Just for Today: Dr. Usui and the Israelites

Eleven years ago, I came across some words on the internet that resonated so strongly with my spirit that I printed them out. OK, actually that happens pretty much every day of my life, but the finding of these particular words seemed so important that my memory of running across them is still very vivid in my mind. This was before I started actively collecting clues. I was sojourning in Washington DC at the time, working for an interior decorator and living in the office apartment in a swanky Cleveland Park highrise. It was the first time that I was able to work at home, and I remember wondering how I had ever survived without a copy machine in the house.

I had been researching some herbal remedies when I stumbled upon some important words. I had just finished taking an herbalist certification course and was so determined to fire my doctors that I was in graduate school mode, looking up everything that I could find and collecting the knowledge in a notebook. Having a copy machine in the apartment, not to mention an expense account for office supplies, made that project so easy that I couldn't help myself. But then I found these words:

Just for today, do not worry.

Just for today, do not anger.

Honor your parents, teachers, and elders.

Earn your living honestly.

Show gratitude to everything.

Dr. Mikao Usui

At the time I had no idea who Dr. Usui was. I didn't learn about reiki until almost a decade later. All I knew on that night was that these words seemed to be the only advice about living that I would ever need. I guess you could say that I collected my first clue that night. I completely forgot about the herb project, and spent the rest of the evening staring at these words. The next day, I walked down to the Office Depot on the corner and bought some beautiful parchment paper and a frame so I could hang these words on the wall. For almost ten years, I kept these words in my bathroom so they could be the last thing I saw at night and the first thing I saw in the morning.

Eventually, I came to understand that the real power of this sage piece of advice is in the phrase JUST FOR TODAY. I began to see this same concept repeated elsewhere. Alcoholics Anonymous, for example, teaches that the way not to drink is to take things ONE DAY AT A TIME. Jesus, who had lots of really wise words to say, uses the parable of the lilies of the field and the birds to teach his disciples to stop worrying about having enough food to eat and clothes to wear. He concludes, DO NOT WORRY ABOUT TOMORROW, FOR TOMORROW WILL WORRY ABOUT ITSELF.

And then there's the Israelites. On their way to the promised land, the Israelites wandered about in the wilderness for forty years because they couldn't seem to get their act together enough to just cross the desert and reach their destination. They were a whiny, worrying lot. During this time they lived exclusively on manna. Because God cared about the Israelites, and because He knew that the sparse desert could not provide enough food for such a large assembly of people, every morning God rained manna down from heaven so that the people could eat.

Manna was weird stuff. After the morning dew evaporated, it left behind "tiny flakes of something as small as hoarfrost on the ground." (For those of you who keep track of these things, I'm quoting from the Living Bible, Exodus 16.) The people were instructed to collect enough for each person in their household for one day only, which worked out to be about three quarts each. Of course, people aren't that precise in their behaviors, are they? So "those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered little had no lack! Each home had just enough." God was very precise about his instructions that the manna was intended to be used only for the day in which it was collected. But, people being the way they are, there were some who tried to hoard the manna because they didn't really trust that there would be more tomorrow and they were afraid they would starve. They would wake up the next morning to find that the previous day's manna was a stinky mess crawling with maggots. Yuck! On the sixth day of the week, however, they were instructed to gather two days' worth of manna because God likes to rest on the seventh day.

Here on the Prosperity Project, our daily spending allowance is like the Israelites' manna. We get money every day, and we are instructed to spend every bit of it. Like the Israelites, we are learning to trust that more money will come tomorrow. There have been times, especially now that the numbers are getting larger, that I've felt a little guilty about squandering so much money on things like vacations and toys. The New England Puritan in me thinks that kind of spending is frivolous. Then, the other side of me that wants to trust in the money feels guilty about my Wealth Building Account, because I feel like it means that I don't trust God to take care of future needs. Having grown up Catholic, I have an over-developed sense of guilt no matter what I do!

I'm suspecting that my guilty feelings concerning money are a large part of what has prevented money from flowing to me freely in the past. So, I'm trying to overcome these feelings by applying what I've learned from Dr. Usui and the Israelites. Today, live today. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Give some money back to God every day, because that's where it all comes from anyway. Setting some money aside every day teaches me to live within my means, and gives me cash to sustain me on those days when God takes the day off and money temporarily stops flowing in. And if, for some reason, the money does not show up one day because of some downturn in the economy or unemployment, or whatever life may throw at me, I'm learning to trust that the situation is a temporary one, and that the manna will be sure to rain down again tomorrow.

In other words, I'm starting to learn not to worry. Just for today, anyway.

Prosperity Project Day 15

Today marks the beginning of our third week on the Prosperity Project. I've heard it said that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. I'm suspecting that the habits we are forming here every day as we play this game run deeper than we can even suspect. I'm really excited as I see the changes beginning to happen in each one of us. Our circumstances may not be any different out in the real world, but we are rapidly becoming different people. We are becoming the kind of people who can attract $15,000 for one day's pay. I like it!

$15,000 The tickets sales are brisk for the first annual Attitude of Gratitude Conference!

$ 6,000 God's Money gets a boost today, as we are led to top off the $20,000 needed to start production on Lee's Tropical Motivation festival. I will see Lee later today as we meet for a writing session on the new play. He will be so pleased to know that we were able to raise the money he needed in only one week.

$ 3,000 Wealth Building Account (Total $33,000)

$ 5,000 Goes to the boyfriend, to help him pay off some personal debt.

$ 1,000 Goes to Billie, because she really needs a good computer.

I'm feeling exceptionally generous today, because I know that all of my needs will be met. Just for today, I think I'll help out my friends.

What will you do with your $15,000?

Prosperity Project Day 14

Greetings, prosperous friends! Today marks the end of our second week on the Prosperity Project, so it's a good time to look back and appreciate everything that we have created with all of the money that has flowed our way.

This week, working together with Robyn, we were able to raise just over half of the $20,000 my friend Lee needs to produce his Tropical Motivation festival. This festival will do a lot to raise awareness of local musical talent, plus it will help my friends make some money to help pay for the house they just moved into. The success of the musical that Lee and I wrote should help to draw quite a crowd to the event.

I hired staff this week! This one is huge for me, because it has bought me gobs of free time. I immediately used that free time to do some travelling. I took the boyfriend on a first-class cruise of the Eastern Caribbean, and spent two weeks at a lake house in Maine visiting my friend Billie. I love this imaginary world, because I managed to fit a three-week vacation into one week. Talk about buying time!

The boyfriend made out even better. He got back from our week-long cruise and then headed off to Costa Rica for a month of surfing. For someone who says he doesn't like to travel, he sure is doing a lot of it. (Why doesn't the boyfriend have a name, you wonder? He's asked that I don't talk about him online. Since that is impossible, I just don't say his name. Girls are sneaky.)

On the home front, I finished my room addition, which ended up being a whole second story suite. Instead of having just one room, I now have a studio with a separate napping area, following the same footprint as the downstairs. The boyfriend made me an amazing custom desk, built to my very unique specifications. He also built cabinets and countertops to make the space as functional as I could want it. While I was on vacation I had Mark Griffo at All Florida Computer Repair come in and set up a network that connects all the computers in the house. While he was at it, he also set up the boyfriend's new flat screen tv so he can use it to watch all his stuff on internet TV as well as broadcast. Now when the boyfriend comes back tired from his surfing safari, he'll be able to lay around in the downstairs living room and watch all the TV he wants. He'll be in boyfriend heaven!

I bought a new digital piano and music software this week, so now my upstairs office doubles as a music studio. I'm sure I remembered to soundproof it in the process, so that I can sing and play without interfering with any TV enjoyment or napping going on downstairs.

I didn't get a whole lot of work done this past week, but I did get to spend some excellent quality time with two of the people I love most. I feel happy and fulfilled, ready to do some serious writing.

So, let's get busy!

$14,000 Advance from Hay House on my first book.

$ 1,500 God's Money to Tropical Motivation (Total from me $8,000 + Robyn $5,000 for a whopping total raised of $13,000. Just a few more days to go!)

$ 6,500 Wealth Building Account (Total $30,000)

$ 6,000 Will be just enough money for the boyfriend to finish building the kitchen cabinets and drawers. Although I don't actually cook, I love puttering around in a nice kitchen, and it will be such a treat to finally be able to put everything away. I love the way the house is looking, and we are so happy living here. Life is really good.

Now it's your turn. What thoughts do you have about your second week here on the Prosperity Project? And however will you spend your $14,000 today?

More Life for All: The Clue of Significance

As we visualize our dreams, enjoying the imagining of what it could be like to have money rolling in, we quickly begin to realize what it is that we really value. Every day on the Prosperity Project, as we imagine what we would do with a certain amount of money, we are really deciding in that moment what it is that we value most.

Playing this game every day is showing us WHY we want more money. I've always believed that our intentions for doing an act are way more important than the act itself. I've done some really dumb stuff in my life, but often I meant well. My intentions were kind, my actions just had unwanted circumstances. I believe that if we always act with good intention, even if we screw up, then eventually our judgment will catch up and we'll begin to make wiser choices.

