1 Million Dollars in 365 days…

Every day, people do things that astound me, and the last couple of days has been no exception! Five days ago the voting was going well with over 4,000 votes cast for the $10,000 challenge, which was a massive effort!

When voting closed, at 4pm today (28/02/09), the results absolutely BLEW ME AWAY! We had received a massive 51,247 Votes! I never dreamt that my cause would be able to reach this many people.

And the Winner is…

Congratulations to Stop the Traffik (www.stopthetraffik.org) with their fantastic effort, receiving 92% of all the votes cast!

So they official results are as follows:

1st Place and the recipient of all funds raised by me for the Rotorua Marathon is Stop the Traffik with 47,372 Votes!!

2nd Place was Save the Children with a great effort and 2647 Votes!

3rd Place was the Child Cancer Foundation with 1112 Votes! This charity also blew me away, with the massive support from the public and I hope to be doing something with them next.

4th Place was the Heart Foundation which finished with 146 Votes!

My sincere thanks to EVERYONE that voted and to all the charities that were involved. I know a lot of hard work went into this and I do believe that ALL the charities managed to raise their profile through this exercise.

As charity is an ongoing process, I do hope to work with all these charities over the coming months and appreciate all the correspondence and support I have received so far.

The difficult has now passed - we have a winner. Now all we have to do is raise the $10,000! So keep an eye out for some innovative fundraising activities courtesy of your Kiwi Millionaire!

To donate to STOP THE TRAFFIK please visit http://www.justgiving.com/ryankilfoil

Hi guys, here are the results for the $10,000 challenge so far. Remember there are still 4 days left to vote. So if your favourite charity is not in the lead, then cast your vote below!

Placings as of 9:00am on Tuesday 24th February 2009:

1. www.stopthetraffik.org - 830 Votes - 52% of the votes
2. www.childcancer.org,nz - 543 Votes - 34% of the votes
3. www.savethechildren.org.nz - 177 Votes - 11% of the votes
4. www.heartfoundation.org.nz - 28 Votes - 1% of the votes

Total votes to date: 1578

With only 4 days to go, spread the word and place your vote below:

Lately there’s a lot going on both locally and internationally. What happens when there’s a big event such as this massive shift in economic climate? People get made redundant, there’s down-sizing, expenditure cuts & job security is a thing of the past.

So what do you do? What if you have all these goals that you have set for yourself in 2009 and then along comes this big “recession” and throws all your plans out the window. Do you go back to living your ordinary life? I don’t think so.

Remember there’s ALWAYS two sides to a coin, no matter how many times you cut it in half and how thin it becomes. So what is the flipside in today’s climate? OPPORTUNITY!There has never been a better time to seek opportunity. And you know what they say”Seek & Ye shall find”. Now’s your chance to test that theory.

“Live in the moment, not in the past or the future. Live for the right now”

The Kiwi Millionaire

 We all come up against obstacles in the journey to achieving our goals. One thing we have to remember is that it is usually the journey that is the most transformational part of the entire experience. When you reach your goal, you realise that it wasn’t even about the end result, because you received so much more from the journey itself.

I believe that in order to get the best results, we have to focus on what we want to achieve, and then see where we are in relation to that goal. That means, what is happening around us RIGHT NOW. Not this month, I am talking about these couple of minutes that you are spending reading this.

Stop for a moment and close your eyes. What’s going on right now that could be your next opportunity? Take a minute to appreciate the silence and very soon you will see that there is actually no such thing as silence, there is always something happening. All you need to to is decide what you are going to do with it.

How to find opportunity in your everyday life:

• Always keep an open mind - don’t dismiss anything
• Always ask yourself whether something can be improved upon
• Don’t focus on finding the opportunity, & opportunity will come to you

Whether you are looking for a new business, new property, new hobby or anything else that you would like to add value to your life, then now is the time to do it. Your future is in your hands, all you need to do is take action. So decide on an action to take, and take it, right now…

As most of you have heard I am running a marathon on May 2nd, 2009. I have started training over the last few weeks and run further than I have ever run in my life! I also chosen to raise $10,000 for my favourite charity. Since I could not decide what charity to donate the funds to, I have given the vote to those visiting my blog.

If you haven’t already voted, please do so now. The votes will be tallied at 4pm on Saturday 28/02/2009 and the winning charity announced.

“There are only 7 days left to vote”

http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/ryankilfoil/

Thanks for all your support! I cannot believe all the positive comments and emails I have received. And don’t forget to sign up for email alerts (top right of the blog) to keep track of my progress.

If you are looking to vote for your favourite charity in the $10,000 Marathon Challenge please click here. Right now, I have some way More exciting to talk about!

If we look carefully enough, we can find miracles happening everyday. I was lucky enough to experience one of these miracles at 4:07am on Sunday Morning. My wife gave birth to our beautiful little daughter - Sophie.

