Finance with Don Fraser Fraser Farm Finance

Reading ‘The Magic of Thinking Big’ by David J Schwartz Ph.D, was a life-changing experience for me in the 1990s.

In his book, David says: ‘You need the habit of acting in a manner that brings success’. I have to say the content did help me to change the way I view myself and the world. More than that, I then went on to give ‘motivational-type’ presentations to many conferences and people, including the New Zealand Law Society, based on what I learnt in this book.

The message is simple, but so easy to miss.

So here we go.

• ‘Believe you can succeed, and you will’. Every human being wants success.  Believing so will help you on the road to it.
• ‘Think success, don’t think failure’
• Remind yourself that ordinary people who have developed a belief in themselves are successful
• Believe big too. Think big goals and believe in them.

Nothing, absolutely nothing in life gives you more satisfaction than knowing you are on the road to success and achievement. Nothing! We all want to feel valued and successful.

The flip side of believing you can, is the negativity and lack of confidence that creeps in, especially as we face the economic shock that is about to reset our lives.

As humans, we seem to be pre-programmed to failure and negativity. I was lucky to have a mother who encouraged us to achieve and give everything our very best, and we did. Allowing the little negative chatterbox in your head to talk needs to be axed.

An example of bad thoughts may include:

• I have got a bad heart and need to take it easy.
• My family died young and so will I.
• I will only give it a try.
• If I take on risk, I will go broke.
• I should have started years ago.
• I attract bad luck.

Here a few things you can do to beat the health ‘excutitus’:

• Refuse to talk about your health. No one is interested anyway.
• Refuse to worry about your health.
• Be happy, your health is as good as it is.
• Remind yourself you are better to wear out than rust out!
• Life is yours to enjoy, don’t waste it – many do.
• Do not pass up living by thinking yourself into a hospital bed.

You have got to have brains to succeed. It is just not true…and stop right there:

• We underestimate our own brainpower.
• We overestimate the other fellow’s brain power.

An example just this was me finding myself addressing 100 lawyers on farm trusts and arguing with some of the best brains in the country that my view on trusts was correct and important to farmers.

Was I terrified doing those presentations? You bet! Did I get a sense of purpose out of doing it? You bet! Did I learn something? You bet!

Now I’m just an ordinary boy off the farm out the back of Te Awamutu. By changing the way I view the world and its people I was able to change my life for the better and confidently argue my point.  More than that, I reminded myself not to overestimate other professionals and not under-estimate myself.

So in summary the take-home points here are”

We need to shut down the negative thoughts and stop voicing our concerns on ourselves and our health. We need to start visualising and talking positively and realising we can do almost anything we set our minds to. We need to press the ‘reset’ button in our brain from negative to positive and then take actions by stepping over our fears.

Disclaimer – these are the opinions of Don Fraser of Fraser Farm Finance. Any decisions made should not be based on this article alone and appropriate professional assistance should be sought.

Don Fraser is principal of Fraser Farm Finance and a consultant to the farming industry. Contact him on 021 777 675.