The American billionaire, Bill Gates once said; 'If you are born poor, it’s not your mistake, but if you die poor it’s your mistake.'
Poverty is not only a state of being; it is a state of the mind. You are poor because you want to be poor, not because your parents were poor, or because you were born into a poor family.
Otherwise, if you are willing you can go up, only you are preventing yourself from going up.
Someone who is too lazy to be rich will never read a long epistle. That’s fact. One key factor you must know about poor people is; they are too lazy to read. – Henry Ibeleme
Poor is a mentality. Just as rich is. People have the ability to be whatever they want to be, rich, poor, happy, unhappy, free, unfree, smart, stupid, etc. These are all choices that people have control over.
We commonly hear that poor people are born poor and that they are victims. Victims of what, a different starting point in life? People start life in different places and from different dispensations, but this does not mean they are destined to end life the same place they started life.
Just as some poor people can become rich, some rich people can become poor. You don't remain where you started in life, things change. And the change that happens is in accord with the decisions people make.
REASONS WHY YOU MIGHT REMAIN POOR
SPENDING TIME With The WRONG PEOPLE
The motivational speaker, Jim Rohn, is famous for his statement that a person is the average of the five people they spend the most time with. This means that if you spend time with five wrong people, you will become the sixth person.
But if you spend time with five right people, you become the sixth. What this simply means is that if you want to become rich, you should spend less time with people who are negative, lazy, and those who do not share the same dreams with you.
NOT LOOKING FOR OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE MONEY
When it comes to making money, you don’t wait for opportunity to find you, it is your sole responsibility to seek or create opportunity to make money.
The truth is that with your skills and the environment you are right now, there are numerous opportunities to make more money, the only reason you can’t see them is because you are not making conscious effort to see them, or you are probably blind in the mind.
In Hellen Keller’s word, “the only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” You are not poor because you lack capital, but because you are blind in the mind.You are still poor because you have ignorantly conditioned your mind that money can only come from your current skill.
If you are teacher, a technician, a bricklayer, a programmer, a writer as the case maybe, you only focus on what you do as a means of solving your financial problems, even if you are suffering financially. You never thought that there are other things you can do to make money.
It never occur to you that you can learn anything you need to learn to achieve your financial goals. To make more money, you must make a deliberate effort to think and seek for other opportunities to make money in your environment. The opportunity out
there is unlimited.
NOT LEARNING NEW THINGS
Educating yourself, especially on matters, helps a lot and goes a long way to help you plan for your future.
There is a wealth of information out there that is just waiting for you, most of them free to access.
Always remember that formal education will make you a living while self-education will make a fortune for you.
POOR PEOPLE HAVE LIMITING BELIEFS ABOUT LIFE AND MONEY
Poor people believe they are creatures of circumstance. Because of this, life happens to them. Rich people believe they are creators of circumstance. Because of this, they create opportunities within their lives.
There isn't any more destructive belief in the world than to think that life happens to you. Here are three things that happen to you when you believe that you do n't create your own destiny:
1) You play the blame game. You blame anyone and everyone for why you don't have what you want. You blame the government, your family, your boss, the economy, or the people on Wall Street. If you do this, you are powerless to achieve success.
2) You justify your situation to yourself and to those around you. You use sentences that start with "It's because...". For example, "It is because the economy stinks that I'm not where I want to be," or "It is because people are unfair that I don't have what I want," or "It is because money doesn't really matter that I don't have as much as I would like." By justifying your current situation, you accept your current situation.
3) You complain, thereby attracting and moving toward a negative reality. When you complain, what do you focus on? All the crap in your life, and if you focus on all the crap, what do you become? A magnet that attracts more crap. Also, you must distance yourself from those around you who complain, as they may influence your state in a negative way.
Poor people believe money doesn't matter. Rich people value money and know it matters. I'm not saying it is the end-all, be-all, but money is a beautiful tool. When you have it you can use it in countless ways: to help others, travel, or take care of your parents. Money allows for the freedom to do the things that you want to do. I am not saying that money creates happiness, but a lack of money is a passport to misery. I say solve the money problem and then solve the higher problems afterward.
GIVING UP AS SOON AS DIFFICULT TIMES COME
It is a truism with the statement that winners never quit and quitters never win. Some people have a tendency of giving up at the slightest difficulty but anyone who wants to succeed in life will never give up but trudge on no matter where they find themselves.
Work with dedication and persistence so you may feel the exhilaration of victory.
UNWILLINGNESS TO START SMALL
One major reason people remain poor is because they are unwilling to start small. They want to wait until they have enough to set up a conglomerate because they can start.
