during the day, week or month and it's another actually scheduling it. Take five minutes at the start of your day to write a to do list. Work out how long each task will take and schedule it in for the day. Firstly, you are more likely to do something if you've scheduled it in, and secondly, you will realise that some tasks won't take as long as you imagine they will.

Planning like any skill, you will get better at. You will start to get a good instinct of how long things will take, their importance and being able to schedule things in a way that is more efficient and enables you to achieve. There will be more posts about this!

Hopefully, for the majority of these activities, you can see where waste the day doing them. If you total the amount of time you think you waste in an average day doing these activities, you may have some alarming results! Cutting pointless activities out and scheduling in more important tasks will help you make the most of your time, impress the people around you with your productivity and put you well on your way to achieving the big goals in your life.

FM

Developing Opportunities Further Like A Millionaire

If you haven't read the post about how create opportunities like a Millionaire, please do so now. That post will help you get into the mindset of seeing opportunities in the world and developing your mind into one that can see business in everyday moments.

http://secretblogofafuturemillionaire.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-create-opportunities-like.html

This post is about how to focus your mind on a creating a business that you will love, and will make you successful.

If you followed the last exercise properly, you should now have a list of at least one hundred ideas for a business. The following exercise is about crossing off those ideas until there is one left behind. This is the idea that you are going to carry out, to start you on your journey to becoming a successful business person.

Choosing Your Millionaire Idea

Firstly, look down the list of your ideas and cross off anything that is illegal. Although I said you could put down illegal ideas, it was simply to get you into thinking about creating opportunities, however, it would be wrong for you to carry any of those ideas out so whilst it was a bit of fun, please cross them out now.

Secondly, cross of anything on that list that you wouldn't enjoy doing day in and day out. Remember, when you set up a business, you're going to have to live and breath that business for a number of years to make it successful. Every waking moment, your business will be at the forefront of your mind, whether it's going well, or struggling for a less profitable time. In order to help you get through those less profitable times, you need to be passionate about what you are doing.

By now, you may well have about seventy ideas left or may only have about ten. However many ideas you have left, that is fine. Just make sure they are all things you are highly passionate about.

So now it's time to ask yourself a series of questions that all good business people should ask themselves when creating their business.

Look down your list of ideas and with each idea ask yourself...

How will this add value to the lives of others?

So let's take one of my previous ideas of Starting a Business Event. I could say that this will add values to the lives of others, by allowing Businesses of all kinds to get together in one place. Here they could network with other Businesses, create new contacts of which to develop their Businesses further or even collaborate with other Business owners to create new Business. The talkers that I have at the events will share their great knowledge and Business Owners can take this knowledge to further grow their Businesses. This is definitely an idea that would enrich and add value to someone else's life. Put a tick next to any ideas you have left that fill this criteria.

Will people pay for this and can I easily provide them with it?

Sticking with the same idea, if I can show people the value of coming to a Business Event, which I can, because I have already answered that question, people will be willing to pay to attend. I can happily provide them with this Event, because I have organised Events before and get huge enjoyment from seeing it all come together, and since I already know the basics of running an event, although a large scale event is always a challenge, it's not outside of my capabilities and I can easily provide people with this. Now put a tick next to any idea you have left that fill criteria.

Is this the easiest and most enjoyable way to become a Millionaire?

Becoming a Millionaire is never easy, but you can make it easier for yourself by doing something that is within your capabilities and making sure it's something you will enjoy. I love putting together events and I really enjoy networking. I would be very happy to put on Business Events and as it is something that is well within my capabilities. I can easily grow the events nationally and internationally, which would increase my turnover and profit and get me well on my way to becoming a Millionaire. Put a tick next to any ideas you left that fill this criteria.

Take a look at all the ideas you have three ticks against. If you've followed the exercise, you should really have no more than five at the most. If you have more that, redo the exercise. If you still have the same amount, it's time to get ruthless and cross off any ideas that you know you would never do or pull off.

