The holidays – we all love this time of year, when consumerism is in a frenzy and the bills are all coming due. Last year, I experienced the hard realities of being unemployed and how that affected the holidays for me. This year is a different story. How does one react when their company give you a holiday pay-cut?

I had to answer this question recently and learned some valuable lessons. My partner and I are currently in our second course of the Keys to the Kingdom course. In this extremely valuable guided course, the participant is walked through a series of steps to raising his/her prosperity consciousness. As we went through this program the first time, I dealt with some of my own money demons, that of the victimization attitude that nothing ever works in my favor, as well as my distrust in my own ideas.

With our second start of the Keys course, we experienced the same thing that happened the first time. A pay cut! I was not surprised at all, but was extremely shocked by the amount of the pay cut – 23%! That night, I went home and as I meditated on what I should do, the thought came to me, almost of righteous indignation: I deserve $10,000 by the end of this month! As crazy as this sounds, I decided that was what I deserved and here are the things I am doing to realize my goal.

  1. Believe that God/Spirit/Universe will prompt me to take whatever steps I should take. [1]
    1. I am a pretty sharp guy, but I believe that my genius is such that I am a part of a universal mind. The belief in this is what allows me to be open to the creative power of infinity. See Elizabeth Gilbert speaks about Creativity.
    2. I started writing down all of my best ideas.
  2. Trust that all is well
    1. Worry has never added a cent to any one’s bank account.
    2. And when that thought doesn’t help, I affirm the good in my life. [2]
  3. Act Upon Whatever Prompting I Receive
    1. No matter how unlikely or unorthodox. For me it worked like this:
    • I had a gym membership that I wanted to keep, but it was costing me $65 a month. Something prompted me to call the Gym and put it on hold. I felt hesitant, but I knew to follow my prompting. So I called and who answered? The owner. What did the owner do after I related my story? He gave me two months free!
      Total savings: $130.

    • The pay cut was only lasting two pay periods, but these pay periods were desperately important because of some things in my budget. So, I just trusted. Sitting at my desk at work, a co-worker fairly runs up and says, how about changing your exemptions from 4 to 30? It works! I already have a decent tax return coming, so I will end up just taking a bit out of my tax return early.
      Total savings: $885.

The key to remember is that, in the words of R. W. Emerson in Self-Reliance:

“A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.”

One final note: Don’t fall into the lack mentality trap of nominalizing your blessings when they come. Each blessing deserves your full and complete gratitude – this is the secret of raising your prosperity consciousness!

Notes

[1] Spirit - For me, the power of being tapped into a universal mind gives me the power to know that my best ideas are yet to come.

[2] Affirmation - Some people call this prayer, some people call it treatment, I call it changing my mind.

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On 12.11.09, In Growth, Ideas, By Eli

I’d like to propose a challenge. This is a challenge to those who are pursuing lifestyle design (including me) to really come clean. There are so many categories that we focus on in self development  – I find that I get lost at times in the ideas and realize that my life doesn’t mirror the practical application of these ideas.

To some extent this is about what Leo Babauta from Zen Habits is doing in Radical Transparency, but it’s more than that. In some way or another, all of us hold some of this internal dialogue, self talk that beats us down and tells us that we are hypocritical or not authentic. My mentor calls this the “monkey-chatter” that totally absorbs our minds and keeps us from actually taking the steps that will create change in our lives.

So what’s the challenge? Well, one of the greatest ways of inspiration is to see not only the progress that others make in their journey of self renovation, but also the struggle. We are on this journey together, we are the same species. Let’s run it together!

The Challenge:

Minimalism?  Blog about it, and include a picture of your living room, your bedroom.

Financial guru? What kind of debts are you dealing with? Has your income improved since you began your financial journey? Share the information.

Self Employment? What has changed in your life since you started working for yourself? Publish the contrast.

Is it about health for you? Tell us about the progress you’ve made – give us the contrast of the before and the after. Let us know what you are still struggling with.

This challenge is about:

  1. State your Lifestyle Design Focus.
  2. Show your current state.

For me, this will look something like this: (in summary form)

  1. My LifeStyle design focus is becoming healthy and proud of it.
  2. My current state is:
    1. I have been working out for the past 3 weeks.
    2. I have begun to eat healthier.
    3. I have not lost the weight that I would like to lose.
  3. My cardio exercise has suffered at the hands of my weight training.

Now this is just a summary of what the Lifestyle Design Challenge post will look like, but I think you get the point.

If you decide to take this challenge, post a comment here so that we can share together! I will be following this post very soon with my Lifestyle Design Challenge post on Health.

On 10.06.09, In Growth, By Eli