|
Abundance IS Yours - CLAIM IT!
 (Originally published in Upline magazine in July, 1998)
Whether we care to admit it or not, most of us are in the business of Network Marketing to make money. For some, it's to make a few hundred dollars to pay off some bills; for others it's to replace or create a full-time income; for others still it's to create a residual income "beyond their wildest dreams". The question many of us don't ask ourselves on a regular basis is, "What am I making the money for?" and "Is the money I'm making actually providing it for me?"
For many, money seems to be the answer to all of our dreams - especially when you can make more money than you are making now. You may think to yourself, "When I'm making $$$$ a month, then I'll be able to do all the things I want to do... life will be fulfilling and abundant...then."
The problem is that, more often than not, when you're making $$,$$$ a month, it still isn't enough. You see how you can make more money - then life will be even more abundant and fulfilling. You may work harder...build your business to be even bigger... make $+$$$,$$$ a month... and still something seems to be missing.
In our culture, money is revered as the answer to all of our problems, and we do whatever we can to make the money we think we need to have the life we want. Only, when and if you actually make that money, life often doesn't feel any more abundant than it did before.
How Do YOU Relate to Money?
While you may think that money is the most important ingredient in your quest to have an abundant life, actually (while it is necessary), it's probably the least important.
Money, in and of itself, does not create abundance. To explain this [radical!] idea, let me use an analogy often made (rightfully or wrongfully) between traditional, western medicine and alternative, holistic medicine.
One of the most common complaints registered against traditional medicine is that its efforts are focused on and directed by the symptoms a person is experiencing, rather than addressing the body (and the person) as a whole. If you have a "sore arm", all attention is directed to relieve the pain in your arm. The physician may x-ray your arm, prescribe therapy for your arm, give you "arm exercises" to do, give you a brace to wear, etc. Again, all attention is focused on your arm.
By contrast, an alternative approach to treatment, while paying attention to your "sore arm", would identify other places in your body and/or lifestyle in which there are energy blocks, toxins, imbalances, etc. that would ultimately create the symptom called a "sore arm". Having discovered these other blocks and imbalances, and focusing most of the treatment on the source, the soreness would go away.
For many of us, money has become our "sore arm"!
Whether we are in debt, on the verge of bankruptcy, just making ends meet, unsuccessfully trying to save for the future, or even if we are making lots of money but still wonder if it will be "enough", we live on a day-to-day basis with a less-than-abundant relationship with money.
Much like traditional medicine, we think that once we have our sore arm "money problems" handled, everything will be fine, life will be fulfilling and abundant, and we will be "healthy" again.
What we don't realize that our present financial situation and relationship with money is only the symptom - it is NOT the cause! To create abundance in our lives (including monetary abundance!) we must look elsewhere in our lives for patterns of scarcity and imbalance. Until these patterns are identified and begin to shift, our financial situation and sense of abundance in life will change incrementally, at best.
The Scarcity Trap
Most of us have been "wired" for scarcity from an early age. This came from messages we've received from parents, teachers, the media, advertising, etc. Starting at a young age, we've been told that "we have to be careful or we may run out of something", that "money doesn't grow on trees", that "we don't have enough money for...." Commercials tell us that we "can't have enough" in life until we have product X or service Y. We look at all that we have accomplished in a day and see only all that we haven't done - that we are "not enough".
If you're making $15,000 a month, it still seems that it's not enough for all that you want to do, to provide for your future, etc. If you're making $1500 a month, it's not enough to do Network Marketing full-time or to have your dreams of financial freedom come true. And if you're making only $300 a month, you may think that you'll never make enough in this business to have the freedom and abundance you desire - "what good does $300 do if I need to make $3,000?" With this thinking, you might consciously or unconsciously quit.
Scarcity thinking also prevents you from seeing new possibilities, discovering new paradigms, and learning new ways to realize the abundance you seek. If you are convinced that the only way to reach your dreams is by making $3,000 per month in your Network Marketing business and you are only making $300, your scarcity thinking may block your ability to discover ways that the same $300, used powerfully and abundantly, will create the financial freedom and abundance you seek (see sidebar).