With these last few ideas, it's now time for your gut instinct to kick in. Which one of these, do you feel deep down in your is not the Business you will be doing for the rest of your life, or at least the for the next few years. Flipping it, which one do you know is. Which idea attracts you the most, which idea gets you the most excited. Which idea would you do for free if you could.

Spend a few days deliberating on these ideas and if after that, you can't settle on one idea, chances are you haven't yet found the idea that you are looking for. Don't worry, it can take a while for that Eureka moment to happen, but it will now that you in the habit of actively looking for opportunities. Something will grab you and you will know it's the right idea now that you have the knowledge to find and evaluate great business ideas.

FM

How To Create Opportunities Like A Millionaire

All of the blogs so far have been more focused on changing your mindset to a more positive self, either through changing the way you think, dress or act. Whilst if you follow these blogs you experience an instant level of feeling rich, as far as monetary terms go, by following those steps alone, you're not going to be a Millionaire any time soon. So how do people become Millionaires? How do start up companies turn into huge corporations? How can you be one of those people?

The answer is simple.

Millionaires see opportunities every day, and they know the value of their thoughts.

Look around you. The chair you are sitting on was once a thought in someones mind. Now it's a physical product that someone bought and you are sitting on. The screen you are reading from was once an idea. The typeface you are reading was once an idea. The clothes you are wearing, the home you own and everything around you was once someones idea, and someone else bought that idea. Once you start to recognise the value of your ideas, you can start to create business.

Grab a notebook now and number down the side 1-10. The following exercise will you develop your ability to find opportunities.

I want you to think of ten business ideas that you could do and jot them down. They don't have to be anything related to what you are doing now, they don't have to something you're interested in, they don't even have to be legal. This exercise isn't about creating a business, it's about getting into the mindset of seeing opportunities. You should however, be able to explain the idea behind the business in one sentence, and they should all be something that you are capable of doing.

You may find it difficult at first, but just remember that everything around you has made someone money and they all started off as an idea. To help you get an idea of what sort of things you can put down, here's a list of the first ten things I wrote I first started this exercise.

1. Give Music Lessons
2. Creating Wall Art For Homes and Hotels
3. Sell Advertisement Space on my .com's
4. Start a Tutor Agency
5. Design Tee Shirts
6. Buy and Develop Property
7. Open a Cocktail Bar
8. Run Student Events and gigs
9. Start a Business Networking Event
10. Internet Art Shop, Commissioning Artists and Selling Their Works

As you can see, all of these things are very simple ideas. All of them are within my capabilities and all of them have to potential to make money. Some of them more than others. Some of them I could do from the moment I wrote down the idea, and a couple of them I actually did.

You should keep doing this exercise every day for at least ten days. Start to notice what opportunities surround you. Is there anything that you can progress at work that will make more money, is there anything you can do that someone will pay for, is there something someone else is doing that you can do better? Ask yourself these questions everyday and you will start to see the world how great business men and women see it.

After those ten days, besides a sense of awareness for opportunities, you will also have at least a hundred ideas for businesses. Within this list will be a load of things that require investment, some things you're not interested in and some things that you may not be able to get away with. Also within this list, there should be things that get you excited and reflect your own passions. There will also be some ideas that you could carry out right now, so think to yourself, what is stopping you.

Getting into this way of thinking is crucial in business and is the first steps to seeing the world like a Millionaire.

FM

How To Get A Better Job, Now!

Wouldn't you love to be one of those people who enjoy going to work, succeeds at their job and is praised almost daily for their incredible work. Wouldn't you love to feel like you are indispensable and your company highly appreciates you for everything you do. Wouldn't you like to have a millionaires pay check!

Starting right this second you can instantly have a job that is ten times better than your old job, because it is all to do with your mindset.

To Be Valued, You Have To Give Value

The first and only step into having a better job right now is by changing the way you think about work. If you are an employee and you have a contract, you need to change the way you think about your job. It's time to take ownership. If you are self-employed, this still applies.