 It was without a doubt, one of the most amazing experiences of my life. More amazing than everything I have achieved so far, more amazing than walking on searing hot coals, more amazing than travelling the world. This was an experience that cannot be defined by words.

The miracle of life is something that humbles me, as no amount of money or success can actually buy life. Yet, this precious event is something that people of all ages, races, beliefs and religions, have been blessed with the ability to experience. It seems to put everything into perspective.

If believe there is no better motivator in life, than your children. What parent wouldn’t sacrifice everything for their kids? It brings another dimension to your life, one which cannot be bought or sold.

Even in their infancy, children can teach us so much about life. They can show us how precious life is. They can show us how how something so small, can change so many lives. They can show us how silence, is the most powerful sound on the earth.

For those of you that have children - remember to be grateful for them. Hug and them and tell them you love them. Remember, there are a lot of people out there that would do anything to be in your position. Next time your children are driving you up the wall, stop and focus on what’s important. They are.

Wow! The results for the voting have absolutely astounded me! Thanks to everyone for their votes so far, and everyone’s comments and emails. You have no idea how great it is to receive so much positive feedback about this journey!Congratulations to the Child Cancer Foundation which is now leading with approximately 75% of the vote. I have also received so many great emails of encouragement from many people that have had dealings with this this charity in the past and now. It is great to hear how much great work they have done and how many people appreciate all their support.

For those visiting this blog for the first time please vote here:

I also bought some new running shoes, socks, shorts & singlets today. As I am taking this very seriously, I feel it is important to invest in this event. I’m also taking some Omega 3 Fish Oil supplements, glucosamine & chondroitin, to ensure that I look after my joints.

I’ve also setup my online fundraising page. If you like what I’m doing, you can donate today and when the winning charity is announced on 28/02/2009, your donation will be given to this charity.

Otherwise you can visit the fundraising page (http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/ryankilfoil/), and I then once the winning charity is names, the two months of excessive fundraising will begin!

Once I chose my four charities, I decided to leave the voting up to the public. I sent an email to each of the four charities to let them know what I was doing. It then up to them to help spread the word.

A special thanks to Lucy from “Save the Children” and Jade from “Child Cancer Foundation” who have both taken it upon themselves to get as many votes for their respective charities as possible.

Currently “Save the Children” are miles ahead with 67% of the total votes - great effort guys! Remember - YOU STILL HAVE TIIME TO VOTE: 17 days in fact - so get voting!

• Remember, the winning charity will receive all the funds we can raise for this event
• Thanks again for your support!!
• Remember to sign up for email alerts (enter your address in the top right of the blog)

I’m running a marathon - that’s 42 Kilometres! It’s the 45th Annual Rotorua Marathon which is held in Rotorua, about 65 km’s from where I live in Tauranga, New Zealand.

The furthest I have ever run was about 5km. So this is certainly quite a goal I have set myself - and like I say, when you challenge yourself, you grow and evolve a lot faster than if you were just cruising through life.

So where do YOU come in? Well, part of the drive behind my desire to do a marathon, was to raise some funds for a charitable organisation. I have narrowed it down to four charities below and I would really appreciate it if you could vote for your favourite charity.

The winning charity will be the charity with the most votes on 28 February 2009. The winning charity will receive all the funds that I have managed to raise on the 4th May 2009. My goal is to raise $10,000.00 for the winning charity, so I appreciate you taking the time to vote today.

The purpose of this post is to let you decide which charity I will support when I run my first marathon in May this year! I’ve narrowed it down to the following short list - so I would really appreciate you voting. If you have something that you believe is a worthy cause - then please send me an email and you never know!

There is a belief that the more money you give away, the more money will come back to you. Now it sounds strange and not very logical, but I think there is definitely some merit to this idea.

Part of my personal wealth strategy is to invest 10% of all my earnings in charity. That means, every month I have a considerable amount of money to disperse to what I consider worthy causes. You know how good that feels? To be able to give to a cause that you feel strongly about, to be able to contribute to improving someone else’s quality of life!

I remember when I started out - I thought, how can I afford to give away 10% of my earnings when I can’t even afford to pay all my bills with my current income? It was a crazy thought - however I took a moment to gain some perspective. I had a roof over my head, I had a job with a regular income, I had food for myself to eat, I had a loving family and  I had my health. How many people in the world would be grateful even for just one of those things in their life?

So I began to save 10% of my income. Every time I got paid, I immediately put 10% of my earnings into another bank account. Then I started to pay my bills. Strangely enough - I didn’t seem to have any less than I did before my decision to give away 10%.

Stranger still - my income began to increase. Not majorly at first, but things started to happen - opportunities came out of nowhere, and my income steadily increased. As my income increased, I stuck to giving 10% of my earning to charity - so that amount grew too. I felt great that I was in a position to be able to give to those less fortunate than myself.

Now whether you want to invest a percentage of your savings in a charity or community group is completely up to you!