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February 16th, 2009 | Posted in Blog | No Comments
Some people scorn at the mere mention of money. How many times have you heard people say “Money is the root of all evil” or “Money isn’t everything”? Well, they are right; at least for them.
They truly believe these statements; however, most people never examine what they believe.
For the longest time, many people believed that the earth was flat and that if you traveled the end of it, you would fall off the edge. People were trapped; they were stuck in a world that reached out only as far as they could see. They were stuck not because that was all that they had available to them, but because that’s all they “believed” they had. But it was an illusion that they created by what they believed to be the truth.
They firmly held on to this belief until one day someone proved them wrong by sailing around the world. And in doing so, a whole new world of possibilities and opportunities opened up for everyone.
Our Belief System (B.S.) is a funny creature. You see, beliefs are not necessarily based on what’s true or factual in the world. They are formed based on what we heard, observed, or have been taught, and they have tremendous power over the quality of your entire life. You adopted your many of your core beliefs when you were a child. During your childhood, your beliefs about money were transferred to you from your parents, teachers, religious leaders, televisions, and your friends, and these beliefs have become apart of the programming in your subconscious mind. Your money beliefs dictate if you are an abundant and prosperous or not. They created a filter which directs all of your decisions you make and actions you take which have a direct effect on the financial results you get in your life.
Now, you can believe whatever you want to believe about money; however, you must realize that you will attract events, circumstances, experiences, and people into your life that are in alignment with your beliefs, which will in turn strengthen those beliefs further. This attraction is the essence of The Law of Attraction.
Some of your beliefs are beneficial, such as the belief that you should save a percentage of all money you earn. However, other beliefs can keep you locked in a mental prison of unhappiness, financial mediocrity, or poverty. I call these types of beliefs, limiting beliefs or blockers because they literally limit what you believe is possible for you to experience in your life, and they block your prosperity and your happiness. In fact, these beliefs say you are a “limited Being”, thus they prevent you from having financial abundant.
Here are some examples of limiting beliefs:
Money doesn’t grow on trees!
I can’t afford that!
You can’t be rich and spiritual!
Rich people are greedy and dishonest!
If I’m wealthy, my friends will be jealous and stop liking me!
I’m not smart enough to be wealthy!
I have to work harder if I want to earn more money!
Do any of these sound familiar to you?
The list of limiting beliefs probably can continue to fill several pages because most people have hundreds of limiting beliefs which blocks the flow of financial abundance from flowing into their lives. You may not know this yet, but your money beliefs are the blueprint for your financial results, and they will determine your level of financial abundance you choose and are willing to accept into your life. Most people never do any critical thinking to investigate what they believe and why they believe it. If they did, most would be surprised what they found.
Now, if you have limiting beliefs in you subconscious mind, you can transform them into more productive and positive beliefs, which then supports you in being open to receiving financial abundance.
For example:
There is an infinite amount of wealth me to tap into, and it flows in my life constantly.
I can do what I love, and earn money doing it.
Money is easy to earn.
I can be rich, and I can be Zen (spiritual).
Now, you are entitled to your beliefs, but let me ask you a question. How have your beliefs been working out for you so far?
If you’re not experiencing financial abundance and prosperity, then I invite you to examine your beliefs you hold about money and wealth. Are you willing to give up old, worn out beliefs that do NOT serve you in order to live an abundant, prosperous life?
To do this, you’re going to need to identify your hidden money beliefs and transform them. I can hear you saying “If my beliefs are hidden, how do I know what they are?”
One way you can identify your hidden limiting belief is by looking at the difference between your desires and your current results. For example, if you truly desire to have a new BMW, but you’re driving a 10 year old, beat up old Ford, then you have a belief in your subconscious mind that repels the BMW from your life.
Action Item: Limiting Beliefs
To discover this belief or beliefs, do the following exercise. Get a sheet of paper and draw a vertical line down the paper center of the page to create two columns. In the left column, write your desire. In the right column, right the reason why you don’t have it.
For example, let’s say you desire a 2008 BMW 535.
In the left column, write 2008 BMW 535. In the right column, wite all the reasons you don’t have it.
For example, you may write:
•I can’t afford that car.
•This is a car for a rich person, and I am not rich.
•I don’t deserve a car like this!
•People will think I am wasting my money if I purchased this car.
•My friends will think I am trying to be better than them.
•This car is too classy for me.
