1 Million Dollars in 365 days…

“… although it may not always come in the package you were expecting”

Well folks, I believe this will be my last post before my time frame of 365 days is up. I started writing this particular blog post in Perth, Australia. I am now in my original home town of Somerset West, South Africa.

When I took up this challenge, 364 days ago, I could not have dreamt that I would have experienced all the joys, challenges & range of emotions that I have encountered thus far.  The people I have connected with, because of my journey have been amazing! So I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your inspiration, feedback, help & love over the past year.

To recap, for those of you who don’t know, just over a year ago I had an experience that changed my life. I was struggling to make it as a real estate agent. I had a lovely fiance and a little 6 month old boy and not money. My fiance was forced to go back to work, while I juggling my straining career and looking after my son. When I thought it couldn’t get any worse it did - we were broke and the strain was tremendous.

I spent my nights in tears on the phone to my mum, begging her for money to pay that weeks rent. We were piled high in debt, credit cards, store cards & personal loans. I had to borrow money from my younger brother to pay for groceries so that my family could eat. I even asked my 90 year-old grandmother for a thousand dollars at one stage.

As you can imagine, this put stress on my relationship with my fiance, family & friends. It was my 26th birthday (6th October 2008), when I decided that enough was enough. I knew that I had to do something different if I wanted to change my love and the lives of those I cared about.

I made a goal, to make $1 Million dollars in 365 days. From that moment on, my life has changed. I no longer was a spectator in my life, going with the flow and making excuses for why I couldn’t do certain things and placing blame on external factors.

I was now in control of my life. I realised that I needed to do some different things in order to achieve some different results. My plan was to start this blog and update my journey as I went, culminating at my final goal - 365 days on.

One of the challenges at the end of this time frame for me, was to quantify all of the success I have had & been privileged to enjoy. I didn’t want to seem egotistical and at the same time I wanted to keep the relationships I had built with my readers, a truthful one. So I’ve decided to talk about the areas of success that I have focused on, for the past year. Not to show off, but to show you that you can achieve everything you want in life, just by simply changing the way you think.

There are many areas that I invested in, on my journey:

• Family- my number one priority. Because it’s when I’m with my family that I am happiest. My family bring me more joy than anything else in the world. I’ve managed to spend quality time with my family on this journey. The following year is going to hold even more time for my family.

• Friends - value them and keep them close. Don’t be afraid to have too many friends or to give out more love, it’s amazing how much love one person can have. I don’t have time for hate, it will not get me where I want to go.

• Holidays - I like to celebrate my successes, and part of this for me is to spend time away from attaining my other goals and just focus on enjoying myself with my loved ones. Have little break aways, they don’t have to be expensive and you’ll be amazed at how you can recharge your batteries with just a few days away.

• International Travel - one of my favourite things to do. I love experiencing new cultures & getting to know people in other countries. I love that I can provide this experience my my family and children. I believe that it gives them a better grounding and respect for others.

• Property - We managed to purchase our first home in March this year which was an amazing experience. We love our home and I feel very blessed to call it my home. It’s great to entertain family & friends. It’s a base for me to reflect on life and a sanctuary for our family.

• Business (for myself) - I’ve always been interested in business. At first it was about making money, but I soon realised that I’m not going to be successful by focusing on money. I’m in business to help people, to help myself, my family & the world. I love being able to take an idea and make it a reality. We often don’t give ourselves enough credit as to what we’re actually capable of. I’ve been involved in a number of start-ups and believe there’s no better way than by actually “doing” it.

• Work(for someone else) - An instrumental part of my success has been my full time job. I have been privileged enough to work for a company that has a great team of people. I’ve been able to apply what I have learnt on my journey so far, to achieve some great successes. My job gives me flexible time & security. It has also been a great place to learn from others and through my job I have met many interesting and inspirational people.