Instead of saying, I work for these guys, say, I work for myself. You have agreed to give your employers so many hours of your week and in return you are charging them whatever wage you agreed to when signing your contract. Getting into this mindset is crucial into becoming a valued employee and rising the ranks of your company. Tell yourself now that you agreed to that price and in those hours, you will give them value because, if you ran a company, you want all your customers and clients to feel like they have been given value for their money. Working for someone is no different.

Take a moment to let that sink in. How does that make you feel? Now ask yourself, Are you charging enough? Are you giving them value? Do you actually deserve to be valued?

Chances are, the answer to at least two of those questions, if not three is NO.

If you are self-employed these questions still apply.

Now it's time for you to take control of your career. Tell yourself that you are going to be a valued employee/company , you are going to go beyond the call of duty to make a huge difference to that company/client and in time, the company/client is going to throw money at you to make sure you don't leave.

Your job, and your life, is about taking ownership of it. The people that succeed are the people who work hard and give people a great service. They are the people who everyone turns to when something needs doing, and they are the people who everyone will happily pay a lot of money for the service they provide.

If you are a shop assistant, tell yourself that you are going to smash sales targets and leave every customer wanting to speak to you next time they come in.

If you are a designer, tell yourself that you are going to give people their dream designs.

If you're in a recruitment firm, tell yourself that you are going to be the top biller and bring in millions for the company

If you're a mother, tell yourself that you are going to be the best mother their could possibly be and that your children are going to be bought into a world with loving, caring and kind parents.

This type of thinking applies to everything. Why be second rate at anything. No Millionaire has ever thought that they are happy to just let life happen. No Millionaire has ever been content to give a poor performance. No Millionaire has ever been content to come anywhere but first place. More importantly, no Millionaire accepts anything but first rate in any part of their life, including themselves and other people.

If you can get yourself into that mindset, and really push yourself at your job it won't be long until you can start demanding more pay, a better position in the company and more responsibility. What's even better, is that if you will be able to prove your value by the great work you have done so if your company won't offer you those things, another company certainly will.

Get into the habit of being the best and working hard. Don't expect it to just happen when you start your own company. Do it now! Otherwise you will never achieve the success that you desire. First rate workers, get a first rate life!

Next time you walk into work, be the best they have. It won't be long until they recognise it, and if they don't, another company or client will!

FM

How To Dress Like A Millionaire

Today I went shopping. Specifically clothes shopping. The reason I went clothes shopping was not necessarily to get more clothes, but to feel rich. Since the purpose of having more money is so that you can have things or do more activities, there is no easier way to feel a little richer than having a bit of retail therapy.

There is an art to rich shopping and I live by a couple of little rules.

1. Wear Your Best Clothes To Go Shopping in! The Reason for this is that if you already feel amazing, you will be attracted to clothes that keep you feeling that way. Secondly, you can walk into some high end shops and feel like you belong there.
2. Never Spend more than £30 on an item of Clothing. (No matter what it is, you can find something similar for a better price, and you get a lot more for your money!)
3. Clothes must fit perfectly! (On a side note, learn about your body shape and what styles of clothes suit you. Don't just go for what the mannequins or your friends are wearing. By learning this and sticking very closely to this rule, you will look and feel great as well develop your own individual style)
4. Never take less than 10 items to the fitting rooms (How amazing does it feel to take that many items to the fitting room. You don't even have to intend to buy them, but just pretending that you are can make you feel rich)
5. Go into high end fashion shops (Look around, get used to being there, that is where you will be shopping in the future. On a side note, they may have a sale on and you could pick up a bargain!)
6. Never buy anything that makes you look poor (Part of being rich is making people think you are rich. Currently I am wearing a fashionable suit jacket, Ben Sherman Trousers and a fashionable shirt. None of which I paid more than £30 for but all of which make me look like a millionaire)
7. Buy a scent (Smell expensive. Don't buy a cheap scent, it's false economics. Really spend some time working out which one suits you best. Ask for help, most shop assistants really like to show off their knowledge of perfumes, and always buy the biggest bottle once you've found it. It will last a lot longer and you get a lot more for your money)
8. Simple and Sophisticated (Loud and brash clothing scream high street and not designer)
9. Find pictures of wealthy people and buy things that resemble what they are wearing (This is the best way to look like a millionaire with around a fifth of the price tag. Cut out or print off pictures to help you find clothes that resemble what they are wearing)
10. Outlet stores are your friends (Some things never go out of fashion. If you know what to look out for, you can buy some great designer stuff for far less than the normal price)
11. Accessorise! (Buy a good watch, jewellery and wallet. It doesn't matter how great you look, if you bring out a poor looking wallet when you go to pay, you have completely spoilt the illusion)

