Yeah, I know, I just said it…

It takes a selfish person to stay poor.. Not be poor but stay poor. Yes, a lot of people tend to think of poor people as kind, and rich people as greedy and selfish, but the truth of the matter is the longer you stay poor, the more selfish you truly are. Let’s think about this before you burn me at the stake for calling you selfish.

So you are poor and struggling and you run out of money right before payday…One paycheck from being homeless as they would say…You think only about yourself and your most immediate family members…How will you eat, how will you pay rent, how will you get to the next payday?

Now occasionally you express your kindness by helping one person here or there, as long as it doesn’t stop you from eating. But really – are you changing the world? NO. For the most part your everyday actions are pretty selfish; thinking about you and your kids. You aren’t thinking about starving people in Africa – after all there are starving people in your own house! Yet rich people are selfish and greedy, right? Some people may give a donation to the causes, but for many people they need a donation themselves.

Now look at people who have more money so they aren’t struggling – Yeah, rich people. Have you ever stopped to think how many diseases their money is curing?…How many people’s lives their money is
saving…Nope, because they are the greedy ones…

My daughter asked me about this one day. She said ‘Mom, why would you say that it takes a selfish person to stay poor?’ I said ‘Okay, think about it for a sec. If you are poor who can you help? If you cannot buy yourself food, who can you help? If you don’t know if you will have a place to live soon, who can you help?
She said ‘no one’. I said ‘exactly’…We live in America, the land where there are one million new Millionaire
households every year…it takes someone who is really all about themselves to stay poor.

Well, what about Mother Teresa? Well Mother Teresa was backed by the Catholic church, who were multi-millionaires, and so really she helped millions of people through money from the Catholic church so really she wasn’t poor…If all she had to work with was a paycheck would she have made the same impact on the world? You can say yes, but the real answer is no. She could help millions because she could afford to spend her time doing that…she wasn’t worried about the money to help them, or how she would eat.. it was all taken care of for her.

The world is waiting for you to make an impact on it. You can’t help anyone if you cannot help yourself, so why don’t you decide today that you will make a greater contribution to mankind?

by Ophelia Nicholson

Recommended:

While we all strive to be debt-free, the reality is that most people in modern society have credit card debt. It happens for many reasons, often beginning slowly and insidiously increasing until we feel we are under a mountain of debt. Perhaps we borrowed for ‘good’ reasons, such as to help with school or moving expenses, or perhaps the expenses were justified so long ago or so often that we honestly don’t remember anymore.

Sometimes we feel we can handle it, and congratulate ourselves for paying more than the minimum every month. The truth is, however, that unless you are paying off your credit card debt IN FULL every month, you are racking up debt – putting your hard-earned, after-tax dollars into someone else’s pocket, causing your original purchases or relief to cost you potentially many times over the original amount over the years. Money that could and should be earning interest FOR you is, instead, a lovely and healthy asset for someone else.

At this point in the debt cycle, many people feel overwhelmed and do one of several crazy things: they begin spending MORE, feeling things are hopeless and why bother worrying about it; they stop caring or get in over their heads and begin missing payments; or they consider bankruptcy.

Warning! All of the above options may feel good in the moment, but all have disastrous effects on your credit rating, which, even if you don’t care about it now, will indeed cause you to feel regret and remorse when the consequences hit home some day in the future. Instead, consider the following to stave off disaster while you re-group and form a proper plan to get yourself through, and hopefully to put yourself firmly on the road to financial health and even independence:

TIP #1: Speak to your banking institution/s. Honesty and open communication is the best policy here, as getting to know a friendly face at your bank can make all the difference in how your accounts are handled. Considering debt consolidation? Start with your bank, for a couple of good reasons: your bank is a known, trusted entity (even if you don’t agree with all their service charges), and may offer you lower rates because of your existing customer status. Also, a loan from a bank actually improves your credit rating, whilst a similar loan from a debt consolidation company can actually have the opposite effect in some cases.