• Giving - before I started this, I didn’t really believe in giving and always felt that “charity starts at home”. There’s no better feeling than being able to help someone else. Whether you are volunteering with time or money, you can have a massive impact. It’s been challenging at times (see my marathon) but there’s nothing like other people relying on you to push yourself and see what you are capable of!

• Mental - this is a big thing for me. I’ve realised that your mind is very important in everything we do. You need to be careful what you let in your mind, because it all influences who you are. I’ve spent the last year
  re-training” my mind and making certain things habits. You can train yourself to do anything. I mean how many of us have bad habits? Why not focus on good habits instead?

• Health - With my holistic view on success, I’ve been able to focus on my health. I want to be able to enjoy my kids and my family. I don’t want to be stressed out and die at a young age. I’ve realised the importance of regular exercise. We all know what we should be doing, I’ve just been able to put it into action. It’s about empowering your body and mind, so you need to look after yourself too.

• Relationships - I feel that I’m a better father & husband than I was 12 months ago. I feel more connected with my wider family and my circle of friends has expanded rapidly. It’s like moths being drawn to light - if you’re positive and empowering then people are drawn to you - they want to be around you. So all you have to do is make the decision to be positive and empowering. And don’t get hung up if you don’t succeed all the time - just keep trying

• Personal Development - I’ve attended a personal development seminar, attend courses & read books that empower me and help me achieve my goals. This helps me reprogram my brain so that I am more successful in what I do. I like to learn from others, so often seek advice from people that have “been there, done that”. I’ve met some amazing people and learnt from every one of them and will continue to do so.

So the big question is “How did I do all of this”? Well, I took advice from lots of people. I studied other successful people and I believed in myself. I’ve lost count of the number of people that have laughed at me and what I’m doing. It was a challenge for me to get past what people think. Now I feel so liberated because I know that I can actually achieve anything I want in life. I now gladly tell people what I’m doing. If they laugh, they stop pretty quickly once they see the conviction in my face.

Sometimes you have to hear things a number of times before you take any notice. All I did was take ACTION on things that lots of people have told me since I was born.

“I hope that this is yourmoment. Maybe you’ve had goals in the past, done things, heard successful people speak, done personal development - whatever. Well this is your time, this is your chance to prove yourself, to make a difference, to live the life that your dreams are made of! How? Just choose to take action right now. That is what has started me on this wonderful journey.”

I’m not asking for money, you don’t have to buy anything. All I’m saying is give it a go - what do you have to lose other than everything you’ve ever wanted? It’s better to give it a go now, than to wish you’d given it a go when you’re lying on your death bed.

THE WEEK BEFORE I ACHIEVED MY GRAND DREAM GOAL:

I’m in a strange place right now. I’m in this beautiful country where I grew up. I’m staying at a luxurious apartment with amazing views, a pro golf course & beautiful sunny weather, yet I feel as though I’m missing something.

On my journey I’ve learnt a lot things to help me through difficult times, and I’ve never come up against a challenge quite like this. It was a long flight with our two beautiful children. We even brought my mother-in-law with us to help with the kids. We have been looking forward to this trip for months! The main reason was to attend my best friend’s wedding in South Africa and then show my family where I grew up and introduce them to a large contingent of family and friends in South Africa.

After spending our first night in South Africa, we awoke excited and eager to explore. While we were getting ready that morning, we received a phone call - my father in law had suddenly passed away. To say that this news was shocking was an understatement. All of a sudden everything changed.

After a very busy 24 hours, we managed to get my wife, mother-in-law and 2 kids back on flights to New Zealand. I am now still in South Africa for my best friend’s wedding on Saturday. We are often faced with difficult decisions. I am so grateful that  have such a strong wife. She has truly been amazing.

The last year has been incredible for me. I’ve learnt so much, achieved so much, met so many amazing people and totally transformed my life and that of my family. My father in law’s sudden death has reminded me, once again, how precious life is and that we really do need to treasure every second of every day.

