part0034

For as long as I can remember, I have always been a ferocious reader. Despite my hectic schedule, I still make it a point to read at least one book per week, or one book every three days. There is so much good stuff out there that if anyone took the time to just study and apply it, they can elevate their levels of consciousness to higher levels than ever thought possible. This means seeing new possibilities when previously there were only perceived difficulties and challenges.

Reading over one hundred books a year for the past few years in a row has exposed me to a wide range of thoughts and viewpoints on the subject of money. I am not suggesting that you go read every book about money there is out there.

Let’s talk a bit about the best sources of information about making and attracting money. This is the biggest realization I have made in this area, after reading a hundred books a year for many years in a row. If you get this too, it will greatly help you in your journey: The best sources of information about making / attracting money, are never directly about attracting money .

In fact, I avoid most personal finance books because they are often written from a vantage point of lack and limitation rather than freedom and abundance. Sure, the ultimate “aim” may be to teach you how to achieve financial freedom… but the starting point and fundamental motivation for many personal finance books out there are often these: How to avoid getting ripped-off on the stock market. How to avoid getting cheated by Wall Street. How to avoid losing money in your investments. How to safeguard your money from the Government, your boss, or those unscrupulous financial institutions… You get the idea. I have read many finance books out there, and in each and every book… I have detected that the authors often acted from a place of massive fear and limitation. Their fears were causing them to take massive action. But you cannot be at a place, feeling so much fear and negativity, and still expect something good to ever come out of it! In other words, from a spiritual standpoint, you simply cannot feel negative and have a positive outcome! It is against the very laws of this Universe. I have (stubbornly) proven this to myself over-and-over again, doing something from the perspective and inner state of fear and lack, thinking I was taking outer positive action. But each time something would crop up on the outside to reflect this limitation or negativity I was feeling, and I would have to spend even more time cleaning up the physical manifestation.

I am not saying that you should totally avoid personal finance books altogether. If you do feel inspired to read a book about money and finances, try to get a sense of the “vibration” of the book. I am not asking you to be superstitious or New-age here, but rather, read through excerpts of the book and see where the author is coming from. Very often, your feelings while reading will point you to the vibrations of the author. In particular, do you feel uplifted while reading the book, or is there a negative feeling that is somehow stifling and tugging at you. These feelings indicate your future physical outcome of reading that book.

Another reason why I avoid most books that deal directly with money is due to our own inner relationships with money. Such books usually disrupt our own inner relationship with money. For example, if I read a book that advocates investing in a certainty way and all the virtues of doing so… I may now end up feeling worse about money because that’s not what I have been doing. By reading a book supposed to help improve my finances, I may end up feeling guilty and self-critical instead. Any time you feel bad or negative feelings, that is a clear sign that you are not moving in the direction of your manifestations so be very careful about what you allow yourself to read. It may seem to be a positive book about money, but if it ends up admonishing you on not doing this or that… you may actually end up further from where you want to be. This is a critical point that is missed by many when they read self-help literature.

The same applies to reading other books about personal development and self-help. Part of the reason why my vibrations were so conflicted for many years was because I was reading all sorts of advice that was pulling me in so many different directions. The authors of these books are not to be blamed for any of it, for they were sincerely sharing all that they knew. Instead, reading those books caused me to spontaneously feel feelings of negativity, fear, worry, guilt (that I was not doing certain steps right) and so on. All of these self-generated negative feelings can interfere with our manifestations as well, and as much as possible, we want to avoid them.

These days, I am very discerning about what I read. Prescribed reading lists rarely work because everyone is at a different level of consciousness and at a different stage of understanding. One stage is no better or worse than the rest, but different stages require careful and gradual exposure to different material. For example, if I were to pick up a book that helped me in my early days, I may find it lackluster today… not because the content in the book has changed, but because I have changed. It is no longer the right book for me. Therefore, pick books that are just right for you, that contain just what you need at the moment.