As well as this, try to learn a bit about fashion labels. You don't have to become obsessed but wouldn't it be great know about Ben Sherman, Gucci, Louis Vuitton etc. If you start to learn about rich things, you will develop an eye for bargains very quickly.

If you follow these rules you'll be well on your way to looking like a millionaire, which in turn makes you feel like a millionaire. Never let yourself be seen looking less than amazing. It's hard to feel down when you look so great. It has it's practical uses as well. Firstly, millionaires only hang around with people they think look successful (it's part of how you become a millionaire and I will talk about this more later) and secondly it's puts out a message to everyone that you are someone who works hard, is successful and take pride in what you do. Start dressing like that to work and see how long it takes for your managers and bosses to take note in what you are doing and show a little more respect.

FM

How To Use A Vision Board To Live A Millionaires Lifestyle

Whether or not you believe in the Law Of Attraction (more will be explained in a later blog), a vision board is a great way to clarify your goals, to discover what it is that is really important to you and help inspire you on those tough days in the office, or those times when it just seems like life is not working out.

A vision board is simply a cork board, or a large piece of card, or even a wall of pictures, statements and symbols representing everything you would like to achieve or obtain. The idea behind the vision board is that if you focus on those things that you desire, you attract them into your life. Now whether you believe that is by Law Of Attraction, or because the focus on these desires is stronger so you start to unconsciously put things into place that help you achieve these goals is up to you. Just know that it does work.

Creating Your Personal Vision Board:

Each vision board is completely personal and should represent you as a person and your own personal desires. Although everyone has different desires, there is a common theme that run through most vision boards, and I would suggest you put these things up for your own happiness and for others.

Health, Great Family, Success

What is the point in being rich if you are unhealthy and don't have some great family or friends surrounding you to enjoy the amazing life style. I also put success because success is such a wide and subjective desire. It can mean a successful business, a successful life or even successful charity work. A vision board doesn't have to be completely selfish (but it definitely should be a little bit because you can't make other people happy unless you are happy yourself).

Now I'm not gonna tell you how to make a vision board, this isn't pre-school and I'm sure you'll figure it out. What I want to focus on is to how to create those images that are completely personal to you. This little exercise I use every month or so and it helps me focus on what it is I want in my life, and then also helps me figure out how I got there.

You need to find ten to fifteen minutes in your day to sit or lie down somewhere quiet and peaceful where you won't be distracted. Then you need to ask yourself these questions.

"It has been the best year yet, all your greatest dreams have been achieved, where do you live, what do your family and friends look like, what car do you drive, what job do you have, how much money is in your bank account, what holidays do you go on, what are you wearing, where do you eat, what objects do you own, who's lives are you enriching by having an enriched life yourself?"

You need to clearly picture this. When you are imagining your life in a years time, take note of whether you are observing yourself, or imagining your life from within yourself. If you are observing yourself, that is fine, look at what clothes you are wearing, what haircut do you have and what your body looks like. Once you have taken a mental note of that, try to imagine your life from within yourself, as if you are actually living that life.

If it helps, try taking this journey. As you do, really imagine what everything feels like, looks like and smells like. Imagine everyone around you is happy for you and happy to know you. You are happy to do what you are doing and life couldn't get any better.