This game is helping us practice. Today's clue, then, is the clue of Significance. As we spend our money, let's give some thought to the ways in which our having more money is providing more value to the people around us. Are we spending our money in ways that matter? What really matters, anyway? Are we being generous with our money? Are we remembering to bring along the people that we love? Are they sharing in our prosperity even though they may not share our vision? How is the world a better place because we have more money? Knowing the answers to these questions goes a long way in convincing our subconscious that we really are worthy.

In that Law of Attraction classic, The Science of Getting Rich, Wallace Wattles explains that all people who get rich do so by acting in a Certain Way. One of the main characteristics of that Certain Way is doing everything with the idea of providing More Life for All. That especially applies to the way we spend our money. As you spend your imaginary money every day, imagine all of the ways in which spending this money will provide More Life for All. Take some time to visualize all of the people whose lives will have added value because you spent that money. Certainly go into detail imagining how the money will help the people you love; but also give thought to all of the people you will never meet who will benefit because you have spent today's money.

It's a very powerful exercise. I wonder where it will lead?

Prosperity Project Day 13

Today is lucky 13! $13,000 to spend on whatever our hearts may desire.

I've been trying since Day 1 to get the boyfriend to play along with us. So far my visions have involved remodelling HIS house, so I thought that he should be a part of it. He has helped me to some extent in making some of the major decisions about the project, although I don't think he's really believing that I'm actually dead serious about all this. He thinks it's all make-believe, and I think he wonders why I'm spending so much early-morning time on something that's not real. But he's always been very indulgent as I flit about from project to project, and so he will, from time to time, offer suggestions.

For instance, in the beginning when I thought that I would rent a house that already had the features I'm wanting, he helped me to look at rentals to see what is available out there in our immediate neighborhood. Then I realized that I didn't want to imagine a separate house, because I felt strongly that I would manifest exactly that, and we would no longer be sharing space. I'm not ready to make that move, so I decided to imagine a room addition on his house that could be my personal space. He was very helpful in providing an estimate of the costs of construction, and he was the one who suggested that instead of adding a room on the ground floor we should just build a second story. I really like that. He gets the downstairs and the wood shop, I get the upstairs suite.

So today, in the spirit of bringing him along on my journey, I'm going to spend my daily allowance making some of his dreams come true.

$13,000 The musical is now a hit, and the CD is a best-seller. Here's a check to prove it.

$ 1,300 God's Money goes again to Tropical Motivation, toward his $20,000 goal (Total from me: $6,500 plus $4000 from Robyn = $10,500!)

$ 5,000 Wealth Building Account (Total $23,500)

$ 1,000 42-inch flat screen TV for the downstairs(!) living room for my TV-watching friend

$ 5,700 To send him on a month-long surfing vacation in Costa Rica. He's dreamed of this since I met him, and yesterday he mentioned that since I'm rich now, maybe I'd want to buy it for him. I do. Enjoy yourself, my friend. When you get back I'm going to put you to work finishing your kitchen!

Now it's your turn: How will you spend $13,000 today?

Five Steps to Powerful Visualization

Those of us who have been following the Prosperity Project every day have been getting some excellent practice in visualization. Today's clue, then, will hopefully help us to fine tune that practice so that we can make it even more powerful. Here are some suggestions.

1. Be Happy About It. The time that we spend every day imagining our abundant and prosperous alternate reality should be happy time. Remember that it is thought fueled by strong emotion that activates the Law of Attraction. As we sit down to do these prosperity exercises, we should first take a moment to clear our brains of any frustrations, doubts, or worries that may be trying to intrude. As we imagine ourselves spending our money every day, we should make it a point to paint a picture that makes us really happy. Feel the joy in your heart as you imagine yourself being, doing, and having the things that your daily money is making possible for you.

2. Use All Five Senses. The more of your senses that you can imagine engaging as you visualize, the more powerful the process will be. If you are working in your new workshop, can you really feel the wood under your hands as you sand it smoothe? Can you hear the sound of the saws? Can you smell the wonderfully sensual aroma of sawdust? Can you taste how delicious that first cup of coffee is in the morning as you plan out your work for the day? Can you see the details of your shop? (More on this one in a bit.) Does all this make you happy? (Being happy is really important in this process).

3. Be There. This one is very subtle. When you visualize your scene, where are YOU in the scene? Are you seeing yourself enjoying the fruits of your imagination as if you were watching yourself on TV? Does it seem that you are out-of-body, watching yourself work from a distance, as if you were two people -- one watching, one doing? OR, are you actually IN the scene, as if you are really inside that imaginary body in the workshop, seeing through THOSE imaginary eyes? Of all these perspectives, the last one is the most powerful. When you visualize your prosperous future, really BE THERE.

4. Have a Clear Mental Image. The more precise you can be about the details of your vision, the more powerful your vision will be. This step is important, because it helps to weed out ambiguities and doubts. When you first begin getting a clear mental image of your desired future, you will find that you have conflicting desires. If you choose to imagine one thing that you really want, it means that you will not be able to follow some other dream. I cannot choose both to grow a vegetable garden and go on a speaking and book-signing tour; if I'm on tour, who will tend the garden? Get the picture? Precise visualization will force you to make a choice. This is immensely important, because once you are very clear on where you truly want to go, the Universe will move heaven and hell to get you there. So, as you visualize your perfect world, picture it in as much vivid detail as possible.

5. Don't Forget Your Loved Ones. This one is important, but tricky. The kind of visualization we are practicing here on the Prosperity Project has the power to radically change the shape of your reality. Just as you must decide exactly which reality you are wanting to manifest, you must also clearly decide how your loved ones will fit into your new reality. As you become the person who will easily attract the reality you are visualizing, the dynamics of your current relationships will change. There will be people in your life who will be uneasy with the new, prosperous you. They may not welcome the change, and will want you to stay right where you are because that is what is comfortable for them. When people no longer vibrate at the same frequency, those relationships fall away to be replaced by new relationships. It is important, then, to decide which people you want to keep in your vibrational sphere and to imagine them in the scene with you. Imagine them vibrating at your new frequency, and imagine yourselves happy together, enjoying the fruits of your new-found prosperity. Relationships are way more important than things; if you can't share your wealth with the people you love, then what's the point?

We'll have lots of opportunity to practice these tips in the months to come. I wonder where we'll end up?

Prosperity Project Day 12

It's Day 12 of the Prosperity Project, and today we get to spend $12,000. This would be easier to do if today were our first day here. But we've been at this for almost two weeks now, and have pretty much bought everything we ever thought we wanted. At least I have. My needs are few and I'm not much for wanting a bunch of stuff. So I'm heading into some uncharted territory here as far as knowing how to spend lots of money on myself.

Yesterday was Saturday, so I went to my favorite florist for my flowers of the week. I've worked out an amazing deal with Terry Black at Abracadabra Flowers and Gifts, so now each week I get a beautiful arrangement of cut flowers for only $10. I always thought fresh flowers were a luxury for people with lots of extra money (or their own garden), so one of the first ways that I've been affirming my abundant wealth is to have fresh flowers in the house at all times. Clyde runs the store there, and every week he makes me something beautifully zen using the freshest flowers in his store. My Saturday morning trip to the flower shop has become one of my favorite weekly rituals, and I've enjoyed both the flowers and my time with Clyde.

When I got there yesterday, Clyde was a bit harried because he is leaving this morning for a seven-day Caribbean cruise with several friends. Now I live right next door to Port Canaveral, so I see cruise ships every day. I've been on two cruise ships in my life. One was a day cruise; we floated around just past the three-mile marker where it's legal to gamble. I don't gamble, but I thought it would be fun to go out with my girlfriends and hang out on the boat. I was sick the entire time.

The second time I took a cruise was in Scandinavia. I was on a concert tour with the Brevard Community Chorus. We sang five concerts in ten days, in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Now that was a trip to remember! Toward the end of our tour we took an overnight cruise from Oslo to Copenhagen. This time I didn't get sick, but my room was way on the inside and was like a large coffin with a bathroom. Although the food on cruise ships is legendary, neither of these two experiences made me want to voluntarily ever cruise again. I just didn't see the appeal.

Until yesterday. While he was making my arrangement, Clyde took me online to view pictures of the ship. I politely looked at what he showed me, and then got really excited! Clyde, a veteran traveler, showed me a beautiful suite that was larger than the entire house I live in now. It had a separate bedroom and living room, a huge bathroom with a tub, and a large balcony overlooking the ocean. The boat is Freedom of the Seas, right now the largest cruise ship in the world. The shopping deck is built to look like a town, with paved streets and store fronts. The restaurants are elegant, and Clyde and friends wear tuxedos to dinner. In my wildest dreams I never imagined anything so upscale.

