Blog | Personal Finance

Be → Do → Have: The Mindset Shift You Need to Achieve Big Goals

Doing what successful people do is easy; here’s the 3-word solution to change your future

summary

• Success starts with mindset, not action.

• Most people focus on doing, but being comes first.

• Your results reflect who you are – here’s why this 3-word solution is the key to achieving any goal

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Doing what successful people do is easy. One of the reasons there are so many wealthy people who didn't do well in school is because the "to-do" part of becoming wealthy is simple. You don't have to go to school to become rich. The "to-do" part of becoming rich is definitely not rocket science.

Why being is more important than doing

Take the classical book, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, for example. There's a reason why the book starts with "think" in the title instead of "work hard" or "get a job." The fact is that the people who simply work the hardest are not the ones who become financially free. Instead, you must learn to think differently than others, to not go along with the crowd.

One of the greatest assets that successful people have is that they think differently than everyone else. This is because if you think like everyone else does, then you'll have what everyone else has. And for most people, what they have is years of hard work, unfair taxes, and a lifetime of debt.

It's not what you do that matters

When someone asks "What do I have to do to move from the left side of the CASHFLOW Quadrant (the employee and self-employed side) to the right side (the business owner and investor side)?" The answer is simple: It's not what you do that has to change. It's how you think that needs to change. In other words, the key lies in who you are in order to do what needs to be done.

For instance, when Robert Kiyosaki was young, he learned about money and wealth by playing Monopoly with his rich dad. He taught Robert that the key to winning in the game was to buy four green houses and trade them up for a red hotel. That is also the formula for wealth in real life, and the Kiyosakis have used it to grow their wealth.

Surely it can't be that easy, right? It all depends on you. Do you want to be the kind of person who thinks buying four green houses and turning them in for one red hotel is easy? Or do you want to be the kind of person who thinks it's hard?

This leads to another question: Doesn’t it stand to reason that how you think leads to who you are, and what you do - which altogether determines what you have? 

Be – Do – Have

 The key to achieving any dream is as easy as can be: Be – Do – Have.

Be is your beingness: who you are.

Do is the doingness: what you do.

Have is your havingness: what you have.

It sounds simple, but everything you have today is because of who you are and what you have done up until this moment. If you want to change what you have, you have to change who you are and what you do.

How to change

Most people first look at all they have to do, which seems like too much work. So, they never start; or they begin and quickly quit when they realize it’s no walk in the park. In the process, they never change, and they never get what they want to have.

But in reality, today is the day! What do you want to have? Who do you have to be to get that? What do you have to do to be that person? By answering these questions, you can achieve your dreams. 

Participate in life

We all grew up learning from books and lectures. However, our greatest learning takes place when we actively do something, when we participate.

Are you waiting for all the lights to be green, for circumstances to be perfect? If so, you'll probably be waiting forever.

Pay attention to your words, because thoughts become things. Are you saying, "I'm thinking about investing," or "I'm interested in investing"? Or are you saying, "I'm going to invest." Have you made a commitment, at least to yourself, to do what you know you need to do? Or are you still talking about “what ifs?”

First steps

If you're intimidated by your goals, learn how to create SMART goals to help make them more manageable. Where can you connect with other people who've done what you're trying to do so you can learn from them?

Seek out mentors and coaches, people who will keep you accountable. But realize that others won't want to commit to helping you if you're not fully committed yourself.

Don't let life — and the opportunities to create the life you want for yourself — pass you by. You don't have to jump into the deep end of the pool, but at least wade into the shallow end. And that means you must start to participate.

A new way of being

Moving from the left side of the CASHFLOW Quadrant to the right side is not so much about doing but about being. It's not what those who own businesses or successfully invest do that make the difference; it's how they think and who they are at the core of their being.

The good news is that it doesn't take much money to change your thinking. In fact, it can be done for free. The bad news is that sometimes it's hard to change your core beliefs about money that are handed down from generation to generation, or learned from friends, work, and school. But it can be done.

Rich Dad is not about giving you a how-to list. It's never been about which stocks to buy or which mutual fund is the safest. For us, successful financial education teaches you not what to do, but instead how to be.

Since our start, we've always been about your thoughts (being) so that you can take action (doing) that will enable you to become financially free (having).