Many people want to be wealthy, but few understand how to focus their attention in a way that moves them from drifting through life and reacting to the circumstances in front of them, to consciously taking control of their minds and their actions to start thinking and creating wealth like the millionaires of the world.
If you’re ready to actively build yourself, your mindset for financial success and your wealth in all areas of life, what I share below will help you take the steps to move from the 98% of people who are drifters to becoming part of the 2% who know how to think and develop wealth intentionally.
This will help you build the life you’ve been dreaming about.
What Does It Mean to Be a Drifter?
One of the core lessons from Outwitting the Devil about success that Napoleon Hill reveals is what it means to be a drifter and how the devil keeps people drifting through their lives.
The devil likes it when people drift because it’s an easy way for him to stop them from reaching higher and attaining the greater power that comes with conscious living.
When we drift, we stay under his control.
As you can imagine, this would have been a highly controversial topic in 1938 when he wrote the book, right after he finished Think and Grow Rich, which is why his family hid the book for 70 years.
I was deeply honored when the Napoleon Hill Foundation approached me to annotate the book for a modern audience and I am glad that people are learning the lessons from Outwitting the Devil about success.
Even today, what Napoleon Hill shares can still be a controversial topic, but the better we understand the 7 Principles to engage self determination, the easier it will be to break free from drifting and start living a life that is far richer in every single way.
In the Outwitting the Devil book, Hill said that the devil actively tries to keep people inside their comfort zones to hold them back from doing more and becoming fully conscious in their lives. That’s because our consciousness helps us make positive changes in the world.
But when we are fearful, we stay small.
In Outwitting the Devil, the fears the devil says he uses are the:
- Fear of poverty
- Fear of criticism
- Fear of ill health
- Fear of loss of love
- Fear of old age
- Fear of death
If we are feeling stuck, it’s an opportunity to ask, is one of these fears causing us to drift and perhaps turning into excuses that are stopping us from doing what we really want and becoming more?
It’s important to know that drifting isn’t a permanent state.
We all have the power to make the kind of choices that will move us toward the lives we want, including one where we are financially free, highly successful and giving back to our communities in a way that aligns with our values, beliefs and the greater purpose of our lives.
That kind of life starts by taking control of your thoughts, your decisions and your actions.
How to Control Your Thoughts, Your Decisions and Your Actions
All wealth, including monetary, starts in the mind first. It is why building a wealth mindset is so important.
We have an immense amount of power when we learn to control our thoughts and we carefully choose the kinds of words we use to speak to ourselves and others.
Our thoughts shape what we believe about ourselves, our circumstances and our ability to influence the conditions in our lives. Those beliefs directly affect the decisions we make and the actions we take.
Those actions, in turn, determine the results we get.
This is especially true for your financial future.
Very few of us receive any form of financial education growing up. That means we’ve simply never learned the steps for building the kind of wealth that millionaires around the world have taken to make money and keep doing it with little effort.
Because of the lack of financial literacy, we build sources of bad debt, delay investing and continue to make poor financial decisions that keep us stuck in the rat race of living paycheck to paycheck.
This can expand our fear about money and our ability to make the financial changes that will set us up for financial success.
But there is a way out and it’s simple.
Embrace a wealth building mindset and the fact that we can all learn how to think differently and control our thoughts.
Control Your Thoughts
Remember that the devil uses fear to control how we think because he knows how powerful our thoughts are and the kinds of changes we could create when we focus on the positive things we can do.
Money creates a lot of fear and many people are afraid to look at their finances because they know they won’t like what they will see, especially when there is a lot of debt.
Because of those negative thoughts, they choose not to look at their numbers which plays into the devil’s hand because it stops them from taking the simple steps that could move them toward greater wealth.
And they continue to drift.
But not you!
You are already becoming one of the people who know how to think and build wealth like the 2% because you are learning how to stop drifting in life.
This is why it’s important to acknowledge that you can’t make those changes if you choose not to see where you are right now.
I know it can feel very uncertain when you aren’t sure of the first step to fix a problem you face. But know you are fully capable of building a positive mindset around your ability to learn something new.
You’ve done it nearly every day of your life, so the reality is you are quite skilled at it.
Now you just have to use that skill to leave fear-based thinking behind.
It starts by making some simple shifts in your thoughts and saying things like:
- How can I? Instead of I can’t. (Remember our brains are powerful and creative too. You can find a way!)
- I don’t know this right now but I know I can learn.
- Who can help me with this? (Success is never created alone.)
- What is one small step I can take right now to make it a little better?
These small shifts help you think differently about the situation and they open greater possibilities and opportunities.
That helps you make a different choice, taking you away from the fearful thoughts that hold you back from the life you deserve.
A SHARON LECHTER MINDSET TIP
The words you use in your mind when you talk to yourself matter. They reinforce the way you think about money and opportunity, which is why it’s important to be very aware of your inner critic, what it says to you and the limiting beliefs behind the thoughts.