Most often people like this end up doing nothing, and
die in poverty. If you must be rich, you must be willing to start small. You don’t climb the ladder of financial success from the top to the bottom. You must climb from the bottom to the top, and climb it one rung at a time. Most
people who are wealthy in our society today, started with little or nothing,they remain focused and steady.
They despised the shame of humble beginning and gradually carried their cross until they become the envy of those around them.
What you need to succeed is insight, not capital, and the insight you need demands your humility.” No matter how little you have right now, start that your business idea. Your business environment may not make sense now but
overtime it will.
WAITING FOR A MIRACLE TO HAPPEN
Most people believe so much in miracles and would not mind going from one church to the other to seek for that miracle instead of putting their dreams into practice.
Especially with miracle and prosperity pastors all over the place, many think they will just pray and Manna will fall from Heaven for them. Remember that even the Bible says that heaven helps those who help themselves.
While praying for a miracle to happen, those who take steps are turning the stones and making impossibilities become possible.
LINGERING ON REGRET
Everyone makes mistakes: and we will continue to commit them no matter how hard we try. But when it happens, it is best to accept the consequence, learn the lesson, and do your best to move on.
Avoid having your thoughts linger on what should or could have been because the past is done, but the future is still there waiting for you.
SELF-LIMITING BELIEF
One main factors that keep people in poverty is self-limiting belief. Until you overcome your self-limiting beliefs, you will never have any incredible result in life.
Brian Tracy, the author of no excuses defines self-limiting belief “as an idea you have that you are limited in some
way in terms of time, talents, intelligence, ability and opportunity.”
One thing you have failed to realize is that the same obstacle that is holding you back has been on the path of other successful people at one time in their life
journey.
The difference between you and they is that instead of complaining, giving excuses and whining, they become determined, and caused their obstacle to be their stepping stone to success.
When you allow unpleasant circumstances to condition your mind to believe that poverty is your lot in life and that there is no way you can beat the odds that are standing between you and a life of financial abundance, then you are suffering from self-limiting belief.
If you must attain financial freedom, you must purge your thinking of limiting beliefs. The antidote to limiting belief is truth. When you know the truth about your real potential as a human being, the truth shall set you free.
POOR PEOPLE SET IMPOTENT GOALS
The reason most people are not successful is not because they set their goals too high and therefore miss them, it's because they set their goals too low and hit them. If your goals are low and you keep hitting them, then you need to raise your standards and ambitions. You need to have a continuing dedication to going further than those around you. Don't set your goal for average because average sucks.
On the other hand, don't set your goals so high that they become unrealistic, because people abandon unrealistic goals. Instead, set your goals just above your comfort zone so that they inspire you to continue working toward them. The right goal will help you secure a better future for not only you, but also your family.
The proper goal will bring you wealth. Money is simply a way of achieving freedom.
THINKING IT IS TOO LATE TO BE RICH
Sometimes people remain poor because they thought it is too late for them to become successful financially. But the truth is that people in this category are
wrong.
There are so many wealthy people that started late in life and still achieve their dream of being rich before they died. One sign you have given up on ever becoming rich is the resolve that you will give your children the best of education so that the height you didn’t attain financially, they can attain it.
It is a laudable ambition to train your kids, but giving up on your own chances of becoming somebody financially is suicidal. It is never too late to begin. The thought that you are already old is a limiting belief.
ALWAYS LOOKING FOR GET RICH SCHEMES
Get-rich-quick schemes are always, often too good to be true and most times, they end up as scams.
The time, money, and effort that you are wasting in looking for these schemes should instead be spent on time-tested and sustainable strategies for becoming rich, which are frugality, investing, and entrepreneurship.
POOR PEOPLE ARE UNABLE TO MANAGE THEIR STATE
By "state" I mean your physiological and emotional state. Simply put, this is how you feel in the moment. You can be the most talented person in the world, but if you are in a disempowered emotional state you can't achieve crap.
You are in a disempowered state if you feel overwhelmed, uncertain, or fearful. This will influence your decisions and undermine your ability to reach your aspirations and goals. If you find you are constantly feeling powerless, and you don't fight that feeling, then you are only setting yourself up for failure.
As destructive as the disempowering states are, achieving an empowering state of mind will give you the mental edge and attitude that you need to be successful.
Here is a list of empowering mindsets for business: certainty, confidence, clarity, courage, conviction, ambition, and passion. By remaining in these states the majority of the time, you will be better equipped to handle the hurdles you will encounter.
I understand that you can't manage your state every minute of every day. You are not a robot. We live in a world where stuff happens, but when things start to go awry, that's when state management really matters. When something goes wrong, most people create a bullshit story to justify why they can't have what they want.