This isn’t the ending I had envisaged for my last week, however it has certainly put things into perspective again for me. After much soul searching, I have decided what I will be doing with my life and how I will continue on and help others to achieve their goals. To get through the last few days, I’ve had to really use my “gratitude” tool. This basically involves me asking myself “what am I grateful for” and “what’s great about this”. While often, especially in times of despair, these are the most difficult questions to answer, if you keep asking them, eventually you will get the answers you have been searching for.

If you are reading this right now - then you are unbelievably blessed to still be here on this earth. Don’t waste any more precious time. Enjoy yourself & love everybody. God Bless.

Ryan Kilfoil - aka The Kiwi Millionaire

I would like to dedicate my final blog post to an amazing, talented, clever & passionate man, loving father, husband & son. To John Stone, may you rest in peace and may your memory continue to inspire us all.

I’ve just returned from a fantastic dinner at my sister-in-law’s house. It really reminded me how important it is to be surrounded by people that you care about, and people that care about you. I truly believe that a lot of “problems” of the world could be solved by a few family meals around the dinner table, complimented with a bunch of healthy laughter and kids running around in circles!

Laughing is certainly infectious,and I think it’s even better when coming from children. I know I always go on about being grateful for what we have, and I make no apologies for it! I think we need to make more noise about the awesome stuff in our lives!

People seem to get too complacent and don’t emphasise all the great things we have going on! Everyone likes drama so they focus on dis-empowering events such as murders, assaults, abuse, poverty…the list goes on. You only have to watch the 6 o’ clock news to see what I’m talking about. (This is why I don’t watch the news anymore).

It appears that it’s more abnormal to focus on empowering events, such as eating a meal with your family around the dinner table. Again, this depends on what is important to you in your life.For the majority of people, once they lose something like “Spending time with their family”, this soon becomes the most important thing in their life and they would usually do anything to get it back. Don’t wait until you lose it. Make the most of it now.

And for all my friends abroad that don’t have their immediate families with them at the moment, or those that have lost loved ones, don’t worry as luckily the world has millions of people of all ages, ethnicity’s and geographic locations, that are looking for love and support.

“Sometimes the best way to receive something, is to give it.”

So if you’re looking for a “family” why not volunteer somewhere, get involved in a community group or visit an old-age home.

I’m sure you’ll be surprised by what you get in return for your time.

Ok folks, as you can see, I’ve stepped up to the mark and am blogging every second day - part of my 30 day program! And I’m really enjoying it

So, I posed the question “Where does happiness live?”. I thought if we could track down it’s location it may be easier to locate when we need it. Where do I start looking though? Then it hit me - that magic binary machine that is google…

As with most things, I went to the first link - the one with the highest ranking on google. Turns out it was written by a lady named Helena Aramendia:

“Probably the most important thing that I see is that happy people do not identify with their life or their situation. This is my personal definition of freedom. They do not rely on any external factor in order to feel happiness. They are happy even if, at a given moment, they feel upset, or sad. They “are” intrinsically happy even if they “feel” different emotionally at some point. That makes me think that if both feelings are possible at the same time, it is safe to conclude that happiness is not an emotional response, but a state that is generated and developed at a deeper level. Is happiness a state of the soul ?”

This is a really good article and I would suggest reading it if you have a few minutes. It gives a great perception on happiness and how we can achieve it. There are lots of ideas, from meditation, affirmations, thought patterns, through to volunteering, karma & religious beliefs.

Read the full article here....and choose to be happy

I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine last week, and he mentioned something he read in Kurek Ashely’s book - “How would love respond?“. (FYI - this is a great book and if you’re looking at investing $20-$30 to begin to turn your life around, this is an excellent way to start. I suggest you pick up your own copy by clicking here……[end of shameless plug])

Seriously though, I’ve been to one of Kurek Ashley’s live seminars, walked across searing-hot coals without getting burnt, and totally transformed my life. Kurek doesn’t get all the credit, however he certainly started me on my journey, and what a ride it has been so far - life ROCKS!

