Prosperity Project, Phase 2: Do What You Love, Do It With Others

Greetings, my prosperous friends.

Every day we're learning a little bit more about how we can go from making the small (or nonexistent) amount of money we are earning now, to making enough money that we can have real wealth.  We decided that wealth is simply the freedom to be, do, and have anything that we can dream of, and that money is only an energetic tool that can help to make that happen.  And yesterday, we explored the idea that successful people exude self-confidence because they are doing something that they are knowledgeable about and that they do well. 

So now, let's look at our answers to yesterday's study question.  When you are in the flow, when time stand stills, when you are doing work that you enjoy, what are you doing?  The answer to that question is one clue to answering the question, "What can I do that will earn me some real money?"  

On Day 27 of the Prosperity Project, we talked about the idea of a Master Mind.  People like Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie amassed huge fortunes because they didn't rely only on their own limited personal knowledge.  Instead, they assembled a team of people, each of whom were experts in their particular field.  These people didn't need to know everything about making cars or steel, they only needed to know their own part of it.  If everyone on the team does what they do best, then they will be doing work that engages them and for which they have a passion.  A team assembled around that level of excellence is bound to be successful.  Ford and Carnegie themselves were doing work that they did best:  they were excellent at having a vision, seeing the big picture, and organizing and directing the efforts of their team. 

Now, I want to digress here for a moment to point out that not everyone is destined to be a master of industry.  Not everyone is an entrepreneur, so although it is popular in these times to entertain the idea of starting your own business, that route may not be for you.  Remember, that wealth is being free to be, do, and have, whatever you want.  Owning your own business may require that you spend long hours doing work that you hate, and being tied to a business that you can't leave or it will fail.  That is not freedom. 

My brother, for example, is a master craftsmen.  He can take old furniture and turn it into a priceless work of art.  He can turn fabric into stunning high-end draperies that have been showcased in major national trade magazines.  He loves working in his shop; he is the very best at what he does, and he enjoys his work immensely.  He is limited in the money that he can earn, however, because his earnings are tied to his personal labor.  Granted, he gets top dollar for his work because of the level of excellence that he puts into his pieces, but if he wants to make any real money at it he needs to hire help.   He tried that for a short time, but realized that he was spending his time managing his staff instead of working in his shop.  Instead of being a master craftsman, he had turned into a manager and hated his job! 

The point that I am making here is that our aim is to create the life that will bring us the most pleasure.  We want to have a life that is so enjoyable that when we open our eyes in the morning we bound out of bed ready to greet the new day.  If we hate our job, that is very unlikely.  If we hate our job, it doesn't matter how much money it pays.  If, then, we are to be successful, we want to design a life around activities that we enjoy.  We want to spend our days doing what we love to do best. 

In order to be successful, in order to earn larger wages doing work that we enjoy, we should follow Ford and Carnegie's lead and become a part of a Master Mind team.  That could take many forms:  we could be the entrepreneur who is the visionary who puts that team together; we could form a partnership with others who are starting up a new enterprise, or we could be happy simply being an employee of a company that pays us to play at what we love all day.  We don't have to own a business in order to be considered successful, we simply need to be doing work that makes us happy.  

So how, then, do we get there?  As the Munchkins told Dorothy, "It is always best to start at the beginning."  Start where you are.  If you have a job already, even if it is a job that you don't particularly enjoy and that does not pay you much money, begin working that job as if you are an integral part of a Master Mind team.   Do your part of the job with enthusiasm, with the idea of advancing the cause of the team. It will be wonderful practice for you, and because you will now be focusing on the positive aspects of the job instead of on the parts that you hate, you will begin attracting more opportunities to be an essential part of a successful team.  I guarantee that if you begin working your current job with enthusiasm, you will find that your current job will evolve:  you will find yourself spending more time doing work that you love, and less time doing the stuff you hate. 


If you do not currently have a job, then you have lots of free time on your hands.  Volunteer for something that allows you to use the skills that you identified yesterday as being your favorite thing to do.  Don't worry that you're spending your time working for free; you will be adding value to the world by doing work you love, and the Universe will reward you by sending to you more opportunities to do that work for a fee.  Remember that the Universe wants to support you. 

Today's study question will help you to gain a clearer picture of the kind of work that you are ultimately wanting to attract to yourself:

IF MONEY WERE NO OBJECT, HOW WOULD YOU SPEND YOUR DAYS? 