It is very worthwhile to spend some time looking at the reasons why you believe you can’t have your desires right now. So, do this exercise and write down your reasons about why you can’t have your desires as they in pop into your conscious mind. Thee reasons you write in the right colum are your limiting beliefs that his block what you desire.
Once you identify your limiting beliefs, you must transform them into beliefs that will support you in becoming a money magnet. To transform your limiting beliefs can be as simple as deciding one day that a particular belief no longer serves you, and then choose a new belief to replace it.
Another limiting belief that I had was that it took hard work to make money. After examining this belief, I concluded if hard work guaranteed financial success, then all construction workers would be wealthy. After all, these people work really hard, but most of these workers are far from being wealthy. If you are working hard and working long hours on your job, are you wealthy yet or are you still trapped in the “rat race”? This limiting belief has been passed down from generation to generation, but do you see the fallacy in this belief?
Transforming your limiting beliefs can take some time and diligent effort, but it’s absolutely achievable. I did it, and thousands of other people live financially abundant lives. Now, the process of overcoming your limiting beliefs is like peeling off the layers of an onion. As you peel off the layers, more abundance will flow into your life.
Rich Blessings
Ettore
February 12th, 2009 | Posted in Blog | No Comments
THE MAGNET AND THE IRON
An interesting phenomenon has been discovered by scientists studying magnets and pieces of iron. A magnet is simply a piece of iron in which all of the molecules are oriented in the same direction, which means that they all have their positive pole in the same direction and their negative pole in the opposite. The molecules are ordered. In the common piece of iron this is not so. The molecules are randomly oriented and not organized.
You will have noticed that when we put an ordinary piece of iron in contact with a magnet, it temporarily obtains the qualities of the magnet and can attract other pieces of iron. While in contact it obtains magnetic powers.
When it is removed from the magnet, it looses those powers. But what scientists discovered was that the ordinary iron was not exactly the same after this contact. Some subtle changes had taken place. Some molecules had, under the power of magnetic field, actually changed position and more of them were oriented in the same direction. This slight change after each contact between the magnet and the iron is called “the hysteresis effect”. If this contact occurs for a long enough period of time, or for sufficient number of repetitions, then the ordinary piece of iron undergoes enough of a change in its molecular orientation, so that it permanently becomes a magnet. After such a transformation, it maintains its magnetic powers even when it is not in contact with the magnet.
This is an excellent example of what happens to the mind after years of meditation. The magnet is the inner self, soul, spirit, higher self or higher intellect, or even God, depending on the way in which you have learned to view the spiritual self. The ordinary piece of iron is our mind.
During meditation we bring the mind into contact with this higher aspect of our being. Temporarily, for the duration of this contact, the mind obtains the qualities of peace, clarity, freedom, bliss and wisdom. It is under the influence of the power of the spirit. We come out of meditation, we return to our ordinary way of thinking and reacting. But a small, imperceptible change has taken place like the “hysteresis effect” in the piece of iron. Our mind has been slightly altered by this contact. Our mental energies are slightly more organized, more focused in a spiritual direction, less scattered, more centered.
When this goes on for years, then we begin to experience those spiritual qualities throughout the day more and more. These feelings are no longer limited to the duration of the meditation. Just as the piece of iron, through repeated contact with the magnet, obtained magnetic powers, the mind, through regular daily contact with the spirit, obtains spiritual qualities and our energies are more spiritually oriented.
Rich Blessings
Ettore
February 6th, 2009 | Posted in Blog | 2 Comments
If you are like most people, you may feel at the mercy of life and that you have little power over how things turn out. Nothing could be further from the truth.
You can learn to use attraction to have more of what you want. The Law of Attraction is a powerful force and is responsible for most of what you experience in life (good and bad). It is accessible to every human being at every moment in time. All you have to do is learn how to harness it to make it work to your advantage.
Everything in the world is made of energy - you, a rock, tree, or table. Energy is vibration, and everything vibrates. As a human (energetic) being, you have a frequency that you vibrate at - sometimes high, low, or in-between.
Magnetic energy is attached to your thoughts. For example, when you feel “up”, filled with joy, gratitude, you are sending out frequency vibrations that magnetize good stuff to you. Fear, worry, guilt, shame send out lower frequencies. Thus, the way we think, is the way we feel, is the way we vibrate, is the way we attract!
No one is immune to the power of attraction. When you are not intentional about what you want, you create by default. Everything in your life you have attracted because of the person you are - what you think and feel, including your work, significant other, home, financial success or distress. Even challenges and opportunities have been attracted into your life because of your persistent thoughts about them.
