Posts Tagged ‘money’

Here’s a question I received recently: “How do I break through my financial set point? I seem to be stuck at my current earning level and no matter what I do, I can’t sustain a higher level for any length of time.”

Your financial set point is actually an income and/or net-worth limit that you have subconsciously established for yourself. Feeling stuck at this set point is a common dilemma that I’d lke to address here.

As a review: Our finances are a result of our thoughts, beliefs, emotions and behaviors, with the emotions acting as the creative force behind our life stories. So, when trying to alter a financial condition, it is necessary to examine the emotions behind the condition. (This is fully explained in Build Your Money Muscles.)

If you have trouble breaking through to a new financial level, one of the feelings you may be acting out through your money is constrained, which is related to a sense of being trapped — one of the five main money feelings. Read the rest of this entry »

Many people I talk to become so focused on “fixing” the internal issues they perceive are blocking their prosperity that they forget to do the real-world tasks necessary for financial health.

Perhaps you are one of the people hoping that if you get your thoughts, beliefs, and emotions in perfect alignment, the money you so ardently crave and hope to manifest will somehow magically appear. Although there is a far-out chance that you will win the lottery or suddenly inherit a large sum of money, more often than not some grounded action is necessary to reach your financial goals.

First of all, if a large sum of money comes your way and you have no financial management skills, then like the proverbial lottery winners who spend everything they gain, your fortune is most likely to dissipate. Money doesn’t take care of itself — it requires constant love and attention, just like people. Read the rest of this entry »

You may have noticed that I haven’t been sending out as many Tips lately. I’ll admit that I have been going through a reframing of the work I do and what I want to share.

At the base of what I’ve been examining is my feeling that something gets lost when the primary focus is on money. This may seem odd coming from someone whose book is all about money. But my book is really about you and your relationship to yourself and the world around you. And money is the symbol of those relationships.

So where do I think the focus needs to be? The phrase that keeps coming to my mind is “Spirit first.” What that means to me is that what matters most is our connection to the more of life — that which lies beyond our individual selves where we are energetically joined.  Read the rest of this entry »

It sure does look like the financial world is falling apart. Major financial institutions are going bankrupt, smaller banks are in danger of closing, government bailouts are taking place, and the words “recession” and “depression” on everyone’s lips.

The immediate threat seems to be a serious tightening of credit, which would affect consumer spending. This in turn would hurt the US economy. At the same time, the problems in the US are affecting economies around the world.

So what’s the good news? This financial crisis has been a long time in coming as regulations were eliminated or not enforced, and greed took over. Those out for the big bucks made risky investments, and the more they got away with, the more risk they took. Then it all started to collapse as securities backed by subprime mortgages went bad.

Here’s the good news: I see the current situation as a major correction as the greed and corruption come to the surface, which will allow the system can start healing itself. The dysfunction goes very deep, so it could be a lengthy healing, but it will heal. And the system that emerges will be stronger–until greed and corruption take over once again. But that will be years in the future.

Should you be afraid? No. And you can minimize your fear if take steps to protect yourself.

• Do everything you can to reduce your debt and cut down on spending.
• Downsize if you have to in order to feel more secure.
• If you can’t stop spending or you keep living on the edge, find out why you hold on to these habits.
• Think through all of your purchases and ask, “Do I really need this?”
• Keep making plans for a positive future and developing strategies for income building.

We are in the down side of a cycle, that WILL turn around in time. The people at the top don’t want the whole system to collapse and will do what they can to save it. It’s going to take a while, because the problem is global. This is a good time to find your place of peace in the midst of the chaos.

In the meantime, this is an opportunity for you to clean up your money mess and prepare for prosperity.

The first month of the six-month Build Your Money Muscles for Financial Strength & Security program has an audio, Overcoming Financial Fear, that can help you get yourself out of fear and into positive action.

Regularly checking in with your money feelings can prevent financial stagnation–that feeling that you just can’t seem to move through your current financial position into a new one.

No matter how much emotional clearing you have done, there’s always another layer of emotions lying in wait, ready to hold you back. That’s because emotions are the bridge between our internal and external worlds. As you move towards a new financial position, the habitual emotions that have defined your current position have to be replaced by new emotional reponses that are in tune with where you want to be.

So, when you check in with yourself today, what are you feeling about your money? Are you feeling frustrated, limited, trapped, deprived, or angry? Or perhaps you feel satisfied with what you have, comfortable with what you are earning, or hopeful about your financial future.
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If you’ve been working and playing hard, keeping track of your money is probably not something you look forward to doing. But the simple act of writing down what you spend and earn can help you move to a better financial position.

Money, like people, goes to those who love and take care of it. And what money likes best is to be counted. Financial Vagueness Syndrome, which many people suffer from, does not encourage cash flow.

Taking care of your money stimulates feelings of empowerment as well as increased self-esteem and self-trust. Avoiding the task does the opposite and often enhances feelings of shame.

If you’d like to improve your cash flow and can see the benefit of paying attention to your numbers, it can take a while to build up a habit. The decision you have to make is to start and to do something with your money as many days during the week as possible. Five minutes a day is often enough to keep things up to date.

On ProsperityPlace.com, you can download a PDF file with instructions for Basic Money Management.

My book Build Your Money Muscles also has instructions and can help you work through the shame that may be coming up when you think about your financial situation. That shame can be what is holding you back.

I often hear people say, "If only I had more money, I could be happy/comfortable/satisfied (you fill in the feeling)." But the fact is, money does not determine your feelings. Those eminate from deep inside of you. They are your habitual response to the world around you and act as the bridge between your internal and external worlds.

If you were to suddenly be given a large some of money, you would probably be elated. But if habitual feelings of shame, aloneness, anger, and deprivation remain buried inside of you, that elation could easily be replaced by your habitual feelings. You would have more money, but you would also have your habitual feelings.
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