The Secret Is Wags

Remember the 1985 Dire Straits song, “Money For Nothing”?  The song’s repetitive stream of conscious lyrics didn’t do much for me, but a line from the song popped into my head yesterday:  “Now that ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it.”

On our anniversary, Tim and I talked a lot about money identities and working for money vs. aligning for money.  The line from that song kind of sums up the conclusions we reached.

For the week leading up to Tim’s and my anniversary, I’d been thinking a lot about Greg’s new money magnet status. Having reached a conclusion similar to mine—that you must have the identity of the person you want to be in order to become that person, Greg took on his new identity of a favored, successful businessman, and his “what is” reality has been matching that identity ever since. (more…)

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I never thought I’d say this, but … I’m grateful that I have very little money.

Okay, let me clarify that.

I’m not grateful for ALL aspects of having very little money.  However, one aspect of it is serving me quite well right now.  (And I’m all about finding the positive aspects of everything these days, so I’m quite happy to find this one.)

The positive aspect of having very little money is that I can’t possibly waste it on things I don’t need.

When you’re watching every penny with an intent to spend only on things you deem absolutely necessary, you have a different perspective on money than when you have plenty and/or you have credit cards to use.  This financial constriction may seem like a limitation (and it fact, it did to me for a very long time), but I’m discovering that it also offers a powerful form of freedom.

Four years ago, when I was trying to build an online business, I was fanatical about finding as much information on internet marketing as I could.  I scoured the web for insights into website building, sales letters, getting traffic to sites.  I joined dozens of e-mail lists.  And I bought thousands of dollars worth of training systems and e-books.

It seemed like every other week or so, I stumbled upon some marketing expert’s “bootcamp” or “exclusive membership” or “A-list training” or “must have e-book” that promised to give me that missing piece of my success puzzle.  Since I had money in the bank at the time, I bought much of what I came across.

Obviously, these great and expensive resources weren’t all that great.  I never managed to achieve the success they promised.

As I said in the I’d Rather Believe In Santa Claus post, I translated my inability to create the online empire all these books and training programs promised as a belief in my failure.  I figured if all these other people were making lots of money using this information, and I wasn’t, it meant I was doing something terribly wrong.  That’s when I walked away from the internet.

Now I’m back in it again.  I have three blogs (the other two are The Joyful Springer and Dogging the Words, if you’re interested), and I’m a couple weeks away from launching my revised e-book/audio package.

I’ve been doing a little bit of networking with other bloggers and online marketers, and I’ve begun to hear the siren call of bootcamps and training programs again.

But … I can’t afford them!  At all.  Period.  No way.

Not unless I want to stop feeding Ducky or something. For the record, she’s not in favor of that option.

A month ago, when I first started seeing expert training for bloggers and networkers, I was frustrated that I couldn’t afford it.  Then, thanks to a deliberate shift in focus onto thought that felt better, the law of attraction brought me this insight:

All Those Experts Knew As Little As I Did When They Started

The other night, I read a report by a blogger who started his blog in 2008 and now has 150,000 subscribers and makes a substantial living with his blog.  I was happy to see much of what he did is what I’ve begun to do or plan to do.  At the end of his report, he pitched his “A-list Bootcamp” for serious bloggers.  I felt that longing well up again.

But it didn’t bubble up far before my intention to find good feeling thoughts brought my aha moment.  It went like this:

“Wait a second.  He admits that when he started, he knew nothing about what he was doing.  He tried a little of this and a little of that, and he kept tweaking until it fell into place.  He started with one thing—enjoyment.  He loved blogging.  That love led him to what worked for him.  So why do I care what worked for him?  Why don’t I start with my own enjoyment (and I do very much enjoy writing this blog and The Joyful Springer especially (LOVE all things dog in case you haven’t noticed))?  Why don’t I let that enjoyment put me in alignment?  And then why don’t I let the universe orchestrate how it will unfold for me?  Why don’t I just take inspired action that makes sense to me instead of working my butt off and depleting my financial resources trying to do what worked for someone else?  Why don’t I manifest my own path instead of trying to stay on someone else’s manifested path?”

