When it comes to getting results, it is tempting to look for steps or formulas. This at first sight looks like the quickest way to get the results you desire. But the reality is, it is actually the longer route. Steps and formulas are fabulous, but if you lack the self discipline, focus, commitment and persistence to follow through, you will not cross the finish line. All you will have is a series of failed attempts.

Success in any field of endeavour is 80% behaviour and 20% head knowledge. This means the ability to do it constitutes 80% while the how to constitutes the remaining 20%. The ability to carry through has much more weight than the how to. Until you develop the pattern of behaviour or habit to take sustained action, head knowledge is not of much use. This includes developing the behaviours or habits in becoming rich.

Human beings love short cuts, taking the easy way out, following the line of least resistance. That is why it is never crowded in the extra mile. The minority will always control majority of the resources anywhere there is free enterprise. Attaining the level whereby we have the ability to follow through takes longer and is much harder work than learning a formula. You can get the steps in two days, but it will take months and sometimes years before you can actually follow through. That is why almost everyone knows what to do to lose weight but few actually lose weight and stay that way. Psychology is where we often drop the ball. The right formula with a wrong mindset is a recipe for failure and frustration. To develop psychologically, we have to pay the price in personal growth and development. Life is lived at levels, and the level you belong determines what you can do.

In an army, the private has different attributes from a Sergeant, Captain, Colonel, Brigadier General, full General etc. Each rank operates at a different level, has different attributes and expected behaviours. A private takes orders, a Captain can lead a Platoon etc. A General can command a whole Division, and in actual combat, a combined task force of Army, Navy and Air Force. The higher you go, the more is expected of you. To rise in rank, you have to take on more responsibilities and perform well. If per chance you become a General but behave like a Colonel, you will soon be demoted or worse, court-martialled if your actions inaction has dire consequences. It means the shoe is much bigger than you.

When it comes to getting rich, you have to be a millionaire before you can have millions. That means you have to become a millionaire on the inside before the millions manifest on the outside. It means you must acquire a millionaire mindset, think like one, act like one and ultimately you will become one. If you don’t think like a millionaire, you cannot act like a millionaire. If you do not act like one, you will not get the results millionaires get – millions of dollars.

Imagine for a moment that you bypass the process and become one, e.g. win the lottery etc. You can guess the rest of the story. The money will be gone pretty soon. A fool and his money soon part ways. What happened?

You do not have the ability to hold onto the money. You will relate to the money with a poor or middle class mindset, meaning go shopping, feel good, show that you have arrived. By the time you have finished indulging your fantasies, the money is long gone. A millionaire will make more money with that same money. That is the difference.

If you are not a millionaire, if millions come your way, you will give it away. It is not in your character to hold and multiply money. That is why you have precious little to show for all the years you have been working. You can now imagine the futility of trying to make more money when you cannot keep and multiply it. You would be like someone running hard on a treadmill but going nowhere. It is a vicious cycle. No wonder it seems like the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and the gap gets wider.

The sustainable way to become rich is to first invest in your personal growth, development and financial education. When the knowhow meets the ability to follow through to the end, miracles happen. What is the point knowing what to do when you cannot do it? A pregnant woman needs strength to deliver. There is no caesarean section when it comes to success. You have to deliver normally. Knowing what to do gives you wings. Having the ability to do it successfully is the wind beneath your wings. Without the wind, you cannot go far.

Knowing how to do it is the easy part. Actually doing it successfully is where the rubber meets the road. This is what separates the men from the boys. Herein lays the missing link.

– Usiere Uko is editor of www.financialfreedominspiration.com  and author of Practical Steps to Financial Freedom and Independence – www.amazon.com/Practical-Steps-Financial-Freedom-Independence/dp/147006832X .