Saving for Retirement - The Fun Begins

Now that you ve symbolically gotten rid of the "do not want" stuff from your life, and your focus has now turned to the items on you "do want" list, you are finding it very easy to keep your focus where you want it and keeping the "do not want" thoughts, images and habits at bay, right? If that was all it took, I would not be writing these articles, you would not be motivated to read them, and a large percentage of paycheck-to-paycheck employees who are forced to live on less income in retirement would all be wealthy and not have to concern themselves with saving for retirement and other financial issues.
Here s the real life scenario. Something in these or some other articles resonates within you and causes you to really think about your financial situation. The more you think about it the more you realize that you are not where you need or want to be financially. You might run some numbers through one of those online retirement calculators, and it confirms what you suspected. Based on your present path, your retirement income is going to be reduced 30% from what you presently earn or what you are projected to earn over the years before you retire. You get excited about the possibility of improving your situation. You identify a process, make a commitment to yourself to make the necessary changes, and you get started!
A month later you look at your financial situation and nothing has measurably changed for you. Those discarded "do not want" thoughts seize the opportunity and come flowing back into your mind in what seems to be never ending streams. Your resolve begins to slip away, your commitment wanes, you soon give up even trying, and the entire old life slowly wraps itself comfortably around you like a warm blanket on a cool winter evening.
Even though the process is simple, those consistent "do not want" thoughts, images and habits are deeply entrenched. Rarely are they friendly toward your implementing a retirement plan or a saving plan. Many of them invaded your mind in childhood. They have presented themselves to you so repeatedly that they ve convinced you that they are you. Have you ever noticed how often you ve said to someone: "Well that s just the way I am", or "That s just me!" In some cases they ve taken such complete control of your thinking that nearly your whole life experience is interpreted through them. They are your TRUTHS about your world. They have formed what Dr. Maxwell Maltz, author of Psycho-Cybernetics, called your Self-Image and what Bill Harris, one of the experts featured on the DVD called The Secret and Founder of The Centerpointe Research Institute, calls your Map of Reality. Nothing new can come into your way of thinking unless it somehow gets the approval of this Self-Image (or Map of Reality) as long as your thinking is running on auto-pilot. To bring about positive change, you truly do have to consciously decide what different thoughts, images, and habits you are going to introduce into the unconscious sections of your mind. How?
I am a big fan of using affirmations. An affirmation is a statement that you make to yourself as if it were true in the present moment. Let s say that your annual earnings are presently $45,000 a year and you want to earn $100,000 or more until you retire. You can craft an affirmation like this: "I am so happy and grateful now that I earn $100,000 or more each year". Affirmations can be so much fun!
Remember, you do not have to live on less in retirement. No matter where you are right now financially, you can build and enjoy a Million Dollar lifestyle retirement.



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