BUSINESS AND THE FINIANCIAL CHOLESTOROL

Quick! What's the very first thing that springs into your mind when you read or hear the M-word?  (M-o-n-e-y.)  For many people that first thing isn't necessarily pleasant. And for others there's a fleeting flicker of delight as they imagine having plenty of it, winning the lottery or the like, which just as quickly fades into a more familiar "not enough" feeling instead.

It's not surprising. After all, most of us have been carefully trained, taught, even indoctrinated our whole lives to believe that money is scarce, that it's hard to come by, that only people who have any ever get more, that it's the cause of all the world's troubles ... and on and on and on. Loads of heavy baggage packed with negativity on the simple subject of something we really cannot do without. So since we already KNOW that we attract/create our own experience through our thinking, how about we just Unpack some of that mental baggage and ditch some of the seriousness so we can stop creating and attracting more stuff like THAT?



How about we just lighten up and have some FUN with all of this? When you're having fun your thoughts aren't focused on lack of anything, right? (And believe me, when you get the hang of The GameChanger Mindset, your life will transforming in amazing ways that truly FUN!)  For myself, I have decided that whenever the M-word comes up in conversation or my own thinking in any way that doesn't thoroughly delight me, I am going to quietly, secretly substitute it another word that has NONE of those negative connotations.

I've been doing this for a while now with family and friends, too (not just quietly and secretly), and it's not only fun, it highlights immediately just how silly all the negativity is.I highly recommend the practice!  You can choose any word that strikes you as ridiculous. For me, the funniest word in the English language (and I don't know why) is this:
IDEAS.
(I know, I know. Totally juvenile. Pretty much the humor of a seven-year-old. And that's probably why it works so well!)

Try it for yourself:

• I'd like to have a new car, but I don't have enough ideas.
• Invest in THAT? No way! It's too risky. I could lose all my ideas.
• Do you think ideas grow on trees?
• I like the job but the ideas are awful.
• Ideas can’t buy happiness.
• He's got more ideas than he knows what to do with.
• Never throw good ideas after bad.
• I wouldn't do that for love but for ideas.
• Always be sure to save some ideas for a rainy day.
• No matter how hard I try or what I do, I just NEVER have enough ideas.

 Yes ohooo: We live in a world of infinite ideas!

In the days of the mighty sailing ships, when brave souls voyaged into the unknown, dependent on the winds and their as-yet incomplete knowledge of geography and navigation, one of the greatest and most dangerous challenges was to traverse the area known as "the doldrums."   Extending about 30 degrees on either side of the equator, the doldrums are subject to days, weeks, even months of no wind at all. After a long and difficult crossing from Europe to South America, lying becalmed in the doldrums with no land in sight and with the ship's supply of fresh water dwindling was a terrible and life-threatening situation.

But history and legend offer us some fascinating insights into the power of our own thinking and belief. Back then no one had yet figured out how to determine longitude, although latitude was easily calculated. So if you could not see recognizable land, you could only know in what band of latitude you currently were. Exactly where you were in that ring around the earth was, at that time, unknowable. And so it happened that at times a ship would fetch up off the coast of South America, out of sight of shore, fresh water supplies exhausted and death knocking at the door. Then, with what must have been the sweetest sound those sailors could ever have hoped for, the lookout would suddenly call out that a ship was approaching in the distance.

Once the ship was within hailing distance, the cry went up: "Water! Give us water!"  And the reply would come back, "Lower your buckets over the side." You see, although the sailors didn't know it, they were afloat in a virtual river of drinkable and life-sustaining water flowing from the mouth of the powerful Amazon River, which carries nearly 20 percent of all the earth's runoff water into the sea with such force that the fresh (or brackish but safe) water flows as far as 100 miles out into the Atlantic.

The sailors, dying of thirst, only THOUGHT they were experiencing lack. The REALITY was that they were afloat in a literal sea of abundance. Exactly what they needed was within their reach the whole time, but the APPEARANCE of scarcity and their BELIEF in that appearance threatened to overpower them.  They could have died and many certainly did believing in lack while surrounded by abundance.  I have said that people get rich by doing things in a certain way, and in order to do so, people must become able to think in a certain way. A person’s way of doing things is the direct result of the way he thinks about things. To do things in the way you want to do them, you will have to acquire the ability to think the way you want to think. This is the first step toward getting rich.