The more often you can shift those words to ones that are positive and encouraging, the more power you will give yourself to break free from drifting and start living the life you really want.
Control Your Decisions
The choices you make in your life matter because they create your reality.
Make a different decision, and you can create a different reality.
In financial terms, something as simple as an impulse buy of a few dollars can seem very small in the moment, but they quickly add up over the course of the month, eating away at the amount of money you have left over at the end of the month.
Impulse buying is something the 98% of the people who are drifters will do with very little thought.
Becoming conscious of those small financial decisions can be the difference between building the life of your dreams or continuing to live in the status quo.
This is why being very deliberate about your decisions, especially the financial ones, makes a huge difference to the level of success you enjoy and the level of financial freedom you attain.
Even a few extra dollars put toward your debt each month will cut down the amount of interest you will pay over time, giving you even more money to put toward building the future of your dreams.
Move toward greater consciousness by consistently asking yourself:
Will this decision take me closer to the bigger vision I want for my life or away from it?
That one question alone can leap you forward into conscious living and help you take the actions toward the life you really want.
Control Your Actions
We have all heard the saying, “Knowledge is power.” But that is only true if you put the knowledge to work for you by taking action on it.
For example, you can increase your financial literacy, but if you don’t use what you learn, you will keep drifting through your life and increasing your debt while doing nothing to improve your financial situation or life circumstances.
To start building your power and your financial wealth, take actions like:
- Getting to know your numbers
- Paying off your debt
- Building an emergency fund
- Increasing your streams of income
- Buying, building or acquiring assets
- Making smart investments
Building wealth in other areas of your personal life might mean:
- Limiting time with or cutting toxic people out of your life
- Practicing better self care
- Setting boundaries for yourself and the other people in your life
- Expanding your social and professional network
- Doing something new
Everything that you consciously do to support the future you want will get you closer to your goals.
Step by step, as you practice how to take control of your thoughts, decisions and actions, you will take control of your life too.
Moving From Drifter to Decision-Maker
It is a simple process to learn how to stop drifting in life. It might not be easy and it does take practice, but it is simple.
To move from drifter to decision-maker, you have to be very honest with yourself about where you are right now and acknowledge the gap between it and where you want to go.
This is where fear might rear up and why your thoughts about yourself can move toward the negative again.
Controlling your thoughts is a life-long practice, and every time you acknowledge that getting to any goal—even if it is big and bold—is done by simply taking a series of steps, puts you back in control.
Any time you feel afraid, you can start to take your power back by:
- Defining or revisiting your bigger vision of the future and the life you want to create.
- Ensuring your decisions are moving you toward that vision or away from it.
- Outlining where you have gaps in your knowledge, skills, resources and/or your power of association and building a plan to fill them.
- Taking an inventory of the things that are currently pulling you away from your goals like:
- Social media scrolling
- Outside opinions
- Social, personal and professional expectations
- Other distractions
- Unsupportive financial decisions like impulse buying, convenience services, subscriptions, etc.
Once you define your personal strategy, it takes a commitment and consistency to work it. The more dedicated you are, the faster it will come to life.
In terms of how to take control of your financial future, everyone will have a different starting place, but building the habits for financial success require each one of us to commit to:
- Improving our financial literacy
- Working with a financial advisor or contacting a Master Money Mentor to get on a faster track to financial success
- Picking one area where we will take financial control
- Building a personal strategy to create financial success in that area
- Sticking to a personal plan to avoid FOMO when making financial decisions
- Intentionally taking the steps to work the plan
- Checking back in regularly to track progress and ensure we are moving in the direction we want to go
- Celebrating every success!
Each commitment you keep, step you take and every small movement forward, even if it’s a micro-step, is progress!
Celebrate that progress because what gets celebrated gets repeated.
That’s when your conscious effort and your actions align and gain momentum, making it easier to maintain your financial freedom mindset and reach your goals.
A SHARON LECHTER MINDSET TIP
Remember that even if you don’t get the result you want the first time you try, you have received information you can use to make a better decision from here. Then you can take a new action to get a different result.
Failure is simply learning one way not to do something. It is not a judgement on who you are or what you can accomplish.
The fact that you have consciously taken action toward something you want, no matter the outcome, moves you away from the 98% of people who are drifters toward the 2% of people who are using their self-determination to take their lives and finances in a better direction.
All you have to do next is take a new step.
Stop Drifting and Start Taking Control
You now have the foundation you can build upon to stop drifting and take control of your thoughts, decisions, actions and your financial future.
If you want to further your education, I invite you to get the Outwitting the Devil book. It will give you the 7 Principles you need to break away from the 98% of the people who are drifters and join the 2% who are consciously creating a life with greater purpose, intention and financial freedom.
If you’re looking for even more resources to support your financial independence mindset, CLICK HERE.