Why Making Money Is Difficult

Are you frustrated at why you are not making money the way you would like to?
It appears as if things just don't seem to work out right? Yes you work hard, but it seems as if for every 2 steps forward that you take, 3 steps backwards follows. Making money just seems impossible and it's certainly not from a lack of effort. Why?

Chances are, that there are internal blocks more powerful than you realize that are sabotaging your efforts of making money.

The mind is composed of two parts, the conscience and subconscious parts. The part of the mind that wants to make money, achieve success and all that good stuff is the conscious mind. The part that may be stopping you form achieving your desires is the subconscious mind.

As renowned American developmental biologist and author of "The Biology of Belief" Dr. Bruce Lipton explains, our lives are run by habits, not desires. Your habits are simply your programmed responses to stimuli. The responses are in the form of thought and eventually action. All this is run by your subconscious mind. Your desires, on the other hand, are things that you strongly aspire to have. You control the conscious mind so you will take action to attain these desires.

The thing is, the subconscious mind controls 95% of what you do but you are unlikely to even notice. If what you desire (Making Money) differs from what your subconscious programming wants (status quo), then its like swimming against a really, really, really strong current. You efforts will be futile.
So what are these three major blocks to making money?

1. FEAR OF MAKING MONEY

This is the big one. You might be shocked at how fearful you are of success and a lot of money, even if you want it badly! Introspect for a second. What comes with making money and achieving success? Responsibility? Attention? A shift from what you know and are used to? Being treated differently? What else? As you slowly and deliberately think about the things that money bring, how do you feel about them? Is there a touch of discomfort perhaps with one or more of these things?
Lets take responsibility for instance. You get a lot of money; you have to worry about managing it, taking care of those close to you who would not have otherwise looked to you for support (not that you don't want to help but just the thought of the added responsibility). Remember, with all this money, people are looking at you!

You will also meet new people, people out of your usual circle. You get out of your 'comfort zone'. For those looking for true love, do you fear "gold diggers" may come looking for a bounty? Do you feel like a target? Does all of this make you feel uncomfortable on the inside at some level?

The stimuli are money and success and the programmed response is fear. This is programmed from what you have seen and heard. All this is run by your subconscious mind, which has your experiences stored in its infinitely large database. After fear, the secondary response may be procrastination from taking action to generate this money, or listing of excuse after excuse as to why 'it won't work'. You may also be prone to seeing 'difficulty instead of opportunities'. The list is endless. Fear may also come in the form of fear of failure, which results in anger, frustration and desperation. Think about this. Would you buy from a relaxed confident sales man or a desperate salesman? We all know how annoying, desperate salesmen could be.
The self-saboteur in you will operate under the radar without you noticing a lot of times. With 95% of the vote, your subconscious mind runs the show.

2. FEELINGS OF LACK AND UNWORTHINESS

Feelings of inadequacy hold back too many people from too many accomplishments. When you sit around people with money and success, how do you feel? Do you feel... unworthy? Do you start thinking about what you don't have? What you haven't accomplished? Do you feel like a lesser being, a failure? Do you feel poor? Other people pick these 'vibes' and respond to them. How many times have you seen or heard of people getting promoted simply because they 'acted the part'? This is where the phrase 'Fake it till you make it' comes from. When you feel wealthy and successful, you will act wealthy and successful. Eventually, you will be wealthy successful. It is not the other way round. This is called the 'Be-Do-Have Principle'. You have to be wealthy (feel), do the things that make you wealthy (action) and eventually have wealth.

So again the stimuli are making money and achieving success, the programmed response is 'I'm not worthy'; 'I'm a failure'. The secondary response is lack of confidence, lack of enthusiasm and lack of creativity. Your actions will be a result of these self-defeating assertions and of course the eventuality is failure, no matter how much you want success.

3. ASSOCIATING 'MAKING MONEY' WITH NEGATIVITY

Here is a good test that I have also done. Look for a picture of stacks of cash. What thoughts come to mind? Bank robbery? Drug dealers? Criminal dealings? Greed? Do you have some feelings of repulsion perhaps? What do you think of rich people? Do you think they have bad attitudes? Are they snobs?
When I first did this test, I thought of a bank robbers and drug dealers in movies. This is what I have been exposed to growing up. This is what my mind has been fed. Such a lot of money was always associated with something negative. Things that come to mind may include stories you have heard about lives ruined and families torn apart after making a lot of money. What all this is saying to you is 'MONEY IS BAD!" All this is stored in your subconscious mind. Again, the stimulus is making lots of money, and the programmed response is, ruined lives, torn families, changed person etc. If its something you find undesirable, your subconscious mind will go to work to 'protect you' from it.

