part0012

No one can anoint and deem you prosperous, except yourself! Understand that there is no one benchmark for abundance and prosperity. Give up the notion today that you need a particular sum of money to feel rich or wealthy. Don’t fall into the same trap as I did many years ago, when I thought that I needed to have at least ten million dollars to be rich and happy! The ten million dollars figure was arbitrary, pulled right out of thin air! Any expectation you have right now about how much your income or net worth should be is probably pulled right out of thin air also! There is no logical basis for why it should be that amount before you can feel better about yourself. You can feel good about yourself starting right now.

The most empowering thing you can do with regards to your personal finances it to set your own standards, and give up any external benchmarks or expectations. What do you think all of the hidden rich have in common? They have all set their own standards and lived comfortably within those standards. They are not concerned with what the world is making, or what the world thinks is the “right” amount of money to make. There is no “right” amount, and therefore the dollar value itself really means nothing! I have seen individuals who enjoyed a fabulous life on three thousand dollars a month, and I have seen individuals struggling with a five-figure monthly salary! What is the difference? The former have removed any expectations about what their monthly income should be. They perceive the $3000 to be abundant and more than enough. The latter who earn a five-figure salary are probably complaining that they should be earning even more! They have set up negative expectations for themselves, and hence a needless struggle that is difficult to win.

In the course of talking to individuals from all walks of life over the years, I have come to realize that much of their misery about money came from their expectations of it, which were often derived from external sources. It bears repeating that none of these “external” sources are authoritative or correct. What works, is what works for you. I have a friend who works as a medical doctor, who is constantly under tremendous stress over his finances. You can be sure he earns a good income by most standards as a medical doctor (although standards do not matter), but I was surprised when speaking to him that he felt absolutely lousy about himself! He felt bad because he was obsessed over the “outer-directed” actions he should take to grow his money. He spent so much time moving his money from one investment to another, from one stock to another, and monitoring his investments such that any drop in his portfolio value caused a corresponding drop in his mood! Now based on what you know about Universal principles, do you think he would be in a conducive state for manifesting more money? I doubt so, and he could even lose all his money if he continues immersing himself in this inner state. How many times have you seen individuals who guarded every cent ever so tightly, lose everything overnight to a bad investment decision or even a crook? We hear about stories like this so frequently in the media, and a student of these spiritual principles should know that nothing ever happens by accident.

You can start today. Decide now what your standards are going to be and adhere to them. Ignore everything else. Standards are different from “expectations” we have talked about earlier. Standards are your own definitions of what makes a good life according to you . Only you can decide, and your opinion is all that matters. One of the mistakes I made was to rely on other people to decide my own standards for financial well-being. How absurd is that! Relying on other people to decide how you should spend your money, what you should buy and how much money is enough for you? Those people are not even going to be leading your lives for you!

The next exercise is extremely fun and enlightening to do. As always, life seeks to express itself creatively so define your financial well-being in terms of self expression and leading a full life. Let me share with you my own version of what a picture of financial well-being looks like to me. Yours will differ based on your own tastes and preferences. The diversity is what makes us so unique and beautiful! But hopefully, you will get some ideas on how to craft your own version.

I start off with what I like to do, and what makes me truly happy. I realize that I am truly happy when I read, and when I learn new things about myself and about the world. I am truly happy when I learn something valuable from books or from courses. To that end, I consistently read over one hundred books a year on various subjects because they enrich me greatly and make me so happy! Therefore, when I was deciding what financial well-being looked like to me, I decided I wanted to have the financial freedom to buy all the books and personal development material I wanted. I wanted to learn any new thing I wanted, and pick up any skill I wanted. I also wanted to be immersed in an environment where I could do all that.

I also like to teach. Teaching can either be done in person or through books, like the one you are reading now. Therefore, I made up my mind to have the time and personal freedom to teach and write. I wanted to be compensated for it, but more importantly, to be able to do it freely with no worries of compensation.

Finally, I have always advocated that one should have diverse hobbies unrelated to one’s main job or vocation. This is another indirect money manifestation tip. Having an unrelated creative hobby is important as it gives you a creative channel to totally immerse yourself in with no strings attached, and with no expectations. Because I am doing none of it for a living, and have no standards to live up to, I have completely no pressure. I am free to create. I have several interests in this area. I love photography, and while I have won national awards for my craft, I draw the line at doing it commercially. Similarly, I love gadgets and everything to do with technology… so I want the freedom to buy whatever gadgets I want, and take all the nice photographs I want to.

Notice how my perception and focus has shifted so completely, from my earlier (and possibly naive goal) of wanting to make ten million dollars, to my picture of financial well-being now. In fact, making ten million dollars will not guarantee the fulfilment of even a single item on the list above… while the fulfilment of all the items in the list above equals personal financial freedom to me! Can you see how valuable it is to start reframing your thoughts about money in terms of what you can do with money, instead of how much money you have? Notice that money does not even come into the picture while I am setting all those standards above. I have dropped the subject completely and am focused on my own creative calling and higher self expression.

Most people have never sat down to work through an exercise like this. They have however sat down and decided how much money they want to make, or how much money they want to have in their banks. But very rarely are those figures accurate , because they are based on other people’s standards and expectations! They are based on the lifestyles of the rich and famous as portrayed on TV, or dictated by what someone wrote in a magazine about the “ideal” lifestyle. Remember that you can be living that ideal lifestyle and still not like one bit of it. How many times have you looked at photographs of posh hotel suites in magazines and thought about how nice it would be to turn one into a permanent home? When I finally had the chance to stay in an absolutely luxurious hotel penthouse overlooking the city with a private pool, I was so homesick by the end of my experience that I realized that money can buy you luxuriously outfitted surroundings, but not a home!

Spend at least 15 to 30 minutes writing out and defining in longhand, what your standards for well-being and highest creative self-expression will be. They do not have to be lofty goals. Remember: If your goals are too lofty, such as “world peace” or “saving the world”, they are probably based on some Utopian ideals that have been unknowingly forced upon you by someone else. Not that it is not possible to have such great goals, but the exercise we are doing is really something simpler: What makes you truly happy? What makes you tick? What makes you genuinely happy and come alive? Those are the things we are going for in this exercise. Spend one morning over a nice cup of coffee, in your favorite surroundings with this exercise. You may want to do it while soaking up the opulence of a beautiful morning, drinking your best coffee and writing on your finest writing instruments. Take as much time as you need to define your standards for yourself. Again, make sure they are your OWN standards and not someone else’s, so there is no need to share what you have written with anyone else and ask them what they think about it. For each item you have written, go through it and ask yourself whether it is something you truly want for yourself… or is it something your parents wanted, or your family would want for you. Other people can never lead your lives for you, and only you can decide for yourself!

Once you have written the list, internalize those feelings. Notice how because nothing on that list is framed in terms of money, it becomes so easy to visualize and feel the feelings of whatever you have written on your own list. Those become the standards which you set for yourself, and from now on, your goal is to be in complete alignment with these standards you have set for yourself. I can close my eyes right now and feel the feelings associated with my perfect well-being as I have written them down for myself… and guess what, there is completely no feeling of forcefulness or strain. All of it feels so natural to me because in the moment I ask, I am already it . Similarly, in the moment which you close your eyes and immerse yourself in the energy of that list, you become it. The energy responds instantly to your new set of intentions you have set for yourself. Now focus on these feelings constantly and absolutely ignore everything else… the money will flow faster than in your wildest dreams! How could it be otherwise?