Money and success triggersDoug Hugginsmaking money, success strategies
I was first introduced to the basic concept of money and success
triggers in Napoleon Hill's classic work, "Think and Grow Rich." In
Hill's discussion of his "13 Steps to Riches," he speaks of
visualization (step 2) and autosuggestion (step 3). Later, while
reading the extraordinary book, "Psycho-Cybernetics: A New Way to
Get More Living Out of Life" by Dr. Maxwell Maltz, I rediscovered
that the mind will seek out whatever it focuses on most.
I've used these principles for most of my adult life. But like
so many other things, we all stray from what we know works. During
the last few months, I've gotten away from some of my more
productive habits. I don't really know why that happened, but as a
result, Ive seen a decline in my income and my personal
productivity.
My wake-up call came several weeks ago at a training event we
conducted. One of our members mentioned that he had heard me speak
about success and creating a money mindset, and how much that talk
had meant to him. Hearing that shook me out of my lethargy and
awakened me to a number of new possibilities, including a
reawakening about the use of success triggers.
Success and money triggers are essentially anything you can do
to help your mind refocus on success, wealth and money. These are
visual and auditory cues that automatically refocus your mind.
Remember, the mind will move toward whatever it focuses on most. So
whatever you focus upon is what your mind will give you.
A good example of a negative trigger is the baseball manager who
tells his pitcher, "No matter what you do, don't throw him a high
fastball." Then on the first pitch, the pitcher throws a high
fastball that is then hit out of the park for the game winning home
run. Why did the pitcher do that? Because the coach told him to "
... throw a high fastball." The mind doesn't hear the negative. The
pitcher's mind heard, "Throw a high fastball," and that's what the
mind moved toward.
Napoleon Hill also talks about habits as a tool to success. When
one gets into the habit of seeing and hearing moneymaking, time
management and success triggers, the only possible outcome is for
the mind to move toward making money, managing time and being
successful. Your mind can't help it.
An idea I've used for years is to see myself with a lot of
money. Try to actually visualize yourself with cash in your hand
and/or seeing money all around. I now leave money lying around my
home and office. Many of us have a jar or some receptacle where we
habitually place loose change. In my office there's a five-gallon
water jug labeled "Cameron's College Fund" (Cameron is my six
year-old son). After awhile, I'd accumulated a pretty tidy sum in
pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. However, seeing a pile of
loose change didn't really have the mental impact I was looking
for. So I now leave dollar bills, fives, tens, twenties and
hundreds lying around my home.
In my master vanity drawer, there is a little pile of all
different denominations of bills. I find the less neat the pile,
the better. I always leave a few bucks on my dresser top, on my
desk at both home and office. There's usually a few hundred dollars
in most of the drawers of my desk.
As I wrote this article, I counted more than 19 money triggers
in my office. There's a large poster showing five three-foot tall
stacks of cash. The poster's title is "My First Million." I have $1
million bills stuck everywhere in my office. I have $100 bill pens
and pencils on my desk.
There are 13 time triggers in my office: seven clocks, including
one for each of the four U.S. time zones, two hourglasses, my
grandfather's pocket watch and four other clocks and time pieces,
some of which are really bizarre in shape and color. All are
designed to remind me to use my time wisely.
In terms of success triggers, I have several framed, color
pictures of the Bentley Automobile I would like to own. I have
pictures of the type of beach house I want. I have awards that I
have been given to remind me of past successes. I even have one
corkboard full of nothing but testimonials from clients, agents and
mortgage professionals thanking me for my help. I have motivational
plaques all over the walls, visual reminders of what I want my life
to be like.
By far, one of the most successful changes I've put in place is
to rework my personal goals. By the way, everybody who is anybody
in success coaching suggests - no, insists - that you:
1. Have written goals;
2. Ensure that those goals are specific;
3. Write the goals in the first person;
4. Write them as if the event has already occurred;
5. Be sure that the goals are time sensitive; and
6. Use goals that are quantifiable.
For example, "I want to increase my mortgage business is far too
vague; it is not an affirmation and has no time specificity.
Rewrite the same goal as, "On or before (specific date), I, (your
name), originate (number of loans or dollar amount of loans) each
month." This has time specificity, is personal, is an affirmation
("I originate," not "I will originate"), is specific in quantity
and can be verified.
Not only have I rewritten my personal goals, I have recorded
myself stating my personal goals. In addition, the most important
change in goal stating, at least for me, has been the addition of
music. We all have songs that motivate us, touch us, get our juices
flowing and, just by the very nature of the music, move us toward
success. I have a personal collection of songs that do that for me.
I've now copied those songs to an audio CD and have added
recordings of me stating my goal affirmation. The power of hearing
those motivational songs along with my own voice telling my own
brain what I have achieved is incredibly powerful. I play the CD in
my car on the way into the office. I play it very quietly in the
background at the office while doing mindless work. I play it in
the mornings while working out and I play it in the evenings before
I go to bed.
Just in the first two weeks of doing this, I've seen remarkable
changes in my ability to accomplish more during the day. Plus,
moneymaking opportunities just seem to be coming out of the
woodwork. New concepts for tools to help our company and other
mortgage professionals just seem to jump into my mind sometimes
without any real preparation or forethought. It is truly
remarkable.
I'm going to very strongly recommend that you do some of the
same things to create moneymaking, time management and success
triggers in your life. My ideas above are by no means the only
things you can do. In fact, I'd love to hear some of your success
trigger ideas. Tell me what you've found to be tricks you can play
on your mind to get you to do what you need to and be as successful
as you can be. Please e-mail me your thoughts and ideas. I'll add
your thoughts and ideas to those of hundreds of other successful
mortgage professionals and we'll all end up with a very useful
volume of success ideas. Everyone who sends in a success,
moneymaking or time management trigger will receive the compiled
book free. Think of the incredible mind power of all of us working
together towards success.
Take the time to write your own affirmative goals, and create
your very own success triggers. They are easy and inexpensive to
do, and the rewards can be truly phenomenal. Until next time, this
is Doug "Dr. Doug" Huggins saying, "Those that say 'Money can't
make you happy' simply don't know where to shop!"
Doug Huggins is a national mortgage professional success
trainer, an expert on working with first-time homebuyers and is
president of the Home Ownership Center. He may be reached at (770)
952-1638 or e-mail
[email protected].
