I remember my economics teacher described money as a medium of exchange for goods and services and the first sentence of an article on Wikipedia says: “Money is any object, or any sort of record, that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context.”

Great, but when you get right down to it, those explanations do not really give a clearly understandable definition of money and that lack of understanding is what makes a lot of people stranded when it comes to making money or making more money.

Money is value. Simple.

The more of value you can give at a price tag, the more money you have. Let me try to make it clearer.

Lets run back to the days when man was without shoes. Everyone walked around bare-footed, then someone thought and wondered if it would be possible to create something that protects the legs and somehow the shoe as we know it today was invented. Put it together and the shoe becomes value – which is why there are today multi-nationals in the business of shoe making.

When you understand money in this light you suddenly realise that you probably have been running after it in a wrong way – thinking of money as “paper” you should earn more of instead of as value you should provide more of.

To make more of money, look around you and see how you can add value to the lives of people around. Think of products and services you can create that people can pay for at a price tag. Consider the following:

When cars came, people suddenly needed car washes.
As people got busier with their careers, babysitters became needed.
When TV stations sprang up, reporters were needed more.
Computers have made computer game programmers a lot of money.

To earn a lot of money, think about how to add value to people’s lives. It can be as an added value to an existing service or product. Think of paint on the walls of a house. Without the paint, the house will be fine but the paint adds value. There are a load of services & products like this. Or your value can come as a skill that is required by employers etc

Remember, MONEY is value and to make more of it, think value.

Imagine waking up without having to worry about the next knock on the door and sleeping at night without the present anxiety over tomorrow. Yes, agreed it is not easy to get out of debt but it is better to start acting towards it rather than waiting and getting more entangled in debt.

Here are 3 action steps to help you get out of debt:

1. Be Honest With The Present Situation

The bad thing about debt is that most people in debt don’t realise it until when it is way, way too deep. The first thing you should do is to analyse your present situation and know how much in debt you are at the moment, then accept the fact that you are in debt. Once this is done, you immediately switch your consciousness to recognise the fact that habits, lifestyles and any such thing that will get your further into debt has to stop and this is one of the major leaps towards recovery.

The worse situation ever is to be in debt and still accumulate more either consciously or otherwise. If this goes on, when will you get free?

2. Take Stock & Create A List

Who and who do you owe and how much? Draw out your pen and paper and create a list of everything you owe and who your creditors are, then re-arrange the list to show the most urgent of these and go down to the least urgent.

Next, list how much you have as cash or asset and this means everything you can quickly turn to cash. For example, you might have a skill that is in high demand like ability to design websites, do programming, offer consulting etc

3. Create a Repayment Plan

Take a look at your earnings, consider what you can offer for quick cash using your skills and assets and start a repayment plan. One way to ensure peace of mind is to speak with your creditors and let them know there is a problem and that you are willing to pay. Negotiate more time where possible and start working to do the repayments as agreed. Most creditors will accept to get paid in bits if you speak to them.

4. Make Money Money if Possible

This may mean extra work, but hey, you are working for your freedom and you should do everything possible and legitimate to work out of the situation as fast as possible. One great way to make more money quickly is to offer your skills & knowledge for sale. If you can write, find freelance sites and take writing jobs. If you can design, do the same. If you feel you do not have any skill, go around your neighbourhood and offer to baby sit, clean for your neighbours, walk the dogs – just do something extra to get you out of debt.

5. Stay Out of Debt

Getting out of debt is great but it is extremely easy to get back in as fast as you never thought possible, so once you get out or as you work your way through getting out, make sure you watch it and do everything possible not to get back in.

Why do people who make a decent earning go broke? Why do people work so hard and yet come down to nothing just a few days after the months pay? Here are a few reasons and how to reverse this trend for yourself starting today.

1. Inability to Differentiate between Needs & Wants

Yes, you’ve got to live a good life but the ability to differentiate per time what is need and want will keep you from carrying an empty pocket and ending in desperation and debt. Needs are those things you cannot do without. For instance because the nature of my work, I cannot do without power and have to spend money on generating power when there is an outage. That is a need.

Wants are those things you’d love to have but do not make any significant difference in your life. For instance if you have 2 pairs of shoes, getting an extra pair because you have a weekend ball is a want.

Surprisingly, a lot of people focus on their wants and look for means to satisfy the desire for these wants and end up over spending every single month. The result is a dry pocket. Differentiate between your needs and your wants and work hard not to satisfy your needs unless you genuinely have extra left to cater for it.

2. Lack of Investment

One of the reasons why we invest is to prevent a dry pocket. The problem however is trying to invest with the overview of a quick turnover. Work at investing a certain percentage of your income every month on a long term asset or a long term investment programme that can work for your over time. For instance, investing in real estate every month, little by little is one great investment idea I love personally.

