Practical Action Versus Fantasy Thinking
Feelings of powerlessness and fear about the future often cause people to retreat into inaction. At the same time, denial about the reality of current world economic conditions can cause both job seekers and business owners to hold onto the dream that the world of commerce is going to return to what it was before the recession.
Holding onto this dream often prevents people from finding innovative financial solutions. Economic recovery is going to be a slow and lengthy process, but that doesn’t mean that you have to suffer.
There are proactive steps you can take to protect yourself and develop comfortable streams of income. Here are some ideas: How to succeed, make more money, website basics
1. Rethink your career or business.
If your job hunting has yielded few results, you may need to seek employment in a new field, which may require retraining. While you’re waiting for employment, you might also consider starting a modest business for yourself. In both cases, you will have to spend either time or money learning new skills. Here’s where you get to choose between practical action and fantasy thinking.
If you have a business now and your income has decreased, as it has for many, than it’s imperative that you cut costs and rethink your product and services mix as well as your pricing. People who succeed in this economy are those who are flexible and creative about what they have to offer and the marketing methods they are using. Continue reading
Using BSFF to Cope with the Current World Conditions
Uncertainty caused by economic conditions, political conflicts, and extreme weather events is making lots of people nervous and stimulating feelings of vulnerability. The erratic up-and-down movement of the United States stock market is a perfect mirror of this uncertainty.
Because of everything that’s going on in the world, it’s important that you use all available tools to help you deal emotionally with current events, and one of the most effective is the energy psychology technique Be Set Free Fast (BSFF). This simple technique allows you to quickly shift your emotions from fear and anxiety to a more peaceful state.
I first started using BSFF in 2002. I had been using EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) with my clients and for myself, then decided to have a few sessions with Larry Nims, the creator of BSFF, to see what it was like. I immediately found it to be effective and liked it better than EFT because I could treat so many more issues and subtleties of issues in rapid succession. I still like it better because no tapping is involved, which makes it easier to use in a meditative state, which I prefer. Continue reading
Fighting with a Sword of Light
Two months ago while I was at a meeting, my house was broken into and the burglar took a laptop, camcorder, and all the jewelry in my top dresser drawer. Gone were pieces of my mother’s and grandmother’s jewelry and my favorite costume jewelry and beads.
When I first realized what happened, I was a mass of emotions. As I consciously tuned in to what I was experiencing, I could identify both a sense of violation and, even more pronounced, a feeling of vulnerability. Anger surfaced when I saw that the burglar had taken one of my pillowcases to put everything in. That seemed like the ultimate insult.
While I allowed myself to fully experience the emotions, I also knew that I had to find the strength within myself to let go of whatever was taken and try to see it as a releasing of the past. Since I had previously given away everything I owned on three occasions, I had some practice doing this. Continue reading
Using Financial Fear As a Positive Force
Last week, I was at a networking meeting attended by a number of consultants who work with high-level managers. One of the consultants, whose clients are mostly successful entrepreneurs, mentioned that fear was prevalent among his clients because of the current economic uncertainty. I was surprised to hear that this group shared the same kind of financial fear experienced by so many workers around the world.
A number of my high net worth friends have also shared with me that they have fears about their financial future. Wealth, it appears, is no barrier to emotional discomfort.
Is fear creeping into your thoughts about your financial position? Or perhaps it has become one of your main emotions.
Fear run amok is likely to lead you to make unsound decisions about your finances and other aspects of your life, such as taking on too much debt or arranging a high-risk mortgage.. It also has a detrimental effect on your health because of the ongoing adrenal responses stimulated by fear. Continue reading
Are You Using the Net for Your Prosperity?
More and more, the Internet is becoming an essential tool for developing your personal prosperity because using the Net makes it easier to:
- Keep track of your finances
- Learn financial management skills on sites like www.mint.com
- Develop working relationships with people all over the world
- Learn how to build and run a business effectively
- Network in order to find a job
- Find out about techniques and resources for building the internal environment necessary for prosperity
- And much more
I’m amazed at how often people I talk to identify themselves as technologically challenged. Yet knowing how to use the Internet and other technologies effectively can definitely affect your ability to prosper.