So I have Clyde to thank for today's adventures in spending money. With $12,000 to spend today, I think I will take the boyfriend on an elegant romantic cruise of the Eastern Caribbean. We'll go to Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, where we'll pop over to St. John's for a day, then on to St. Maarten. We'll need to buy some formal wear for dinner, and there should be plenty of money for shopping.

$12,000 My share of royalties from the play I co-wrote with my friend, Lee.

$ 1,200 God's Money goes to Tropical Motivation (Total $5,200)
$ 2,500 Wealth Building Account (Total $18,500)

I have to stop here and say that there's a big part of me that still feels it's wrong to spend such a large percentage of this money every day. The working-class part of me that doesn't trust money feels like I should be putting most of it in the Wealth Building Account in case the gravy train stops pouring gravy. But, since the purpose of this game is to get over feeling like that, here goes!

$ 5,000 Passage for two in the Royal Suite of Freedom of the Seas for a 7-Day Cruise
$ 1,300 A tux for the boyfriend, and several beautiful dresses for me.
$ 2,000 Spending money. I want to bring home gifts for all my friends.

That was fun! For two people who still live in a tiny little cottage on the island and drive sensible cars, we sure know how to vacation!

So, now it's your turn. How will you spend your $12,000 today?

Prosperity Project Clue: Positive Aspects

Here on the Prosperity Project, we've been trying to retrain our thinking about money.  We know that how we think directly affects what we attract into our lives, so we have been re-training our brains to  be comfortable spending ever-increasing quantities of imaginary money.  By playing this game we are hoping that our thinking about money in the real world will begin to evolve, and that eventually our thinking will tend more  towards abundance rather than lack.

However, in spite of all of our attempts at abundant thinking, snags inevitably trip us up. We go along thinking positive thoughts, being grateful, focusing on prosperity, expecting good things to happen, and then we hit a snag. Something happens that sets us back, and we get a chance to find out whether all of this positive-thinking stuff is really working for us. We've all heard the advice that we can't control what happens, but we can control how we react to what happens. Today's Prosperity Project Clue will provide a tool to use in helping to control our reaction to those inevitable snags.

Today, I hit a snag of my own. I went online so I could do the Saturday morning bank balancing ritual. I've enjoyed watching the money pile up over the past few months, and especially over the past two weeks as we've been doing the Prosperity Project. I had an idea how much money would be in there, and I was really excited to see that balance in my checking account.   I'm going on vacation next week, and today I was going to withdraw the money that I will spend on my trip. So I was pretty surprised when the bank's website showed that I had a whopping $116 in my bank account. Where was all my money?!!

Being a seasoned accounting professional, I knew how to untangle the financial knot and get to the bottom of the discrepancy. When I realized the mistake was my own and not the bank's, I was even madder! How could I be so stupid?!!!

Last week, I turned over all the household bookkeeping to the boyfriend. He is trying to help me find more time to write by taking over more of the time-consuming chores, like keeping up with the bills. I showed him how to pay the utilities online; what I didn't remember to do was change the bank accounts that the money gets paid from. So all of the bills that should have come out of his bank account came out of mine instead. Oops!

When I caught myself getting frustrated and angry because of all the fees, not to mention the embarrassment of making such a dumb mistake, I realized that I needed to change my thinking, and do it quickly. Fortunately, I remembered a clue that I had picked up from Abraham-Hicks.

Abraham teaches a technique called pivoting, which means simply to change the direction of your thoughts by choosing a better-feeling thought. Remember the 68-Second Clue? Whenever we hold an emotional thought for 17 seconds, it attracts another thought just like it. If we do that four times in a row, 68 seconds have passed and we have successfully changed our vibration for better or for worse. Pivoting is a way of breaking that cycle when we find our thoughts moving in the wrong direction. We can choose a better feeling thought by finding some positive aspect of the situation that we can focus on.

This morning, then, when I found myself getting all worked up about the unnecessary bank charges, I started thinking that this meant money still wasn't my friend, and that it was still wanting to move away from me instead of toward me. It felt like when I was younger and was insecure about my relationship with my boyfriend. If he didn't pay attention to me the way I thought he should, I always interpreted it to mean he didn't want me or like me, or he wanted someone or something else. I was a neurotic mess. Today I felt myself being that way toward my relationship with money, and that realization made me even madder! For a minute.

Then I started framing the situation differently in my mind. I realized it wasn't a money issue, it was a bookkeeping issue. Bookkeeping deals with numbers, not real money. It's simply a list. Bookkeeping isn't real money in the same way that a grocery list isn't real food. What had happened at the bank had nothing to do with my money, my relationship with money, or my worthiness of having money. It was just a thing, as they say. I can call the bank on Monday and negotiate a return of the fees. I can change the account on the bill-paying websites to come out of the correct account. I can, if I want to, just go on with my happy self and enjoy my day.

I was able to apply this Positive Aspect technique in the middle of being irritated because I had spent some time practicing it when I was calm. Here is the practice, if you'd like to give it a try. It is another excellent game brought to you by that fun-loving group of spiritual beings known to us as Abraham.

"If you will buy a new notebook, and call it your Book of Positive Aspects, and spend 10 minutes each day writing positive aspects about your home, your body, your work, your relationships...If you will wake up every morning acknowledging that you have re-emerged into the physical and that today you will look for reasons to feel good...And if you will pay attention to the way you are feeling, and utilize the process of pivoting...it is our absolute promise to you, that -- within 30 days -- you will see such a dramatic turn of events in your life experience, that you will not believe you are the same person."

Some of you may recognize aspects of The Attitude of Gratitude Project in that practice. You wouldn't be wrong. A Gratitude Journal is very much like a Book of Positive Aspects, with one very subtle difference. When you say you are grateful for something, especially when you are in an irritable mood, it is very easy to let a bit of sarcasm into it, which is not really sincere gratitude, is it? "I sure am grateful those kids are finally asleep" really means, "Those screaming little monsters are driving me crazy!" See what I mean?

A Book of Positive Aspects requires you to find things about every part of your life that you can sincerely appreciate. Instead of thinking, "I don't have enough money," you could think instead, "Although there are things that I want that I can't yet buy, I always have enough money for food, and I have enough money to sleep in a bed and wear clothes and shoes and take a hot shower. Come to think of it, I have enough money to buy myself many very welcome comforts." See how that thought would make you feel better about your relationship with money?

If you don't want to start a new writing project by buying a separate Book of Positive Aspects, you can do what I do and practice at The Attitude of Gratitude Project Page on Facebook. Some days it is more difficult than others to phrase my gratitude in a way that doesn't show any traces of sarcasm or negativity. But I'm learning that the more I focus on the positive aspects of my life, and the more I speak about my life using positive words, the more positive my life is becoming.

So when I hit a financial snag -- and it is impossible to get through life without eventually hitting a financial snag or two -- I now immediately remember to snap into Gratitude mode and remind myself of all of the positive aspects of my financial situation.  Because if I think positively about my finances, it helps me to remember how much abundance surrounds me every day; and as I focus on that abundance, it helps me to feel prosperous, which helps me to attract that prosperity into my reality.  

Prosperity Project Day 11

Yesterday, I spent my whole $10,000 visiting my friend in Maine and taking her and her kids shopping. That was really fun for me. I spent so much time imagining our time together that I formed actual memories of it. I have memories of shopping for food, the kids trying on jackets and shoes, having meals with them, laughing, holding the new baby. I even remember what the house I rented looks like. My visualization of that trip was so complete that it is as if it really happened. That's pretty powerful stuff!

I've heard that athletes who are injured and cannot train have been urged to practice in their minds by visualizing every move. I've studied tai chi in the past; once, after I had worked myself into a state of complete exhaustion, I was too weak to get out of bed for over a month. I knew that tai chi would be healing, but I was too weak to stand up. So I laid on the couch and deliberately went through the motions in my head. I saw myself move from pose to pose, and managed to keep my concentration fixed on my exercise until I had reached the end of the first third. I was not prepared for how powerful that exercise would be. I could feel my breathing slow and my mind stop chattering, just as if I were doing the exercises with my physical body.

They say that the subconscious mind does not know the difference between what happens in the physical world and what happens in our mind. Have you ever awakened from a bad dream to find that you're really angry at someone? Have you ever had a dream so vivid that it formed real memories in your mind? I clearly remember what it feels like to fly. I know how to go higher and lower, and I know how to turn. I've only ever flown in my dreams, but yet the memory is there, clear as day.

The imagining that we are doing here on the Prosperity Project is incredibly powerful. Your conscious mind knows that we are only pretending, but your subconscious mind is treating these exercises as if they are really happening. We are training our subconscious mind to believe that we have lots and lots of everything our hearts could ever desire. That's pretty cool.

So, let's pretend some more. I'm rested from my trip to Maine, and it's time to get to work.

While I was in Maine, I hired someone to move all of my books and files into my new office so I could get right to work when I came home. I hired my IT guy to come and set up a computer network that would link the new room with every room in the house. Now we can access our 80gig iTunes collection from any computer in the house. All my photos, music, and video have been consolidated into one place, accessible from any computer and from my iPhone. Now that I'm back, I need to pay my bill.

