Is your focus on winning or not losing?

I just finished T. Harv Eker’s book, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. I strongly urge you to read it if you haven’t yet. Although it’s clearly about making money, many of the principles apply to other areas of life, so even if you’re as rich as Oprah, you can still gain valuable information from it.


One quote that struck a chord with me was this: “Rich people focus on what they want, while poor people focus on what they don’t want. What you focus on expands.” He also says, “Rich people play the money game to win. Poor people play the money game to not lose.” Although this sounds like arguing semantics, it’s actually an incredibly significant difference, both in mentality and outcome. I realized that I was someone who was trying very hard not to lose, and that I was focused on how much money I lacked. Because what I focus on expands, I was getting a whole lot more of “not enough.”

This mental habit is something I “inherited” from my childhood experiences, and is very difficult to change. General consensus in the scientific community is that it takes 21 days to change a habit, although others believe it takes at least 90 days to really solidify the new habit. But because it is a habit, the good news is that it can be changed.


What about you? Are you focusing on what you want (abundance, joy, success), or on what you don’t want (to be broke, to lose your job, etc.)? What habits do you need to change to get back on track?