So back to the point: The theory is that you choose an area of your life (for example, your finances) and then each day you do something that will improve this area of your life by at least one percent (1%). This kind of leads on from my previous post about the 30 day plan.

After a year….you guessed it, you should have improved in the region of 365%! Now that’s quite a major change, even taken over a whole year. When you look at all the things you did that made up each one percent, they probably weren’t big things or very difficult to carry out.

It could be as simple as:

• making a phone call
• talking to someone
• thinking something about someone or something
• Trying something new
• Ending a bad or dis-empowering habit
• Doing something good for someone else
• The list goes on….

The thing I like about this approach is IT WORKS! Not only do you actually improve the areas of your life that you set out to, but you also begin doing something much more important. You start to think yourself rich. Now by rich, I don’t necessarily mean money, I’m talking about wealth in the holistic sense. You’re having a thought that you may not have normally have had:

“What can I do today in order to improve my finances/relationship/friendship/health/etc by one percent?”

By asking yourself that single question on a daily basis, you are beginning to form a pattern. Keep working at it and soon that daily pattern will turn into a habit, which means it becomes part of your every day life, just like waking up and going to sleep. This habit happens automatically, so you are automatically improving your life!

So I hear you ask, “Well if I can turn this into a habit, couldn’t I repeat this process with other strategies and turn them into habits”? OF COURSE YOU CAN! Imagine living your ultimate life - everyday, and all you’re doing is doing the same stuff you normally do?

So swap for you negative thoughts for positive thoughts. Get those dis-empowering thoughts and actions and replace them with empowering thoughts and actions. Spread the love. Make hapiness you mantra. Enjoy it and stay positive…

People often ask me how I find the time to do everything that I am doing, with relation to my business interests, family, friends, social and sporting activities. Well, the truth is that I have my days when I don’t have time to do everything I want!  I think it boils down to a fundamental - you have to MAKE TIME to do the things you love to do.

Do I make time to do everything I do all the time? Maybe not at first, but I always find a way to be grateful for whatever situation I am doing. Do I like cleaning the toilet? No, not until I realise how lucky I am to have a toilet! Imagine not having a toilet and having to go in the bushes all the time?! Reminds me of being back in Africa… (haha only joking). See how much we can be grateful for!

How to get more time out of your day:

1. PRIORITISE - Write down the things you want to accomplish everyday and then prioritise them. Don’t be afraid to limit yourself. You’ll soon find out what your actually capable of every day.
2. BE TRUE TO YOURSELF. You are more likely to complete things if they mean something to you. As we have previously covered, your time is your most important asset, so be careful what you commit to. You need to view your time as valuable, because if you don’t then neither will other people.
3. GET UP EARLY! No one seems to like step! Well, if you’re not willing to make some changes to your life, then you’re not going to get any different results - it’s that simple. What if you work full time? How will you get time to do those other things that are important? Why not get up 30 minutes earlier each morning to focus on something that’s important to you? Work on your new business idea, pick a hobby, spend time with your kids if they’re awake!
4. DO THE LITTLE THINGS - make sure you put the little things on your list of stuff to do. Not only is a great and encouraging to tick off items on your “to-do-list”, but sometimes the little things can have a big effect on your day.
5. KNOW YOUR GOALS - Like I’ve said before, it’s important to know where you want to go. Write down your goals and put them somewhere where you can see them daily. This way you can put some simple steps on your list, which will get you closer to the achievement of those goals.
6. EXERCISE - If you’re anything like me, you’re thinking - I’m already so busy, how can I fit more into my hectic day? Well, to start with, you’re going to need some more energy! So why not start off your day with a run/swim/yoga/Pilate’s/brisk walk? It’s amazing what even a quick walk can do for your energy levels, creativity and problem solving skills!
7. MAKE TIME FOR YOUR ONE THING - For me this is my family. Everyday I make sure that I fit my family in to my life. Whether it’s helping out with bath time, reading stories, taking them swimming, going for a walk, or even taking them for a drive. It’s awesome to spend time with my kids and wife, and this is something that has the ability to re-charge me and ensure that I am always committed to achieving my goals.
8. HAVE FUN! I know it sounds cliche, and it probably is. The truth is, that like anything in life, if you’re not having fun doing something, there’s little chance of you continuing to do those things. If you’re having fun, while you cram more into your day, then you’re going to keep doing it, which means you’re going to achieve more!