I've got lots of free time now, because I've hired a personal assistant, Number One, to do all the busy work. I no longer need to spend hours at the pool store, because I've trained Thing 2 to manage the store and I only need to check in from time to time. I'm still active in the Chamber of Commerce, and I'm still singing with the Space Coast Oratorio Society and the Brevard Community Chorus. But now I've got lots and lots of time to write and work on music.

$11,000 Earned at a speaking engagement. Topic: Gratitude

$ 1,300 God's money to Tropical Motivation
(Total from me $4,000 + $2000 from Robyn = $6,000)

$ 5,000 Wealth Building Account (Total $16,000)
$ 500 IT Guy
$ 200 Movers
$ 1,000 To Bob, webmaster of The Attitude of Gratitude Project, back pay.
$ 2,000 Korg C720 digital concert piano
$ 1,000 Finale and Logic Studio: software so I can write and produce music in my own studio. Now I'll be able to produce podcasts from my own home. And start a band.


Now it's your turn. How will you spend your $11,000?

Learning to See Clues

Have you ever watched Blue's Clues? It's a great show on Nick Jr. that features a cute little blue dog and a guy named Joe. It was one of the first shows aimed at preschoolers that attempted to have a conversation with kids instead of talking at them. Joe carries around a cool little notebook and asks the kids in the audience to find the clues to the day's puzzle. Blue has clearly marked the clues with her cute little paw print, and although as adults we can readily see each clue as soon as the scene opens, Joe pauses long enough that even the youngest kid watching has time to find the clue. As each clue is uncovered, Joe writes it down in the little notebook. It's pure genius.

Watching the show with my three-year old buddy, Caleb, I am reminded that we all need to be trained to see clues. When Caleb first started watching Blue's Clues, he only saw the clues after the kids screamed out the answer. Now that he's big (almost four!), he feels pretty smug about being able to spot the clues almost immediately.

It reminds me of the first Book of Clues I started over ten years ago. In the beginning, I didn't always recognize clues when they crossed my path. I was so busy making wrong decisions and suffering the inevitable consequences that I didn't really have time to notice. Eventually, after I had suffered quite enough, I took a clue from Solomon and decided that I wanted wisdom more than anything else. I began to actively seek it out. I prayed for it, longed for it, and to make sure that it didn't slip through my fingers, I wrote it down as it came to me.

The original Book of Clues literally saved my life. It helped me to get in touch with my spirit and to start moving from my own center rather than be tossed about by the whims of others. But even more important than all that, it taught me to see the clues.

Spirit leaves clues everywhere. I've been writing about clues that come from books which are clearly marked as clues, as if they have Blue's footprint on them and are just waiting for us to open them. But clues are everywhere: on the side of a bus, dialogue in a tv show or a movie, a casual comment overheard by a stranger in line at the grocery store, a dream, a random thought that pops into your head, in song lyrics, advice from your parents.

The trick is to begin noticing them as clues, and to write them down. I've noticed that often we don't understand the importance of a clue until later when we have collected more data. I remember my parents used to try to give me advice; it was only years later that I realized what that advice really meant, and how important it was.

So I urge you all to start your own Book of Clues. If you hear or see anything that seems important, write it down. Eventually, you will have trained your mind to focus on wisdom, and wisdom will then come to you when you most need it.

Prosperity Project Day 10

Today, we have $10,000 to spend on whatever our heart desires. Have you spent some time figuring out exactly what that is for you? Do you have a clear mental image of what is important to you? How do you plan to spend your days now that you are rich? Do you realize that if you earn a minimum of $10,000 every day you are earning a salary of $3,650,000? And you don't even have to play professional sports!

My heart's desire is to travel. I would love to be based here in my little Florida homestead with the boyfriend, but be free to travel around. I have friends and family far away that I'd love to be able to spend time with. There are places I've visited that I enjoyed so much I'd love to be able to spend a few months there. And, of course, there are still places that I've not yet seen. I also love to learn things, so I have a dream that one day I'll be able to attend workshops all over the world to listen to my favorite teachers. My acupuncturist does that now, and I think it's a wonderful way to use my money. Since I earn most of my money writing and speaking, it doesn't really matter where I set down my laptop.

By this time I've grown the pool store so that it is bringing in about $1,000,000 a year in revenue. It has gone from a little neighborhood store to an online superstore. The pool store's Facebook page has over 10,000 fans, and people follow the posts because they get to learn cool stuff about pools and spas, and possibly irrigation. It is the Car Talk of pool stores! The store is so successful that we are considering selling franchises. I have an excellent staff in place that takes care of the day-to-day operations. As CEO, I have online access to the general ledger, and my trained eye can tell that things are going well. Our founder, the boss-shaped creature, has trained someone else to know everything there is to know about repairing pumps and motors, and we have hired an experienced staff of irrigation contractors to work that end of the business. He is happily in Cancun sipping cocktails and pretending he's the only one on his beach. Life is good.

So now it's time to go visit my friend Billie in Maine. She's had yet another baby that I've never met, and the two boys are growing up without me. It's time to head up there for a few weeks to go shopping with my friend. And not at Walmart.

$10,000 Pool Store dividend

$ 1,000 God's money is still going to Tropical Motivation (Total $2,700)
$ 2,000 Wealth Building Account (Total $11,000)
$ 1,000 First class ticket to Portland, Maine
$ 2,000 To rent a house on a lake for two weeks. I'll have to find one that's winterized!
$ 1,000 To slip into Billie's wallet as I'm leaving!
$ 3,000 To spend on Billie and the kids while I'm there. I want to make sure her fuel oil tank is full, and buy her a freezer full of meat to get them through the long winter. I also want to make sure that she and the kids have winter jackets and good shoes. I miss my friend!

OK, now it's your turn! How will you spend your $10,000 today?

Clue: Finding your True Passion

What is it that you REALLY want out of life? I guarantee it isn't money. Money is a tool, like your car, or even your house. It isn't an end in itself.

What you really want is to be happy. You want to feel good. You want the people that you love also to be happy and feel good. In order to know what you really want to manifest in your life, you need to have some clue as to what it is that makes you happy. It's different for all of us.

Have you ever really wanted something so badly that it was all you could think of? This is very common when we are young and still believe that stuff is what makes us happy. I had a friend once who was convinced that stuff would make him happy. He was a musician, and wanted a particular guitar, then an amp, then a recorder. That didn't quite do it for him, so he wanted a dobro and another amp. When I'd ask him how he was doing, he would give me his current list of everything he needed before he could decide he was finally happy. That poor guy was one of the most unhappy and discontented people I've ever met. He was depressed most of the time. He didn't understand that it was not equipment he really wanted, it was the feeling that he thought the equipment would give him, whatever that might have been for him.

If you have been drawn here to do this game with me, then you are not that guy. You already know that money will not make you happy. There are things that you want, sure, but if you pay attention you'll realize that all of the things we've bought so far with our imaginary money have helped us to participate in those activities that bring us the most joy. Unlike my unfortunate friend, we have already figured out that we must bring happiness to the things that we buy; they will not of themselves bring happiness to us.

As we get more and more money in the next few months, we're going to eventually run out of stuff to buy. We're going to have to be imaginative in deciding how to spend our money every day. We'll be tempted to say, "I'm just going to put this money into a pile until I need it later." Careful, the universe will hear you saying, "I've got enough. Please, no more money!" And it will gladly stop sending money your way. I believe that is what has happened to each of us in the past. It's not that there was not enough money to come our way; rather, we suffered from a failure of imagination that prevented the flow of money in our direction.

Let's not let that happen again. Let's find out what it is that we really want to be, do, and have. Let's figure out what brings us the most joy, and then follow that bliss with everything that we have.

You already know what makes you happy. There are things that you do during the course of your day when, in the doing of them, time drops away and you become totally engrossed in that activity. You are in the flow, outside of time. During those times there is no past, there is no future; there is only the doing of the activity, and for a few minutes you even forget to pay attention to your own self. You lose yourself momentarily in that activity. That is a magical moment.

What things are you doing when that happens? Pay attention. Watch for it. It is a huge clue to your heart's desire. Is it photography? Woodworking? Singing? Sewing? Teaching? It is different for all of us, and that is the beauty. If everyone on earth were to do the one thing that makes their heart sing, then everyone would do their job with enthusiasm. Because they enjoy what they do, the quality of work would be excellent, people would be happy, and the world would be a beautiful place. Because we all are drawn to different activities, everything that we could need or want would be provided by someone doing what they love the most. Wouldn't you want to live in a world like that?

So as we go about spending our imaginary money in the next few months, see if you can use some of your money to make it possible for you to explore activities that you've always wanted to do but couldn't because you needed to focus on making money. Now is your big chance to imagine your life doing anything that you want without worrying about whether it will earn you a living.

