14 Secrets of Wealth and Happiness

1) Work Harder on Yourself Than You Do on Your Job

Do you want to be wealthy and happy for the rest of your life? Do you want wealth and happiness? Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job. Income does not far exceed personal development. Sometimes income takes a lucky jump, but sure enough, unless you grow, it will usually come back to where you are.

If somebody hands you $1,000,000, at best, you become a millionaire quickly. So, you get to keep the money only if you become the kind of person who can keep it. Otherwise, it will disappear. Without mental growth, the money will shortly disappear. If you took all the money in the world and divided it up equally among everybody, it would soon be back in the same pockets. Success is something you attract, not something you pursue.

Instead of going after money, work on yourself. True happiness is not contained in what you get. Happiness is contained in what you become.

Proverbs 4:7 “Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.”

2) Find Out How Things Work

To change your life, you need ideas. There isn’t anything an idea can’t change. The poverty inflicting your life is not the major issue; the major problem is the lack of an idea.

The problem is the lack of an idea on how to create money and wealth. If you get the ideas, you can change anything.

Proverbs 2:6 “For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”

3) Study Success

To get ideas, you need constant study and finding out. If you wish to be successful, study success. If you wish to be happy, study happiness. If you wish to be wealthy, study wealth. Don’t leave it to chance. Make it a study.

Some people just go through the day with their fingers crossed. Fingers crossed will not make you rich. You’ve got to study the things that can change your economic, social, spiritual, and personal life.

Joshua 1:8 “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night… For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

4) Keep a Journal

When you find something that works, put the information in your journal. Don’t use your head for a filing cabinet. Put it in your journal so that you can do the next best thing—repetition and repetition. Go over it, and sure enough, someday the idea takes root, starts to grow, and shows up in your bank account, your dress, your personality, and your lifestyle.

Habakkuk 2:2 “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it.”

5) Read Always

All of the successful people I know and work with around the world are good readers. Curiosity drives them to read. They’ve got to know.

They just read, and read, and read. Become self-educated. Standard education will get you standard results. One way to learn is from your own experiences. But another way to learn is from other people’s experiences.

One book might save you five years if you read it. Did you know that there are books on how to be stronger, more decisive, be a speaker, be a leader, have a better effect on other people, and develop your personality? Did you know that hundreds of successful people have written their stories in books? They wrote down how they did it, and people don’t read them.

You don’t have to read half the night, but put this in your notes: 30 minutes a day. Read something positive, something challenging, something inspirational, and something instructional for at least 30 minutes a day. Become a good reader. These are not standard rules, but that’s my opinion. Listen to the other lectures and make up your own mind.

2 Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

6) Don’t Be a Follower; Be a Student.

Get around successful people and listen. You can also learn from unsuccessful people. Take notes on both the negative and the positive. Find out what poor people read, and don’t read it. That’s good information. Learn from the negative.

Get around successful people. Listen to what they say, and listen to how they say it. Poor people ought to take rich people out to dinner and listen. That’s one of the best ideas.

You might say, “The rich guy is rich. Let him buy his own dinner. I’m not coming up with any money.” Maybe because you’re lucky to get your own supper, let alone run around trying to find a rich man to feed. If a guy’s not doing well, one of the first things he ought to do is find a guy who is doing well and offer to buy him dinner. Spend $50, $60, or $80. Go for the full nine-course meal. If you get a successful person to eat and talk for two hours, they’re liable to drop ideas in your lap that can change your life and multiply your income by two or three.

Proverbs 13:20 “He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed.”

7) Be a Good Observer

You can pick up a lot of ideas just by watching. Get around successful people and watch. Success leaves clues. Watch how the man shakes hands. Watch how the lady responds. People who do well do certain things over and over, and if you’re clever, you can pick them up. Watch it all.

If a guy is making $10,000 a month, I’d watch how he walks. Maybe that’s it. Copy his funny little walk. Somebody says, “Well, that kind of a silly walk!” Say to them, “It’s a $10,000-worth walk. I haven’t got the money yet, but I got the walk.” It’s bound to start somewhere. Be unusual and be a good observer of what’s going on. You can pick up ideas that could change your life forever.

Proverbs 6:6 “Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise.”

8) See with Your Eyes and with Your Mind

There are two ways to see. One is called sight—see with your eyes. The other is called insight—see with your mind. See with your eyes, and you’ll see things. See with your mind, and you’ll see answers. Put your eyes and your mind to work.

The best way to develop sight and insight is to pay attention. Don’t miss anything. Wherever you are, be there.

Ephesians 1:17–18 “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ… may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation… the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.”

9) Go to Work

Get excited over your ability to make yourself do the necessary things. What could you make yourself do starting tomorrow that would change it all? On any given day, you can massively change the direction of your life.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might…”

10) Start with the Little Disciplines

Get excited over the little disciplines, and get right on them because they will lead to the big ones. You can’t handle the big challenges in life unless you take on the little ones. Make a list of all the things you can do. Get right on those.

Discipline yourself in those things, both for the results and for the muscle and the practice, so that when life hands you some big challenges, you’ll be ready. You’ll have the muscle.

Luke 16:10 “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much…”

11) Self-Motivation

Key phrase: “Self-motivation.” You’ve got to motivate yourself. And you don’t want to give self-motivation away to somebody else by making it somebody else’s job to motivate you.

Do not say, “Boy, if somebody would just come by and turn me on.” What if they don’t show up? You’ve got to have a better plan for your life.

2 Timothy 1:6–7 “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you… For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

12) Take Action on What You Found Out

Don’t let your learning lead only to knowledge. You’ll become a fool. Let your learning lead to action, and you can become wealthy.

There are many kinds of wealth, not just money. Money is one of the least of all values. I know some people with a lot of money who are very poor.

James 1:22 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

13) Don’t Try to Beat the System

Find out how the system works. Some people learn just enough to start cutting corners and looking for cheap answers. Don’t fall for that, or you’ll wind up with a cheap life.

Find out how it works best and do it that way. Even though it seems to take a little longer, do it right. Don’t compromise with what is right.

14) Bring Out Your Gifts

2 Timothy 1:6 (NKJV) “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you…”

Reach down inside yourself and bring out some more of those remarkable human gifts. They’re there, waiting to be utilized, and they can change anything for you. You don’t ever have to be the same again. It is all a choice.

Starting tomorrow, what are you going to do that will make a change in your life’s direction? What are you going to do starting tomorrow that will make a difference?

If you don’t do something, starting tomorrow, life will be the same. If you must guess what the next five years will be like, look at the last five, because the next five will be like the last five unless you start doing something today. Change it all, change a little, change something, or don’t change; It’s choice time.

You can do whatever you want, but it’s nice to know that any day you wish, you can change your whole life.

What are you doing today to change the next five-year cycle of your life? Look at the last five-year cycle of your life. If you did not do anything in the first year of the last five-year cycle to create change, then the first year of the next five-year cycle will be the same as the first year of the last five-year cycle. It will become a routine of the same stagnation, poverty, depression, and struggle.

Inspired by Jim Rohn’s message

Scars of Angels