3. Ignoring Savings

It is very difficult to pull money together and takes a great deal of discipline to achieve. It is however very easy to blow it all off in just one moment of spending “madness”

First, work at your savings. Cut your expenses starting from now to allow you save at least 10% of your income every month. Just put it aside and forget it. If you save $100 per month, you will have $6000 in 5years (60months). The good news about having a careful savings culture is that after just 6months of doing it, you will begin to feel more confident, have more peace and less anxiety about tomorrow and you will know you have something to fall back on.

Another great advantage is that each time you save some more, you will watch your account grow a little more and this gets you ready for bigger opportunities. For instance, you can decide to buy a house after 5years, become a landlord, earn rent from your property while you still continue to work, save and make more money from property rentals.

Practice these 3 steps on a continual basis and you will gradually discover that you will stop getting broke, live a happier, less stressful life and in time move from a dry pocket to a fat bank account.

The sixteenth president of the United States Abraham Lincoln expressed a universal truth when he said: “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”

A thousand good intentions is not as powerful as a single action and what matters most in life are not the things you think, believe or know but those things you do. Action is incredibly powerful and that one word alone can produce all you need to take you out to achieve your life dreams.

There is so many underachievement in the world today because most people refuse to get off their butts and take positive action. Success as they say is just 10% inspiration… the rest is the 90% of perspiration.

Check your age today and ask yourself – Is there anything you ever wanted to do in your life still a dream today? If there is, ask yourself if you have taken any action towards the attainment of that dream. Most people never have, and never will but you need to understand that this world of ours only respond to people of action.

Nothing works until you work it. Nothing happens until you take action. Invariably, nothing happens unless you make it happen. You are the change your life is waiting for, all you have to do is rise up now and do something towards your intended goal.

You have done enough of planning and analysis. The honest truth is that too much analysis mostly leads you to paralysis. The most successful people in any society are those that just do it like the motto of Nike: “Just Do It”

Think of that one thing you’ve always wanted to do. Think of that one dream you’ve always wanted to translate into a reality and think of that one wish, you wish all the time and take just action towards it today.

Author: Adebola Oni

The story of Ali in the classic, Acres of Diamond is one that has refused to clear from my memory ever since I read the story. Dr. Russell Cornwell, did a yeoman job by painting in stories the lives of the ordinary people whom greatness is within their grasp but couldn’t just smell it talk less of grabbing it.

What a great pity! Ali had a huge deposit of diamond in his garden, but just because he could do some searching sold off the garden for a peanut and went in search of diamond. He never found any diamond because he has sold it off and the lucky buyer discovered the world’s largest deposit in the same garden our journeyman friend sold off! Abu got frustrated with his life and committed suicide while our friend that bought Abu’s garden became the richest man of that time. What an Irony!

The story represents so many of us that have so many things to offer but are still wondering about what we want to do with our lives! Deposited in all of us is a huge deposit of greatness but amazingly only few ever get to become something in life. We talk about poverty, unemployment and several other things that should have never being heard among us if only we all can sit down and do some soul searching to discover the deposit within us.

Most times that I go out, I always see one person or the other that is evidently suffering and I shake my head praying silently that this ignorant person could just see what the Almighty has placed inside of him/her.

The world is replete with those who have discovered themselves and are really living it big and loud in our time, while there are also those who have failed to discover who they truly are and are living frustrated every day of their lives. Do you think the celebrities we have today will ever pick up pen to write an application for any job? No! They have discovered who they are meant to be and what is deposited within them. They never hesitated in using what is deposited inside and look at the fame people like them have acquired.

Prior to discovering my potentials, I used to be scared stiff whenever it occurs to me that I will leave the University one day and start looking for a job. I used to wonder whether I will be qualified for any job considering the education I receive everyday in the University. I used to see most of the courses as obsolete and irrelevant in this present age.

When I discovered my potentials, I just couldn’t be put down any longer. There has never being a day that I became dejected anymore because I have discovered a purpose to live for and I couldn’t be less excited. Whoa! What a great discovery! It was as if I just came into the world.

All those things that used to worry me disappeared because I was seeing a bright future instead of the bleak one that I used to see. People couldn’t believe I have decided not to look for a job like every of my other colleague that we graduated together. It was an abnormal situation to majority of them except just a few.

I want to let you know that your life can experience the same massive change I experienced years ago. Discover the power within you and you will never have to worry about your tomorrow again. Those who have discovered their passion are no better than you. You have the same brain and you can do the same thing they are doing if only you take the time to discover yourself.

Adebola Oni is the Author of “The Lessons Of Life”. So many lives have been touched by his newsletter, Life Lessons Digest. You can have a copy delivered to you every week by visiting his website: http://NaijaMotivation.com You will NEVER regret doing so as so many articles are waiting to change your life.

Perhaps, the greatest comforting truth is the fact that when one door closes, another opens. Unfortunately we look so long and regretfully at closed doors that we fail to see the ones open before us and it all has to do with our attitudes and reactions to situations.