TIP #2: Call your credit card companies, again with the goal of keeping open communication. Speak with as many people as you have to in order to negotiate either a lower interest rate, lower minimum payments for a set time, or some other compromise. Remain calm and professional, and remind them that you wish to continue fulfilling your obligation. You may also ask them for any ideas they may have, such as alternate cards with less frills but an accompanying lower interest rate.

TIP #3: Consider credit counselling, but only from reputable providers. Many companies in this line of business actually take shameful advantage of the desperation of their clients and pull some not-so-funny tricks. Try your bank for referrals of above-board credit counselling – they may even offer in-house help in sorting out your difficulties. You are not the first nor the last to be going through tough economic times, and most banking institutions are deeply concerned as well. Many are making efforts to comfort and help their customers and to ensure both the customers – and the banks themselves – will be around and in healthy financial condition for years to come.

Above all, remember that you are not alone and do not panic. People make strange financial decisions when they are afraid or overwhelmed, and once the air clears they may regret actions they cannot undo.

Your thoughts are very powerful, and can deeply affect your behavior and decisions about all things financial. For an enlightening look at how your mindset affects your finances – and how to improve what is called your ‘financial mindset’ – along with bonus material which deals with keeping your peace of mind during these turbulent times, improving your credit rating and more, you may find the popular ’30 Days to Wealth’ program a valuable tool (now available in instantly downloadable e-book format!).

by Shauna Arthurs

If you are conscious and honest with yourself, challenges occur in your life. Some of these challenges will be small. Others will seem to shake the very foundation of your life and make you wonder why you were ever born. It is at times like the latter that you need tools in your shed to help you weather the storm.

Connect with Spirit/God/the Universe

This is the first and most important tool. Nurturing your connection to a Higher Power will alleviate the feeling of loneliness that often comes when we feel that life is raining on us. When you are solidly grounded in Spirit, you know that life is always on your side despite what it may look like at the moment. This job loss may be the motivation you need in order to start your own business. Maintain your connection with your God and seek comfort and guidance there first in all situations.

Love Yourself

Does this sound a bit like New Age jargon? Well, it’s the second tool you need in your shed or you will most certainly get caught up in the hurricane. This hurricane sometimes looks like the end of a relationship that is completely devastating. The truth is that you are now being given a divine opportunity to love yourself. Until you are able to love yourself, you cannot love or be loved by someone else. This will show up in all of your relationships. The people in our lives are here to show us how we feel about ourselves and sometimes to allow us to use our new tools to exert our new boundaries.

Have a Vision for Your Life

Life is a journey. When you get into your car to drive from Chicago to St. Louis, you have directions and a map in case you need to take a detour. Being on your way to your vision is no different than taking a road trip. You need a clear direction in which to travel and a map in case you need to take a detour. Write your vision down and keep it Someplace where you will see it. Read it often and use it to make your plans and to-do lists. This vision is your map to your future. When you are feeling discouraged, read it and know that that is where you are headed. Detours may be necessary; but not only do you not have to stay off course, you may enjoy the scenery if you realize that this is just a detour. Read your vision out loud. Every word that leaves your mouth is a prayer. God always answers prayers.

Establish a Network of Support

“No man is an island, entire of itself.”

John Donne was completely right in this saying. We are all interconnected and we need to nurture the support that comes with that interconnectedness if we are to thrive. If you find yourself in the middle of a storm, turn to your support network. These are people who love you and want only the best for you. They will be your shoulder to cry on and a resource when you’re not thinking clearly. If you do not currently have a strong support system, seek one by hiring a coach, speaking with your pastor, starting a mastermind group or joining other groups that are of interest. The key is not to isolate yourself or think that you have to do it all alone. You are eternally connected to all life and it is to your advantage to utilize that connection.

Be Willing to Let Go and Embrace Change

When your life seems to be falling apart, realize that change is inevitable and surrender to it. The journey will be much more pleasant if you aren’t dragged along kicking and screaming the entire way. Focus on what’s good in your life and before you know it, the storm is over and there’s a beautiful rainbow waiting for you.

