I hope you had a blessed Passover or Easter. It’s a wonderful time of family, fellowship, and
reflection. Spring is here, the trees
are budding, flowers are blooming and the temperatures are warming up. It’s another great opportunity to realize all
we are grateful for and how many blessings we do have in our daily lives.
As I come across a life changing book, I like to pass it
along. This one is Money – Master the Game by Tony Robbins. Tony is an American life success coach,
speaker, and author. He’s an amazing man
who has transformed the lives of people like Oprah Winfrey and Usher as well as
millions across the world who are just wanting to improve themselves. He is authentic, a man of integrity, and has
a mission of helping make life better for anyone who is willing to take
action. Unlike books others have written
about financial freedom, Tony has taken a unique approach. On the inside of the book jacket it reads, “Achieving
genuine financial freedom isn't complicated.
But until now, only the most powerful and connected had access to the
right information and the right strategies.
Thanks to exhaustive research and unprecedented interviews with 50 of the
world’s most brilliant financial minds, from self-made billionaires to Nobel
Prize winners, Tony Robbins has uncovered the 7 Simple Steps to put you in full
control of your financial future.” By
the way, “all of the author’s profits of this book have been donated in advance
by Tony, which in conjunction with an additional personal donation, will feed
50 million meals to people in need this year!
The food will be delivered by Feeding America, the nation’s largest
domestic hunger relief charity.” That,
in and of itself, speaks volumes to me about his intentions.
Today, I want to focus on the early part of the book
which “sets the stage.” The book itself
is 624 pages. For some of you, that’s a daunting
number, and you're already saying to yourself, “No way. I’m not a reader.” What I would challenge you to do, if that’s
your reaction, is to read the first 80 pages.
He writes in an easy, storytelling manner. Then you can decide if you're going to read
further. It’s also not a book that you
just read. He has you active in your own
financial planning, and there’s even an app for your phone that does all the
calculations. Take your time to process
and integrate this into your personal framework of thinking.
“Six Basic Needs” is an early part of the book that
captured my attention right away. Tony
outlines these basic needs as “what makes us tick.” These basic needs “drive all human behavior
and are universal.” What’s interesting
is he states, “…how we value those needs, and in what order, determines the
direction of our life.” So what are
these six basic needs?
The first basic need is Certainty/Comfort. As Tony
explains, this is “our need to feel in control, we want to know what’s coming
next so we can feel secure.” This is a
basic comfort where we also like to avoid pain and stress. What’s interesting is this “affects the
amount of risk we are willing to take in our life, our job, investments, and
relationships. The higher the level of
need for certainty the less risk we're willing to take.” We've probably all heard ‘risk tolerance’
which is where this term comes from. Take a minute and ask yourself where you
are with this first basic need. Are you
on one level of comfort when it comes to certain areas of your life for example in your
job, but less so in your relationships?
Good question to ask yourself.
The second basic need is Uncertainty/Variety. If we
didn’t have some level of uncertainty, variety and surprises, we would probably
be bored to tears. Don’t we all like
surprises? Of course, that is if they're good ones. Those other surprises are
usually what we’d refer to as problems.
Yes? Yet, to have this in our
lives also helps us develop character.
Next is Significance. We all need to feel that we matter. Feeling important, special, unique, feeling
that we matter to others are all a part of our essence. How does that manifest itself? It’s different, obviously, for different
people. There are those people who find
significance in their bank account, others show it through their education and
sometimes it’s “the more the better” with a Masters or a Ph.d. Then there are others that feel significant by
the size of their social media accounts like Twitter and Facebook, tattoos and
piercings may express someone’s unique display of significance, while others
like to “top” each story with a bigger and better problem, challenge, or
experience. Isn't the display of
violence also a “show of significance?” It
is, once again, a personal story, and we all have our own way to display our
needs. For me, it’s more about the motivation behind what we do rather
than the actual way we show our
significance. Are our actions “pure of
heart” or is it because we don’t feel significant? Is the motivation to “be better than /or have
a one-upmanship” in order to think we are more significant than someone
else? This is a question for us,
individually, to decide the motivation behind what we do in order to feel that
we matter.
The fourth basic need is Love and Connection. “Love
is the oxygen of life. It’s what we all
need and want most. Maybe it’s intimacy,
friendship, prayer, being out in nature or a combination of several." Personally, I think this basic need and the
need for significance may go hand in hand.
Hmm.
According to Robbins, these first four are the “needs of the
personality.” These last two are “the
needs of the spirit. Not everyone meets
these needs, however, when these are met, we truly feel fulfilled.”
Basic need #5 is Growth. We've all heard the saying, “If you're not
growing, you're dying.” Why is it some
people are constantly feeling a need to learn and grow in at least one area of
their life whether it be physical, mental, financial, spiritual etc. while
others don't seem to have any “need or desire” to grow and learn? That's something, once again, you can explore your own life and see where you fit.
The last basic need is Contribution. “The secret to
living is giving. Life is not about me
but it’s about we.” “Life is really
about creating meaning and meaning doesn't come from what you get, it comes
from what you give.” I would add to this
that the motivation is pure and not as a martyr. It is not about giving up of yourself but
adding to the overall enhancement of who you are as a human being. The term "giving" is not just referring to monetary means. You can "give" of your time, your encouragement, your support etc. etc.
I began this blog by telling you about Tony Robbins’
book Money – Master the Game, and yet the six basic needs are part of his
introduction to what follows in the rest of the book. In fact on page 79 Tony explains…””I’m not
going to preach to you anymore, but I wanted to take this short time to say
that while it’s time to master your money, don’t wait to master yourself. The fastest way to feel connection, a sense
of how significant your life is, a deep sense of certainty and variety, and put
yourself in a state where you can give to others, is to find a way, each day,
to appreciate more and expect less. The wealthiest
person on earth is one who appreciates.”
I wish you a thought filled week of knowing your own
basic needs and finding all the things you appreciate.
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