The Law of
Accumulation
By Brian
Tracy
March 14,
2008
Excerpt From: Financial
Success
The Law of Accumulation: how
your financial fortune accumulates slowly over time and
then becomes enormous, like a snowball. The Law of
Accumulation: Every great financial achievement is an
accumulation of hundreds of small efforts and sacrifices
that no one ever sees or appreciates.
Develop
Discipline
The achievement of
financial
independence will require a tremendous number of
small efforts on your part. To begin the process of
accumulation, you must be disciplined and persistent.
You must keep at it for a long, long time. Initially,
you will see very little change or difference but
gradually, your efforts will begin to bear fruit. You
will begin to pull ahead of your peers. Your finances will improve and your
debts will disappear. Your bank account will grow and
your whole life will improve.
Build Up
Momentum
The first corollary of the
Law of Accumulation says: "As your savings accumulate, you
develop a momentum that moves you more rapidly toward your
financial goals."
It is hard to get started on
a program of financial accumulation, but once you do get
started, you find it easier and easier to keep at it. The
"momentum principle" is one of the great success secrets.
This principle says that it takes tremendous energy to
overcome the initial inertia and resistance to financial
accumulation and get started, but once started, it takes
much less energy to keep moving.
Start Slow, Finish
Fast
The second corollary of the
Law of Accumulation says, "By the yard it's hard, but inch
by inch, anything's a cinch."
When you begin thinking about
saving 10 or 20 percent of your earnings, you will
immediately think of all kinds of reasons that it is not
possible. You might be up to your neck in debt. You might
be spending every single penny that you earn today just to
keep afloat.
If you do find yourself in
this situation, instead of saving 10 percent, begin saving
just 1 percent of your earnings in a special account, which
you refuse to touch.
Increase As You Go
Along
This small amount will begin
to add up at a rate that will surprise you. As you become
comfortable with saving 1 percent, increase your savings
rate to 2 percent, then 3 percent, then 4 percent and 5
percent and so on. Within a year, you will find yourself
getting out of debt and
saving 10 percent, 15 percent and even 20 percent of your
earnings without it really affecting your
lifestyle.
Action
Exercises
Here are two things you can
do to apply this law immediately:
First, decide upon your
long-term financial goals and then
resolve to work toward them one step at a time. The first
steps are the hardest and you must discipline yourself to
avoid backsliding into old habits.
Second, practice the law of
accumulation in other parts of your life as well. Resolve
to master a subject one page at a time. Lose extra pounds one ounce
at a time. Learn a language one lesson at a time. The
cumulative effect can be enormous.
www.BrianTracy.com
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