LET GO OF THE BLOCKS AND START MAKING MONEY

If the subconscious mind was programmed to block money, you need to reprogram it to allow you to make money.
This is how you can do that...
Affirmations - Repetitive input of negativity led to it being perceived as reality by your subconscious mind. To reverse this, you need to repeat positive affirmations to yourself about yourself and your environment until the programming changes. You can also get recorded affirmations that you can listen to daily. Even if you don't concentrate on them, they still slowly shift the subconscious programming.
Gratitude - Gratitude creates a paradigm shift. By being grateful for what you have, you take away the feeling of lack. You can't feel successful and feel lack at the same time
Surround yourself with positive people - This is self-explanatory. Negative people feed you negativity and positive people give you the right 'programming'.

Emotional Freedom Technique - I strongly recommend this. It is often called 'awake hypnosis'. It is an acupressure technique that combines affirmations and tapping of bio-energy meridians of the body to reset bioenergy and reprogram your subconscious. It's very simple. I would recommend reading on this first so you are fully aware of what it is.

Take charge of your subconscious programming, your life and start making money!!!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7747879

Blinded By A Bear: How My Story Can Help Others by Dan Bigley

The man I once was died in an instant just below Alaska's Russian River Campground the night of July 14, 2003. The backcountry-wandering, ski-bumming, laid-back 25-year-old in me was killed when a grizzly bear pinned me to the ground, cocked its head sideways, opened its jaws and clamped down hard across my face.

Eggshells crunching. Then a hideous POP. Suspended in oscillating blue light, my long-dead grandfather nodded at me in the distance. I started to go to him.

As I lay dying, somehow it occurred to me that I had a choice. I slowly turned back. Rather than take the easy way out, I decided to fight for my life with every ounce of strength that hadn't yet drained out of my body. I promised myself that if I fought and lived, I would never look back and regret it.

That midsummer day had started with such promise. It was gloriously warm and sunny, the red salmon were running, I was going fishing with a buddy and I was in love.
I was living at the time in Girdwood, a little ski town with a backdrop of glaciers, peaks and sea. I had a great job taking troubled kids on outdoor outings. Just the week before, I had bought a cabin high in the Chugach Mountains with a view of Denali and hiking and skiing out my front door. After a year of having a crush on an incredible woman named Amber, we had finally started a relationship -- the night before the bear.

I'd thought this many times before, but on that day in particular, as I headed down the Kenai Peninsula for a day of salmon fishing, I felt the universe was looking after me.

For that day to end as it did was beyond comprehension.

The surgeon rousted from bed the night of my mauling, Dr. James Kallman, had no idea what he was in for as he fumbled for the pager on his bedside table. When he called in to Providence hospital, the emergency room doctor was so rattled she couldn't find words to describe my injuries.
"It's terrible, just horrible," she told him. "Please, we just need you to come."
"Upper nose, eyes, forehead anatomy unrecognizable," is how the medevac report put it.

Once Dr. Kallman saw my CT scans, then saw for himself the mess the bear had made of my face, he understood. Among my cluster bomb of injuries, my brain was exposed to the world. Although he was amazed I was still alive, chances were high that I would die of infection. If I did somehow pull through, there was no question I would be blind.

The universe is still looking out for me because I am alive today. Obviously. But not just alive, I am thriving.
Before the bear, I was an adventure-seeking missile. Hike here, climb there, fish at every opportunity. That last part hasn't changed; I still fish every chance I get. But there's nothing like having your face in the jaws of a bear to rearrange your priorities.

I climb different kinds of mountains now. I have a master's degree in social work, and a challenging and fulfilling job working with troubled children and families at Denali Family Services. In seven years, I have gone from clinician to clinical director of this nonprofit social service agency. I'll be teaching a master's level class at the University of Alaska-Anchorage in the fall. And, I teamed up with veteran Alaskan writer Debra McKinney to tell my story in the newly released book, Beyond the Bear: How I Learned to Live and Love again After Being Blinded by a Bear, published by Globe Pequot/Lyons Press. My hope is that my story will help others navigate through tragedies of their own.

Oh, and remember the girl I was in love with the night before the bear? Several months into my recovery, she and I fell in love all over again. We're now married and have two beautiful children.
"Daddy, are you blind?" my daughter asked me when she was 3.
"Yep, I'm blind."
"Are you happy?"
"Yep, I'm happy."
She paused a moment, then asked: "So you're blind AND you're happy?"