If you had an unlimited supply of money so that you didn't need to have a job to survive, how would you really want to spend your days? The Prosperity Project is a good place to imagine what that life would be like for you. So let's play. There is no way to lose this game, because here you have enough money to be, do, or have anything your heart could ever dream. So what will your dream life look like?

Prosperity Project Day 9

Good morning, my prosperous friends!

Are we beginning to feel a little less stressed about money? By now most of those things that we've been needing and wanting, possibly even desperately so, we've been able to pay for and put behind us. We've begun to stretch out into new spending territory, easily paying for things that we might not even have wished for out loud a couple of weeks ago.

If you're like me, though, you're still feeling a bit overwhelmed by the seeming shortage of time in your life. Before we began this game, we were already way too busy. Now, we're busy in two realms: our every day life and our dream life. In order to meet my daily posting deadline, I've been waking up at 5:30 so that I can write before I head off to the pool store. My daily clue gets written in the evening. My days are still packed with work, Chamber events, rehearsals, social events, and trying to squeeze time in with the home folks. My house is filled with piles of paper, dirty laundry, and dishes needing to be washed. In my dream life, I've been busy with all of those same things, plus I've been overseeing the building of my room addition. I'm starting to feel a little tired.

So today, I'd like us to take a few minutes to think about how having more money can buy us more time. My friend Andrea of Horizons Magazine was smart enough to think about that one on her very first day. Like Andrea, I plan to use some of my money to hire a personal assistant. It will be a full time job, because I'm that busy and I plan to get even busier. Soon, I'll have to hire a second assistant so that I can have one taking care of stuff at home and one taking care of business stuff. They can be First Assistant and Second Assistant. For now, though, First Assistant (I'll call her Number One, like Jean-Luc Picard's Commander Ryker) will have to do everything. She's that good.

I'll also need a personal chef to cook meals for me. She might as well do the shopping and clean up the kitchen, too. There should be a maid to come in and clean up every day after I've gone to work, so I can come home to a clean house. There should also be a gardener to take care of the yard so the boyfriend can spend his time following his own dream.

Number One will coordinate all those helpers. She'll make sure that everything gets done without my having to think about it. She'll make sure there's food in the fridge, meals ready for lunch and dinner, the car is always clean, the music is organized on iTunes (I'm also a musician, so there's lots of music to keep straight), and the yard is groomed. She'll schedule my travel itinerary and book my speaking engagements. She'll buy me clothes because I hate to shop and she will have impeccable taste. She will also coordinate with the interior decorator, who happens to be my brother.

That all sounds really expensive, doesn't it? Let's see how it breaks down:

Number 1: $200 a day/$1000 a week
Chef: $200 a week to shop and prepare food in advance
Maid: $200 to come in twice a week
Landscaper: $100 a week

So, the cost of my staff will be $1600 a week, which I should budget for on Thursdays so everyone can get their check on Friday. The cool thing is that aside from the personal assistant, I already know who these people are. They've been on my wish list for over a year. I've already been paying for groceries and car washes out of my pool store salary, so I'm not including those expenses on today's dream list.

OMG! I just got a check in the mail for an article I submitted to some big-shot magazine. I never imagined that it would be for so much money!

$9,000 Payment for magazine article

$ 900 God's money goes to Tropical Motivation (Total $1,700)
$ 1,800 Wealth Building Account (Total $9,000)
$ 1,600 Weekly payment to staff
$ 4,700 For a custom-made desk and filing cabinet for my new office. The boyfriend makes beautiful furniture. He is an artist, and his furniture makes almost miraculous use of space. The lines are soft and the wood is polished so fine that you want to pet it, like a cat. He made all the cabinets in my old condo, and I really miss them. Now's my chance to work at a desk that he built. I love it!

OK. I have an office to work in with a beautiful view of the property. I have an exquisite desk to work at that is designed to be efficiently functional as well as beautiful. I have staff taking care of all the busy work so that now I'm free to sit at my desk in my beautiful new room and begin to create my new life.

I wonder what it will look like?

Clue: The Alchemist - A Fable About Following Your Dreams

We've been examining some pretty heavy clues over the past few days, so I've decided that today's clue should be a fun one.

Every year my public library has a used book sale, and I always like to go there to stock up on books. Not that I need more books; I already have more books than I have space to keep them. But I adore books. I learned to read when I was four, and every morning before the grownups were out of bed, I would make myself a cup of coffee and read the funnies to the dog. By the time I was five, I had my own library. I remember being very young and packing all my books into a bag to bring with me into the woods at the end of the street. I would spend the entire day there spread out under a tree, reading. Come to think of it, escaping into the woods with my books is still my very favorite idea of getting away from it all.

One year I picked up an intriguing volume by Paulo Coelho, called The Illustrated ALCHEMIST: A Fable About Following Your Dream. It has gorgeous illustrations, reproductions of paintings by someone called simply, Moebius. The book sat on my shelf for years until about two years ago when I felt compelled to take it down and read it. As most fables are, it was an quick and easy read. But the spirit of it captured my imagination.

The Alchemist is the story of Santiago, a young shepherd who tends a flock of sheep in Andalusia, Spain. One night, as he sleeps in the ruins of an old church, he dreams that he finds a treasure buried at the foot of the pyramids in Egypt. He is intrigued by that dream, and before long he decides to sell his sheep to go in search of his treasure.

I was reminded of this book last week when I heard John Maxwell speak at the Team America convention. During his speech, Mr. Maxwell made the comment that there will be a price to pay for following your dream: You will have to pay it sooner than you thought, the price will be higher than you thought, and you'll have to pay it more than once. When I heard that comment, it reminded me of this little book. That was certainly true of Santiago's dream journey. He lost everything he owned three times before he finally found his treasure.

I bring this up as a clue tonight to remind us that this road we have embarked on with this Prosperity Project will take us to places that we cannot even imagine. It will be easier than we thought, but it will also be much harder than we thought. If we stay the course and continue on with our project, I have no doubt that we will all learn to attract abundant wealth into our lives. But I also have no doubt that we will be asked to pay a price for that abundance.

We will be tempted to quit before we've reached the end of our journey. There will come a time when we realize that by becoming the kind of person who attracts abundant wealth, we will have to leave some things behind. We will be asked to decide whether what we are asking is really worth what we are leaving behind. We may decide that the price is too high; we may decide that our current life isn't so bad, after all. We may decide not to continue on our dream journey. And that will be OK. Whatever we decide we want for ourselves, the Universe will totally agree with us. There is no wrong answer.

Santiago loses everything three times before he reaches the end. Each of those times he is tempted to give up. And yet his dream persists. So he tries again. And yet again. And eventually, his sheer tenacity prevails.

So I offer you this book as inspiration on your journey. Find it. Read it. It will inspire you to keep going in some future time when the going is no longer fun. Because even though it may seem impossible, and even though there may be days when it won't seem worth the effort, your dream will be waiting for you to dust yourself off and keep on moving forward.

Prosperity Project Day 8

As we begin our second week of the Prosperity Project, I think it's a good time to set some goals to strive for in our everyday lives. It's time to start working on what Wallace Wattles calls our Clear Mental Image.

But wait: Isn't that what we've already been doing here every day? In part, yes. By spending a few minutes every day deciding how we will spend our daily allowance, we are doing some very powerful visualizations that will have massive repercussions in our daily life. In the process, we are finding out what we value most. Most importantly, we are feeling really good as we are imagining ourselves enjoying the things that we are buying, and we are imagining others feel good about the gifts they are receiving from us. We have even spent some time imagining the benefits our spending has brought to people further removed from us, the people who manufacture, distribute, and install the items that we buy.

Today, though, I want us to take a minute to set a financial goal for ourselves in the real world. We've all heard the saying, "If you don't know where you're going, how will you know when you get there?" So today I'd like us all to set a short-term financial goal, so that when we reach it we will have clear evidence that we are moving toward prosperity, and will be encouraged to continue with our Project.

This isn't as easy as it sounds. When I first started visualizing future abundance about a year ago, I started affirming that I made $100,000 a year. That's not an outrageous amount of money, really. People make way more than that every year. But it's a number that I just couldn't really believe. Even as I affirmed it, I knew that it was impossible. As Abraham teaches, it's not your words that necessarily attract reality, it's how you feel about those words. After a few months I lowered my number to $5000 a month: way more than I'd ever made, but still not believable. As I mentioned before, my first stab at visualizing wealth ended in bankruptcy!

I'm sure you've already heard the advice that goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. They need to be goals you can believe, or you will sabotage yourself with doubts. So today, I don't want you to try to set your ULTIMATE goal, because I have a feeling that where we ultimately end up will be far and beyond anything that we could possibly imagine today. What I'd like you to do is to set a very small, measurable, attainable, realistic goal that you can attain by a specific date. It should be a stretch, but a believable stretch. Remember, here on the Prosperity Project we are training ourselves incrementally to allow more wealth to enter our lives. So let's start small, and then as we reach those goals let's make them a bit larger as time goes on and we gain more confidence.

