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Old 07-03-2007, 08:36 PM
Ilya Ilya is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Moscow, Russia
Posts: 445
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I had the experience of going from scarcity mentality to the rich mentality. For me it was a slow and conscious process, so I remembered it very well.

I can't say I was very good at intentioning financial freedom. I did some, and I had some reasonable luck, but no miraculous lottery wins or real estate deals here. My "secret" is simple. Just a few years of frugal living and ruthless financial discipline, multiplied by careful investing.

The interesting moment was when I reached financial independence. I was in my early twenties and I've already reached one of my major goals. Several thoughts or rather verbalized emotions went through my mind and body.
One of them was "It works!". I have proved that basic investment rules can be used even in a barbaric environment of young Russian capitalism.

The second one, much more powerful feeling was - the fading of fear. Up to that moment, I was sure that I'm a rather enlightened person and have conquered my fears. I have, but only partially. It turned out that there was a constant, background fear in me. I was habituated to it, didn't notice it, like the sound of cooler fan in my computer. And only when the reason for my fear was gone, I've noticed its poison while it was leaving my soul.

It was beautiful.

I stopped fearing for my future. I stopped fearing my boss and stopped fearing to be fired. I stopped fearing to be a disappointment to my parents and my wife. I suddenly felt a rush of energy that was devoured by these fears forever. I was free.

Well getting to this point was hard. But going on from there was much easier.

In my experience it is usually the case with PD - once I reach a certain quantum leap, I turn back and can not believe how inexcusably blind and foolish I was. How could I spend YEARS for something that could have been reached in seconds! Oh, well...

Back to the rich state of mind. Once found, it stays with me. Now it does not depend on the amount of money that I have. At some points, I did experiments that made me loose financial independence - potentially forever. But I always kept the wealthy state of mind and the wealth always returned.

I stopped working for the money and started working for pleasure - something that I didn't do since my second month at a payed job. Ironically, within a month I got promoted, doubled my income, and within half a year, my income tripled again and workload became very close to the ubiquitous four hours a week. And it was not a coincidence.

Being free, I could afford to do a better job, to have a strong negotiation position in every argument, to maintain better quality and so to be a more valuable employee, business partner or service provider. I'm sure that if I conquered my fear earlier, I could achieve these results a few years before I actually did. I failed, but got a priceless lesson. I hope that someone who reads this, would learn from my mistakes.

Have no fear. If you master you mental state, everything else will follow.
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Ilya.
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