Life Has Challenges

This is one of the purposes for incarnation. Your job is to weather the storm with as little pain as possible. Ground yourself in your spirituality as a protective measure. Harbor tremendous love for yourself and see that the storms are of a lower intensity. Maintain your vision and stay on course through even the most treacherous turmoil. Rally your support for extra protection and damage control. Finally, be willing to embrace change and allow things to fall away if necessary. Mourn the loss and move on as there are always better things in store for you. If you open your hands and let go, there’s room for you to receive.

by LaKeitha Simmons

After nine years, my husband, who is admittedly the one who is the source of the pain in our relationship, says to me, ‘I think we should separate.’

I must tell you that he has impeccable timing. I am four months pregnant with our second child. You read that correctly; our second child. My daughter is 17 months old and has only stopped nursing because I am no longer producing milk as I grow my second child. I am still pursuing my BA and have not worked in over a year. To say that our financial state is not good would be an understatement. Take all of this into account and he wants to separate. I will be a single mother with two children. Beautiful.

I must tell you that I did not originally have this peachy an attitude about the whole situation. I was angrier than I ever thought possible. How could he do this to me!?! I deserve better than this! His life should be falling apart, not mine. Then, I had a pity party complete with, ‘Woe is me. What am I going to do? How will we survive? Who will want me now? Who is going to want to raise some other man’s children?’ Oh it was a BIG party. I invited every victim mentality I knew.

One day, a friend asked me to examine this situation for the good in it. ‘Well, there has to be some good here’, I thought. Nothing that ever happens is all bad. So, I sat down to create my list of good things and found myself in deep detached thought about the whole situation. I looked at myself and the situation without interference from my fragile emotional attachments and was surprised by what I found, though I shouldn’t have been.

For nine years, I have continually and consistently been hyper vigilant about my feelings in reference to this particular relationship. I was constantly looking for the next wrong and the next pain that he would cause for me. Time and time again, I found exactly what I was looking for. Yes, there were times when he was completely innocent and I was only slightly relieved at these times as I knew that there would be a new offense. Lo and behold, there always was.

What I came to realize is that I brought all of this upon myself. No, I’m not saying that my husband is totally innocent in this situation. However, with a different attitude, maybe he would have been heaping this pain upon someone else and I would have been enjoying the love and respect that I so rightly deserve.

Our thoughts and words create our realities. As I was snooping through his various accounts and regaling all of my friends and anyone else who would listen with his latest wrong, I was simply creating more of that in my life for myself. Each word we speak is a prayer. Here I was offering prayers of catching him in all of his indiscretions.

I thought my life was falling apart. After much introspection and guidance, I have realized that my prayers were actually being answered. I wanted out of this painful situation and I talked and thought about how much I wanted out and how he has done me wrong daily. I didn’t have any idea or specific demands about how I wanted this to happen so God answered my prayer in the way He saw fit.

I now rest in the knowledge that my life is not falling apart but coming together and that prayers are always answered. Maybe you’ve just lost a job, your car or the love of your life. Go ahead and mourn your loss. Then, ask yourself, “Is my life falling apart or are my prayers being answered?”

by LaKeitha Simmons

Recommended Book

Use this insightful book as a tool for helping you recognize what is really going on around you as well as to change how you see things and how you interact with others – for the better!

Loving What IS by Byron Katie

I realized that a major reason why people are broke is because it’s wayyyyy more fun…Yeah I said it…it’s more fun.

I mean really, when you have money you already know the outcome; the outcome is whatever you want it to be…really not much creative effort there.What can I create if I already know what I will get? It’s like playing the lotto and knowing you will win…what’s the fun in that? The fun in playing the lotto is not so much whether you win or lose but how you feel and the emotions that flow over you from the point where you decide to buy a ticket until the drawing takes place. The fun is to buy the ticket, hope you will win, think about all the wonderful things you will do with the money and sit in front of the TV with your heart in your hands as the numbers roll…the anticipation, the excitement…the drama. Will I win or not?…stay tuned to find out.