I am. To sum up the last 10 years in one sentence: The bigger my life, the smaller my disability.
I went through hell, there's no denying that. The pain, the confusion, the doubts, the nightmares, the sense of loss that ached to the bone. But over time I adapted to life in the dark. I became determined not to be just a survivor, but to live fully.

I wouldn't have made it this far without a caring community and the kindness of strangers. Like the man from Talkeetna who offered me one of his eyes. (He didn't know that with both optic nerves severed by the bear's "death blow," I had been blinded instantly and permanently.) I would never have made it this far without the technical and emotional support it took to get me through graduate school. I never would have made it this far without love.

I felt that love in the blue place when I was dying, and it gave me the strength I needed to fight for my life. I felt it when I was first told I was blind and it gave me the courage of acceptance. I have felt it every day since.

I choose on a daily basis to feel grateful. I am grateful to have seen the world for the first 25 years of my life. I am grateful for the things I still can do, and don't waste time dwelling on all I've lost. So I can't go white-water kayaking or run like a crazy person down a steep mountain trail like I used to. But I have a fulfilling career, a family I cherish and a community that's got my back. So I can't read storybooks to my kids at bedtime, but they can read them to me. And I can go hiking, camping, fishing and play hide-and-seek, even though I always lose.

Nearly 10 years after the bear, I still don't take a single day for granted. Every breath is a gift. The bear that took my eyes was the last thing I ever saw, but that bear gave me a new way to see.

Need Inspired?

An Old Blind Man

An old blind man was sitting on a busy street corner in the rush-hour begging for money. On a cardboard sign, next to an empty tin cup, he had written: 'Blind - Please help'.

No-one was giving him any money.

A young advertising writer walked past and saw the blind man with his sign and empty cup, and also saw the many people passing by completely unmoved, let alone stopping to give money.

The advertising writer took a thick marker-pen from her pocket, turned the cardboard sheet back-to-front, and re-wrote the sign, then went on her way.

Immediately, people began putting money into the tin cup.

After a while, when the cup was overflowing, the blind man asked a stranger to tell him what the sign now said.

"It says," said the stranger, " 'It's a beautiful day. You can see it. I cannot.' "

Setting Clear Goals

H.L. Hunt, a man who rose from a bankrupt cotton farmer in the 1930s to a multi-billionaire when he died in 1974, was once asked during a TV interview what advice he could give to others who wanted to be financially successful. He said only two things are required. First, you must decide exactly what it is you want to accomplish. Most people never do that in their entire lives. And secondly, you must determine what price you'll have to pay to get it, and then resolve to pay that price.

Clear Goals Are Essential

Clear goals and objectives are essential to the success of any business, and this is no less true of building your own career. If you don't take the time to get really clear about exactly what it is you're trying to accomplish, then you're forever doomed to spend your life achieving the goals of those who do. In the absence of a clear direction for your life, you will either meander aimlessly or you will build a career that you don't feel good about. You may make some money, and you may do some interesting work, but the end result will not resemble anything you ever made a conscious decision to build, and ultimately you will be left with the sinking feeling that maybe you took a wrong turn somewhere along the way. Do you ever look at your career and think to yourself, "How on earth did I get here?"
If setting goals is so critically important, then why is it that so few people take the time to define exactly where they want to go? Part of the reason is a lack of knowledge about how to set clear goals. You can go through years of schooling and never receive any instruction on goal setting at all. A failure to understand the immense importance of establishing clear goals is also common. But those who truly know what they want often outperform everyone else by an enormous degree.
A frequent deterrent to goal setting is the fear of making a mistake. Teddy Roosevelt once said, "In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing." Setting virtually any goal at all is better than drifting aimlessly with no clear direction. The best way I know to guarantee failure is to avoid making clear, committed decisions. Every day is already a mistake if you don't know where you're going. You're probably spending most of your time working to achieve other people's goals. The local fast food restaurant, TV advertisers, and the stockholders of the businesses you patronize are all very happy for that. If you don't decide what you really want, then you've decided to hand your future over to the whims of others, and that's always a mistake. By taking hold of the reins yourself and deciding where you'd like to go, you gain a tremendous sense of control that most people never experience in their entire lives.
Many people assume that because they have a direction, they must therefore have goals, but this is not the case and merely creates the illusion of progress. "Making more money" and "building a business" are not goals. A goal is a specific, clearly defined, measurable state. An example of the difference between a direction and a goal is the difference between the compass direction of northeast and the top of the Eiffel Tower in France. One is merely a direction; the other is a definite location.

