1 Million Dollars in 365 days…

I attend the Bethlehem Baptist Church in Tauranga, New Zealand. Since 2001, they have been putting together an amazing interactive journey, to showcase what Easter is really all about. Last year, over 6000 people visited the Easter Journey over the long weekend. If you’re in New Zealand and are keen to see what it’s about, head on over - it’s free and you might learn something

On top of that - I will be “hanging” out there from 10-11am, 1-2pm, 4-5pmm & 7-8pm on Saturday 3rd April. For more info visit:

http://www.easterjourney.co.nz/

In other news….I will be bringing back the blog - The Kiwi Millionaire is back, although there may be some name changes, but ultimately I will still be babbling on about my discoveries of life in my quest to make the most of it.

Hope to see you there this weekend folks

“… 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.

Ok, so I’m not sure if “sidewards” is actually a word, but I was trying to keep the theme flowing throughout the heading! How are we all doing today folks? Are we excited? Or are we reading this with our eyes half closed, trying to pass the time before we get to go home…where we will spend the next few hours watching mind-numbing tv?

“HELL NO” I year you say! Most excellent! Because, as a long time reader of this blog you know how lucky we are to be here today, to have another bash at life and another 24 hours in which we can do ANYTHING WE WANT! Now is that exciting or what?

So, no matter what time of the day or night you are reading this, be grateful. Be grateful that you have the ability to see this blog, that you have access to the amazing world of the internet.

You now have some decisions to make:

• What I am going to do with the next 24 hours?
• Who am I going to spend my time with?
• What am I going to contribute to?
• How I am going to feel for these next 24 hours?

Take a moment and find a pen and piece of paper and you write these 4 questions down, then spend the next 5 minutes, answering them.Be honest with yourself. How did you answer these questions? Did you answer with the normal everyday stuff, like “go to work”, feel “depressed” or “angry”. My guess is that you didn’t. I think you wrote about the things and people you feel passionate about. The things that make you feel good and empowered. Happy and successful.

As strange as it may seem, you actually ask yourself these questions everyday.

And you answer them…

• You choose what you are going to do with your time.

• You choose who you spend your time with.

• You choose what’s important to you and what you want to contribute to.

• You choose exactly how you are going to feel, every moment of every day.

It may be a bit hard to swallow, but it’s the truth. We are all responsible for what happens in our lives. I’m not saying everything is your faults, but at the end of the day - you have the choice as to how you want to handle a situation, challenge or success.

So if your written answers to those 4 questions, aren’t what you normally do every day - then maybe it’s time to take some serious action and change the things you do everyday, so you start living the life you want. It’s your choice and I know there’s lots of support for you out there.

So give it a go…

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’ve just recently completed a 30 day personal development program. The beauty of this program is that I designed it myself, and it cost me nothing other than my time, some paper and a desire to stick with it. The rewards have been fantastic!

The purpose of this 30 day program was to challenge myself, take things to another level and give myself a sort of “detox” from the everyday things in life. This was also an experiment - I knew what I wanted to achieve, but I wasn’t sure how it was going to work.

My main focus was to complete the 30 day program. I could then evaluate it, the results I got and then refine the program for the next 30 days and so on. The objective is to improve my life in a holistic way - covering as many aspects of my life as possible. The way I designed it was simple:

“Complete 5 daily tasks, each day, for a period of 30 days. “

It’s pretty basic to setup. I just made a word document, tabled with each day and 5 rows for the 5 tasks for that day. The way I planned it, was by thinking of the goals I wanted to achieve. An example of my plan below

As I mentioned….pretty simple, yet effective. Now as you can see, I would leave a couple of spaces each day so that I could add some tasks either on the day or at the beginning of the week.

Some tips for making your own 30 day program:

• Once you’ve completed your program, print it out and staple it or get it bound.
• Reward yourself - under the last day, write something you will get if you complete the 30 days, that will motivate you to continue
• Choose tasks that work towards making you feel empowered and achieving your goals
• For extra motivation, encourage your partner (or friends) to do the their own 30 day program & then compare results at the end (and celebrate!)

One of the coolest things for me, was once I completed the first 30 day programme, my wife asked me to set one up for her. She’s been doing really great so far and seems to be achieving more & feeling more empowered!
You may also be pleased to know that I’ve put “update blog” as one of my five to-do’s, every second day, on my current 30 day program - so the drought is over!

So get cracking & start your 30 days program TODAY!