Are you ready? Here's my first goal:

In six months (by Valentine's Day) I will have saved $5000 to pay for my trip to Fiji on the first week of June. I will save it easily, and will not have to forfeit my quick trip to San Francisco or my vacation in the mountains to achieve this goal. As I am saving this money, I will continue to live comfortably, paying my bills and buying groceries with ease.

And now it's time to spend some money!!!

$8,000 Today's deposit is revenue from my website, which has quickly gone viral.

$ 800 God's money. Over the past week, The Space Coast Symphony Orchestra has gotten enough money out of the Prosperity Project to make it through their first season. There is still much that they could use, but they will be able to buy music and pay their musicians. So for the next week, I want to focus on another musician friend with a huge need. My friend Captain Music has a dream of producing a huge Tropical Motivation event right here in Port Canaveral. This event will jump start his career, and will benefit countless musicians and others who will be involved. He needs $20,000 cash before he can begin to schedule it. The rest of the revenue will come from ticket sales. So Lee, here is your first installment, my friend!

$1,600 Wealth Building Account (Total $7,200)

$5,600 To put the finishing touches on my room addition (Total $17,600). My project came in slightly over budget, but not by as much as it could have. I'm glad that Keith is such a genius at building things or this could have cost me a whole lot more.

So now it's your turn. How will you spend your $8,000 today?

The Secret to the Secret: Our Emotional Guidance System

Before we get too far into the Prosperity Project, I'd like to give credit to Abraham, who invented this game. For those who are not familiar with this phenomenum, Abraham is a group of non-physical beings who communicate with us using the body and Mind of Esther Hicks. Together, they are known as Abraham-Hicks. This cooperative communication is a form of what is commonly called Channeling. I think Shirley MacLaine is the one who first popularized the term. The sentiment that arises when most people think of channeling most often resembles some form of contempt and derision. I mean, really. Channeling?

That's the reaction I initially had when I was first introduced to Abraham-Hicks. It was just plain weirdness to me. But in my spiritual quest the name Abraham-Hicks kept popping up. I couldn't seem to escape the fact that eventually I would have to listen to what this Abraham being was trying to say. And listen I did.

When I finally got beyond the medium and really listened to the message, I realized that there is a whole lot of truth being communicated here. So I started listening to the tapes and reading the books. And I began to learn.

I mentioned in my last post that the movie The Secret seemed to leave out something really important. Part of that left-out piece can be found in Wallace D. Wattles' book, The Science of Getting Rich, which we explored in my last post. Wattles talks a lot about how we should think and act in order to co-create our world. And still that is not the whole story.

In the original version of The Secret, Abraham-Hicks was one of the talking-head experts featured in the film. Due to an inability of the parties to reach a legal agreement concerning the terms of creative license, among other things, Abraham-Hicks was removed from the project. This explains the big fat hole of some unsaid Secret that looms large in the final version of The Secret. Abraham-Hicks is the Phase 2 that is missing from the film. (Remember, Phase 3 is profit!)

The main point of Abraham's version of The Secret lies in the power of our emotions to act as our spiritual compass. Abraham calls it our Emotional Guidance System. Here is how it works: When you are thinking a thought that feels good, you are aligned with your spiritual self. When you are thinking a thought that feels bad, it is because your thinking is not in alignment with how your spiritual self views the situation. In order to attract into your life that which Spirit wants for you, simply choose a better-feeling thought in the present moment. In any moment, there is a thought which feels better, and a thought which feels worse. Choose the better thought. Choose a thought that gives you a feeling of relief. Then you know you're on the right path. It's as simple as that, really.

Once I got past the whole channeling thing and really started to listen to the message of Abraham, I began to realize how important the Abraham clue really is. I began listening to recordings of their live workshops, and bought the most current book at that time, Money and the Law of Attraction: Learning to Attract Wealth, Health, and Happiness. With a title like that, I just had to buy the book. That is exactly what I had been trying to attract: money, health, happiness.

Last week I was listening to the audio version of that book for probably the 4th time, and as they got to the part of the workshop where they offer exercises that might help us to stretch our ability to ALLOW wealth into our life, I heard once again the rules of what they call the Checkbook Game: First day, deposit $1000 into your imaginary checkbook and decide how you would spend it. The next day, add $1000. Add $1000 a day for a whole year, until on the last day you are spending $365,000. For the next few days I couldn't get that game out of my head. So here we are at the Prosperity Project, testing out Abraham's hypothesis.

As we continue on with our Project, I will urge you to keep in mind the fact that merely thinking about money isn't enough; we need to FEEL ourselves being worthy of money, earning money, spending money, giving money away. We need to FEEL what it's like to live in a space that reflects what our spirit is wanting to express. We need to FEEL what it's like to add value to the people in our lives. We need to FEEL what it's like to be completely and generously supported by our benevolent universe. Or by God, if you will.

Tomorrow we begin Day 2 of the Prosperity Project. How will you spend your $8000?

Prosperity Project Day 7

"And God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good."

Today marks the end of the first week of our game. The seventh day is traditionally a day of rest; in the creation story told in Genesis, it is said that God rested on the seventh day. Actually, that is a bad translation. What the word really means is that God ceased on the seventh day. (He's God. Do you really believe He needed a nap?) But before he did, God looked around at all that he had created that week and saw it as good.

To me, that is one of the most profound statements in the Bible. Think about it: the world is only six days old. Surely, things aren't finished yet. The world STILL is not finished this many aeons later. But God looked on it as ALREADY good. In other words, God looked on his world with a grateful and appreciative eye. He looked at it with the intention of seeing what is right with the world, not what is wrong with it. He deliberately focused on the positive aspects because, being God, He understood the creative nature of thought. He knew that if he focused his attention on the good, that the good would grow.

So I would like to begin a tradition here on the Prosperity Project of taking the seventh day to look back on all that we've created with our wealth, and to see it as good. How has your imaginary lifestyle improved over the past week? How have you been able to add value to the people around you? And here's the real question: How has your real life benefitted this week from doing this Project?

After today, we will have spent $28,000! That's more than I've been making in an entire year!! During this first week, I've built a solid foundation for my future life. I've bought the best tools and gadgets I could dream up, I've updated my software, and am almost finished building the room that will become my command post. I've helped an injured friend, helped another friend pay his bills, and I've helped a fledgling orchestra get off the ground. It is definitely good. I haven't spent any of it on living expenses; none of us has. Before I began this project my living expenses were already covered, as I imagine yours are covered as well. This project is about the extra money that is coming our way.

So how has my real life benefitted from this project? My friend Andrea will appreciate my answer: I've decided to start playing the lottery! Wallace Wattles teaches that when money comes to us, it will come through already established channels. That means that money won't miraculously appear in your checkbook; it will come because you have earned it, but only if you do the work. It will come as a gift from someone with money, but only if you add value to their lives; Or, you might just win the lottery, but only if you buy a ticket. In other words, believing money is coming is not enough; we must act in a way that opens the door for money to enter. So this week I've been more aware of seeing and acting upon those opportunities. The best way for insane amounts of money to come to me right now today is through the lottery. So today I'll buy my first lottery ticket. Just one, but if money wants to come to me it will have a handy way of getting here.

$7000 Lottery winnings!! I got 3 out of 6 numbers right on my very first ticket!

$ 700 God's money is still going to the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra. Between me and Robyn they should have no problem making it through their first season.

$2000 Wealth building account (total $5600, or 20% of $28000)

$4300 Room addition (total $12000) By now the room is dried in and I can start using it while I finish.

It is all, definitely, very good.

How will you spend your $7000 today?

The Science of Getting Rich; or, What the underpants gnomes don't tell you.

There is a science of getting rich. You don't get rich because you work in a certain industry, live in a particular place, were born into a specific kind of family, or are exceptionally smart or hard working. You become rich because you do things in a Certain Way. So says Wallace D. Wattles in his book, The Science of Getting Rich.

Written in 1910, The Science of Getting Rich is one of the source documents upon which the movie The Secret was based. When I watched The Secret, I could sense the truth of the message and was eager to learn how to apply the Secret to my own circumstance. But there seemed to be something missing from the Secret, as if they had kept the actual Secret of it, well, secret.

In one episode of South Park (season 2, episode 17), one of the children, Tweek, has a big problem with underpants gnomes. They keep coming into his room in the middle of the night and stealing his underpants. Since no one believes him, the kids all wait up one night to catch the underpants gnomes red handed. After Cartman hits one of them in the head with a stick (Cartman's like that, you know), the gnome explains why they steal the underpants: "Phase One, steal underpants. Phase Three is profit." So then, what's Phase Two, the kids want to know? The gnomes all look at each other as if none of them had ever thought of that question before. "Phase One, steal underpants. Phase Three is profit," the gnome smugly repeats, as if that explains everything. Well, The Secret felt a bit that way to me, too. As if they had left out Phase Two.