The law states, “that which is like unto itself is drawn.” Simply put, like attracts like. Happy people attract happy people. Anger will draw frustrating circumstances. A prosperous mind attracts money-making opportunities. Doubt breeds more doubt. The law of attraction is neutral. It can help you or hurt you. Your state of mind will equal your state of life - be it positive, loving and flowing or negative, fearful, and stuck.
Like it or not, you are getting what you are getting because of how you are attracting. If you are not happy with what you have, you have not matched your vibration/intention to your desire. Keep doing and feeling what you have been and you will get more of the same.
In other words, if you say you want to be rich, and yet feel poor and unworthy inside, your emotions will send out the frequency of lack, and that is what the universe will supply you with. You are creating your experience at this moment.
Your thoughts are a form of energy that vibrate at a speed determined by the level of emotional intensity accompanying the thought. The more loving, fearful, doubtful, etc. you are, the more rapidly your thoughts radiate from you and attract similar people and situations to match that feeling state to you.
Attraction is an unconscious energy - you can’t see it, but you can feel it. It’s the “vibe” that you give off. Intentional attraction is the conscious recognition of the quality of your vibration and the deliberate choice of where and what you point that vibration towards.
To become more attractive, you must reprogram yourself into the affirmative and positive. Do not say or think, “I don’t want to be poor anymore” or “I don’t want to be treated badly.” When you think in the negative, what you are sending out into the universe is what you don’t want. And lo and behold, you will experience financial setbacks and/or unhealthy relationships.
For an entire week monitor your thoughts and words. When you catch yourself dwelling on the negative, use a thought-stopping technique and substitute it with something affirmative. Research shows that thoughts held consistently for about 15-20 seconds will begin to attract similar energy. This is a great reason to read, review, and reflect! on your goals and purpose daily, so as to reinforce what you really do want.
To activate this law in your life, pay attention to your thoughts and change them to a higher frequency. Be aware of your desires and take action on manifesting them. Put your energy and focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want. Be open to synchronicities, welcome people and opportunities that show up to help you fulfill your desires.
Creative visualization and affirmations also support your desires. Use anything that helps you to be focused and upbeat. This makes it difficult for the message to get mis-communicated. Watch for sending mixed signals. Consciously align your thoughts, feelings, and actions and you will see amazing results.
Be like a student. Read, write, repeat, learn, re-learn what it is you are trying to get. If you want more love, be love, and do love. Make love your mantra. Feel loving and most of all, give love away. Because the more you share love, the more it will come back to you.
Benjamin Disraeli said, “As you think, so shall you be.” If you think positive thoughts, you will have positive feelings, and thus more positive experiences. When you apply the principles of attraction to your own life, you start to co-create with the universe and reclaim your personal power. You will discover that you really can have more of what you want and find it much, much easier to come by. And guess what, success leads to more success!
Rich Blessings
Ettore
February 3rd, 2009 | Posted in Blog | No Comments
What one quality do all successful business owners share?
Countless institutions, organizations, business pundits and media have posed the following questions: What makes an entrepreneur an entrepreneur? What traits and characteristics best describe that unique person who successfully starts and grows a business enterprise?
There have been as many answers as there have been inquirers. Some say entrepreneurship cannot be taught. Some say it can. Some say you’re born with it; some say you acquire it. Some define entrepreneurs as artists; others as scientists. Some see entrepreneurs through a prism of words: passion, leadership, tunnel vision, clarity of mind, focused, disciplined, charismatic, creative, competitive. Some see entrepreneurs through a prism of feelings: possessed, obsessed, intense, consumed, rigid, insatiable, driven. Some describe entrepreneurs as obsessive compulsives; others as control freaks. Some describe entrepreneurs as insiders; others as outsiders. Some describe entrepreneurs as risk takers; others as risk averse.
And yet, while all these words describe some entrepreneurs, they don’t describe all entrepreneurs-at least not those who are preeminently successful.
It’s my position that all successful entrepreneurs possess one fundamental ability, one fundamental quality, one fundamental skill, one fundamental interest, without which they would never be successful: Entrepreneurs possess the ability to perceive the world as a system. Without a doubt, every entrepreneur worth his or her salt is a “systems thinker.” They could not do what they do without it.
What is a systems thinker? A systems thinker is one who intuits and sees the whole of a thing, the entirety of it, the one-ness of it, the integrated unity of it, as opposed to merely the sum of its parts. A systems thinker:
Transcends the world in order to transform it.