Ok, so maybe it was JUST 42km, but it may as well have been 1000 miles! This is the start of the 45th Rotorua Marathon, complete with Maori Warriors giving us runners some extra motivation.

It turns out that 42km is quite a long way. This was certainly such an amazing experience and I stil can’t really come to terms with the fact that I actually completed it. You reach different milestones on the race. There’s the 1km mark, you feel great, charged and full of energy. I was still feeling great at 10km.

At 18km I couldn’t take it anymore and had to start walking. I had managed to injure my right knee (which did happen once during training). I was alternating between running and walking, but eventually it was too painful to run.

When I set out to achieve this goal and complete a marathon, I envisioned myself running the whole thing. Sometimes life doesn’t always work out exactly how we plan, but don’t let that stop you. I certainly didn’t let it stop me. I decided before I even ran the marathon that I was going to finish.

I wanted to complete the marathon (my first ever) in under 5 hours. I had trained for 12 weeks and put a lot of effort, sought lots of advice from experts, and drank a lot of water and ate a lot of carbs! I also was doing this to raise money and awareness for STOP THE TRAFFIK - an international organisation dedicated to freeing people across the world from slavery.You can read more about the fundraising at http://www.justgiving.com/ryankilfoil

I didn’t make the decision to start walking easily. I tried to run through the pain as long as I could. I had never walked any long distances before, so wasn’t sure how my body would react or how long it would take me.

“It didn’t matter that I didn’t know those answers. I knew the outcome -I would finish this marathon today.”

That really helped me get through this. It’s crazy because you don’t realise how long it takes to walk 1km until you have to walk 25 of them in a row! I kept picturing myself walking over that finish line.

The last 10km were really tough…..then the last 3 were even tougher. They were tougher physically but, mentally, I knew I had made it at about the 36km mark….when I turned the corner and saw my beautiful wife standing there, so happy to see me. It gets lonely on the road…

This is a picture of myself, walking the last 100 metres, with my beautiful wife and our daughter Sophie, cradled in her arms:

Walking with her gave me more energy. I couldn’t stop to moving because my legs would seize up so I just kept on walking as fast as I could. She walked with me for a few seconds, gave me a kiss and moved back to the car, where our 12 week old daughter was still sleeping.

At the 3km mark I got another boost, when I saw my dad walking towards me. He walked with me for those final 3km. It felt like ages, and it was so great to have him by my side. When I got the final 200m, I was greeted by the rest of my family. It meant so much to have them all there, cheering me on. I felt like I was about to cross the finish line in the Olympics for gold….what a feeling!

As I walked over the finish line, there was more cheering and the announcer called my name. 6 hours and 26 minutes of constant movement. I did it. I completed a marathon - my first ever. Sure, I was in a lot of pain and my body ached from fatigue, but I felt like a million dollars!

Sometimes in life we get thrown some challenges, and it’s all about how we respond to those challenges and the support that we surround ourselves with, that will decide the outcome.

This is me and my good friend Dan Necklen, after finishing the marathon. I couldn’t have done this without you mate. Thank for the support - you’re a legend!

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all those hundreds of people that have supported me in this effort. Those that had the courage to make a donation to make a difference for those people in this world that are still sold into slavery - by supporting my charity - STOP THE TRAFFIK.

For all those amazing people that gave me advice about running and training - thanks for your efforts, it was all worth it! To my wife and two kids, thanks for your patience, especially on my long 2 hour runs. Your support has been invaluable! To everyone else that I haven’t mentioned personally, sorry but my goal tonight is not to make this the worlds longest blog post…although it probably getting there!

I would like to end this entry, by saying to everybody - don’t be afraid to challenge yourself. This is how we grow and evolve. When you next challenge yourself, throw everything you have at it. See yourself crossing that finish line, whatever it may be. Until next time, keep those dreams alive….

 All the best - Ryan Kilfoil

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your patience. People say that one way to ensure you accomplish something amazing is to set your goal high and never give up until you have achieved it. This is me not giving up….

With 10 days to go until my marathon event, I’m pulling out all the stops, and I would really appreciate it if you could help me in any way you can. I think I’ve summed it all up in this video:

Oh yeah, and for those of you that noticed. I have now changed my target from NZ$10,000 (approx ₤4,000) and increased it to ₤10,000! I thought it was confusing having two different amounts in two different currencies - so I did the opposite of what I thought most people would do - and increased my target for sponsorships! What a way to motivate yourself to achieve something great!!