Those are some of the practical things that I do in my days. Please feel free to add some tips in the comments section on what works for you.

Have a most excellent day!

Kind Regards

Ryan Kilfoil

The Kiwi Millionaire

Part 1 (The Preamble):

There are so many things in my life that I am grateful for. One of these great things, is the ability to talk to all sorts of interesting people on a daily basis. I think this is one way you can definitely inspire yourself to take action everyday. There are some amazing people out there, and just talking to them gets me excited and motivated to achieve the things I want in life.

Over the past few weeks I have talked to some very interesting and successful people with regards to my fundraising efforts for Stop the Traffik to try and canvas more support. Some of the coolest people were listed below:

• Mike Pero from Mike Pero Mortgages
• Michael Mayell from CookieTime
• Scott Townsend from Just Tees

Without a doubt, Scott Townsend captured my attention the most. This 21 year old from Hamilton is doing some amazing things. He is the director of http://JustTees.co.nz and has come up with a crazy stunt, designed to get his business some more exposure. This is entrepreneurial thinking at it’s best!

While I can’t blab on about it too much on this post, I will talk about it at a later date. In the mean time, have a look for yourself - RIGHT  HERE! While you’re there, you may as well vote and tell your friends to do the same. Crazy times call for crazy measures!!

So I was supposed to be talking about a butterfly right?….

Part 2 The Butterfly Story:

Someone else that I met yesterday, said something pretty profound. I thought it was an excellent analogy, so decided then and there to share it with you all:

We’re all looking for success in our lives, whether that comes in the form of money, love, being healthy or a combination of these things (plus other things I haven’t mentioned). Let’s say that whatever our goal is like a Butterfly in the wild. For this purpose, our goal can be “to earn a million dollars in one year” (don’t know where I got that idea from!).

So we set out to catch our butterfly. So perhaps we buy ourselves a net to catch this butterfly with. We then spend a considerable amount of time and energy trying to catch this $#%$ butterfly with out net. It just so happens that this butterfly is one of the world’s most elusive butterflies and proves to be a challenge. So it’s time to bring in the big guns, we then purchase an even bigger net (with extendable pole) in our attempt to finally get hold of this creature.

This carries on for some time (I told you it was an elusive butterfly!). Eventually we give up. After maxing out our credit card at “Net’s R Us”and spending a good part of our time chasing this butterfly. We look around us and realise that the world hasn’t stopped while we were chasing the butterfly. Our famillies are older, our children grown up. There are some experiences that we have perhaps missed, even though they were important to us.

Some people spend their whole lives chasing the butterfly. Sometimes this can become all-consuming, and they never get the chance to refocus their lives on what’s important. So perhaps this is your chance. Your chance to refocus on what’s important in your life.

But if I don’t chase the butterfly with my expensive nets, then I’ll never get what I want!?

Well, what if I were to tell you that there are other ways to bring this butterfly into your life? Why not spend some time making a garden. Very soon, Butterflies will be FLYING TO YOUR GARDEN! No chasing involved You can grow this garden and add to it as you want. It won’t take up much time, which leaves you with lots of time to spend with your family and friends and on the other important things in your life.

So focus on the important things in your life, tend to your garden and let the butterflies come to you. Don’t spend your life trying to catch the butterflies and miss out on all the wonderful things life has to offer. Happy gardening…