Define Goals in Binary Terms

One critical aspect of goals is that they must be defined in binary terms. At any point in time, if I were to ask you if you had achieved your goal yet, you must be able to give me a definitive "yes" or "no" answer; "maybe" is not an option. You cannot say with absolute certainty if you've fully completed the outcome of "making more money," but you can give me a definitive binary answer as to whether or not you are currently standing on top of the Eiffel Tower. An example of a clear business goal would be that your gross income for the month of April this year is $5000 or more. That is something you can calculate precisely, and at the end of the month, you can give a definitive answer as to whether or not your goal has been achieved. That is the level of clarity you need in order to form a goal that your mind can lock onto and move towards rapidly.

Be Detailed

Be as detailed as possible when setting goals. Give specific numbers, dates, and times. Make sure that each of your goals is measurable. Either you achieved it, or you didn't. Define your goals as if you already know what's going to happen. It's been said that the best way to predict the future is to create it.

Commit Goals to Writing

Goals must be in writing in the form of positive, present-tense, personal affirmations. A goal that is not committed to writing is just a fantasy. Set goals for what you want, not for what you don't want. Your subconscious mind can lock onto a clearly defined goal only if the goal is defined in positive terms. If you put your focus on what you don't want instead of what you do, you're likely to attract exactly what it is you're trying to avoid. Phrase your goals as if they are already achieved. Instead of saying, "I will earn $30,000 this year," phrase it in the present tense: "I earn $30,000 this year." If you phrase your goals in future terms, you are sending a message to your subconscious mind to forever keep that outcome in the future, just beyond your grasp. Avoid wishy-washy words like "probably," "should," "could," "would," "might," or "may" when forming your goals. Such words foster doubt as to whether you can really achieve what you are after. And finally, make your goals personal. You cannot set goals for other people, such as, "A publisher will publish my software by the end of the year." Phrase it like this instead: "I sign a North American retail publishing contract this year that earns me at least $50,000 by the end of the year."

Objectify Subjective Goals

What if you need to set subjective goals, such as improving your own level of self-discipline? How do you phrase such goals in binary terms? To solve this problem, I use a rating scale of 1 to 10. For instance, if you want to improve your self-discipline, ask yourself on a scale of 1 to 10, how do you rate your current level of self-discipline? Then set a goal to achieve a certain specific rating by a certain date. This allows you to measure your progress and know with a high degree of certainty whether or not you've actually achieved your goal.

Goal Setting Is an Activity

Setting clear goals is not a passive act. It doesn't happen automatically. You must take direct conscious action in order to make it so. Everything counts, and nothing is neutral. You are either moving towards your goals, or you're moving away from them. If you do nothing or if you act without clarity, then you are almost certainly a victim of "being outgoaled." In other words you are spending your time working on other people's goals without even knowing it. You are happily working to enrich your landlord, other businesses, advertisers, stockholders, etc. Each day you spend working without a sense of clarity about where you're headed is a step backwards for you. If you don't actively tend your garden, then weeds will grow automatically. Weeds don't need to be watered or fertilized. They just grow by themselves in the absence of an attentive gardener. Similarly, in the absence of conscious and directed action on your part, your work and your life will automatically become full of weeds. You don't need to do anything at all to make this happen. And when you finally get around to taking a serious look at where you are and where you want to go, the first thing you'll have to do is pull out all those weeds.
Reading this article will do absolutely nothing for you unless you turn it into some form of physical action. The best thinking unfortunately gives you zero results. In reality, you won't even be paid a penny for your thoughts. You can have the most creative idea in the world, but ideas themselves are utterly worthless. You only get results from the physical actions you take, never for the ideas you have. In order to get any kind of tangible results at all, you must act on an idea. You must communicate it, build it, implement it, and make it real.

Clarity Is a Choice

If you've been running your career in an unfocused manner, just waking up each morning and seeing what happens, then it is absolutely crucial that you take the time to decide and write down exactly where it is you want to go. How much longer will you continue to climb the ladder of success, only to realize too late that it was leaning against the wrong building? Just pick a point in the future, whether it's six months from now or five years from now, and spend a few hours writing out a clear description of where you want to be at that time. I know many people who aren't sure where they want to go, so they avoid committing anything to writing in order to "keep their options open." What would happen if you pursued that attitude to its logical conclusion? If you always kept your options open and never made any firm commitments, then you'd never get promoted, start your own business, get married, have a family, move to that new home, etc. except to the degree that someone else made that decision for you.
I used to have a friend like this, who still hasn't decided what he wants to do with his life. He yields control of his life to others without even realizing it, simply because he's unwilling to take the time to define a vision for his own life out of fear of making the wrong choice. His life is ruled by others who push their goals onto him, which he accepts by default. Ask yourself if you're in the same boat. If a friend of yours became totally committed to getting you to change something in your life at random -- your career, your living situation, your relationship, etc. -- could s/he do it just by being absolutely certain and committed that it's the right thing for you? Could a business associate come along and radically alter your plans for the week without you ever deciding consciously that such a change is consistent with your goals? We all suffer from problems like these to the degree that we fail to set clear goals for ourselves. There is a big difference between recognizing and acting on a true opportunity and being knocked off course without making a conscious decision to shift gears.
Waiting for something to inspire you and hoping that the perfect outcome will just fall into your lap is nothing but a fantasy. Clear decision making doesn't happen passively; you actually have to physically put in the time to make it happen. If you don't have clear goals simply because you don't know what you want, then sit down and actively decide what you want. That sense of knowing what you want isn't going to just come to you in a form of divine inspiration. Clarity is a choice, not an accident or a gift. Clarity doesn't come to you -- you have to go to it. Not setting goals is the same thing as deciding to be a slave to the goals of others.