Hi Folks

You’ve probably just read about me and my crazy goal of making $1 Million dollars in 365 days! If you would like to follow my progress over the next 183 days, I suggest you subscribe to my RSS Feed or free email alerts, in the sidebar on the right.

So firstly I would just like to say thank you for visiting my site. If you’re new here, feel free to look back through my previous posts and hopefully you find something useful. Also, please feel free to contact me if you have any question: ryan at thekiwimillionaire dot com

So - back to me…needing your help. On my journey to make a million dollars, I have learnt a lot of things. One of them being, that:

“by giving to others, you receive more in return than if you chose not to give“.

For that reason, I decided to start a separate project and raise $10,000 for charity - by running the Rotorua Marathon on May 2nd 2009.

WHAT?

This isn’t your ordinary charity. About 1.2 Million children are trafficked each year. TRAFFICKING IS…to be deceived or taken against your will, bought, sold and transported into slavery for sexual exploitation, sweat shops, child brides, circuses, sacrificial worship, forced begging, sale of human organs, farm labour, domestic servitude.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

You can DONATE - instantly and securely, directly to STOP THE TRAFFIK, helping them help others enjoy what we all take for granted everyday. Here are some ideas:

• Donate the money you would have spent on a coffee tomorrow
• Run a marathon and setup your own donation page (www.justgiving.com)
• Why not take lunch from home this week and donate the money you would have used to buy your food?
• Why not have a competition between your friends to see who can donate the most?

The truth is, if you don’t do this now, you probably won’t do it at a later date - so please visit my donations page - www.justgiving.com/ryankilfoil and donate now to STOP THE TRAFFIK.

Thank you, from me and from the millions of men, women and children that are sold into slavery every year.

Thanks for helping to make a difference.

Kind Regards

Ryan Kilfoil

The Story So Far…

This weekend is going to be flat out - we’re moving into our first home! While this is very exciting, it’s also astounding as to what we’ve actually achieved in such a short amount of time.

One of my Grand Dream Goals was to buy a new house for my family and I to live in. I wanted a new home in a safe area, in an excellent school zone and a house where we could entertain friends and family. Oh, and I also wanted it to be a great investment. I even went as far as deciding that I wanted to make $80,000 profit on this property!

My goal was to purchase a house that would fit the above description on or before the 17/09/2009. I wrote up this goal and placed it on my dream-board. We were always on the look out for properties of interest in our local area with the hope to make one of these homes our next home.

I thought I was well on track with my goal, taking lots of action in searching and finding suitable properties, driving around and looking at open homes to get a feel for the market. I kept an eye on the finance markets and other developments that I thought could affect the housing market.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I made a massive commitment to achieve this goal within a single month! The pressure was on - I was excited, but also lost as to how I was going to achieve this.

How to buy a house in 30 days:

Ok, so maybe it took me just under 60 days before we actually moved in, but we had the contract signed in 28 days! Some people might think that it was a strange and lucky series of coincidences that helped us get into our first house - I think it was faith. Faith that what’s meant to happen will happen.

1. Believe. Somehow, somewhere, deep inside of you, you have to know that this is going to happen. From the moment I made the decision, I knew that it was going to work out. I didn’t know how, but I had no doubt in my mind. It was the same feeling I had when I said that I was going to make a Million dollars in 365 days!
2. Prepare yourself. You know that this is going to take some extra work & commitment to achieve and if you know what to expect, then you’re more prepared to take action. How badly do you want this? You need to decide that you are willing to do everything that you can to achieve this goal.
3. Live like you’ve already achieved it. From the moment I made the decision, I came home and told my wife, I rung my parents and told them. I told everyone I knew, work mates, that we were going to buy a house. Then, every time we moved forward another step, I told everyone all over again. “We’ve found this house, we’re going to put in an offer”. This continued the whole way through the process -telling everyone when we put an offer in, when the offer was accepted, I started telling everyone that we had bought the house and even gave them the day we would be moving in! Even though our offer was subject to a number of factors, I focused my passion and desire on the end goal, and didn’t worry about any potential challenges, as I knew there would be a way around them.
4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 until desired outcome is achieved!
   

Then something strange happened…

By focusing my mind on the end result, things seemed to fall into place. It was like I could see into the future, I imagined the day we got the keys and walked into our new home. I imagined, sitting on our patio and watching the sun set. I imagined my son running around the garden. It was all so real.

