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Review: How to be Rich and Happy

Imagine being able to do whatever you want, whenever you want, for the rest of your life. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Well that is exactly the premise of the e-book, How to be Rich and Happy, by John P. Strelecky and Tim Brownson.

The book explains, step by step, what you can do to lead a rich & happy life. I am a huge believer in the “show me, don’t tell me” philosophy. The great thing about this book is that it is filled with real-life examples of people that have lived rich & happy lives and how they got there. It really does “show” the reader how to instead of just telling. Additionally, it contains several guided exercises that will help you define your core values and what rich & happy actually means to you.

It took me a couple of months to read the book in its entirety because I digested each chapter very slowly. I wanted to give a thorough and comprehensive review of the book to evolution you readers.

This review is my take on the book, I highly encourage you to read it for yourself and draw your own conclusions. Please note two things: 1. I am an affiliate of the book (which means I make a bit of money if you buy it) and 2. affiliate or not, I highly recommend this book (from my heart). I absolutely believe that if you are confused about your life’s direction, feeling hopeless, or are afraid over your future — this book has the power to get you on the path to living the life of your dreams.

I will never promote books, products, or people on this site unless I truly believe that they will help you live the life of your dreams.

The first thing that How to be Rich and Happy will help you do is define what rich & happy means to you. This is a crucial step in the journey. The first step to getting what you want out of life is this: Decide what you want! How to be Rich and Happy contains one of the most efficient, sensible plans to do that that I’ve come across. “Rich & happy people know their top values and consistently make decisions that allow them to live in alignment with them.” It sounds a bit tricky, but not to worry. The book will show you how you can do it in clear terms.

Change Your Thoughts and Behaviors

In order to live a rich & happy life, you will need to drastically alter your thoughts & behaviors. Some of the things that the book will teach you are how to:

  • Stop passing judgment on others
  • Tell the difference between facts and beliefs
  • Be more optimistic
  • Fail with grace
  • Learn when to quit (but still succeed)
  • Listen to your unconscious mind
  • Stop making excuses
  • Use visualization to achieve goals & accelerate progress
  • Avoid unnecessary stress

If you change the language that you use (to speak to yourself & others) you will transform your thought processes and your life. This is called NLP (neurolinguistic programming) and the book will teach you all about it. I personally love this part because it is aligned with CBT and as we all know I am a huge advocate of CBT.

The book will teach you how to tell the difference between a fact and belief. Once you do this, you will be able let go of every negative belief that you’ve ever had about yourself. This skill alone is worth the read. With practice and time, you will be able to stop having negative thoughts about yourself. Imagine what that will do for your confidence and performance. (I’m still working on this part myself… But I am definitely seeing improvement!)

One of the many things that rich & happy people have in common is that they all listen to their gut, or unconscious. In fact, rich & happy people go with their gut reaction more often than the rest of the population. The book tells you why it works and how you can do it, too.

Change Your Beliefs About Money

In looking over some reviews of the book and comments on the author’s blog — the only criticism that I’ve seen has to do with the title of the book and the “rich” (money) aspect of it. Here is my take, this book is not going to sell you a get-rich-quick scheme. In fact, it’s really not going to talk about making dollars much at all. If you are only interested in making lots of money then this is not the book for you. However, if you are interested in enjoying every aspect of your life — from leisure to career — then you’re in the right place.

What the book will teach you is how to create critical, supportive, and positive beliefs about money. Once you can accept these beliefs, your relationship with money will transform in a very positive way. You will be more open to receiving money and you will believe that you deserve money. This will encourage and increase the richness (both financial and happiness) of your life.

There are two other important “money” pieces in the book. First, there is the RHR (Rich & Happy Return) System. This system gives you a calculation that computes “rich & happy minutes” in relation to the dollars that you spend on things. It gives you incredible insight about the actual value of the purchases that you make. From vacations, to cars, to anything else, this system will help you evaluate what is “worth it” and what is not.

Since reading the book, I calculate the RHR on every dollar I spend. It has really made me think twice about the way that I spend my money.

The second money piece is the RHM (Rich & Happy Matrix). It allows you to evaluate the flow of money & happiness within your life. Each of the nine blocks in the matrix contain a state of happiness and a movement of money. If you are spending a lot of money and existing in an unhappy state, you are on the wrong side of the matrix. The book will teach you how to move yourself to the “right” side of the matrix where you will spend less money, earn more, and exist in a state of true happiness.