Psychological, spiritual, and philosophical traditions have taught that "whatever the mind focuses on is manifested in life". Since "not enough" is ever-present in our thinking, "not enough" continues to show up in our day-to-day lives, thereby manifesting itself in our present financial situation, in our debt, in our income level, in our time and energy, and most of all in the true self-empowerment that leads to abundance.
The good news is that scarcity thinking is not necessary! We can "re-train" ourselves to create patterns and experiences of abundance by consciously and consistently shifting the focus of our thoughts from scarcity about life and ourselves ("not enough" thinking) to thoughts of gratitude, acknowledgment, and abundance.
Your Abundance Journal
A simple exercise to get this process started is to create an "Abundance Journal". On a daily basis, write the following sentence: "Today I am grateful for....." and then record ten (10) entries (no more and no less!). Next, write the following sentence: "Today I acknowledge/praise myself for...." and once again record ten (10) entries.
If you continue this faithfully for thirty (30) days, you will notice within yourself a definite, powerful, and profound shift. You'll feel a greater sense of peace, purpose, confidence, gratitude and fulfillment as you handle the activities of your busy day. Make it a lifelong habit and you are laying a powerful foundation for you to experience an abundant, fulfilling life.
This foundation will now support you in addressing your monetary "sore arm". However, rather than directing all of your attention to handling your monetary situation (by making more money, getting out of debt, investing, etc.), you must simultaneously begin to shift deeper patterns of scarcity regarding time, energy, and yourself.
In the book Your Money or Your Life, authors Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin define money as "something for which we choose to exchange our life energy". It could also be said that money is something for which we choose to exchange our time.
If you were to carry this definition a little farther, that would mean that money is just one representation of your life energy and your time. Thus, whatever is true regarding your energy and time will also be true for your money.
To demonstrate what I mean, when you find yourself thinking "I don't have enough money", how often do you also think "I don't have enough energy" and "I don't have enough time"?
For most of us, money seems to be the answer to our problem with time and energy, as if once we have enough money, then we will have enough time and energy to do all the things we really want to do. The exact opposite is true! Until we also begin to shift the underlying patterns of scarcity we create with time and energy, our monetary life will not bring us the desired abundance and fulfillment of which we dream.
Given the definition of money in Your Money or Your Life, it seems obvious to me that unless your energy is flowing abundantly - neither can time or money! Yet, how often are you trying to make money or build your Network Marketing business when you are physically, emotionally, or mentally exhausted, calling it discipline, dedication or commitment?
What keeps driving you, when the energy is not there, is NOT dedication or commitment - it's SCARCITY! You may be afraid that if you don't make 10 phone calls you'll never make any money; if you took the night off and took care of yourself, you'd never have enough time to do what you've said you need to do.
Well, scarcity breeds scarcity, and so the usual outcome from action done "without energy" is NOTHING! Then you begin to feel the scarcity more powerfully - "Nobody signed up...I need to make more calls tomorrow... I need to buy more marketing tools... I need to get better training...."
You continue to operate with a scarcity mindset and a lack of energy, when the thing you most often need to do is take a nap, work-out, read a novel, relax with family or friends, take a bath, go for a walk, or any of the zillion-and-one things you'd love to do but think you can't because you don't have enough time or energy or money!
Because you don't do any of these things to "re-create" or "re-fill" your energy, scarcity of energy, time, and money continues to show up in your life. Your body will tense, tighten, and contract under pressure (a sure sign of scarcity), you'll feel overwhelmed with the "weight of all that you need to do" and wonder why - no matter what you do or what the results are - it is never enough.
Conversely, you've probably experienced those [for some people, rare] days when energy is flowing....you're well-rested...you've exercised...and when you make those phone calls, great things happen. You get this task and that task done; you finish those mailings you procrastinated; and, throughout the process, you continue to get more and more energized. Things seem to happen effortlessly.
