Wealth Secrets – What Do Money Making Secrets Have To Do With Running?

There’s an important money making secret that can drastically enhance your results for creating wealth – true wealth secrets – and it works in many different areas of your life, not just your finances.  Let me illustrate it’s importance through a recent personal experience of mine…

For some time now I’ve been putting off getting fit, getting into good shape.  I play soccer in the spring and in the fall, tennis here and there and lift weights at the gym pretty regularly but I just hadn’t been getting enough consistent cardiovascular activity in to actually get fit.  I wanted to be in shape of course (who doesn’t right?) but the problem is I’ve never really liked to run or stay in one place on a stationary cardio machine – just couldn’t get motivated to ever really do what it takes.

Can you relate?

Then a little while ago I started seeing messages from the brother of an old friend of mine posting on facebook about his running activity.  When I saw his running stats in my newsfeed I thought, that’s odd; why is he doing that?  What’s that all about?  Then a few months later I start hearing about Katie’s sister’s husband in London who’s lost a bunch of weight and is now entering 10k’s, marathons and even double marathons… and guess what, it’s the same system I had heard about earlier!

Wealth Secrets – Rely on Systems for getting results for creating wealth or anything else!

That was it, there must be something to this – these were incredible results being achieved by two different people half way around the world from each other, who didn’t know each other, yet were both using the same system to get similarly life-changing results (now both committed to and LOVING to run). So I looked into it further to see what the magic was behind this system and how it could work for me too.

So I bought the necessary equipment and have been consistently running for three weeks now – and wow, what a difference.  I’m hooked (and committed, now that I’ve blogged about it and announced it to the world that I’m finally getting fit, right?).  Of course there will be ups and downs, some pain, maybe even a small injury along the way or just a few bad days… but what in the heck does this have to do with creating wealth?  Where are the wealth secrets, the money making secrets in all of this?  (Don’t worry, I’m getting there 😉

…So what is it, what’s the magic – the secret – that makes this new approach I’ve discovered to getting in shape and running WORK that was missing in everything I had done before?  Why does this system work, helping me progress forward towards my fitness goals consistently when nothing else seemed to be able to?

Wealth Secrets: What Gets Measured Gets Done

The biggest reason why this new system worked (the same principle will also work for creating wealth) was because of the built-in functionality that accurately and EASILY tracks my progress and results – the system keeps me accountable!  There’s no kidding myself or pretending or rationalizing about what I’ve done or not done.  It’s black and white and in this case literally draws out where I’ve been on a map, how fast I was going, when and exactly where along my route I slowed down or sped up, how many calories I burned, the distance, pace – even my pulse if I wanted.  With that kind of feedback, precision and yet simplicity it’s easy to track my progress to know if I’m getting closer to or further from my goal (there’s no pretending – it tracks down to the hundredth of a mile).  I can easily track my progress to see how good or bad I’m doing and where I need to improve (plus it’s fun!).

(By the way, this system I am referring to and highly recommend is called Nike+.  You can use a free app for your iphone with GPS which tracks a sensor in your shoe as your run – also works with ipods.  You can add other accessories like a heart rate monitor or watch, but the app or ipod program is the key and is incredibly powerful, useful and motivating – you can even get your friends to cheer you on via facebook or twitter by commenting or LIKING your run status as you run. Clever, right?)

So what the heck does this story have to do with creating wealth – where are the wealth secrets in that story?

The point I’m trying to make is that you’ve got to track your progress.  Before Nike+, I would just go for a run and try to achieve a certain distance or time.  But that was the extent of it.

Boring.

I could easily rationalize cutting the distance or time down, justify stopping due to a little pain, or even just walk – I could still say I went “running” right?  Very vague, sounds good but doesn’t mean much…

Are you treating your finances the same way? (Wealth Secrets!)

Do you know how much you make?  How much you spend?  How much you keep?

Where does the money go?

Good expenses?  Bad expenses?  Do you know the ratio?  Is it spent accumulating good debt?  Bad debt?  Doodads?

It’s not to say one expense is better than another for it all depends on your goals, what you’re trying to accomplish.  But, if your goal is financial freedom, you obviously would want to ensure you’re spending as much of your money on good expenses and good debt (and cut back on the liabilities and doodads – things that take money out of your pocket instead of putting more money back), as that will only help you reach your goal of financial freedom faster.

So HOW can you track your income and expenses like Nike+ tracks fitness progress?

There are several ways.  You can hire a bookkeeper to keep your books for you, to compile all your transactions in a month and for the year so you can see exactly how much comes in and from where, and then where it goes once you get it (it’s a tax deductible expense usually if you have a residual income business or other business, as well).  Another solution may be to do it yourself using a software program on your computer like Quicken, Money or Quickbooks.  These programs can be a little intimidating for newbies, so I’d recommend you start with something simple, something free even…

More Wealth Secrets…

Just like the Nike+ app, there’s also a free iPhone financial tracking app called Mint (http://www.mint.com).  You can also access it on your computer from the website and login and track all your financial transactions that way as well.  Additionally, the program will download your financial transactions into the secure software for you automatically and even automatically categorize most of your transactions so the amount of time you spend sorting through the data is minimized.  You can then view your finances graphically in charts and graphs to see where your income goes, allowing you to assess if your current cash flow patterns are leading you down the path of creating wealth to make you richer or down the opposite path keeping you where you are or worse making you poorer.

This simple yet powerful wealth secret of tracking and assessing your finances on a regular basis will make you aware of each purchase you make, helping you to make better financial decisions with your money.  Therefore, when you find the urge to buy the next gizmo that comes out, you might instead choose to take that same money and invest it into a residual income business to start developing a passive income stream that can purchase all your doodads and liabilities for you (because it’s money that continues to come in whether or not you work so you no longer have to work to support your lifestyle or to enhance it! – …more great wealth secrets :).  Much better choice and resulting outcome, right?

As I’ve said in other posts, creating wealth is not simply about increasing your income; that doesn’t necessarily make you wealthy, regardless of the amount.  If your liabilities and monthly expenses exceed that of your passive income, you will run out of money unless you work or create more passive income.  (See my article on Creating Wealth – The Type of Income You’re Making May Be Costing You The Most to learn more)

Therefore, measuring and keeping track of your income and expenses is essential so you know exactly where you are at all times – to make sure you’re headed in the right direction and to help you identity what needs to change or what you need to tweak to ensure you reach your goals.  (Recommended article: Creating Wealth – When was your Last Financial  Checkup?)  You don’t want to have to rely on your memory which can play tricks on you or mislead you due to your emotions or other factors.

Just as I’m able to get much better (and more consistent) results with my fitness by tracking and measuring my progress, so too will your finances improve by simply accounting for them more accurately and regularly as well.  The same is true with regards to tracking your calories if you were trying to lose weight.  Just look at The Biggest Loser show’s results: it’s simple formula (just like creating wealth): calories in and calories out/burned.  The contestants simply limit their total calories (expenses) to around 1200 a day with special emphasis on limiting the intake of sugary, high-carb and high-fat foods (liabilities and doodads) while maximizing the number of calories they could burn (increasing income).

(By the way, a great simple and easy to use system for tracking your calories consumed and expended each day that I use as well, if you’re interested, is called Lose It!, which you can find online and as a free iphone app as well)

Luckily today, it is easier and more convenient than ever to measure and track your finances and every other part of your life that is important to you, using your computer or even a smartphone!

For more great wealth secrets – like the 3 Things Anyone Can Do That Will Get People ToFall In Love With Buying Stuff From You – watch the following video now: Creating Wealth Strategies