And to think what you want to think is to think TRUTH, regardless of appearances.  Galileo changed the world by looking at things from a new perspective. By dropping the prevailing attitude that the sun revolved around the earth, he was able to see that the opposite was, in fact, the truth.  The key to finding the truth is choosing to cast off the old notion and look at the situation anew, through a new lens. The path that lies before you is one of unlimited abundance. And it begins by SEEING the abundance available all around you. As you begin to experience life through the new lens of abundance, you'll find that many of the problems you face today will simply disappear. As for the ones that remain, your relationship to them will have changed profoundly, empowering you to take actions that match and support abundance."

What old beliefs, what old ways of looking, seeing, and perceiving do YOU need to cast off right now?  If you find yourself "in the doldrums," how can you take a fresh look today and begin to see the abundance that surrounds YOU so that you are empowered not becalmed and hopeless? The choice is always available. If you have chosen unwisely before, remember that every moment is new and the great power lies in your ability to CHOOSE AGAIN, no matter the appearances and no matter what it seems everyone else thinks or does. This choice "is the path that leads, ultimately, to the fulfillment of your dreams." As Donald says this choice is "the first step toward getting rich."  And, bearing in mind those long-ago sailors, I would add that this choice can be the ultimate choice for death or for life itself. That choice, every moment, is yours. Which way do you want to choose right now?

The situation looked grim for Johnny Yokoyama. The seafood market where he had once been an employee but was now the owner was more than $300,000 in debt and sinking deeper fast. In fact, employee morale was at an all-time low, and the business was almost as dead as the fish no one was buying.  Now fast-forward to today and imagine yourself in Seattle's lively landmark, the Pike Place Market, overlooking Puget Sound and the snow-capped Olympic Mountains beyond. As you walk closer to the crowd gathered near the open-air center of this sprawling bazaar you can't help wondering what all that laughter and shrieking are about...... until you see a hefty two-foot long salmon flying over the gathering and into the waiting arms of the young man behind the counter and the crowd goes wild! This is certainly like no fish market you've ever seen before. Then you notice that in addition to all the silliness and good-natured clowning, something else is happening here.

People aren't just laughing, they're buying fish. A LOT of fish!  Amazingly, they didn't focus on the obvious question, how can we sell more fish? Instead, they imagined a thriving market filled with happy customers and happy employees. And then they realized that if visitors were to enjoy the experience, first THEY had to change their own thinking and their own behavior. Sound familiar?

So what exactly happened to turn a dark, dingy, dying seafood store into the star attraction of a famous city's famous landmark? Well, listen up to the four main principles as outlined by Charthouse Learning Corporation's CEO John Christensen

 Here's what it all boils down to:

1. Play;We put more energy into what we enjoy, and finding ways to "play" can lead to greater productivity and creativity. Play is NOT about acting irresponsibly. In the livable workplace, it is about finding ways to have more fun accomplishing serious goals.
2. Be There; The glue in our humanity is in being fully present for one another. Being there also is a great way to practice wholeheartedness and fight burnout, for it is those halfhearted tasks you perform while juggling other things that wear you out. Put your whole mind into present action! And when one of the fish market guys stops goofing and turns to help a customer, that customer becomes the only other person in the place
3. Choose Your Attitude; When you look for the worst you will find it everywhere. When you look for the best you will find opportunities you never imagined possible. You have the power to choose your attitude. If you find yourself with an attitude you don't want, you can choose another.  You must learn to see the underlying truth in all things," and we know that our prevailing attitudes make this either possible or impossible. If your attitude is negative, you're expressing faith that what you do NOT want is on its way to you. But as Mr. Christensen notes, if the attitude you have at the moment isn't serving you or anyone else you can always choose again.
4. Make Their Day; When you 'make someone’s day' (or even moment) through a small kindness or unforgettable engagement, you can turn even routine encounters into special memories. Few things are as rewarding and infectious as lifting another person's spirits and the act of serving others quickly returns a feeling of satisfaction.  Give more in use value than you take in cash value." The fish guys add value to every transaction in many ways: By letting the customer know that s/he is important (whether s/he buys anything or not!), by providing a light moment of entertainment (simply by being themselves and not taking themselves too seriously), and in countless other ways, large and small.