If I had enough money to spend on training programs, I’d be diving down the same rabbit holes I got stuck in four years ago.  My lack of money has kept me above ground and sane (relatively).

How cool is that?

And now that I’ve learned that powerful lesson, I’m open to having more money … that Ducky thinks I should use to buy more dog treats.

Are you giving your power away to someone who claims they know the “right” way to do something?  Are you tossing away money you could use on dog treats or something better?

Sometimes having money limits us as much as not having money does.

I love comments and welcome yours.  To leave a comment, click on the “comments” link (it will say “No comments or “1 comment” or more) at the end of the tags in “Posted in” at the end of this post.

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Twice a week, Tim goes to a nearby mini-mart and gets his lottery tickets. Notice I didn’t say he “buys” them because he hasn’t bought a ticket in weeks. He wins between $5 and $10 or more dollars every set of drawings and he uses the winnings to get the next batch of tickets.

Thursday, he was in the mini-mart, and the owner, with whom he’s become friendly, said, “Tim, you just keep winning!” Our state just got Powerball in January, and since Tim bought $2 worth of tickets the first drawing, he’s won every time. The store’s owner said she knows of only a couple other people who have won anything at all (even $1) on Powerball, and Tim wins every drawing!

Until a couple weeks ago, I was quite aware that he hasn’t won the big one yet (the one he KNOWS he’s going to win and in fact already feels like he’s won). But when I became more aware of my point of attraction, I shifted to start paying attention to how often he wins period.

Instead of looking at winning a lot, I started looking at winning. Just winning.

Yesterday, I came across a story about a woman named Renee Green from Bellevue, Washington. A week ago, she donated her entire tax refund to the Haiti fund. This week, she won $50,000 on a lottery scratch ticket.

This woman reminds me of Tim. We don’t have a tax refund to donate, but this woman’s donation shows that she had trust in the universe’s never ending stream of abundance. She felt no need to hang onto her $700 because she knew more was coming.

This is how Tim feels. He has no concerns about our apparent lack of funds because he knows more is coming. It’s nice to be married someone who has such a point of attraction (vibrational match) with abundance.

I’ve read many blog posts, articles, and other law of attraction materials chastising people for believing that they can attract a lottery win into their lives. The going belief seems to be that you can attract jobs and business opportunities and other career-oriented sources of money but not lottery wins. This has always baffled me. Why does money HAVE to come from jobs and career?

Abraham-Hicks address this in their book, Money and the Law of Attraction. They say that the reason most people only get money from jobs is because they THINK they can only get money from jobs and business.

But, Abraham-Hicks reminds us:

“We want you to hear – anything that you want – there is nothing off-limit. ANYTHING THAT YOU WANT !! All you got to do is conjure it until the conjured image dominates your vibration. And when the conjured image that pleases you dominates your vibration, everything in the universe will shift.  EVERYTHING will shift in order to help you to achieve the manifestation of this that you’ve conjured. IT IS LAW, it absolutely HAS to be. In fact, it is being in every moment of your experience. Everything that you are living is the perfect reflection of your vibrational countenance.”

So I’m excited about watching Tim keep winning and winning and winning. I’m putting my attention on the part I like, the winning. The amount right now is irrelevant. Tim has already won millions in his thoughts.

Even as he works in his office here in our home, in his mind, he is in Oregon now, living on our ocean-view acreage. He’s building virtual furniture in his virtual shop. He drives a virtual truck and plays virtual golf. He takes me on virtual trips in our virtual RV and gives big chunks of virtual money to our friends and to total strangers. He leaves virtual 50 % tips to food servers and spends time on the Internet looking for gifts he virtually buys for me (am I a lucky woman, or what?).

Bless my husband for not letting me pull him out of his virtual world when I was obsessing over what is. Tim is a winning guy. Who knows what he’ll win next.

To leave a comment, click on the “comments” link (it will say “No comments or “1 comment” or more) at the end of the tags in “Posted in” at the end of this post.

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Calvin Coolidge said, “If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.”

