As mentioned previously, I am reading T. Harv Eker’s "Secrets of The Millionaire Mind" along with some other money books, not because I think any of these books will solve my own money problems but because I want to read as many different books about money as possible in order to work on reprogramming myself. I concluded well before reading any of these books that I have spent a lifetime being programmed to think certain thoughts about money that subconsciously work to defeat any efforts I might make towards pursuing financial freedom. There are always voices in my head telling me things like, you don’t know anything, quit while you’re ahead, you’ve got nothing to offer anybody, you’re a joke, you’re not good enough to clean a condo in Manhattan much less to live in one, this is what you deserve in life to always be struggling to get your bills paid; to be poor is your reality now and to be poor will always be your reality and that’s just the way it is.

I figured the same way I programmed my own mind, or allowed it to be programmed, to think thoughts that result in my own defeat, I can fill my mind with new thoughts and ideas designed to negate all the statements mentioned above, so that instead of having voices in my head discouraging me, the voices will cheer me on to victory.

Interestingly, T. Harv Eker’s book talks about just this thing, how people sabotage themselves usually without realizing they’re responsible for their own financial failures. The concept isn’t profound by any means. In life every individual is responsible for his or her own success or failure. But it’s easy to fail to recognize how you undermine your own efforts because of fear and doubt and other psychological elements that play havoc with your thoughts.

While it is an interesting read I will admit I find the book a bit fluffy, which is to say, the examples it contains of how attending the Millionaire Mind Seminar changed people’s lives, how some people were so grateful for Eker’s help in opening their eyes to the truth about their "financial blueprint" and helping them to see how they were self-sabotaging when it comes to their money due to experiences in their childhood that they broke down crying as they thanked him, seem a bit excessive and unnecessary to me. It’s really not that hard to make a connection between one’s childhood and past experiences with any aspect of one’s adult life. It’s not the kind of thing that would constitute an awakening, coming to the realization that you spend money carelessly because you grew up either watching a parent or some other parental figure doing the same, or because you grew up in a household where you were never able to get anything you wanted because your parents were saving every penny for a rainy day; so once you grew up and had your own money, you went wild spending, not wanting to be like your parents.

The most valuable message contained in the book is the message that you’re not doomed by your bad habits when it comes to money because bad habits can be broken.

I don’t necessarily care for those parts of the book where Eker instructs the reader to place their hand over their heart and make specific declarations, and place their hand on their forehead and repeat, "I have a millionaire mind". But it’s all part of re-programming yourself I guess. I can roll my eyes at the thought of people actually following those instructions, but when you think about it, all he’s doing essentially is inviting the reader to be conscious about his or her own programming. The reality is, we’re being programmed 24/7/365. We might not be sitting on a hypnotists couch watching some object swinging to and fro as the hypnotist tells us, "You are getting sleepy. Your eyes are shutting down…", but in some way we get programmed every day to believe something that we’ll argue righteously is our own thought shaped from our own beliefs; but in reality, few of the thoughts in most people’s mind arrive there as a result of philosophical reasoning. Most people’s beliefs are programmed into their mind. So if you can program yourself to believe something that could potentially better your life, why object because you feel embarrassed to put your hand on your forehead and tell yourself aloud, "I have a millionaire mind"? If you can make yourself believe that you have a millionaire mind by programming that thought into your brain, would it be such a bad thing to believe compared with believing you’re a loser and you have nothing to offer the world, and you’ll never amount to anything, and you’ll never have a dime to your name because you don’t deserve anything?