Making money selling fish isn't just about selling fish. And it's the same with ANY business. (And if you think you aren't "in business" just because you work for someone else or some big company, look at it this way: You ARE in business, even if it's a one-person business with you as CEO, employee, and perhaps even the product!) You can learn a lot from a bunch of fishy guys in Nigeria, and in a moment I'll send you off to do just that. But first, let's wrap this up with a brief excerpt from the book, Fish!, a modern "business parable" that teaches the valuable lessons at the heart of the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market's stunning turnaround:

Let me tell you about me in my days of selling vacation packages. I always brought love and a smile to work. I soon realized that my employer was paying me more than I deserved just for being fun. In the process a great deal of fun and laughter was created in a room where you needed it most. The customers loved the atmosphere so much so that when I left to start my own company the company collapse months later as sales dropped. I realize now that the fun didn’t come with working for Fairfield, I created it in other to sell my packages and it soon became infectious.

Each day when we come go to work or your business,  you go in with an attitude. We can bring a moody attitude and have a depressing day. We can bring a grouchy attitude and irritate our coworkers and customers. Or we can bring a sunny, playful, cheerful attitude and have a great day. We can choose the kind of day we will have.  As long as you are going to be at work, you might as well have the best day we can have.  

Makes sense to me! Take a closer look to what I am saying. Intuitively, you have just discovered that if your situation was to change, first, you have to change. You may decide to decide to turn your dreary and unprofitable work into fun. Fun for you and everyone who steps into your world, whether they buy or not.
Ask Johnny Yokoyama what he's most proud of these days and he'll tell you: "My employees and I made Pike Place Fish 'World Famous!"

Then ask him what "World Famous" means to him, and you get the real scoop: "It means that we never stop creating possibilities every day gives us the opportunity to grow, to learn something new, to get better than we were yesterday. We are gonna make your day!"

Why not make it YOUR objective to become "World Famous?" To find ways to bring the same "sunny, playful, cheerful attitude" to YOUR job or business and to begin to revel in the delight of seeing the very same kind of RESULTS, including the ones you can take to the bank?

If the fish guys can do it, so can you! Here's where to learn more:  By joining the 1action.org GameChanger network, you will be joining thousands of other individuals like yourself who will not only learn, but become intuitive bank of ideas that will soon be dishing out to others what you have learned.  

So today I'm pleased to get to share with you just a tiny bit of the GameChagers practical wisdom.

Now, you may be wondering about that title, The force of Money. But if you'll stop to think about it, you'll see that it fits right in with our understanding of what Mr. Wattles writes -- that everything is created from the one "formless substance."

There are other kinds of forces, of course like creativity, spiritual power, physical vitality, enjoyment, relationship, and others. But in each of these areas we can either be frustrated or fulfilled.

So the question become; How can you be "conscious conduits of energy" in order to bring our dreams out of the formless realm of ideas and into physical reality?

First, what do we mean by "conduit?" Well, a conduit is something that allows energy to move in an orderly way from one place to another. For example, a water pipe moves water from the well or reservoir to your faucets (tap).

So, in your mind's eye, picture a body of water on the left side, and the water tap in, say, your kitchen on the right. Now connect the two with a pipeline. Now the pipe can move the energy of water in an orderly way from the source to the outlet.

And that's what you want to do with the energy of money: Move it in an orderly way from the Source, which we know is unlimited, to the place where it can "water the garden of our goals and dreams."

But in the normal life of a conduit, what happens? Sludge accumulates and leaks spring up. When we're not aware that’s happening, of course, our usual response is simply to turn the tap further to call for more. But when more energy tries to come through, the leaks just get bigger and the sludge builds up more and increases the pressure until ... the pipe may burst.