Clear Goals Sharpen Present-Moment Decisions

Your reality will not match your vision exactly. That's not the point. The point is for your vision to allow you to make clear daily decisions that keep you moving in the direction of your goals. When a commercial airliner flies from one city to another, it is off course over 90% of the time, but it keeps measuring its progress and adjusting its heading again and again. Goal setting works the same way. Maintain a clear list of goals not because that's actually where you'll end up but because it will give with tremendous certainty in deciding what you need to do today. When someone contacts you with an "opportunity" out of the blue, you'll know whether it's a real opportunity or a waste of time. The long view sharpens the short view.
As you begin moving towards your goals, you'll gain new knowledge along the way, and you'll have to adapt your plans as you go. You may also change your vision if you get partway there and decide it's not quite what you really want. Ill-formed goals are still far superior to no goals at all.
I was once told by someone that I should end each day by crossing it off my calendar and saying out loud, "There goes another day of my life, never to return again." Try this for yourself, and notice how much it sharpens your focus. When you end a day with the feeling that you would have lived it the same if you had the chance to repeat it, you gain a sense of gratitude that helps you focus on what's really important to you. When you end the day with a feeling of regret or loss, you gain the awareness to try a different approach the next day.
You'll see a measurable difference in your life the very first day you establish clear, committed goals, even if your first few attempts aren't perfect. You'll be able to make decisions much more rapidly because you'll see how they'll either move you towards or away from your goals. On the eve of his death, Walt Disney had a reporter crawl into bed with him so he could share his vision for Disney World, six years before its completion. When Disney World finally opened, another reporter commented to Walt's brother, Roy, "It's too bad Walt did not live to see this." Roy replied, "Walt saw it first. That’s why we are seeing it now." Clear goals allow you to achieve the first half of H.L. Hunt's success formula. By deciding exactly what you want to accomplish, committing it to writing, and reviewing it on a daily basis, you bring your goals into reality with the power of your focus.

Source: Steve Pavlina

Let Your Dreams Inspire Your Creativity

We all have dreams and they can be a great source of inspiration. I'm not talking about the wishes we have for lives but those nocturnal dreams we have when sleeping. They come unbidden to us and often are gone before our feet hit the floor.
Scientists are at a loss to explain them: why we have them or what creates them. Still, many of the greatest innovations of our day came to their creators in dreams.
Music, including Paul McCartney's "Yesterday", and great works of fiction like Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," have both been attributed to dreams. If these works can be based in dreams, then what can we mine from the depths of our own dreams?
The best way to begin is by keeping a note pad and a pen beside your bed. When you wake in the morning, write down your impressions and any memories you have of your dreams. Do not wait until you've brushed your teeth or had your first cup of coffee as dreams are fleeting and will be gone by then.
Just reach for the paper and pen and begin writing, even if you feel as though you are still half asleep. You can even do this if you waken during the night. As long as the dream is fresh, write down whatever you can remember about it.
Later, when you look back at your notes, you may have little understanding of what you had been dreaming. Or, you may discover that you have touched on a spark of inspiration that will lead you to some new work of art, piece of music or bit of prose.
Even negative dreams can have value.
Consider the case of Mary Shelley's dream. Frankenstein may not have been the most enjoyable dream she ever had but it ignited her imagination and she penned one of the classic pieces of literature of all time. Never dismiss a dream out of hand. Sometimes, when you look at it in the light of day, you will find that the answer to a problem you had been trying to resolve is looking back at you.
The randomness of dreams is a benefit to the creative mind. There are no surefire ways to control what you will dream about or how the dream will end. This leaves your creative mind open to endless possibilities. Take advantage of those possibilities and you may find your life improved by this wellspring of inspiration.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7349033