For the last several months, I’ve been staring down the road at a whole passel of financial troubles. These troubles are HUGE and UGLY and TERRIFYING and they have nasty names like Run Out Of Money and Lose My House and Get A Job I Hate.

These troubles put off a stink that makes me feel nauseated. They suck oxygen from the air so it’s hard for me to breathe. They make such a racket, a cacophony of blackboard scratching type sounds in my head, that I find it hard to focus on anything else.

But these troubles are DOWN THE ROAD. They’re not here, not right in front of me.

But I’ve been calling them to me. I’ve been whistling at them with my thoughts. Every time I focus on them, I’m tossing a rope down the road, lassoing those nasty troubles and yanking them toward me.

Why would I want to do that?

I don’t. So I’m stopping.

In the last couple days of finding things that are good in my now, I’ve noticed that where I’m standing on the road TODAY is pretty nice. This spot in the road has lovely trees that sway in the breeze. It’s touched by gentle sunshine and sprinkled with fresh rain. It’s a spot where my dog, Ducky, can play with her toys, and my husband can tell me he loves me. It’s a place where I can have a glass of red wine by the fire, a place where I can laugh, and I place where I can be intrigued and inspired.

I’ve noticed that when I look at where I am today, I don’t notice the troubles. No nasty smell. No oxygen depletion. No sound in my head.

It’s peaceful here in the now of today.

THIS is where I am. All is well.

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In Money, and the Law of Attraction—Learning to Attract Wealth, Health & Happiness, Jerry Hicks says that he often hears people talk about wanting to win a lottery. Abraham’s response to this is, “If their expectation were in a place that would allow it, then that could be a way for money to come to them. But most know the odds against that, and so their expectation for winning the lottery is not in a powerful place….”

For two and half years, Tim has been more than expecting to win a lottery. He KNOWS he will. He has an absolutely unshakable knowing that he has a big lottery win in his vibrational escrow.

When people mention the odds to him, he looks at them calmly and says, “The odds are irrelevant. It’s about my vibrational alignment.”

Throughout the last few  months when I’ve been steadfastly putting my attention on what I don’t want (to run out of money), Tim has been calmly, contentedly going through his days acting as relaxed as a person with all the money he needs in the bank.

Yes, he gets annoyed from time to time. He gets caught up in the what is of little things like computer problems or broken household appliances or Ducky’s enthusiastic, mischievous puppyhood. But most of the time, he’s cool.

So am I happy about him being happy?

Why wouldn’t I be?

Well …..

I have this little problem with his happiness.

I’ve been gnawing at this problem for several months now. It doesn’t taste very good.

My problem is this:

If Tim KNOWS he’s going to win a big lottery and he feels good, isn’t he in the Vortex, aligned with his nonphysical self? And if he is in the Vortex, aligned with his nonphysical self, how did he manage to manifest all of our debt and our financial mess?

It makes no sense to me that someone who feels like a rich lottery winner would be attracting what he’s attracted.

Drives me nuts.

Whenever I start finding a feel good place, reaching for thoughts that make me feel better and better and better, this one nagging thought careens through my good thoughts, blasting them aside like a heavy bowling ball plowing into the pins: “But if feeling good is how you bring your desires into your life, why isn’t Tim closer to what he wants?”

Every week or two, I ask him, “Are you SURE you feel as good as you say you do?”

My wonderful husband … he heaves a little sigh, just to acknowledge that we’ve been here before and he doesn’t like it here very much, and he says, “I’m sure.”

“But if you feel so good, why are we rich?” I fling at him.

“I feel rich,” he says. “And our riches are coming.”

Yes, I do see what I’m doing. I’m taking stock of where we are, which is what Abraham-Hicks says NOT to do.

But … they also say that you can tell how aligned you are by what’s coming into your life.

I’m baffled by what seems to me to be a contradiction. Aren’t you taking stock when you notice what’s coming into your life (or not coming)?