Since reading, I’ve been working hard to get myself on the “right” side of the matrix.

The Greatest Lesson

The greatest lesson that I learned from How to be Rich and Happy is to accept the fact that even though what I want to accomplish may not be easy, it is possible. How powerful is that statement? Apply it to yourself: Accept the fact that even though what you want to accomplish may not be easy, it is possible. Isn’t that amazing? I love it. In fact, I’ve adopted it as a personal mantra!

Toward the end of the book, there is a fantastic quote:

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” —Howard Thurman

When you really boil it down, that’s what How to be Rich and Happy is all about, doing what makes you come alive. I hope that you’ll have the opportunity to read it and more importantly I hope that it sets you on the path to living the life of your dreams. Please let me know if you’ve read it already or read it in the future. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

If this post has inspired you to purchase the book straight away, please go here: How to be Rich and Happy and you will find everything you need.

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    Letting Go of the Past: Forgiveness

    Last week, I finished listening to Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now. It had been on my “to-read” list for years, when by a stroke of fate a dear friend offered to lend me her audio copy. I plan to do a full review of the book in the coming weeks but for now I want to focus on one important element—forgiveness of the past.

    Recently I started thinking about the first twenty-five years of my life. In The Power of Now, we learn that to live in the future or the past is to suffer. The only way to exist in true harmony is to live in the now. After all, the past is not real, the future is not real. The past and the future only exist in our minds. The only thing that is truly and completely real, is the now.

    The challenge with this, however, is that until we can accept, understand, and move on from the conditioning of the past, we can not experience true freedom. And in order to truly accomplish this, we must experience true forgiveness of the past—forgiving others & ourselves completely.

    As I reflected upon these truths, I realized that I have been holding on to a tremendous amount of pain from my own personal history. There is so much past that continues to haunt me and impact me in the now. One of the greatest sources of pain revolves around my former lifestyle.

    I spent so much of my life caught up in a false sense of self. I spent incredible amounts of money on material possessions that I now perceive as worthless (clothes, jewelry, useless electronics, etc.) For some reason, I fell into the marketing. I bought it—all of it. (You can read more about my journey into financial prison and my subsequent journey out in previous posts.)

    But that’s not really the point, the point is that I ended up here. I can sit around and feel sorry for myself, angry that so much of my life was wasted, frustrated that I’ve only paid off a fraction (albeit a substantial fraction) of my debts so far; but if I did all of that where would it get me? It wouldn’t get me anywhere except maybe on a private jet to my own personal pity party. No thank you.

    Instead of wallowing, I am grateful. Grateful that I have come this far. Grateful that I’ have learned these lessons and changed the direction of my life by the age of 25 (soon-to-be 26). Grateful to be surrounded by a community of people that support me and believe in me. Grateful to have discovered my life’s true purpose and passion. Grateful to be doing what I love (even if only part of the time). Grateful to be safe, secure, healthy, strong, and beautiful.

    As I move through these emotions of gratitude for what I have now and what I am now, I find that the pain of my history slips away. I believe that I am finally on a path toward true forgiveness of the past. The reality is that it happened. I made mistakes, like all fallible human beings do. However, without making those mistakes, I may never have come to this place, to this now.

    The past grants us wisdom & grace. The memories that haunt us the most, are usually the memories that taught us the greatest lessons. Forgiveness will come from acceptance. So, the trick to true forgiveness is true acceptance. Once we can accept our past unconditionally, we can live fully in the now.

    I am making my way on this journey slowly. For most of my life, I focused almost entirely on the past—heart breaks, mistakes, errors in judgment, loss, failures, and so on—but that was a tragic mistake. What I now know is that the past is gone, the only thing that matters is now. And likewise, the future is a distant place that exists only in my mind. The only thing that matters is right now.

    Transforming the way that I think has been a challenging process, but I have come a tremendous distance already and I will keep on pushing forward, always.

    Now I ask you, reader, what pieces of your past are you holding on to? Are you willing to accept those pieces unconditionally so that you may truly forgive and live in harmony & light? Will you join me on this journey?

4 Comments

    1. Thanks, Tim. You are very welcome! It was my great pleasure. The book is fantastic and I truly hope that you reach your goals and get it in as many hands as possible.

      Reply
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