The Birthplace of Dreams

Ever wonder where our dreams come from?   Why do we want what we want?  What drives us to try new things?  Is it possible to locate the power source from whence dreams are born and consciously to nurture that power?  Can we purposely increase the vibrational energy of our dreams until they manifest, fully born, into our world?  How do we learn to do that?

Here on the Prosperity Project, our dreams have centered around creating physical spaces for ourselves that contain everything we could ever need or want as we go about the playful work of creating stuff.  Robyn created a business that lets her spend her days doing work that feels like play to her.  Bob created a woodshop that allows him to create with his hands while his mind is busy mulling over the thoughts that eventually turn into his books.  I built myself a room with a view, where I could write in peaceful solitude.  Then I made it a movable room so I can always be at home, wherever my heart may lead me.

Our dreams, then, have been dreams of creation; it turns out that our hearts' desire has been to live in a world where we can spend all day playfully creating things that add value to our world, and the world in turn rewards us with grateful plenty.  The more we play, the more abundantly prosperous our lives are becoming.  I don't think it's an accident that creativity is tied up with the notion of revenue.  The energy of creativity is born out of our second chakra.  It is the same chakra, interestingly enough, that also governs our relationship with money.  Could it be that if our relationship with money is strained that it might somehow affect our ability to create?  Could it be that if we are blocking our creative impulse we might also somehow be blocking our ability to allow money to flow toward us?  I wonder.

In Invisible Acts of Power, Carolyn Myss  explores the energies of the seven main chakras as they are expressed in acts of service.  For example, the first chakra, whose energy has to do with physical survival and tribal security, is associated with gifts of shelter and food.  Sometimes, when people have hit rock bottom, it is an appropriate act of service to respond by helping them get a place to live and food to eat.

Whereas the energy of the first chakra grounds us and ensures our physical survival by encouraging us to conform to our tribe, second chakra energy is associated with interpersonal power ... particularly in the forms of sex and money.  This is the energy center that controls our desire to create, and it is this energy that sets us apart from the others in our tribe.  When we add value to our world by playing in our workshops, we are operating out of second chakra energy; and it is second chakra energy that causes money to flow toward us as a result of our creativity.  It is no wonder, then, that Myss relates second chakra energy with what she calls "Gifts of Survival -- Financial and Creative Support."  Myss, an intuitive, says it much better than I can:

[W]orking with your creative energy is as essential to your health and overall well-being as breathing and eating.  Creative energy is a basic survival instinct; it motivates us to become part of society, to become productive, to bring things to life, and to distinguish ourselves from others by what we make, the crafts we pursue, the skills we develop in business or in cultivating friendships, the entrepreneurial ideas we conceive, the problems we resolve, and the children or communities we birth and nurture.  Yet many people have creative ideas and yearnings that they do not pursue out of a fear of financial failure or embarrassment, or because they are reluctant to step outside of their normal way of life and change it.  They abort their dreams, not realizing that psychological and emotional abortions can be more devastating than physical ones.  As a medical intuitive, I have seen many depressions and other chronic suffering at whose source was the repression and denial of a strong creative urge.   

 I find it fascinating that each of us here on the Prosperity Project, as we were choosing where to give our money, chose to give second chakra gifts of financial and creative support.  Robyn's foundation gave money to the symphony and to other fledgling business endeavors that were the product of her friends' creative impulses.  Bob gave away money to a friend to help her start her business, and also gave gifts of money to random strangers ... both second chakra acts of service.  I gave all of my money to music ensembles, because learning to finally give expression to my own creative impulses by singing in a chorus is what once saved my own life.

I have always heard that whatever you are hoping to manifest in your own life, that is exactly the seed that you should sow into someone else's life.  If, for example, you fear that you don't have enough money, you should make it a point to tithe a portion of your money.  If you fear you don't have enough time, you should tithe a portion of your time.  As you sow, so shall you reap.  If we, then, are wanting to manifest into realities these dreams we have of the perfect workshop, studio, or business, perhaps we should look around us to find someone into whose life we can plant those very seeds. Do you know someone with a dream?  How can you help them make that dream a reality?  I bet in helping them, your dreams will also come true before you even have time to notice. 

Maybe next we should make a game out of planting some seeds ...  I wonder what would happen? 

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?