I realized that one of the reasons people are and remain poor is that it makes them feel alive. This is the key to a lot of life…This is the key to your entire life!

Yeah we’ve all heard that the key to life and what people will do anything for is to survive, but if you break down survival what is it? – Knowing and realizing that you are ALIVE…

How do we know that we are alive when we feel that we basically live pretty boring lives? Well enter stage right our mini dramas that constantly remind us that we are alive. Throughout history man has struggled to survive…animals trying to kill us and we had to go out to hunt…but now fast forward several hundred years and most of us live away from deadly creatures, and the only hunting we do is in our grocery aisles, and so we have had to be a little more creative. We no longer have the stories to tell of how we escaped a deadly tiger and killed it for food so what’s left?…For us to create these little story lines that show how difficult our life truly is and how we have conquered it.

It’s more fun to NOT know how you will survive for the next week; it’s more fun to wonder where the money will come from to buy gas, pay the rent and then to figure out ‘Hey, I’ve got a solution!’ It’s more fun to be in pain and anguish because you cannot afford something…Most people believe that having money is boring.

What do rich people do all day?…shop, lunch and then spend the rest of their life bored silly…

Don’t believe me?…Let’s analyse this: When you are broke and you need $40 to buy gas you now have to think ‘How will I get to work with no gas? How will I get money to buy gas?’

There is a problem, and you can now become your own superhero, saving the day by figuring out ‘Hey, I’ll borrow some money from my friend Jo Doe to solve the problem.’

‘I’m a genius’ you think, then you have to go ask Jo and then wait for an answer, then you have back-up plans in case Jo says no…You feel embarrassed to borrow gas money, pain that you can’t afford the gas, anxiety about whether you will get the money, fear about running out of gas.

Let’s look at another situation. Your rent is due…you have no money. You don’t answer your phone – can’t risk the landlord getting you on the phone…you hear footsteps…’Oh my god maybe he’s coming!’ You are filled with paralyzing fear, anxiety, dread…what if we get put out on the street, we will have no place to sleep…everyone will know I am broke…Loads of emotions to keep reminding you how alive you truly are…

…but when you have money, the problem is already solved, isn’t it? Have no gas? Go to the gas station, pull out your wallet and pay for the gas. No problem! No emotion. Rent due? Write a check, pay the landlord. No emotion, no problems. No paid advertisers (we will come to that in a minute). No struggle, no solution to find…pretty darn boring don’t you think?

Most of us have spent 99% of our lives fixing problems, finding solutions. We can’t let a simple thing like being rich mess with a good thing, now can we?! You keep wanting to find solutions to show the creative genius that is you. After all, you must be alive or else you couldn’t have lived through no money for groceries. You couldn’t have lived through the gas drama and just like a soap opera…you never know what will happen next, so stay tuned for tomorrow’s show to see if you will have enough food, money, clothes, gas or if you’ll even survive…

by Ophelia Nicholson

One of the most amazing things about being human is that every dream or creation leads us to want to dream bigger, or to create a bigger dream than the ones we had before.

One of the main reasons why your life looks the way it does right now is YOU WEREN’T SPECIFIC ENOUGH.

Thought you’d never have to hear that again, right? And so we got a version of what we wanted, but it wasn’t the complete version. See, we spend a lot of time looking at what we don’t want, but very little being very specific about what we do want. I remember one day I wrote what my perfect guy looked like; I thought I wrote everything … everything that was, except his personality. Well within 3 days the guy matching my description showed up, with a personality I couldn’t stand!

My prosperity partners and I were doing a project once (and I have to tell you it’s the hardest thing waiting for 3 other people’s opinions!) At one point during the project there were objections about different things; one was about the color we were using for the project, for example. For the first time I truly understood how GOD/UNIVERSE operated ~ minus my frustration of course ~ but I kept thinking ‘If you just tell me what color you want I’ll make it happen. I don’t care, I want whatever you want, but you have to know what you want.’ You can’t just say ‘I don’t like the red balloons’, well what color balloons do you want?

