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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

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?

5 comments:

  1. I seriously need a vacation. We want to go back to Disney. Today, instead of my usual frugalness when it comes to Disney, I am going full-out.

    $8000 Deposit

    $800 - God
    $6,149.37 - trip to Disney for a full week which includes staying at the Grand Floridian, park hopper passes, and all the yummy Disney food we can eat.

    The rest of the money is for spending money. :)

    I will set my real life goal for $1000 for Brian and I to get new wedding bands by our anniversary in March.

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  2. Setting our sights on a goal ... travel is what comes to mind for me as well. New Zealand is my destination, and I'll want to go there in spring which is fall here so I will make my goal achievable next September, a year from now. That gives me plenty of time to save up for first class air fare and expenses. Since I want to stay there an entire month, I'll start putting aside some money now.

    I also want to make a contribution today to a place I wish did not have to exist. We delivered Job Source there when I was publishing that little paper and the folks who ran the place just felt like it was something very special to them. It is the Missouri Victim Center and it is a safe shelter for battered women and children. It makes me very sad that places like that are needed and I especially felt honored to be welcomed there each week if only to drop off a stack of employment ads because, being a man, it would be easy not to be trusted by anyone there. I admire the work the shelter does to help families in dire need and I want to help out.

    Today's deposit: $8,000

    Wealth building: $1,000
    Contribution to MO Victim Center: $1,000
    Travel fund: $1,000
    Materials for workshop: $5,000

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  3. Playing office for a living is fun, but I do miss paychecks. My real life goal is to pay down my real life debt. Details have been faithfully recorded in my journal, where I can keep better track.

    On to the prize of the day... I took a funny little flea market find to the Antiques Roadshow when they showed up in Cocoa, just out of the blue. Wouldn't you know my funny little flea market find was actually a rare & valuable widget which sold at auction for...

    $8000 which I promptly deposited into FNBMI Yaaaaaa! Found money is easy to spend so here goes.

    $1000 to my kids. They could each use a nice little bit of found money & I don't think God would mind If I use His money to better the lives of my own kids. Just evey now & again. So $500 to Jason & $500 to Mckenzie. That was fun.

    $1000 for two round trip tickets to Rockford so I can take my granddaughter Kira home to meet her great grandparents.
    $1000 to stay at the nicer hotel in town. This one has the indoor pool so we can play when we're not with my folks.
    $500 rental car. I bet Kira's would love riding around with Nana in a Mustang all week. Even if she is trapped in the backseat with great grandma Dot. (Soneone has to do it.)
    $1000 for a day trip with the old folks. Maybe a River boat cruise, they'd like that.
    $500 walking around money
    $1000 for hubby but if he wants to spend any more he has to play the game himself.
    $1000 to fix my ring. I can't believe I didn't fix it right after I paid for my crowns.
    $1000 gift to my parents. It would be helpful.

    I have to say I struggled with the $8000 until I actually wrote out my goal. I'm glad I fixed my ring. I've really missed it.

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  4. There are so many ideas swirling around in my head, I'm just going to starting writing them down. Here goes:

    Naturally, I've spent my imaginary money in a much larger way because it was... imaginary. But, I have had several awarenesses in the process: 1) my consumer debt is manageable, not dire. It will get paid off, but in accomplishing that, I feel I need to respect what money I do have, and to do that, I need to respect myself (more). Buy the necessities, AND buy the niceties that honor ME and help ME cherish ME, but do it in a thoughtful manner. 2) All my life, the grass has always been greener on the other side. I am finding that this is not necessarily true. Abundance is created from within. If I'm not content with what is in front of me, how can I think that something 'out there' is going to satisfy and fulfill? 3) People are far more important than things. 4) This is just an observation: I use the term 'savings', you all use the term 'wealth building'. Did I miss something in the clues, or am I still evolving? : )

    Setting realistic goals. This is somewhat difficult for me at this time in my life. After coming through a sad divorce after a twenty year marriage, I had enough to buy a house and a comfortable savings. I bought a little less than 800 sq ft fixer-upper with a little garage for me, and a BIG GARAGE (1200 sq ft) for Hubby. I wouldn't have gone in for the fixer-upper part, but the place kept appearing in the real estate lists. It was in my price range, had the space for Hubby, and is a block from my mother, five blocks from my bestie, Cindy Lou. My dream was to have space enough for Hubby to have all his guy-stuff, and me to have a twenty year project in transforming this little shack into an English cottage with roses and the white picket fence.

    Then my mom got cancer the second time and a third time. I was her primary caregiver. Less hours at work, smaller paycheck. Both Hubby's clunker vehicles crapped out in the same week, so we bought him a new truck. While on vacation, my paid-for car gave up the ghost. Had to buy another vehicle just to get home. Then the Hubby totaled his new truck. Had to buy another... Then Hubby was diagnosed with end-stage liver disease. Took a year and a half to get him stabilized and evaluated in order to get him listed for transplant. His care as well as the transplant process has required that I be available 24/7. That all being said, my paycheck again became much smaller, my savings has been depleted, and I've not been able to begin the remodel.

    Realistically??? I would like to see $5000 in the bank BEFORE he gets called for transplant. We have to travel from Utah to Houston, It's a minimum of a six week stay IF there are no complications, with an undetermined amount of time if there are complications. If might be soon, it could be years.

    By April 15th, I would like to have the maximum contribution of $5000 made to my IRA.

    I would like to see my credit card debt decrease every month, instead of maintain at a constant level because I keep using it.

    In order to care for others, I definitely need to take care of myself. I want to schedule all my annual medical, dental and vision checkups as needed and to be able to pay cash for each one. I also want to continue with my monthly massages, pedicures, book sniffing at Barnes and Noble.

    After the first of the year, I will start getting bids on remodeling the house bit by bit, and I think I will start with the bathroom.

    Tomorrow, I will start my work week by doing the work befitting an invaluable, irreplaceable and thus highly paid employee. : )

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  5. And now to spend my imaginary $8000:

    (I've already imaginatively done a lot of what I've talked about above, so I'm moving forward from there...)

    $1000 - savings
    $2000 - to my mom to help pay down her debt
    $2000 - to my brother to help pay down his debt
    $2000 - to my niece to help pay for her braces so she can have an even more beautiful smile
    $1000 - for me to take a week vacation to visit my girlfriend in Sacramento

    wow. Life is Good today, isn't it. : )

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