So last night, I was bugging Tim with our bi-weekly “Are you sure…” conversation, and this thought popped into my head: “I haven’t stuck with tenaciously finding reasons to feel good because I harbor doubts that doing so will bring what I desire into my life. How silly is that? Why not tenaciously feel good just because it feels good and see what happens? Why not ignore what Tim is doing (I’ve resolved to do this before but didn’t stick to the resolve)?”

This thought felt very good. So that’s what I’m doing.

When my thoughts turn to why Tim hasn’t won yet, I can feel the shift in my energy. My new project (which I think I’m going to chew on even more than my old problem) is to turn it back to finding a reason to feel good.

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Today’s Abraham-Hicks quote is:

“It’s not your work to make anything happen. It’s your work to dream it and let it happen. Law of Attraction will make it happen. In your joy, you create something, and then you maintain your vibrational harmony with it, and the Universe must find a way to bring it about. That’s the promise of Law of Attraction.”

I’m attempting to find my vibrational harmony with what I want, and part of that process is being sure that I’m on “the path of least resistance.”

The path of least resistance, according to Abraham-Hicks, is the course of action that feels best.

Resistance is what keeps us from having what we want; it’s a vibration that doesn’t match with our desires. It’s those negative feelings that line up with things we don’t want.

When we’re on the path of least resistance, we’re aligned with our nonphysical self, and we’re moving toward what we want. Our vibration matches our desires so the law of attraction can bring those desires to us.

Sometimes, it’s easy to decide what we need to do. One choice feels awkward and uncomfortable, and the other choice makes our heart sing.

Most choices, though, aren’t so clear cut.

In my case, for instance, all my choices suck … or at least that’s how it feels to me.

For over 20 years, I have been focused on living a life of creative and financial freedom. I want to be an author. That’s the work I want to do. I don’t care if that work brings me money or if money comes in some other enjoyable way so I can spend my time writing, but I want to have the freedom to fill my days with writing.

And I want those days to have a leisurely flow to them.

My ideal day goes something like this: I wake up naturally between 7:30 and 8:30. I get up and take a long walk with my dog. I come home and work out. I shower. I have a little snack, and I sit down to write, sometime between 11 and 12. I write until about 6 and stop for the day. I spend my evenings drawing, singing, playing the piano, watching movies, training my dog, playing games and spending time with my husband.

Yes, I know this isn’t how society tells us we should spend our days, but there it is.

For many years, this was how I spent my days.

Then something went wrong. Though I sold three books to large publishers and made some money with my writing, it wasn’t enough to support me. My other financial resources started running out. I tried to sell more books and ended up having terribly negative experiences with agents, editors, publishers, and PR people.

Since I was getting the sense I couldn’t support myself with my writing, Tim and I turned to the internet. We spent the next two years attempting to build a profitable internet business and network marketing business.

At the time of these decisions, I’d kind of forgotten about the law of attraction (even though I did know about it) and the teachings of Abraham-Hicks. I wasn’t thinking in terms of paths of least resistance. Still, I was trying to follow my inner guidance.

Even so, we failed miserably.

I hated doing internet and network marketing. I truly despised it. I kept trying to tell myself to like it. I’d remind myself of the income potential and tell myself, “At least you’re writing” (because I was doing newsletters, articles, and e-books), but I knew I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do.

So I stopped. I took a leap of faith. Even though we were running on financial fumes, I started writing screenplays. I was so excited about the process (“in your joy, you create something”). I was sure I’d succeed. Besides, Tim had decided he was going to win a lottery. He took Abraham’s “it’s as easy to create a castle as it is a button” to heart. He knew he was a lottery winner.

But I didn’t succeed, and he didn’t win.

Then I read Twilight by Stephanie Myer. With all due respect to Myer, I know I write as well or better than she does. I knew I could write a great YA book. So I came up with what I thought was a great, unique plot line, wrote a manuscript and the synopses of all four books in the planned series.

I was sure I’d have it sold by now.

Not only hasn’t it been sold but the agent who was going to represent it decided (after getting me to rewrite it to address issues she had with it) it “wasn’t for her.”

And now we’re out of money.

So in the last couple months, I’ve been doing all this stuff to try and get money.

And I don’t like any of it.

So now, what is my path of least resistance?