There were certainly challenges that we encountered during this process, however we always overcame them, and they never seemed impossible. Things just happened when they were supposed to - at times, it was difficult to believe!

Our offer was subject to a number of conditions. One of these was that our finance would be confirmed by 26/02/09, otherwise the vendors could get out of the contract. This was an area of concern because we weren’t able to confirm finance until about 1 week later.

The vendors rung us a week before the end of our finance condition to ask if we would mind extending the finance clause and asking for an extension - that is what we needed! But why would they ask us to do that?

Turns out that they had purchased a property subject to the sale of their house becoming unconditional on 26/02/09. They had since discovered that the area they were about to buy into, was not what they originally thought. They tried to get out of the contract but it was water-tight - apart from if the sale of their house fell through…

If we asked for an extension for finance then they would be able to avoid buying the house they didn’t want and we were able to buy the house we wanted! Funny how things work out, aye?

There is an old saying “Charity begins at home”. While I always thought this to be true, I now believe the opposite. Charity begins with Charity. If you wait until you have enough spare cash to give to charity….I think we can all agree that you may be waiting a long time.

“But how can I give money away when I can’t afford to pay all my bills?” Well, there’s really two solutions here:

1. Reduce the number of bills you have to pay!
2. Give something - it doesn’t have to be 50% of your income! Maybe start off with 5%? Chances are that you won’t even notice it’s gone, but I bet you the people that you are helping will surely notice your contribution.

I think this goes back to being grateful for what you have. No matter what is happening in your life right now, I bet you can find people in this world that are a lot worse off than you are. If you are reading this blog, then you should be counting your lucky stars because you obviously have power and Internet access! Some people don’t even know what those things are!

My goal is still to make a Million Dollars in 365 days….and I have some exciting developments that I will share with you over the next couple of days with regards to my progress However, during this journey so far, I have discovered some other opportunities out there - and one of them is to challenge myself.

And that I did, by committing to running a marathon! Not only did I commit to running a marathon, but then I publicly committed to raise $10,000 for the charity - STOP THE TRAFFIK! Do you have any idea how great I feel? Not because I think I’m doing this great thing, but because I have no doubt that I will complete both these tasks - I have to - there are people counting on me!

If I just kept these goals to myself, how easy would it be for me to decide that things were too tough and make a bunch of excuses and then quit? It would be pretty easy. Now, there’s no way I can quit!  I’d be getting emails and phone calls from all over the globe! If that’s not a great form of motivation then I don’t know what is.

I have been training since the 23/01/2009 and just last Sunday I managed to run 15km’s which made me feel like I had accomplished a major feat! It was fantastic! A lot of people asked me how difficult it was to run that far (it’s far for me okay!). My reply was simple, I didn’t find it difficult.

Why not, you ask? Well, like a lot of things, it comes back to perception. What am I comparing this marathon to, or at least this training to? If I’m comparing it to sitting on the couch at home watching TV then hell yeah - it’s painfully difficult!!

I’m not though. I’m comparing this marathon, this training, with an average day for some of the people out there, that are supported for by the charities I am raising money for. STOP THE TRAFFIK does a lot of work to stop people trafficking - can you imagine what it would be like to be sold to someone? When I’m running, I think of what someone else might be going through, how they might feel and what they would do if they were offered the chance to live a day in my life….now those are some powerful perceptions.

Now I’m not doing anything overly special here, I’m simply trying to raise some money for these guys. The question is, can you help? Maybe you don’t want to donate to this cause, maybe you can’t afford it. I’m sure you can come up with more creative excuses than that! However, the point is that this is not the only way you can help.

I challenge others out there to do also take on a marathon, and raise funds for a charity of your choice, get your community behind you, get the world behind you. Do it for yourself, do it for others and do it for the right reasons.

If you’re not in the mood for a marathon, then luckily for you, I have another solution - you can contribute to my Marathon by donating directly to STOP THE TRAFFIK, through my page at www.justgiving.com/ryankilfoil

I have set myself a big goal, and I’m confident that with your help we will be able to achieve it. Whether you can afford $1 or $100, please support this worthy cause right now. I truly appreciate you reading this entire post, and even more so for making a difference for this Charity. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly, especially if you have any other ideas on how to help raise even more funds for these guys.

Thanks again readers, for your amazing support and I look to keeping you updated with my progress. Have a great day and I hope you have gained something positive from this piece.

All the best - The Kiwi Millionaire