The Millionaires Journey

1. You're at work. What is your job, what are you doing, who works for you?
2. You're driving home. What is your car, how does the steering wheel feel?
3. You pull up in your drive, what does your house look like, what does your garden look like?
4. You open your front door, what does your interior look like, what furniture do you have?
5. People greet you from within the house, are they family, friends, staff?
6. You decide to go on holiday, where do you go, what does it feel like being there?

You can elaborate on this journey as much as you like to focus your own personal dreams and desires. Where ever you go, or whatever you imagine, just make sure it's as vivid as you can possibly imagine. Live that life for fifteen minutes and feel yourself going on that journey. It is important to really feel this dream because your mind cannot tell the difference between what is real, and what is imaginary. Those good thoughts will send endorphins all around the body, which will react positively to all those great images in your mind.

That last part of the exercise is to start collecting images. You can collect them from magazines, postcards, the internet or where ever you come across the perfect image that is as close as possible to the things that you imagined. When you find the picture you should feel excited and passionate about that object or desire. Each time you look at the pictures on your vision board, you should know that somehow, you are going to get everything, and you will get it sooner than you think. When we go further into this, you should feel like you already have it, but that is for a different post.

To help inspire you with your vision board, I'm going to set up a page with my own personal dreams and desires. It will be a mixture of things I already do or am going to do this year and may even teach you a thing or too about my own personality ;)

FM

The First Steps To A Millionaires Mindset

When studying how to become a millionaire, one of the first things I observed is just how positive millionaires are. The vast majority of millionaires are successful in life and not just business. First of all this led me to think that wealth creates positivity, but lets flip that for a moment. It could be said that wealth and positivity go hand in hand. No-one ever got rich by believing that their business will fail. So how about this

Positivity = Wealth

Wealth = Positivity

Positivity = More Wealth

You get the picture?

Positive thinking is the very foundation of rich thinking. I know people who have very negative thinking, they constantly complain about how life is so terrible for them, how they can't find a good job, how no-one helps them and how that will always be the case. Guess what, their lives aren't changing any time soon.

This exercise that I use on a daily basis can change your life almost instantaneously for the better and it's the start of developing your millionaires mindset. The start of positive thinking is to simply be grateful. Seems stupidly simple but it really is. A rich person is rich in all walks of life, not just in wealth, and they are very aware of what is really great in their lives.

Right now, grab some note paper and a pencil. Put at the top of the page, 10 things about my life that I am grateful for. Then (obviously) you need to write down 10 things that you absolutely love about your life. You may find this exercise hard at first, so here are some examples of things that you may love but quite often take for granted.

Being Alive, Family, Friends, Technology, Music, Art, Education, Partner, Education, Home...

and most importantly, Having The Opportunity to have the Best Life Ever!

Everyday I wake up and I name three things I'm grateful for. They can be the same three things or different things everyday, but the point of the exercise is to put you in a positive mood. How good do you feel knowing that you have some great things in your life! Being grateful for what you have is the very start of getting everything you want. You may even find you are closer to getting what you want than you thought!

FM

How To Become A Millionaire

I Know The Secret!!

I am a Millionaire. Well not really, but I really believe that one day, I will be. It's stronger than faith, I just know it! Now before you dismiss me as a crazy fool, I am not the first person to think this, and I'm certainly not the last. Hopefully, as this blog progresses you will understand a little more as to why I believe this and may even start to believe it yourself. These are the same beliefs that have been held by some our greatest and most celebrated Millionaires. Richard Branson, Peter Jones, Donald Trump, Deborah Meaden, Theo Pathitis and many more all share this kind of thinking. A rich thinking. The belief that no matter what happens they will always be rich.

After studying their books amongst many others, one thing I have found in common is that none of them ever showed the fear of being poor. Many of them knew what it was to be poor, but they all absolutely believed that they were rich. This is the kind of thinking I use every day to progress my business and my life. In fact, it is fair to say that since adopting this rich thinking, my life has been a whirlwind of small and growing successes.

It's this thinking, that I want to highlight on the blog, so follow me on my journey into becoming a Millionaire, learn from me, and teach me but most of all, believe that this really works and you too will be a future Millionaire!

FM