A few years ago I was at that point in my life when I realised I wasn't happy, and thinking at the time it was purely because I was poor and living day to day, I set off on a bewildering but exciting journey to build long term wealth. I didn't realise at the time that my external world ie my unhappiness, financial situation and so on was a reflection of my internal map of reality. This included all my thoughts and processes especially the subconscious ones ie. the ones I was not even aware of. Looking back now it seems so unfair that this internal map of reality was created for me by my parents, education system, friends and government while I was a small, innocent and impressionable boy. It has also occurred to me that 99.9% of the population are in the same position. I realised that it was my passion and natural instinct to help as many people as possible to achieve what I call ultimate wealth which is both internal wealth (happiness, peace and joy) and external wealth (property, cars, money, holidays and so on). I therefore sincerely hope that this article is of some benefit to you.

Most people who have been involved in personal growth are familiar with terms such as manifesting your desires, universal laws of attraction and many more. While these subjects are all very helpful in the world of wealth building and personal growth, many of the articles and information that I have come across miss out the most important ingredient. Without this ingredient you will not be happy or successful, even if was handed to you on a plate! This important ingredient is 'awareness'. If you are not aware of something you will never be able to change, improve or make it more resourceful. If you are not aware of how your internal map of reality works, 99.9% of the population are not, if you are not aware of the subconscious processes or thinking that make up your own internal map of reality, you will never achieve your goals and dreams.

Your internal map of reality is unique to you. It is the way you process information coming in from the environment. You will delete, generalise and distort information coming in to match up with your beliefs which were forced upon you by well meaning parents, friends, government and education systems while you were growing up. For example, if you believed that all politicians were dishonest, manipulative and only interested in self gain you will SUBCONSCIOUSLY delete, distort and generalise incoming information to make your belief true. This is why two people may discuss an issue and have completely different views on it based on their own unique beliefs. Very often a heated debate or argument will develop because both parties will want to prove their own belief! The most amazing thing is neither beliefs are true, they are just perceptions of the truth by the individuals concerned. This is also why one political party will have one view and even though their opposition party may have some good ideas they will only see the weaknesses and problems in those ideas, ie from their own belief system. This is also the reason why wars come about, anger and fear are common, greed and dishonesty are rife and unhappiness and frustration have prevailed the world over since man has lived on earth.

So, why is it so difficult to change our internal map of reality? Well during our childhood we did everything we could to get through it in one piece. We adapted so we could feel the greatest amount of safety at any given moment. You can clearly see this if you were in an abusive or traumatic environment when you were a child - for example, believing that you are being physically or sexually abused for your own good because the person doing it says so. All the thoughts and subsequent emotions become part of your belief system and internal map of reality. However even children who were given all the love, nurturing and encouragement parents could supply still adjusted their belief system so as to feel the greatest amount of safety. As an adult, and this is the important point, this belief system just doesn't work anymore. It will not get what you want out of life. So while goal setting and focusing on what you want is a good strategy, if your internal map of reality is distorted in any way, you will keep on failing or not getting the results you want.

The good news is that your internal map of reality can be changed. But you must be aware of every single thought (yes this will take time) that you have. The important thing is to realize that to become wealthy both internally and externally you must look at each belief and decide if it is RESOURCEFUL. You should not be asking yourself if it is right or wrong (politicians do that). You must WITNESS every thought, emotion, feeling and decide if it is resourceful to you. You must step back from every thought, feeling or emotion and decide if it will move you forward in life. If not then ditch it! If you feel depressed it is because your internal map of reality has processed the incoming information in such a way as to make you feel like that. This is the same for every single emotion that you feel!

When successful people focus on what they want IE make internal representations of what they want, they are very aware of any negative feelings or emotions that may be present. All negative emotions are because you are focusing on the wrong thing! Your are making the wrong internal representations! You should immediately adjust to a more resourceful focus. For many people who have had a traumatic childhood they constantly focus on the negative because this gave them the greatest feeling of security - for example, constantly looking out for bad things when they were young kept them safe. They were always ready for the worst case scenario. Unfortunately in adulthood this internal map of reality is not resourceful. If you are always concentrating on bad things, let's say poverty, that is what you will get. It is also important to realize that saying to yourself you don't want to be poor anymore will not work because you are giving an instruction to your subconscious to concentrate on poverty. It doesn't know the difference. That is the job of conscious mind. A more resourceful thought would be 'I want to increase my income by 10,000 euros by the end of the year'. Your subconscious gets to work to create the opportunities and circumstances to bring you this money.

While you are focusing on the positive goal or situation you want to experience you may find that your mind will constantly try to get you to focus on the negative. This is indicative of past childhood trauma. It is very frustrating but important you work through this and constantly re-focus on what you do want. With a little perseverance you will become better at this and also witnessing your internal state. There is no quick fix although spending time on your own, meditating if possible, in a quiet room helps tremendously. You can speed up the process dramatically by following some of my recommendations which can be found on my website below. You must constantly be the watcher and keep focusing on your internal state. A book I highly recommend in this regard is called 'The Power of Now' by Eckhart Tolle. Ultimate wealth is yours for the taking if you would only become more aware of your internal thoughts and beliefs and set about changing them to more resourceful ones.