The Science of Getting Rich is all about Phase Two. According to Wattles, one of the biggest lies we've ever been taught is that there is a limited amount of resources on this planet, and that we must compete to get our share before it is snatched up by someone else. This erroneous belief is at the root of all competition and greed. The truth is, all of nature is abundant and excessive. There is more than enough of whatever we could possibly want. There is no need to scrap and compete.

First, we must realize that things are produced by thought. All things. In other words, whatever we think about consistently and with great emotion, is what manifests in our lives. That is why we speak of "manifesting abundance." This idea lies at the heart of the Prosperity Project. We all seem to realize that if we can change the way that we think about money, we will be able to allow money to flow to us more freely. This is the same idea that prompted Napoleon Hill to write Think and Grow Rich.

Second, we must understand that it is perfectly normal and healthy to desire to be rich. All of nature seeks to grow to its ultimate fullness of being. As people, we need money in order to be and do all that which we are capable of being and doing. In order to live life to its fullness, we absolutely need money. Being rich is not wrong or evil, as some of us were taught to believe.

When I first started exploring my strained relationship with money, I realized that I had been trained to believe that anyone who had more money than we did had necessarily done something immoral to get it. Or, that once they got the money the having of it corrupted them in some way. So, naturally, if you want to be good and pure, you have to be poor. Boy, was that ever a messed up point of view. There are still vestiges of that lurking in my mind, which is why I was so excited about trying the Prosperity Project.

I think one of the biggest hurdles many of us face in attracting wealth is this belief that money is somehow bad. It isn't. Money doesn't make us evil any more than spoons make us fat. The Science of Getting Rich spends the first couple of chapters convincing the reader that it's ok to want money. Really. It is the nature of life to continually increase. In order to know more, do more, and be more, it is necessary that we have more of whatever it is that we need to make those things happen. Money helps, although money, in and of itself, is not wealth. Abundant life is wealth.

The real Secret, if you will, is to go about earning and spending our money In a Certain Way. Wallace cautions that we must be careful to examine WHY we want more money. If we want it so we can have more power, women, drugs, booze, toys; if we want it just so that we have more than everyone else; if we want money just to hoard it so we can get to a really big number in our portfolio, then we are acting out of a competitive mind, not a creative one. That is not the Certain Way of which Wattles speaks.

So what is the Certain Way? The attitude we must take concerning every single thing that we do is that of More Life for All. Always give the other person more in value than they give you in exchange for your goods and services. In every transaction, you must have the idea of INCREASE for all concerned. If you provide a service, give them more than they pay for. If you are an employee, give your employer more in services than your paycheck requires. If you continually add value to every person that you encounter in your daily life, then the universe will respond by adding value to you. That added value will often take the form of money.

If you want to be and earn more than you currently do, then the way to grow is to be LARGER than the place you are now. If you more than fill your current position, then growth is inevitable. For example, if you are paid only $10 an hour but you feel you are worth more like $50, then do your $10 an hour job as if you were being paid $50. If, on the other hand, you do mediocre work because you are insulted that you're only being paid $10 an hour, you are pretty much proving that you are being overpaid at $10 an hour. Who would want to put someone like that in a high-paying position? I mean, really? That is the Certain Way. It is a way of excellence, and of More Life for All.

Since attitude is an important part of the Certain Way, Wattles spends a lot of time talking about my favorite topic, Gratitude:

"The more gratefully we fix our minds on the Supreme when good things come to us, the more good things we will receive, and the more rapidly they will come; and the reason simply is that the mental attitude of gratitude draws the mind into closer touch with the source from which the blessings come."

There are a lot of clues in The Science of Getting Rich. Over the past year I've read this book three or four times. I've listened to the audiobook in my car dozens of times, over and over again, like when my daughter was three and she watched The Wizard of Oz three or four times a day. Every day. She learned that movie by heart. That's how well I want to know the truths set forth in this little book.

WHERE TO GET A COPY OF THE BOOK:

The really good news is that this book was written 100 years ago, and the copyrights have long since expired. Here is a link to a pdf file of the book. If you want to get the book for free, you can print it out, as I did, or just read it online. (iPhones are great for reading online books.) Just click on this link:

The Science of Getting Rich at Google Books

Finally, if you are intrigued by Wallace D. Wattles and his Science of Getting Rich, I encourage you to check out the following link to Certain Way Productions. There you will find a link to an e-course that is well worth whatever money you decide to pay. She leaves you on the honor system to pay whatever you believe the course will be worth to you. If you feel like you really cannot afford to pay anything, she will honor that decision, because she believes that if you take this course and apply what you learn, that you cannot help but get rich. She knows that when that happens you will come back some day and pay the money you did not pay today. I think she may be right. I took the course for free, but as I write this review I realize that one day, I will go back and pay her. The audio course is exceptional, and I urge you to take the time to listen and do the workbook exercises. Here is the link:

http://www.scienceofgettingrich.net/

I'll see you back here tomorrow for Day 7 of the Prosperity Project.
Remember, Phase Three is PROFIT!

Prosperity Project Day 6

Greetings, my prosperous friends!

Today we get to deposit $6000. Do you realize what we are doing here? Sure, we're finally getting a chance to buy all the things we've ever wanted so that we can live our lives more fully. And yes, we are all giving some of it away, because it just feels right to share the wealth. But we are doing something even more awesome here: We are creating wealth not just for ourselves, but for the entire economy. Think about it. As we are spending our generous daily allotment, the people and companies who provide those goods and services are receiving money that they can use to pay salaries to the people who produce and deliver those goods and services. Talk about a stimulus plan!

I think it's important to include that fact in our daily visualization, because I firmly believe that money isn't attracted to us just because we want toys; it is attracted to us because we have a desire to use that money to provide "more life for all," as Wallace Wattles puts it. Who is Wallace Wattles? You'll find out more in an upcoming clue.

Today I'm depositing $6000 into my imaginary checkbook. I am imagining that I earned this money as a bonus for making the pool store $60,000 dollars profit in a short period of time. The boss-shaped creature was so happy that he gave me a 10% bonus. Thing 1 and Thing 2 also got bonuses, because without the entire team working together we would have been unable to attain that level of growth.

One of my most persistent longings of late has been to have a room of my own where I can set up my office, library, and music studio. When I gave up my condo in the bankruptcy, I had to give up my perfectly designed work space, and I've been feeling the lack of it. Originally, I thought I would use some of this daily money to rent myself a house until I had enough money to buy something. But I decided that I don't want any bills, I just want a room. So I've decided to build a room onto the front of Keith's already-paid-for house. Because he's really good at that kind of stuff, I asked Keith to help me estimate the cost. Apparently $15,000 will build me a basic room. That will include labor, materials, electricity, walls, ceilings, windows, drywall. Basic room, no plumbing. That way, I can still live and work right from home.

So here is today's accounting:

$6000 deposit

$ 600 God's money goes again today to the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra
$1200 Wealth Building Account (total $3600)
$4200 Continue building my room addition (total $7700)

By tomorrow my room will be finished. Don't you wish building projects would happen that quickly in real life? By building this room I am enhancing my quality of life, giving Keith more room to breathe, and paying a generous salary to the people building my room (Keith and Luke, to be precise). Home Depot and all of their employees and vendors have also benefitted. The world is a better place because that room is there.

That's it for today. Now it's time to go out and make some more money!

CLUE: Visualize Earning Money

In the Prosperity Project, we are imagining that we are earning $1000 more every day and we are deciding how to spend that money. I've started to realize that I'm much better at pretending to spend money than I am at pretending to earn it. Today's clue, then, will be to pretend that you are actually earning the money we deposit every day.

Think about how you make money now. Do you manage a pool store? Sell insurance? Do you have a website? Are you a network marketer? Whatever your current job, imagine yourself doing that. No, really. Only this time imagine yourself doing that and really loving it. Imagine that everyone who uses your service or buys your product gets a massive amount of value out of it. Imagine that you and your customers are so outrageously happy for the service or product you provide that they gladly pay you insane amounts of money. If you have a store, imagine it bigger, with more employees and way more customers. If you sell insurance, imagine dozens of agents in offices all over the country, all making money for YOU. If you have a website, imagine that you are #1 on all the search engines and people are talking about it on Oprah and Twitter. Imagine your site going totally viral. Can you feel you exciting that is? Can you see the money rolling in? How much money? Put a dollar amount on it, and imagine it going into your bank account.

Now, I want you to think about something that you do just for fun. Do you like to write? Take pictures? Do some kind of art? Sing? Dance? Sculpt? Garden? What is your passion? What is the thing that, when you were young, the grownups told you, "That's nice dear, but it's not practical. You'll need to have a real job." Go back to that thing, and now imagine yourself doing it and getting paid big money. Imagine yourself waking up excited and passionate about going through your day. Imagine that you get to do all of the things you like best, and all of the things that you don't like to do, imagine yourself paying someone to do them for you. How would you spend your days? What service or product would you supply that people would be lining up to pay you money for? Imagine yourself doing that. Imagine cashing really big checks.

