As we saw earlier, poor thinker always thinks of outgoing money as expense. Therefore, he always finds his blood pressure going up and down whenever he makes an expense.

In contrast, a rich thinker always treats every expense as an investment; his blood pressure never fluctuates when he makes a so-called expense as he sees it as an investment.

This person is relaxed not only because he sees everything that he spends on as an investment, but, because he treats it as an investment, he also enjoys his spending. He enjoys investing money in himself and his team.

A rich thinker is, all the time, thinking of ways to invest his money, first in his personal and professional training and, then, if he is a professional or a businessman who has a group of people he is leading, then he would enjoy investing in his team.

What is this investment? This investment is, mainly, in three areas.

A.    SYSTEMS

B.    SKILLS

C.    SPIRIT

A. SYSTEMS

What do we mean by ‘system’? If a person is a businessman or a professional running an organization, he requires laying down many policies and systems so that his product or service runs on in autopilot mode, whereby he becomes more and more dispensable, day by day.

Every person needs his freedom. Freedom can be achieved only when things work the same even in the absence of the person. That’s why my master always advises that we should never try to be the first; one should always see how one can be the second in command. If you are the first in charge, then everyone would want to shoot you down, but if you are the second, then you are safe as well as free. This freedom is very valuable. It can be achieved by having in place well-laid-out systems and policies where the whole organization functions without the person being actually present there. So, one has to invest in all the different kinds of trainings that build up systems.

We are fortunate that in our organization LiYA (Life Yessence Academy), we have three such kinds of training: Business Insights (Bi), Professional Insights (Pi) and Organizing and Time Management (OTM).

The main purpose of all these programmes is to lay down well-defined policies and systems which will take the business to another level, effortlessly, and free the owner so that he can take up higher responsibilities, or relax and enjoy for longer periods. A person who invests in these SYSTEMS enjoys his investment because he knows that if this is done, then he becomes more and more free, day after day.

B. SKILLS

Another area where one must invest in, and a rich man does invest in, is skills. One has to go on sharpening one’s skills and spend a lot of time and money in sharpening one’s skills. All his life, Sachin Tendulkar was sharpening his skills in the area of batting. Every time he played better and better, the bowlers were also sharpening their skills on how to get him out. This is an ongoing process. Unless we dedicate our time, energy and money to sharpening our skills, we will never be able to sustain ourselves. If we want to even maintain our success, then we need to keep on sharpening our skills.

Pandit Jasraj would sharpen his skills in the area of music. An IAS officer keeps on sharpening his skills in the area of administration. Likewise, people in all the different fields need to sharpen their skills in order to become more and freer, and to make the process more and more effortless.

We are, once again, fortunate that in the area of skills also, LiYA has developed many programmers that are meant to develop skills. Trainings like Teacher’s Training Course (TTC), the Train the Trainer (TTT) programme and the Train the Facilitator (TTF) programme are all trainings that help to sharpen skills.

C. SPIRIT

This is, as a matter of fact, the most important area in which we need to invest. A rich thinker is always ready, happy and investing most of his time, energy and money in the area of spirit.

What is spirit?

Spirit is all about enthusiasm, love, compassion, silence and joy. Spirit is the base and the source of skills and systems. You may have a well-laid-out system in place, but if the spirit is not there, the system will die in no time. You may have fantastic skills, but if the spirit is not there, you will not be successful; on the other hand, if you have a super spirit and not so well-laid-out skills and systems, still you will be a happy soul and you will be successful.

Let me recount a story, about a person who wanted a job and went to an employer who gave him the job of a woodcutter. He also gave him an axe and told him that every day he should cut trees with tremendous enthusiasm and said that he could cut seven trees in a day.

On the first day, he did cut seven trees, effortlessly and with tremendous joy, and on the second day, he could manage only six; on the third day, he could cut only five trees, and on the fourth day, four, and, likewise, he went on till the seventh day when he could manage to cut only one tree. He asked his boss, after a week, as to how it could be that even though he had worked with the same enthusiasm and for the same number of hours, his capacity, or the output, had been found reducing day by day.

The boss asked him, “Did you take time off to sharpen your axe?” After you cut the first seven trees, you were supposed to take time off to sharpen the axe, after which you would have cut seven trees on the second day, and, likewise, on all the days. Annoyed with himself, he exclaimed, “Oh! I didn’t, I just forgot about the sharpening part, and kept myself busy in my work!” – This is exactly what happens to most people in this world: they forget to sharpen their axe.

Sharpening the axe means taking time off to rest, relax and meditate, to be at peace with oneself. Thus, it is silence that helps us to clear our minds, ourselves, and the axe is sharpened just as a by-product. This is exactly what we mean by investing in spirit.

Building spirit means taking time off, applying brakes in life, and the axe gets sharpened, as a consequence. The spirit gets sharpened out of relaxation, out of ‘not doing’, not out of ‘doing.’ Of course, ‘doing’ is necessary but ‘not doing’ is more important.

Think about it: Which is more important – the piece of chalk or the duster? Both are important, but which comes first? Think about it!

Building spirit means ‘being happy for no reason.’ We are very happy to say, in this context, that this is the forte of our organization LiYA: shifting the spirit from ‘impossible’ to ‘possible’, shifting the spirit from ‘effortfulness’ to ‘effortlessness’, shifting the spirit from ‘problem’ to ‘challenge’ and shifting the spirit from ‘not okayness’ to ‘okayness.’

The foundation of the spirit is silence. Unless we delve into our own silence, the spirit cannot be rejuvenated.

WHAT IS SILENCE?

Silence is a state of mind when you are not disturbed by any situation outside or inside.

So, the more silence you go into, through the processes of meditation and other advanced camps, the more the spirit will be rejuvenated; that is why, I keep on telling everyone that we need to go for 3 to 5 days of silence every 2 months and that this should be repeated at least 18 times (3 years) to understand what is meant by ‘a huge shift in the spirit.’ It takes 3 years (18 times) of 3 to 5 days of silence every 2 months to understand the magic of silence. This is exactly what I did and what I have been following since the day I started, in 1989. Guruji told me to do this and, fortunately, I followed, and now I experience tremendous abundance in the areas of Health, Wealth and Happiness.

While you are reading this article, take a sankalp (imagination) that you, too, will do that and experience the same exuberance that I experience. It is the birthright of every human being, and, naturally, your birthright, too. Invest your money in the enhancement of your systems, skills and, most importantly, your spirit, and behold abundance flowing in.