Perhaps it is at this juncture that I should drop another one of those bombshells on you, and it is this: Stop trying to control what you read, or what comes to you (so much). In my early days, I was always trying to find out what book I should read, or which author I should check out. I had a list of all the “recommended” authors, and I approached it in a very forceful manner. I would reason to myself that many people achieved success after reading Author X’s books, and therefore I should read those books too. Notice the word “should” again? Therefore I would force myself to read all of Author X’s books and so on. Reading became a form of forced action to me, because I was always trying to extract whatever I could from whatever book I read. It was like putting books through the juicer to get whatever juice I could out from them!

These days, I take a relaxed and a completely opposite approach. I no longer keep a reading list of books somebody else thinks I should read. I read whatever appeals to me, calls out to me, and whatever book seems to be the most natural, logical next step for me. I now understand that even the books we read are guided by the Universe. In other words, if you’ll let the Universe work its magic, you’ll be shown the advice and the guidance you need… If it is in the form of books, you’ll be shown the books to read. If it is in the form of physical teachers, these teachers will enter your life. If it is in the form of life lessons, certain events will unfold in your life. If it is money you need to take the next step, the money finds its way to you. The Universe always gives you what you are ready for.

Therefore, it is not possible to read a book which you are not ready for and get something out of it. In fact, someone who reads a book he is consciously not ready for will just find nothing, and then move on. Similarly, I can pick up many of the books I have read in the past and keep finding something new from them. I have listened to certain audiobooks well over a hundred times in my car, never tiring from them, because it is like a new book with each listen. Obviously the book content has not changed, but my consciousness has. With each evolution, I now pick up on more things that the author intended or did not intend to share. Therefore at the end of the day, it is not even so much about the books that you read. The right books that you need will be shown to you in the best possible way. Maybe you’ll receive a title. Maybe a book will catch your eye at the bookstore or website and reading it seems like the most natural thing in the world to do. Remember — The most natural thing in the world to do is what you should do next.

The best books I have found about making money have nothing to do with making money. Instead, they are books about expressing your highest possible self, about learning how to love, about learning how to use our creative faculties… Books that promised and taught me how to lead a fuller life. Those books are the ones that contain the keys, because you can now use what they teach about creating other parts of your life to the subject of money. Do it, and the results will surprise you. In fact, the whole basis of this book you are currently reading is about applying creative manifestation principles specifically to the subject of money, while not upsetting or disrupting your inner balance with money. This fine line is the one you need to walk when learning how to manifest money in your life.

One of my favorite experiences has been receiving the title of the book, “How To Stop Worrying And Start Living” by Dale Carnegie. I have told this story numerous times in my books. That book by Dale Carnegie had absolutely nothing to do with making money. Yet I made more money reading that book than any other book I ever read, even specialized books on the subject of money. Why? Because that book, at that particular time in my life, was just right for me. That book showed me exactly just what I needed to move forward in my money manifestation journey. It cleared up the major block of worrying for me, and it did the trick without ever once reminding me of money.

This brings me back to the point about keeping an open mind. You never know in advance where your next action would lead you. If you adopt the usual practical stance and say, “I am not going to do anything unless it results in tangible, monetary benefits for me”… be it reading a book, accepting a project, or even just helping a friend… you’re going to be stuck for a long, long time. That’s because we can never , from our limited human physical perspectives, see where something will ever lead to. We can try to guess, or even use our own past experiences to foresee how things will turn out… but we can never see the full picture from our physical perspectives. The full picture never reveals itself to us fully. It is often obscured by other physical illusions, distractions and facts. And that is the exact reason why so few people get this stuff , despite so many teachers writing and teaching about the subject over a very long period of time. No matter how many words have been spoken, there will always be those “practical” individuals who refuse to do anything unless they can directly see how they will be “rewarded”. But the Universe does not work this way. This is a quantum Universe of possibilities where our good can come to us in an infinite number of ways. So give up any need to see a clear path and focus inwardly on your innermost feelings. How do you feel? Does it feel right? Does it feel like love? Does it feel like inspiration from your highest self, where you feel compelled to move forward with a sense of momentum and joy? If it does, you are on the right track. Taking that very natural next step now positions you in a unique spot where more opportunities and events can continue to unfold themselves to you.