When I was a kid, $20 dollars seemed like A LOT of money.

When I was a surgical resident making less than $50,000 per year in San Francisco, making $300,000 like my professors sounded like A LOT of money.

Since embarking on my entrepreneurial and professional investing journey, I have had $300,000 MONTHS on multiple occasions.

But making $10 million dollars in one year still sounds like A LOT of money.

I have had the good fortune of being able to break through these kinds of mental barriers multiple times in my life to get to the next level.

Hopefully, someday soon I will look back on the days when making over $10 million dollars in a single year and having a nine figure net worth seemed like a lot of money.

Does that seem realistic? It does to me.

Why? Because all of the barriers that we have in our lives are self-inflicted. We create our own boundaries. They don’t really exist.

Recognizing that is critically important if you want to continue to develop not only financially, but as a person.

The other day I was trying to think of what my biggest fear in life is. It’s not death and it’s not dying broke.

My biggest fear in life is hitting a plateau and not growing any more.

It’s an easy trap to fall into isn’t it? Let’s say you are like me and one day you decided you wanted to be a surgeon. You were on a mission.

You went to college. You worked hard and good grades and test scores. Then you studied your butt off for years and finally became that person you aspired to be.

But 5 years into your “dream”, you started wondering to yourself, “is this it?” It seemed so much more exciting and glamorous as a dream than it does reality. Now it seems like—a job!

Suddenly, that thrill of being a fancy surgeon has warn off and you didn’t really think of anything past that point in your life. Even worse, now you have created a world for yourself that is highly dependent on your “high salary” and you feel like you don’t have any options anymore.

You are shackled to the golden handcuffs. Others can’t understand why you, with your fancy titles, your fancy house, and your BMW, don’t seem particularly happy.

But.. I understand your discontent.

You see, I believe that there is really only two states of being—growth or death. If you are not growing as a person…if you are not constantly learning and developing as a human being, you are pretty much already dead in the figurative sense. To me, to be such a metaphorical zombie, is the worst that could happen.

How do you prevent that from happening to you? Well, my guest on Wealth Formula Podcast today, Michael Bernoff is an expert on exactly these types of things.

So, if you don’t want to be a zombie, make sure to tune in to the show!

Michael is the President and Founder of the Human Communications Institute, a leader in the personal and professional development industry. He works directly with individuals as well as corporate executives who desire to transform their corporate culture in an ever changing marketplace. His passion for his work is limitless and his dedication to positively impacting the world by empowering every individual is uncompromising.

Shownotes:

[00:07] Introduction

[08:59] Buck introduces Michael Bernoff

[10:42] Michael’s story

[13:18] There has to be more in life

[24:28] Convince yourself to get out of your comfort zone/ the golden handcuff

[28:42] A different kind of wealth

[32:16] How to be happy with where you are at

[36:30] Lean more about Michael

[38:40] Outro