Today we have another awesome guest post from Erin Dickson of Gravity Life Coaching
Do you feel frustrated with your current financial situation and are looking to change it, but just don’t know how?
When you grow up with certain ideas about money, you tend to internalize them and this actually blocks your flow of money, without even realizing it. These ideas could be that there is a ceiling on how much money you can make, “money doesn’t grow on trees”, you have to work very hard just to get by or that money makes you happy or sad.
When you hold onto that mindset about money, you are blocking the flow of the money coming to you. So how do you change it?
1. Identify what your beliefs about money are. What ideas did you inherit about money from your parents? Are you still holding onto these ideas? How are they stopping you from meeting your full potential?
Listen to your own inner statements about money. Give yourself 2 days to really listen to how you think about and talk about money. What things do you find yourself saying?
Action Step: Determine what you currently believe about money.
2. Change your negative money thoughts. Now that you’ve identified those thoughts – you get to change them! Next time you hear yourself say “we can’t afford that” replace it with “we could have that if we wanted to, but lets invest our money in something else for now” – now that “something else” might be bills, but let’s change bills to investments – because truthfully that’s what they are and that’s what you’ve done to acquire those “bills”. Either you’ve invested in things with your credit cards or you’ve invested in a vehicle, a home, a monthly cable service, etc. If you focus on debt, debt will be received – if you focus on wealth and investments, wealth and investments will be received.
Creating affirmations sounds cliche – but do it anyways – what do you have to lose? You don’t have to do the traditional lipstick on the mirror thing if it’s too much for you (or the people you live with). I actually put reminders in my phone that say things like: “Money is ABUNDANT and on it’s way to me!” I set the reminder to occur weekly and I create a different one for each day of the week. There are days when I’m down or feel like I might not make it financially and then that damn affirmation pops up on my phone and I’m like “okay, I got this”.
CHANGE YOUR THINKING, EVIDENCE APPEARS.
Action Step: Replace your negative money thoughts with positive ones.
3. Set your intentions. How much money do you need or want and how much time can you give yourself to receive it?
The first time that I tried this activity, I wasn’t sure of it. I needed $800 to get my brakes fixed. I only had a month to do it, before my car needed to be inspected. I had just learned this strategy and decided I had nothing to lose by trying it. So I repeated affirmations (quietly) like “checks are in the mail” “the money will come if I allow it” “I have nothing to worry about it”. There was one day left and I decided that even if the money didn’t come, it was okay, I would just put it on my credit card – ugghhhh. I scheduled my appointment with the garage and went to the post office – not truly expecting anything, but just because I had to get my mail. That very day there was a check in my mailbox for $2000. The check was actually the retainer from my divorce lawyer – BUT I did not expect the check until my divorce was final and it wasn’t final until about 6 months from the day I received it. Coincidence? Who the hell cares.
Action Step: Decide how much you want and when you want it by.
4. Create a partner or partners in believing. You do need to believe, at least a little bit for now, that this is possible – but if you can’t, find someone who can believe for you – and eventually with you.
When I decided to become a life coach, I had signed up for a weekend long life coach institute. This training was offered all over the country and I chose to sign up for the closest one to me, in Boston. The cost of this…coincidentally again, was $800. I signed up for it in the winter and used my credit card, knowing it wouldn’t be charged until the spring (the time of the training). I decided that would give me enough time to budget and save for it, before my credit card was actually charged.
Well, Spring came and surprise, surprise, I “forgot” to budget for it. I was sitting at the table, paying bills with Jeff and said “hmmm, not sure how I’m gonna pay for this”. He says “I can help you with it” and I said “Nope, I’m gonna attract the money from outside the household.” He says, “OKKKKAAAAYYY, Erin”, a bit sarcastically, I might add.