Enjoy this video from Zig Ziglar on Attitude:

There was once a farmer who had a horse he loved very much. One day as he was walking with his horse, the horse fell into a well. The farmer tried everything he could to pull his dear horse out of the well but nothing worked.

The farmer loved his horse so much and with tears decided the best thing to do was to bury the horse on that spot. He picked up his shovel and with the tears rolling freely down his cheek, started heaving sand into the well. His intention was straight forward enough – to bury his beloved horse.

The horse seeing the situation resigned to fate and decided it was over but something strange happened. As the first heap of sand landed on the horse’s back, it had an idea – Shake off the sand, stamp on it and you’ll get out alive!

That was exactly what the horse did. As each heap of sand landed on the back of the horse, all it did was simply to shake it off, stamp on it and that horse made it out of that well alive.

Your day cannot and in fact will not go perfect all of the time. There are times when it just goes rough. Even, when everything decides to go perfect for you, there are people who deliberately try to hurt you, just try to get at you, try to infuse some stress into you happy day.

When such thing happens – remember that every obnoxious act is a cry for help. Understand that person in unconsciously trying to rub his inner frustration on someone else. That understanding helps you handle the scenario better.

David Brinkley could not have said it better when he said: “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”

It also helps to remember when the day starts going bad that somewhere sometimes in the past, you’ve been in far worse situation and you handled it. Think back to the past and you’ll discover there have been worse days than today which you don’t even have vivid recollection of. If that is the case.. then it means today is not so bad. Cheer up!

Another tip to help you handle a day going bad is to practice talking back to yourself aloud; powerful motivation quotes. For example, “shake off the sand and you’ll come out alive” or “I expect the best and with God’s help will attain the best” – Norman Vincent Peale or “Only Winners go to dinner” or “Misery is an option”

Say such things to yourself over and over until you’ve calmed down and you actually start to feel better despite the situation that cause the bad day being present. You will notice that as you cool off.. the so bad day will get no so bad and the stress level falls drastically.

Never forget: we cannot direct the wind but we can adjust the sails. “Your attitude determines your action and your action determines your accomplishment.” – John C. Maxwell

If you had the power to do just one thing – What will you do today? If your life tomorrow depends entirely on the actions you take today, what will you do today? If the entire course of your finances will be determined by something you do today – what will you do today?

Our life is configured to be lived one day at a time with each day standing as a stepping stone for tomorrow which means that the quality of life you are living now is the result of the actions you took yesterday.

The big question:
What will you do today?

This is the question you should strive to answer honestly every single day. Before your day commences, plan and know exactly what activities you will engage in for the day that will bring you the most rewarding results.

Knowing what to do today, helps you manage your time, reduce your stress levels, increase your efficiency, boosts your self confidence and gives you the overall feeling of achievement as you complete each task you set out to do.

Remember, just about 20% of your activities today will result in 80% of the positive results you will get in your life, relationships or your business. What this means for you is that you should focus on the most important things in your life starting right now.

Do only the things that bring the most results for you each day. Set out to accomplish the most important tasks that produces the most rewarding results. If your goal is to have a happy family, identify those things your family considers to be the most important to them and do them. Complete the most important tasks in your business and focus on the most important tasks relating to your health and finances.

When you do this everything, you soon discover that the fear and anxiety of tomorrow is quickly forgotten because what you do today sets a tone for tomorrow and when you make the right decisions today, tomorrow seemingly sort itself out nicely.

What will you do today? – Enjoy this video by John C. Maxwell

A bystander observed Michelangelo as he took a long time retouching every detail of a statue he’d been working on for many days, and asked why he bothered with them. Michelangelo replied; “Trifles make perfection and perfection is no trifle.”

The greatest enemy of best is good. If you’re satisfied with what’s good, you’ll never have what’s best. (John Mason). The quickest and easiest way to become a high flyer is to do more and then more than is required and then to continue doing it.

One secret every true achiever knows is the power of going the extra mile with tasks. Zig Ziglar wrote; “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” The ability to put in a little more hard work and a little more detail is the hallmark of excellence and life always rewards handsomely men who truly and dutifully do a little more than all others.

“If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great Streetsweeper who did his job well.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Thomas Edision said; “Show me a thoroughly satisfied man, and I will show you a failure.” “There are two kinds of men who never amount to very much,” remarked Cyrus H.K. Curtis to his associate, Edward Bok. “And what kinds are those?” inquired Bok. “Those who cannot do what they are told,” replied the famous publisher, “and those who can do nothing else.”

“Where we cannot invent, we may at least improve,” said Charles Caleb Colton. Find a better way and make that way better. That is the surefire lift to great achievements.

Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world. What you think about shapes who you are and positive achievement starts by thinking about what you want and how to get it most of the time.

Think about it – most of the things you thought about yesterday are realities you are living today. To live a better happier life tomorrow, you need to change your thinking starting now.