…and the money will follow.

Changing your mindset from one of ‘how do I make money’ to ‘what can I do for others’ is not as easy as it seems.

I’m sure most people would love to be truly altruistic and selfless; but when you have a basic need to put food on the table, or simply a desire to have the extra choices in life that money can bring, it’s easy to lose sight of where you should be focussing; and hard to trust that the money will follow.

But it’s exactly that mindset which can lead to better motivation and better results. If you were offering a product or service, would you take more time and effort over it if you were doing it for a special friend? Doesn’t everyone deserve the same level of care and attention?

So what’s your passion? What would you happily do for others, for free, and to the best of your abilities, if money was no object?  I know what I would do – I’d become a successful internet marketer and an accomplished guitar player; and I’d probably write some songs of my own, as well as the occasional short story and piece of poetry as and when I’m hit with a flash of inspiration.  Along the way I’d share my life’s journey with others, through writing, training and speaking, via various forms of media, all in the hope that my stories and findings could help and inspire others to lead a bigger and better life and to avoid some of the mistakes I made; and I’d welcome their own thoughts and comments in return. In my opinion, there’s no substitute for the combined wisdom of crowds to help us all learn and grow even more.

And so here I am, working to become that very person, for free, and to the best of my abilities; the only difference at the moment is that money is still an object.  My wife and I are living off the slimmest of budgets, keeping the wolf from the door with a combination of irregular income, working tax credits and the occasional dip into savings.  We both know this isn’t sustainable over the long term; so when I spend time writing my blog, practising my guitar playing, learning about internet marketing and populating my website am I just wasting my time?  Shouldn’t I just go out and get any job I can find, just to pay the bills, even if it sets our dreams back another year, 3 years, 5 years?  I don’t think so. Who knows what fate might have in store for us that could stop us dead in our tracks between now and then?

That’s why we choose to spend our precious time doing what we love right here and now; and trusting that the money will follow.