Is an inventor as opposed to an engineer.
Sees purpose in everything, and sees the system as the realization of the purpose.
Sees meaning in everything and, if not, pursues everything until the meaning becomes clear, until the system reveals itself in all its glory.
Is possessed by the meaning of things.
All great entrepreneurs are systems thinkers. Your business isn’t simply a group of people doing work. It is, or it should be, a business system that’s operated by people. The systems do the work, and people operate the systems. Your business should be systems-dependent, not people-dependent. Systemic thinking will set you free.
With no systems in place, your business depends on you and on a few people who run things for you. If you or they disappear, even for a short time, your business is thrown into chaos. But if you have the right systems in place, the systems run your business, and nearly anyone can run the systems.
If you have the right systems in place, you can decide suddenly to take a three-month vacation, and your business won’t skip a beat. If you have the right systems in place, your key employees could suddenly quit, and you could replace them easily with no ill effect on your business. If performance isn’t up to snuff, rather than blame your people and argue with them, you simply adjust the system. If problems and opportunities arise, you respond by creating new systems or adjusting existing systems. With the right systems in place, you can work every day in your business-or not. It’s your choice, because your system is what’s really running your business.
Systemic thinking is second nature to successful entrepreneurs, and it’s the real secret behind building a business that works. All who wish to become great entrepreneurs need to learn how to become a systems thinker. Or, more accurately, they need to develop their innate passion for seeing things whole and transcending the world. Their world. Our world. All worlds.
Michael Gerber is the founder and chairman of E-Myth Worldwide, where he invented a revolutionary small-business development system that’s been proven in thousands of businesses across the globe. Since 1977, Gerber has been sharing his business success strategies with millions of fans of his E-Myth books, audiotapes and programs. As a business-coaching pioneer and bestselling author, Gerber has changed the face of small business by providing entrepreneurs with an innovative and stunningly clear understanding, capability and process to transform any small business into a world-class enterprise.
Rich Blessings
Ettore
February 1st, 2009 | Posted in Blog | No Comments
There are essentially two different ways that you can make a million dollars: the easy way and the smart way.
The Easy Way
The simplest way to become a millionaire is to choose the right parents and/or grandparents. Paris Hilton of the Hilton Hotel chain fortune “chose” this route, as did Jamie Johnson of Johnson & Johnson and many others. Since our lineage and the occasional corresponding trust funds are usually out of our control, most of us can’t take advantage of this method.
If you’re incredibly lucky or have a knack for trivia, you might have a chance at winning the lottery, hitting it big in Las Vegas or winning a load of cash on a game show. But those methods may or may not throw you into the millionaire circle. Plus, with the Las Vegas approach you may find that you’re hooked (in which case, you should see our How Craps Works article) and subsequently lose your fortune on your next boondoggle.
If you have extreme athletic talent, you stand a slim chance of making millions as a professional athlete. LeBron James, who went straight from high school to the NBA, got a $90 million contract from Nike before he had even played a single professional basketball game.
The Smart Way
Even if you’re not a trust-fund baby and aren’t the luckiest person around, you can still make it big. As we mentioned earlier, most millionaires are self-made, ordinary people very much like you. But they set a goal to become a millionaire — or at least a goal to achieve financial freedom. In order to achieve their goals, most of them started their own businesses simply because it’s difficult to earn enough money to become a millionaire when you’re working for someone else. Instead, you’re making them a millionaire.
Nothing is a sure thing. But if you want to really have a chance at making a million dollars then working for yourself is one of the best ways. Of course, starting your own business means taking a risk, but it may not be the risk we’ve always thought it to be. According to an article at Business.com, the old saying that nine out of 10 new businesses fail just isn’t true. The author, Dan Kehrer, says that “a review of businesses gone bust by StartupJournal.com, a Dow Jones & Co. division, shows that the number of outright business failures in the United States is highly exaggerated.”
The article also explains that about one-third of business closures that government statistics assume to be failures are actually successful businesses. Their owners simply sold off pieces of the business or closed them to retire or pursue other activities.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Tracking Series show about 65 percent of new businesses still operating after four years. Another recent study estimates that only 10 percent of the nation’s 5.5 million small businesses (not counting solo operators) close each year.
With this outlook for success, maybe starting that new business isn’t such a risk after all. If you do fail, just remember that with each failure comes experience and knowledge to help the next venture succeed. Many self-made millionaires failed at businesses before they got it right. And each time they failed, they learned a lesson for their next business idea.
Rich Blessings
Ettore
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