How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

Jack Canfield, co-creator of the phenomenal bestsellingChicken Soup for the Soulseries, turns to the principles he's studied, taught, and lived for more than 30 years in this practical and inspiring guide that will help any aspiring person get from where they are to where they want to be.

“There are many principles--"secrets"--about money and success that will serve you well if you want to increase your wealth. Above all, however, is to first make it a priority. Make your want of manifesting financial wealth a clear intention. So many people feel guilty about earning, spending and investing more money. Or they think wealth just happens without any intention or effort. Moreover, recent economic events have made many people believe that there is a finite amount of money in the world. That is not true. More wealth is being created every day. The supply of money is truly infinite once you apply certain principles that have made millionaires and billionaires over and over again. There are people out in the world that are making hundreds of millions of dollars a year!” Jack Canfield.

I recommend that you study the laws of money and finance - both the spiritual laws of abundance and prosperity consciousness, as well as the world of investing. Read books, listen to CDs, take seminars. I read at least one book a week, often more, in the areas of law of attraction, principles of success, finance and investing, psychology, relationships and spiritual growth. You can also join an investment club. Your local library or bookstore can get you started. Peruse the business, self-help, and psychology sections. You'll find lots of materials to begin your studies.

I would ask you to take the time to clarify what wealthy means to you.

For some people $100,000 a year would make them feel wealthy. For someone else, wealthy might mean $20 million in the bank. So take time to sit down and write out a complete description of your ideal wealthy life. What does that word mean to you? How do you see yourself as wealthy?

If you want to make a lot of money, you have to play a game where lots of money is made.

You will not become a multi-millionaire being a preschool teacher. You can argue that preschool teachers are more valuable than professional baseball players, and you would probably be right, but it doesn't matter. It is what it is.

As Byron Katie teaches, when you argue with reality, you always lose. So you have to enter into an arena where money can be made. You could join a network marketing company.

I met a man not too long ago who lost his job as a mortgage broker and his home during the financial collapse last year. Now, less than 6 months later, he is on track to make $300,000 as a distributor for MonaVie. He has built up a huge down line in less than half a year. He is leveraging his income through the efforts of others that he has enrolled and caused to be enrolled in the business.

Another principle of wealth building is to expand the impact of your service.

Reach more people and serve them more fully. Here is where the Internet can be a great accelerator in building wealth and building it quickly.

One of the people I write about in The Success Principles makes millions of dollars a year selling pool tables on eBay. He is serving thousands of people a year through the power of the Internet.

Another student of mine has started an Internet-based business selling urine tests that parents can use to see if their teenagers used drugs while out that night. Take a course on Internet marketing. You'll find hundreds of them listed on Google.

My own seminar business began to skyrocket after I started doing a free tele-seminar on the first Wednesday of every month. We have had as many as 4,000 people on that call.

Yet another principle of wealth building is to find a need and fill it.

There are all kinds of businesses that have been built around seeing a need and fulfilling it. One company I know picks up people's dry cleaning off a hook beside their front door, delivers it to the dry cleaners, and then returns it, saving people a lot of time. There are personal shoppers, restaurant delivery services that deliver for 30 different restaurants, people who prepare all your organic or raw food for a week and deliver it in containers that just need to be heated up.

My favorite story is that of an Avery Label salesman, who discovered that his restaurant clients wanted preprinted labels with the days of the week printed on them so they could label what day their fresh produce had arrived so that they could know which fruits and vegetables to use first, thus reducing spoilage. When Avery said, "We are not in the printing business," the salesman bought a small printer and began printing labels on the weekends. This weekend business, which was started in his garage, eventually grew into a company called Day Dots, which printed and sold millions of printed labels a day. He eventually sold his business for tens of millions of dollars!

Finally, if you are going to become wealthy, you must save and invest at least 10% of every dollar you earn. Stop amassing debt. Become disciplined in saving and investing. Live within your means. You must find ways to get your money working for you.

As I mentioned earlier, 2013 may bring greater uncertainty and more unsettling economic news than recent years, but these circumstances should compel us to take a deep breath, and pause to think about our lives.

When things happen in the world that seem so far beyond our individual control, it can feel unsettling.

Don't give up on your goals and dreams just because "the time isn't good"... you can still make 2013 the year you uncover a whole new you for the better!

Even in tough times, you get to decide how to respond to certain conditions, opportunities, and outcomes--both good and bad.

Life will always be a series of choices and YOU get to decide on what will move you closer to your goals, or farther away from them. External forces will always be part of the equation, even during the good times when the world is thriving.

When people ask me about the single most important ingredient to success, I always share the same response: realizing what's making you achieve success, and then realizing what is stifling your success.

Sometimes recognizing the things that are NOT working in your life can be painful, yet VERY powerful to shaping the life you want.

Don't try to rationalize them, make excuses for them, or hide them. This is when it's even more critical to take personal inventory and evict those excuses, rationalizations, and hidden habits that don't serve you. These things will keep you from the life you want to be living. Let me give you some examples. Ask yourself if you relate to any of these questions:

-Do you want to be active, fit, and strong? Then you have to stop making excuses about your weight, diet choices, and lack of exercise.

-Do you want to be in a loving relationship based on friendship and respect? Then you have to stop rationalizing why you and your partner are not communicating well.

-Do you want to embrace Monday mornings and feel excited about going to work every day? Then you have to stop hiding your true passions and go after whatever it is you really want to be doing day in and day out.

-Do you want to lose the debt forever? Then you have to stop ignoring your spending habits and get real about a creating budget that will pull you out of debt and allow you to reach financial freedom.

-Do you want to feel more connected to the people in your life, such as your children, friends, and colleagues? Then you have to stop complaining about your poor relationships and figure out why you don't feel as connected as you'd like to be.

These things can be painful to look at because the truth is that you have to do something about them in order to make it work in your life.

You'll have to say no to the second helping of dinner and the dessert to follow and go through the awkward stage of getting into shape... You'll have to confront your partner about the areas that need work... You'll have to get past fears about changing your job or professional path... You'll have to cut back on your spending and be frugal... You'll have to take a good hard look at your personal relationships and perhaps consider your own shortfalls and weaknesses in communicating your needs and concerns.

Plain and simple, you will have to do something uncomfortable.

Successful people don't waste time in denial (or complain or make excuses for that matter). They face situations like a warrior. They look for the warning signs, they find out why things aren't working, and they go about fixing them- even when fixing requires problem solving, hard work, risk, and a level of uncertainty.

It's okay to identify a problem even though you haven't a clue about how to go about solving it right away.

The first step is just recognizing the issue, and then having faith that you'll figure it out with careful attention to it. That's how successful people live--in constant focus on goals, on results, on problem solving, and on the actions that get them to where they want to be.