Days, weeks, months pass and no answer comes.

Well, I can’t read minds people and neither can the Universe/GOD. The universe/GOD will give you exactly what you want every single time…IF you just tell it/him what you want. But if you give a general description then that’s what you get; something fitting that general description.

Another reason your lives are the way they are is because we forget the dreams we put into creation. As time goes by, you forget that last week you wanted something…3 years ago you wanted something else…and when you add the fact that you weren’t specific in the first place, it’s easy to see that when it comes into your life 3 or 4 years down the line you don’t even recognize it. You treat it as some random thing happening to you.

Ever see someone wanting a Red car but not saying ‘I want a red car that runs smoothly and is reliable’? Well then they get the red car, but it breaks down every day and they say ‘This isn’t what I wanted!’ Or someone with a spouse; they wanted this person at one point. But now it’s more like ‘This isn’t what I wanted!’ Maybe they forgot to ask for someone who was faithful, or for someone who had the same values as they did.

Did you ever truly know what you wanted? Did you ever write it out, or were you too busy saying ‘I don’t want to be single anymore. I want a spouse!’? ‘I don’t want to be broke anymore; I want to have more money!’

News flash: a penny is more money.

So when the Universe sent you that one penny laying on the floor it fulfilled your wishes. ‘That’s not what I meant’ you say.

Remember, the Universe/God can’t read minds. You never said how much. So maybe you didn’t know how much you wanted, or even better you didn’t want to decide because if you did, you may not get as much as you could get, right? Well, ‘more money’ is very general, so it may not be quite what you had in mind by the time it gets here.

How about the job that you have? Did you think about describing your coworkers? How about the boss you wanted? Nope, you didn’t…because you don’t really believe you have any control.

The next reason is YOU KEEP CHANGING YOUR MIND. How many times have you changed your mind in the last hour, or the last year? We change our minds all the time, constantly rearranging and changing and readjusting the thought, and so by the time it gets here it’s virtually unrecognizable.

This is excerpted from the e-book “You are Already Living the Life of Your Dreams” by Ophelia Nicholson.**

**Get this book as a bonus when you buy ‘30 Days to Wealth’ today!

What if it wasn’t you?…

What if your best friend, or your sister or brother…maybe even your neighbor or someone you knew in high school, had an IDEA…

They put it out there in the business world or on the internet, and before long they had money rolling in…FLOWING as if from a gigantic waterfall, in fact…

This person, who you know to be ‘normal’, is suddenly getting a ton of attention, and showers of compliments and maybe even fantastic media coverage. Maybe one day you are taking the kids to Florida with the tiniest bit of money you’ve been able to save, or possibly using credit…and at the airport you see this PERSON, tanned and looking
wealthy, getting into their private jet…glamourous, wealthy, HAPPY!

How do you feel, really? Jealous? Resentful? Maybe even angry and wondering why everyone thinks they are so great? Could you really dig into this visualization and come up with some pretty strong, negative feelings?

Well, if you can, then you still have some work to do on your prosperity mentality/wealth consciousness. This is true for two major reasons:

1. Prosperity and wellbeing are like an ocean…they are for everyone, not just a ’special’ few. Until we want for others what we want for ourselves; until we encourage others to follow their dreams just as much as we imagine following our own, then we are blocking ourselves from our own prosperity and abundance.
2. What we think of others who are prosperous is the same thing we secretly worry about others thinking about us…‘What if they hate me? My friends might resent me and talk behind my back?’…etc. etc..

A wise woman once wrote ‘It is none of your business what other people think about you.’ When you are focused on what others may think, you are not focusing on the one person that matters in your life – YOU.

You could not control others’ opinions even if you wanted to, so stop trying and get on with the fun of creating your life exactly how you want it to be. As you do so, you can shine like a light showing what
is possible, and allow others to interpret it according to their own levels of understanding…that is what will happen inevitably, anyway.

Choose what you want from the examples around you rather than resenting them, and go CREATE YOUR DREAMS!

by Shauna Arthurs