That week, I told my Life Coach friend, “I’m expecting a check for $800, but I’m not quite sure where it will come from”. She says “of course it will come” – with no sarcasm – and I think she believed that it would. That very night, I received a phone call from the life coach institute and the woman on the phone says “I”m very sorry – but we have to cancel the workshop you signed up for in Boston, because not enough people signed up for it…” my heart sunk because although I wanted to save the $800, I really wanted to attend the workshop. In the next instant she said “but we’re willing to refund your credit card and offer you attend in any other city for free”.
Tell me it doesn’t work…I have evidence that it does. You will too. But don’t share your intentions with non-believers. Share your intentions with believers. More positive thoughts lead to an increase in positive energy.
Just a few weeks ago, I began talking about these stories with a teacher I work with. She had never heard of the law of attraction and she was intrigued with my stories. The next week she sees me and says “Erin! You are a miracle worker!”, I was like “Sweet, I didn’t even do anything…do tell!”. She explains to me that she was talking with her husband about perhaps picking up a dreaded second job because they needed $10,000 to keep their house. The next week, her husband received an increase in his salary of – guess how much – EXACTLY $10,000.
Action Step: Seek out someone else who believes and tell them your intentions.
Join my Empowering Women through Change Facebook group here – for a bit of inspiration and encouragement!
5. Write yourself a check. Choose an amount that you’d like to have and write yourself a check for that amount. Jim Carrey did this when he and his family were broke and living in a van. He wrote himself a check for $10,000,000 and set a date for 5 years ahead. In the memo he wrote “for acting services rendored”. Five years later in the month he had indicated, he was offered a $10,000,000 contract for “Dumb and Dumber”. Check out his story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPU5bjzLZX0.
I shared this story with a co-worker last year, who was not sold on the idea, but certainly open to it. We decided we would write each other checks for $100,000. I followed through…he did not. I went online and actually created a realistic looking check for $100,000 and got it framed for him. He had accepted a new job a few months later and told me that with his salary and insurance, the total equaled $100,000.
This is also the plan that Jack Canfield used to attract $100,000 and then later $1,000,000 with his Chicken Soup for the Soul books.
Write yourself a check, put it in your wallet or purse, and carry it around with you. Start small and work your way up. You don’t have to start small, but to increase your sense of believing, you might need to. Once you grow a bigger believing you can dream bigger. It’s sometimes hard to break our long-standing patterns of belief.
Action Step: Write yourself a check.
6. Visualize. Imagine what would be different in your life if you had the money you wanted. How would you feel different? What would you be doing differently?
Visualizing and feeling are important parts of the process. Create a vision board – put it in writing and pictures. If you can see it in your mind, you can hold it in your hand. Remember – everything has to be a thought before it can be a thing. Put the thought out there and see it daily. Experience the feelings as if it’s already yours. If the money would bring you a vacation to Bora Bora, then get pictures of Bora Bora and put them on your vision board. Then imagine yourself in that picture. What does the sun feel like? The sand? The water? What do you see, how are you experiencing it?
Action Step: Create a Vision Board.
7. Give to Others. It’s easy to be stingy when you feel like you don’t have enough for yourself. BUT you cannot receive if you do not give. Giving balances the flow of money.
When I first learned about this I wasn’t sure who to give to or how much. Then the first opportunity presented itself to me. I had scheduled a night out with a couple of friends – one that I hadn’t seen in a while. That day, she called me to tell me that her cat had an emergency vet appointment and she couldn’t afford to go out to dinner – seriously, can’t make this shit up. I decided that would be my first conscious gift and that I would pay for her dinner. The bill came and my other friend also decided to chip in – not only that, but she had a gift card. The bill for all three of us ended up being only $10. That was quick evidence that when you choose to give, the money comes back.
Now I engage in random acts like this more frequently and have scheduled donations come out of my account monthly. If you budget for it and schedule it, you don’t miss it.
Action Step: Determine who you will give to consistently and how much you will spend.
Begin with these 7 steps and you will see evidence of an increase of money flow within the next couple of months.
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