And now we've got a real mess on our hands. The SOURCE is unlimited, but the physical CONDUIT is another story!  Many of us are in just this state of disrepair as money conduits. You’ve got loads of SLUDGE built up that's keeping the energy from getting through. And that sludge shows up in the form of UNFINISHED MONEY BUSINESS.  Most of you have a little or a lot of sludge like this: 

• Are you free of debt (or on a plan to pay it down)? Yes? Great! No? SLUDGE.
• Are all your financial records neat and up to date?
• Is your checkbook balanced to the kobo?
• How about your taxes?
• Do you owe any N to friends or family that you've just sort of "forgotten" about (but that is hanging over you like a black cloud?)
• Is your home office neat and tidy? (How about your storage? Yes, it's related!)
• Any other questions you can think of?

OK, take a deep breath and relax. We'll get to solutions in a minute, but first let's look at the LEAKS. Now, I know YOU probably never do any of this, but I've known some of these quite intimately: 

• Spend money on stuff we don't need or even really want (for a whole truckload of "reasons" that would take several editions of this newsletter to cover!) 
•  
• Spend money without even being aware of it, perhaps just out of unconscious habit. 
•  
• Give money we don't really want to give just because we think we should, or to "look good," or for other not truly generous reasons. 
•  
• Lend money, often for the same reasons as just above and often to people who we know in advance won't pay it back. 
•  
• Pick up the check so everyone will think we're cool (for about five seconds) or do similar things to "buy" affection, etc. 
•  
• And I'm sure you can add to this list!

So here we are leaky, sludgy pipes all. And meanwhile were busily creating our mental images of what we WANT our lives to look and be like, expressing gratitude for what we have already, learning to be creative rather than competitive, and affirming and or praying for MORE.

But remember the image of the WATER pipe? "When more energy tries to come through, the leaks just get bigger and the sludge builds up more and increases the pressure until ... the pipe may burst. And now we've got a real mess on our hands."  Yikes! What's wrong with this picture? Could it be that "thinking and acting in the certain way" also means that we must be responsible for learning the skills necessary to make best use of the money and other resources we are given?

Could it be that if we TRULY understand the power of gratitude and want to express it authentically, we must also be careful not to WASTE what is already coming to us?  The Real Miracle A Christian Needs Is About To Happen..  OK, grab your wrench and let's get to work plugging up some leaks and clearing out some! Of course, before we can fix our money leaks we have to find the little devils. So here's a great suggestion.

Plugging the leaks

Get yourself a small notebook or notepad that will fit in your pocket or purse and keep it with you constantly for the next 30days.

Keep track of EVERY SINGLE KOBO that you spend at the moment you spend it. (No, don't tell yourself you'll write it down later. You won't; you're human and you'll forget.)

Buy a cup of coffee? Write it down. Pay your RENT or other bills? Write 'em down. Everything.

And each time, IN THE MOMENT, ask yourself this question:

Am I consciously spending this money right now or am I LEAKING it?

You are likely in for a most surprising 30 days! (Actually, Day 1 alone may knock you for a loop.)

OK, now let's deal with ...

Clearing away sludge

Take a look at that list of sludge questions back up in the main article. Now choose ONE item that needs doing. See if there's one that particularly appeals to you because you need and want to get it done. Don't start with the biggest and most difficult. Start small, and choose one that you know you CAN do and that will feel WONDERFUL to have done.

Next, figure out the steps to get it done, and ...Take the first step!

And then the next, and so on, and then you'll be done. (Ah, it feels great to have lowered your "financial cholesterol," doesn’t it?)  The very minute you START to take action, energy is released. And you may ultimately find that it's "enough to do what you are here to do and to have the fun you are here to have." you may even find out that you have all the money you actually need and want. Or, you may find that you truly do want more and you can now "go after it with alight heart."

When you do this, the real miracle happens instead of pray 24/7 hoping heavens will break open.   Just being able to think about your finances "with alight heart" is a miracle in itself, isn't it?

All this is just the tiniest hint of the powerful insights and effective actions you will gain from being a member of the 1action.org ministry.  

If you reside in Lagos or around Lagos,  I strongly encourage you to attend our network.   Yes many people like you will be there and trust me, just like you they braised the traffic, heat, and spent their last Kobo just to learn these secrets and much more."The easy life is the life we lead when we are willing to see our lessons sooner rather than later. Would it be all right with you if life got easier?"

See you at the network.

Victor Osazuwa