So for the next few months, every time you deposit money into your imaginary checkbook, take a minute to imagine how you might have earned it. Feel good about being able to bring enough value to others that they are willing to pay you enough to make these large daily deposits. As you imagine, I want you to imagine that although you're grateful for the generous cash flow, you're not really surprised by it. You are, after all, worth every penny.

So let's make some money!!

Prosperity Project Day 5

Today we get to deposit $5000 into our imaginary checkbook and decide how we will spend it.

So far I've flown first class to San Francisco, bought some great walking shoes that I now wear every day, and an all-weather jacket that will go from the Pacific coast to the mountains of North Carolina. I love the cool weather. Flying first class was definitely the way to go!

I bought the latest iPhone so I could get the most functionality out of the tool I carry most. I got a nice point and shoot camera so I can take pictures of things I like as I'm learning to spend money on things. I fixed up my car and cleaned up my house. I upgraded my computer equipment and software to make my computer work easier and more efficient.

Each of us, I've noticed, has spent this early money bringing our current situation up to the standard of our imagination. We each look around us and see how our present situation could be made better. We've bought better tools and fixed up our homes. We've been building the strong foundation to our new lives. We've all been led to give money away to help those that we love also achieve a strong foundation of being totally supported by the universe. We've helped friends in need and are helping to bring music to the world by supporting a brand new orchestra.

This exercise has caused me to pay close attention to how I feel about money. I'm using Byron Katie's Work to explore those feelings, but for now I'm just noticing whenever a limiting belief rears its insistent head. So far I've discovered two: First, I seem to believe that I should only have what I need, meaning it's wasteful to buy things just because I think they'd be fun to have. Second, I feel overwhelmingly guilty whenever I "shamelessly" suggest to people that I have a product to sell. This, I think, is a big reason why I've never made a lot of money. As my brother always says, "They can't say yes unless you ask." I'll have to work on that one.

Come to think of it, my guilt at asking to be paid is probably why I was able to amass $250,000 in debt. Somehow my ability to allow good things into my life grew just a bit faster than my ability to ask to be paid for my contributions. Yes, I'll definitely have to work on that one. One of my friends told me that his first stab at prosperity ended up pretty much the same way. He visualized a certain amount of money, and at the end of the alotted time he had, indeed, attracted that very number. But he attracted that amount of debt, not that amount of wealth. Hmmm. It happened to both of us in just the same way. Sounds like a principle is hidden in there somewhere. A clue, if you will.

My friend Andrea of Horizons Magazine recently sent me imaginary checks written from someone else's imaginary checkbook. There were three of them, all written out to me. One was a contribution from some big important guy for $876,537.73. The next was from a publisher, as first installment on my book: $1,673,241.67. The last one was from the Florida Lottery for my first annual installment of $16,847,642.53. I love that she made checks come from sources that are indeed within the realm of what is possible for me. I am writing a book, I can buy lottery tickets, and I have lots of projects that the big important guy might want to support.

To help me visualize this journey into prosperity, I bought a 3-ring binder where I'm going to put pictures of the stuff that I will be manifesting in my imaginary world. In the front of that binder I've put those three checks, along with the $1,000,000,000 bill I got from Kandi Mundy Phillips of Awaken Your Space. I plan to fill the notebook with pictures and other visual representations of the things that I will be buying with my money. It will be like a vision board.

Visualization is a powerful tool. In order to be effective, we need to be able to actually feel ourselves enjoying the things that we're buying. We need to bring as much emotion into the exercise as possible. We need to imagine the experience using all of our senses: Touch it, feel it, smell it, taste it, see it. Love it. Imagine the people around us being happy. Imagine relationships becoming stronger as we and our loved ones no longer have to spend all our energy struggling just to meet basic needs. Who will you bring with you on this imaginary journey? I think as we do this daily exercise we will begin to find out what it is that we really value. Are you ready?

$5000 Deposit

$ 500 God's Money goes to the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra.
$1000 Wealth Building Account (Total $2400)
$3500 To buy lumber so Keith can build me a studio on the front of the house.

How will you spend your $5000?

CLUE: Examining Our Limiting Beliefs About Money with Byron Katie

Today while I was spending my imaginary money in the Prosperity Project, I came across some limiting beliefs that have been keeping me from attracting money into my life. It reminded me of The Work of Byron Katie, who teaches a simple yet effective method for examining our beliefs and turning them around so that they better serve us. I think as we continue with the Prosperity Project we will be finding many of our limiting beliefs about money will surface as we hit against the walls that are keeping the money from flowing to us. So today's clue is a method for working through those limiting beliefs as we come up against them in the next few weeks and months.

If you're unfamiliar with The Work of Byron Katie, here is a short video demonstrating how she explores and then turns around the limiting belief: "You need more money, Is that true?"

Doing The Work begins by filling out a Judge Your Neighbor Worksheet. The theory is that the things that really drive us crazy about other people's behavior or a situation we think is unbearable, are a direct clue to uncovering our limiting beliefs. Here is what the worksheet looks like:

The Judge-Your-Neighbor Worksheet

Fill in the blanks below, writing about someone (dead or alive) you haven’t yet forgiven one hundred percent. Use short, simple sentences. Don’t censor yourself—try to fully experience the anger or pain as if the situation were occurring right now. Take this opportunity to express your judgments on paper.

1. Who angers, confuses, saddens, or disappoints you, and why? What is it about them that you don’t like?
I am ________________ at ____________________ because __________________________________________________.
Example: I am angry at Paul because he doesn’t listen to me, he doesn’t appreciate me, he argues with everything I say.

2. How do you want them to change?
What do you want them to do?
I want ________________ to __________________________
___________________________________________________.
Example: I want Paul to see that he is wrong.
I want him to apologize.

3. What is it that they should or shouldn't do, be, think, or feel? What advice could you offer?
________________ should/shouldn't_____________________
___________________________________________________.
Example: Paul should take better care of himself. He shouldn't argue with me.

4. What do they need to do in order for you to be happy?
I need________________ to ___________________________
___________________________________________________.
Example: I need Paul to hear me and respect me.

5. What do you think of them? Make a list.
________________ is _________________________________
____________________________________________________.
Example: Paul is unfair, arrogant, loud, dishonest, way out of line, and unconscious

6. What is it that you don't want to experience with that person again?
I don't ever want to __________________________________
____________________________________________________.
Example: I don’t ever want to feel unappreciated by Paul again. I don’t ever want to see him smoking and ruining his health again.

*****

Be brutally honest when you're filling out the worksheet. When you're finished, take each of the six sentences you've written, and then ask the following four questions:

Is it true?

Can you absolutely know that it's true?

How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?

Who would you be without the thought?

Then turn it around (the concept you are questioning), and don't forget to find three genuine, specific examples of each turnaround.

Each turnaround is an opportunity to experience the opposite of your original statement and see what you and the person you've judged have in common.

A statement can be turned around to the opposite, to the other, and to the self (and sometimes to "my thinking," wherever that applies). Find a minimum of three genuine, specific examples in your life where each turnaround is true.

For example, "Paul doesn't understand me" can be turned around to "Paul does understand me." Another turnaround is "I don't understand Paul." A third is "I don't understand myself."

Examples of Turnarounds

Here are a few more examples of turnarounds:

"He should understand me" turns around to:
- He shouldn't understand me. (This is reality.)
- I should understand him.
- I should understand myself.

"I need him to be kind to me" turns around to:
- I don't need him to be kind to me.
- I need me to be kind to him. (Can I live it?)
- I need me to be kind to myself.

"He is unloving to me" turns around to:
- He is loving to me. (To the best of his ability)
- I am unloving to him. (Can I find it?)
- I am unloving to me (When I don't inquire.)

"Paul shouldn't shout at me" turns around to:
- Paul should shout at me. (Obviously: In reality, he does sometimes. Am I listening?)
- I shouldn't shout at Paul.
- I shouldn't shout at me.
(In my head, am I playing over and over again Paul's shouting? Who's more merciful, Paul who shouted once, or me who replayed it a 100 times?)

Embracing Reality

After you have turned around the judgments in your answers to numbers 1 through 5 on the Worksheet (asking if they are as true or truer), turn number 6 around using "I am willing ..." and "I look forward to ..."

For example, "I don't ever want to experience an argument with Paul" turns around to "I am willing to experience an argument with Paul" and "I look forward to experiencing an argument with Paul." Why would you look forward to it?

Number 6 is about fully embracing all of mind and life without fear, and being open to reality. If you experience an argument with Paul again, good. If it hurts, you can put your thoughts on paper and investigate them. Uncomfortable feelings are merely the reminders that we've attached to something that may not be true for us. They let us know that it's time to do The Work.

Until you can see the enemy as a friend, your Work is not done. This doesn't mean you must invite him to dinner. Friendship is an internal experience. You may never see him again, you may even divorce him, but as you think about him are you feeling stress or peace?

It's time that we heal our limiting beliefs against money. Tomorrow we will find another clue that will help us to do just that. Until then ...