Perhaps you connect with that person you've been trying to reach for weeks, it take only a few phone calls to sign up a prospect (and you thought it would take 10!). You feel powerful and life is abundant for you. Those are days when what you get done is more productive and has better results in less time than those other days when you "make it happen", "power your way through", "dig down deep" and try to create abundance when the energy is drained or out of balance.
Creating Balance
If the energy is not flowing in your life - if you are "running on empty" - then neither will money or time or abundance!
If you are committed to abundance in your life, then doing whatever you need to do to keep your energy flowing abundantly (not in the tensed, stressed, forced manner to which we are accustomed) is as important for your monetary success in this business as is making the next 20 calls.
The Abundance Journal is one of the tools you can use to "shift your energy" toward abundance, and you will physically feel the difference when you're using it regularly. In fact, your body will give you all the signals you need to discover when your energy is blocked and scarcity thinking is present. You'll notice a tightness, a tension, a tiredness, a resistance, and you'll first notice it in your body.
Use your body's signals to get the energy flowing again. If you've just made 10 phone calls and been told "No" each time, instead of "buckling down" and making another bunch of calls, notice the tightness, tension, and fear in your body. Get up and do something to change your energy - take a bath, dance, go for a walk, take a deep breath, read for 15 minutes - and once you notice the energy in your body starting to move again, pick up the phone, make your calls, and see what happens! It may only take you two calls to accomplish what you couldn't in the previous 10!
It's often said that people enroll into Network Marketing because of the person who introduces it to them - who that person was "being". Well, if you're tense, energy-less, blocked - if you are living and acting out of scarcity - what are the chances of a person enrolling with you?
Until you - as a Network Marketer - begin to create, access, and experience abundance in your life - in small ways at first - by breaking free of scarcity patterns, focusing on gratitude and acknowledgment, paying attention to and honoring your energy, you will not experience the monetary abundance that you seek. Even if you are making money in this business, you will not feel and experience the abundance you have without these underlying shifts.
Don't get me wrong - there's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to make money in Network Marketing. This business is one of the most powerful ways for people to make more money than they can imagine. But as you are making the money or taking actions in this business to do so, always remember: Abundance and fulfillment do not come from money alone. Abundance and fulfillment begin within you. As you break lifelong patterns of scarcity, as you honor and replenish and balance your energy and time, ultimately the level of income you desire will - through the actions you take - be realized.
Things To Do When Your Energy Is Blocked And Scarcity Is Present
- Focus on the abundance you have instead of on all those things you don't have. Write in your "Abundance Journal" daily (or more frequently if necessary).
- Get up and get moving! Do something physical: exercise, run, bike, walk, dance, swim, play racquetball, golf, etc.
- Take several deep breaths and feel your body relax and the energy start to flow again.
- Listen to music - especially music that lifts your energy and is fun! Oldies, rock n' roll, jazz, country swing - whatever is your thing!
- Nurture yourself. Take a luxurious bath, get a massage or facial, curl up with a novel, take a nap. Go to a coffeehouse or bookstore and read and "people-watch" over a cup of cappuccino.
- Connect with a friend. Laugh. Giggle. Plan your next get-together.
- Give someone a hug - and get one back! It will shift both of your energies!
- Go to or rent a movie. Curl up with friends or family and enjoy yourself.
- Do something fun, just for yourself, everyday. Play produces abundant energy!
- Look at your vision sheet/vision board. Daydream. Experience one aspect of your vision as if it is already true.
- Take some "being" time: meditate, do yoga, deep breathing, journal, pray, reflect.
- Get out in nature. Let the energy of nature refill, revitalize, and replenish your own energy.
- Get into massive action. Make a game of making as many calls as you can in an hour - don't worry about results! Massive action creates a surge of energy - which, ultimately, creates results!
Do You Have a "Flat Forehead Moment" to
CELEBRATE?
Click Here to Join the Flat Forehead Club
and Claim Your FREE Prize!
|
