How to Upgrade Your Lifestyle

Do you want a new car, a more comfortable house, better clothes? If so, do all of the exercises in this article.

What is the ideal lifestyle for you? If everything went well this year, how would you be living? Take a minute to write down the lifestyle you want.

Next, take this quiz.

Quiz

Check the items below that determine your standard of living:

❒ The economy
❐ Your employer
❒ Thinking good thoughts
❐ Your parents
❐ Luck, fate, destiny
❐ Big business
❐ Chanting, hoping, meditating
❐ The government
❒ Rich people
❐ Your productivity

If you selected the last factor, you can do something to improve your lifestyle.

“Products are the basis of a standard of living. They don’t appear from midair. They come from work truly done.” — L. Ron Hubbard

That’s right. Your products determine your lifestyle.

When you produce enough valuable products, you earn the standard of living you want.

So What Is Your Product?

What do you produce? What is the end result of your hard work? What do you get paid for?

If you build houses, your product is a “house.” If you publish books, your product is a “book.” If you cook food, your product is “a meal.”

If you produce a service, such as a hotel clerk, your product is “a happy hotel guest.” If you are a physician, your product is “a healthy patient.” If you sing operas, your product is “an emotionally moved audience.”

A manager’s product is “a highly-productive staff.” A painter’s product is a “painted house.” An airplane pilot’s product is “an airplane moved from one location to another.”

As L. Ron Hubbard writes, the work must be truly done. For example, you will not improve your lifestyle if you take the credit for someone else’s work, if you live on government checks or if you are a criminal. You need to work and produce something of value.

Three Factors

“Factually one normally has to work fast and expertly and in high volume to bring about any acceptable standard of living for himself and his group.” — L. Ron Hubbard

These three production factors determine your standard of living:

1. Speed: how quickly can you produce your product?

2. Expertise: do you know what you are doing?

3. Volume: how many products can you produce?

Working fast is important. For example, an auto mechanic who can replace an engine in six hours enjoys a better standard of living than a mechanic who needs 20 hours to do the same job. A store clerk who rings up $1000 of groceries per hour will eventually earn a better standard of living than a clerk who talks all day, moves slowly and only rings up $500 of groceries per hour.

Your expertise determines the quality of your product. If a computer programmer writes programs that make computers crash, he will not enjoy a better standard of living. A horse trainer who produces a calm, friendly obedient horse earns an improved lifestyle because of her expertise.

Becoming an expert allows you to produce a higher quality product than others. For example, instead of producing “a house,” an expert builder produces “a beautiful, efficient house under budget.” Instead of “a meal,” an expert chef produces a “exceptionally delicious, healthy meal.” Instead of “a moved airplane,” an expert pilot produces “an airplane that safely departs on time, safely arrives on time with maximal comfort for the passengers.”

And of course, the more products you produce, the better your standard of living. For example, if you are a schoolteacher, you might decide your product is “an educated student.” So to produce more products, you might write books, produce documentaries or create e-learning websites. Instead of producing 30 educated students each week, you produce thousands of educated students.

You will improve your lifestyle if you become an expert in your field, work as fast as you can and produce as many products as possible.

Five Tips for Improving Your Standard of Living

Because you control your standard of living, you can improve it with these steps.

1. Identify your product. What is the final result of your work? What will people pay you for?

2. Find three ways to increase your production speed. Use your ideas until your speed has increased.

3. Find three ways to increase your expertise. Use these ideas to increase the quality or value of your product.

4. Find three ways to increase the amount of production you get done per week. Use these ideas until your production volume increases.

5. Continue to increase the speed, quality and volume of your production until you have more than enough money to raise your standard of living.

Once you have earned the money, go buy that new car. Move to that new house. Eat at those nicer restaurants.

You earned it. You deserve it.

Enjoy it!