It stops them from being honest with themselves and seeing things as they really are. You can survive a setback more strongly by thinking your way through the following steps:
Imagine your life as a map.
Your goal: Wealth and success.
Step one: See things as they really are.
Step two: See things as better than they are.
Step three: Make a plan to get there.
BLAMING OTHERS FOR YOUR SITUATION
Most people end up blaming everything around them for their problems. The heap blames on the government, bosses, family, friends, society, evil spirits, and just about everything but themselves.
But in the end, know it that your personal economy is ultimately the outcome of your own actions and your grit to succeed is a major factor in achieving wealth.Life is a dream for the wise a game for the fools, comedy for the rich and tragedy for the poor. No matter how bad it gets, never blame anyone; just move on!
LIVING IN A CRIME PRONE AREA
People with less money will often have to live in areas that aren’t ideal. Most of these areas have much higher crime rates, which can continue your poverty for two main reasons. The first one is that you might be directly affected by crime. Robbery or violent crimes will reduce your overall finances.
The second major problem is that these areas are incredibly stressful. It can be difficult living in an area where you don’t feel safe. You’ll have a harder time wisely using your money or finding ways to escape poverty. Some people even become hopeless due to their surroundings.
CRIPPLING WITH STRESS
Poverty has been shown to lower a person’s brainpower because he or she will be crippled by stress, anxiety and other problems. It can become nearly impossible for poor people to make the right decisions to escape poverty.
For example, instead of saving money and paying bills, many poor people will use the money on entertainment or other distractions to temporarily escape the stress. This just makes it harder to escape poverty.
LACK FINANCIAL DISCIPLINE
Being financially disciplined is one of the surest ways of getting rich. Being disciplined financially has nothing to do with how much you make as your income but being able to manage what you make and still put some aside, no matter how small.
You should be able to save some parts of your salaries and income and discipline yourself on your spendings.
JOBLESS STATE
People who are educated tend to find specialized jobs where they are a necessity. They are the only ones who can fulfill that role due to their education, talent and experience. Poor people are constantly on the verge of joblessness because they are easy to replace.
For example, being a cashier doesn’t require much skill. It’s easy to replace someone because most people are willing to do the job. If you are doing unskilled labor, then you can lose your job at any time.
UNSUCCESSFUL PEOPLE ARE CONTROLLED BY FEAR
Fear is a natural component of the business world. If the path to success were clear-cut and infallible, then everyone would be wealthy. Because it isn't, everyone must deal with situations that make them anxious.
There are three different ways to process and manage fear: The first two options will destroy your chances for a successful and healthy life, while the third gives you the mindset you need to use fear to your advantage.
1) Some people pretend that fear does not exist. The people who manage fear through ignoring it end up in a life filled with poverty and misery. By ignoring fear, you let it control you because you neither acknowledge it nor learn how to deal with it. Unacknowledged fear renders you impotent in your efforts to reach your goals, and this is the most disempowered state for wealth and success.
2) Other people act in spite of fear. This way of dealing with fear allows you to achieve certain goals despite being afraid; however, it leads you to anxiety. Yes, you will have wealth, but you will constantly be afraid of taking the wrong step.
These people are hung up on worries like "What if I fail?" and "What if I don't hit my goal?" This results in a situation where you second-guess every decision and live in fear of failure.
3) Successful people embrace fear and let it motivate them. These people achieve their goals and do so by acknowledging their fear without letting it ruin their enjoyment of their success.
NOT CONTROLLING YOUR GREED
Greed is an unhealthy addiction because it makes you want more than what’s necessary, which puts you at risk of losing what you already have.
Greed makes you want to get what you do not need and in trying to get those things, you could end up in illegality.
The best way to control your greed is to set financial goals so you will know how much is enough to fund your dreams.
AFFECTED BY HIGHER OVERALL COSTS
If you compare a poor person and a middle-class person, then you’ll often notice that the poorer person is paying more per month for most expenses. They often pay more for living arrangements, bills, common services and nearly everything else.
This is usually due to having a low credit score or not knowing how to properly manage finances. Regardless of the reason, this will ensure that you stay poor.
SIMPLY DRIFTING THROUGH LIFE
many people are just drifting through life without a sense of purpose. They are content in living from day to day, taking life as it comes.
If your life hasn’t changed much in the past five years, then you’re probably too busy at work and not productive with your life, which are two different things.
Work will always be there, but the chance to pursue your passion and achieve your dreams won’t be. Stop procrastinating and start doing things.
CONCLUSION
Fighting poverty can be difficult. It’s more than just having enough money to pay bills. You need to fix your overall financial situation, change your understanding of money and alter your life so that you don’t fall back into poverty.
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