Even if you are doing lots of spiritual and emotional release work vis-ŕ-vis your money issues, in this day and age, in order to build and manage wealth, you will need to invest time in learning how to use technology. Something as simple as financial management software can positively affect your financial outcomes. Continue reading
Thriving in The New Economy
I hear a lot of people saying that they are having a hard time financially because the economy is so “bad.” The question is, is the economy bad or is it just different? I think it’s different, and waiting for it to return to what was before the recession is an exercise in futility.
Yes, it’s frustrating that, statistically, income levels for all but the highest earners are stagnating or dropping. But that doesn’t mean you can’t thrive financially in this economy, which is likely to remain stagnant for a long time.
To succeed, there are steps you can take to proactively shift how you generate income and how you manage what you generate. Here are some suggestions: Continue reading
Understanding the Marketplace
Since the beginning of the economic downturn two years ago, it has become clear that people no longer buy into the fantasy that states: Act as if you are rich and you’ll become rich. Acting rich often means spending beyond one’s means, racking up credit card debt, and creating self-imposed financial discomfort.
At the same time, the income gap between rich and poor reached record levels as the richest one percent of the U.S. population now accounts for 24 percent of the nation’s income. Because Americans hold on to the dream of upward mobility, they often remain in denial about the difficulties that the current marketplace creates for anyone hoping to rise above their current financial position.
In addition, people don’t understand how difficult it is, even in good economic times, to change one’s financial identity and realize higher earnings or more successful wealth building. Old habits die hard, especially habitual emotional responses that perpetrate the behaviors supporting old financial habits. Continue reading
Dealing with Current Events in a Healthy Way
There are those who say that it’s better to ignore the news. I disagree with this. Ignoring political and economic trends makes it difficult to strategize for the future.
For me, watching the news is a spiritual discipline because I learn how to detach from what I’m seeing. I can imagine that I’m climbing up a mountain and watching the drama from a much higher point of view – to be in the world but not of it.
From that elevated point of view, it’s easier to remove “good” or “bad” from what I’m seeing. Whatever is happening is just what’s happening, and how I deal with it on a physical, emotional, or spiritual level is my choice.
Years ago, I had a big AHA. I realized, it ALL depends on how you look at it. I can see current events as filled with pain and tragedy, or I can see a rapidly changing world where people have the opportunity to learn that when anger, fear, and selfishness are replaced with love, acceptance, and a social consciousness, everyone benefits. Continue reading
The Egyptian Crisis and Your Finances
There is no doubt that many factors such as income inequity between rich and poor, high unemployment, rising food prices, and suppression by autocratic governments are contributing to the growing unrest in the Middle East that is likely to spread from country to country.
Because the unrest may be far away from where you live, you may not think that it’s going to affect you, but it will. All countries are now connected, especially economically, and what happens in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, and other countries will eventually affect the economies of seemingly stable countries.
I watched a program about the Middle East crisis on CNBC Sunday night and they talked a lot about the effect of the crisis on various currencies. What was really interesting, was the fact that at the time of the 2007 revolt in Myanmar, the value of their currency tanked and savvy investors put money into the country. With the return of some stability, these investors have now realized profits of about 400%. In other words revolutions are profitable.
Are You Ready for the Upturn?
There is no doubt about the fact that the global economy is going through a major upheaval and restructuring and no one really knows what the long-term outcome will be. The signs point to a slow recovery during the restructuring, and for business owners, this is a good time to prepare for an upturn.
Those of you who have been in the job market, especially older workers, need to consider how opportunities are changing, and in some cases disappearing. The question for you is whether you are going to stay in the job market or create a business opportunity by yourself or with others whose skills complement yours.
There are a number of emerging business models that reduce some of the risk of starting a new venture or reconfiguring the one you have now. For example, pop-up stores are literally popping up in many locations both online and off. (Google pop-up stores for more information.) Continue reading
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