We have 3 ½ months of money and no income at the moment.

Do I trust that money will come from someplace and just keep submitting my manuscript and doing things I love and not worry about generating an income in any logical way?

That was my plan at the beginning of this year. I was going to find ways to feel good and trust that the money would come.

Then friends started suggesting ways to bring in money: do editing for pay, look for freelance writing work, go out and get a job at McDonald’s.

I decided that made sense (it didn’t feel good, but it made logical sense). So for 6 weeks, I’ve been trying to get a freelance gig that pays something other than pennies per hour. I’ve submitted many proposals and haven’t landed a gig.

So I dropped my coaching rates really low and sent a promotion to people on my writing tips mailing list. Seven people decided to take me up on it. It helped me get some money, which is great.

But here’s the problem.

I really don’t enjoy writing coaching.

I have a couple clients I enjoy (one of you knows who you are ), but most of the coaching work I do is very tough work and I have to make myself do it.

Then there are the other avenues Tim and I are exploring. I don’t like them either.

We are submitting my manuscript, but so far, we’re just getting rejections. The submission process is slow (see how I’m aligning with what I don’t want??)

I find myself facing many paths of resistance:

1. Don’t do anything to create an income; trust that I will sell a book in time (the odds of that are something akin to winning a lottery).

2. Don’t do anything to create an income; trust that Tim will win the lottery as he vehemently claims he will.

3. Pursue one of 3 paths I’ve thought of so far to bring in money, none of which make me feel good at all.

None of these paths feel good. The first two sound good, but I have too much fear that what I want won’t happen in time, and so I know that’s not a place of alignment.

The last path has the potential for income, but at what price? Me spending my days doing things I don’t want to do?

As Abraham says, you can’t put a smiley face on top of an empty gas gauge and expect to be okay. Pretending doesn’t work. I can’t make myself feel happy about doing things I truly don’t want to do.

Anyone have any words of wisdom to share? Any experience with taking the non-action path and lining up with what you want so the universe brings it to you? Any experience with finding a way to feel good about something you currently feel lousy about?

I’d like to attract some ideas that can help me find a path of least resistance. I just can’t seem to get myself to skip gaily down any of the paths that lay before me now.

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One more bit of wisdom from my friend, Melanie, the distance healer:

When she and I spoke the other day, she told me she thought much of our problems in manifesting what we want lay in our desire to make things unfold in a specific way.  In other words, we try and manhandle the details.

We want to orchestrate how things unfold down to the nitty-gritty minutia of it all.  Author Neville, who wrote The Neville Reader, a law of attraction primer that was way ahead of The Secret, said that our job is to decide what we want and then feel as if it has already happened.

It’s that simple.  We just need to live FROM what we want, not INTO what we want. We get hung up, he said, when we try and figure out how it’s all going to come together.

We are not responsible for the details.  That’s the Universe’s job.  All we have to do is hold a vision of what we want and stay in alignment with our inner being, our Nonphysical self, so we can vibrate on a match with our desire.

This is what I’ve failed to do for some time.  I’ve gotten caught up in the details.

I want to feel financial freedom, creative success, joy, and security.  Instead of just finding ways to feel those things now, I’ve been trying to figure out how to get them, and I’ve been glomming onto Tim’s vision of winning the lottery and agonizing over it.  Or I’ve been deciding the way to get money is with freelancing and then agonizing over it.

No more.

I am delighted by the money I currently have.  I am enjoying my days as they are.  And I want to expand on that and feel riches and joy.

It can come to me in whatever way is best for me.

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Last weekend, Tim and I watched the movie, Shallow Hal.  It so inspired me to change how I was seeing the world that I decided to start a Feel Good Helpers page to talk about the movies and other media that can help us feel good.

I won’t repeat the plot of the movie here, but the gist of it is that Hal saw a beautiful girl where other people saw a fat girl.  When he fell in love because of what he saw, his life was transformed into what he wanted it to be.

I realized that seeing abundance is exactly the same as seeing beauty.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s really there or not.  If you see it, you feel different.  And if you feel different, you’ll vibrate different.  And if you vibrate different, by the law of attraction, you’ll attract different things into your life … abundant things.

I’ve decided to see MONEY:  all the ways my life reflects financial abundance instead of looking at the ways that it doesn’t.

Sure I have debt.  Sure I get creditor phone calls.  Sure I have dwindling resources.  Yadda, yadda, yadda.  NI!

But I have a wonderful home.  I have beautiful things to look at.  I have a wonderful Springer Spaniel.  I have two cars.  I have appliances that do the things I need them to do.  I have clothing.  I can buy groceries.  I can pay my bills right now.

What will happen if I keep my attention on this evidence of financial abundance instead of the “reality” of lack?

I don’t know.  But I’m going to find out.

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I’m done messing around.  I’ve been flipping from feeling good to feeling lousy like a ping-pong ball batted back and forth by a manic player on PCP.

ENOUGH!

I made a decision today, one I’m going to STICK with!

I am going to feel good!  And I’m going to feel good no matter what it takes!  If it takes brownies, so be it.  Pizza?  So be it.  Foot rubs (with my husband’s cooperation, J)?  So be it.  Whatever it takes.

I’m going to feel good while I’m doing things I’d prefer not to be doing.  I’m going to find a good attitude about doing those things.

And it starts today.

Excuse me for crowing a little here, but I’m VERY proud of myself.  For over a week, I’ve been agonizing over going after freelancing work.  I’ve tried to look over the material required to take a test for one of the sites, and every time I did, I wanted to take a nap.

Today, I took the test and got 100%.  I also took 5 other skills tests and scored well.  I created a freelancing profile, a page of testimonials, and filled in my work history and educational information.

I haven’t started bidding on jobs yet, but I’m going to as soon as I get a few more samples of my work in my portfolio.

And here’s the fun part—I didn’t mind doing this work today.

This morning, on our walk, Tim and I talked about how to approach the next few weeks.  I suggested that we talk to each other as if we’ve already won the lottery.  We’ve been way too “real” about our lives, focusing too much on what is instead of what we want.  It’s time to get unreal.  We are lottery winners, excited about what’s coming because we’ve won.

So how do we go after freelance jobs and feel like lottery winners?

Tim’s doing it by turning his work into a game.

I’m doing it by turning my work into a challenge, a way to grow as a person.

Even as a lottery winner, I want to continue to grow and learn; so that feels good.

And look at the law of attraction in action on this.  Right after I found relief and felt SO MUCH BETTER, Tim went to the bank and came back and announced that our accounts are in better shape than we thought.  Instead of being down to two months of funds, we have three.  Still not ideal, mind you, but three months is WAY better than two.  A lot can happen in three months.  I can still get a book contract in that amount of time.  And in the meantime, I can start earning money as a freelancer.

Abraham says you can feel the relief when you turn toward your nonphysical self, turning downstream, entering the Vortex of the universal energy source, when you get ALIGNED!  And I can feel it.  It’s a surge of energy.  A lightening of being.  It feels great.

So here I am being unreal.  I’m a lottery winner.  All is well.  And just for jollies, I’m seeing what the freelancing world is like.  It feels so good.  Which is the name of the game.

Will feeling good bring me the financial freedom I want?

I can’t wait to find out.

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Today’s Abraham-Hicks quote was:

“Offer a vibration that matches your desire rather than offering a vibration that keeps matching what-is.”

What does this mean?  You have to feel like you have what you want.

I want to be financially free.  I want a relaxed life where I can kick back and have fun whenever I want.  Who doesn’t want this?

So I punted today.  No work.  Not even a sniff at it.  I slept in.  I read.  I played with my dog.  I made brownies.  And now I’m getting ready for company—our friends are coming over to play cards.  They’re bringing pizza—my favorite food.

My desire is to have a life in which I can enjoy friends whenever I want without having to worry about money or work.  I desire to have a life in which I can eat pizza whenever I want without having to worry about calories, fat grams, or money.

So tonight, I’m playing.  I’m living, if for a few hours, in the life I want to live.

I’m offering a vibration of fun.

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