So, I’m totally immersing myself in financial stuff.  The financial plan I intend to use is T. Harv Eker’s plan lined out in “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind”.

So, anyway.  I’ve decided I should break the absolutefreaking HUGE goal of “begin living a life of ever-increasing abundance” down into smaller things I can do 30-day trials on.

That’s where you come in.  I need suggestions of possibilities to work on, 30 days at a time.

A caveat is in order here:

“If you aren’t financially abundant yourself, i.e. you’re either living paycheck to paycheck, or there’s too much month at the end of the money, your advice likely won’t get me past whatever level you’re currently at.”

OK.  Having said that, I’m looking for genuine no-BS ideas to work on. Comments are welcome

First thing first:

Before I begin, let me be clear on something.  I was already going to buy a hopy of the book before I read that Steve would be arranging to send out review copies.  Yes, I love his writings that much.  I was about 5 minutes from pulling out my wallet when I got the newsletter announcing the review offer.  So, I went into reading this book with full expectation that the book would be as informative and useful as the content on his website.

So, understanding this bias, I loved the book for the most part.  I had only one thing I didn’t quite agree with, which I’ll cover below.  I am very excited for having read this book.  I explain why in the section “Why I am excited”.
The Principles:

In the book, Steve goes beyond what he calls the “low hanging fruit” of personal development.  A lot of personal development authors and speakers tend to get more into the techniques of personal development.  This might include tips and tricks in areas such as time management, productivity, people skills and so on.

Steve realized early on that there is a certain underlying pattern to every growth experience.  So, instead of simply attacking specific issues with tips and tricks limited to those specific issues, he spent years studying and synthesizing an understanding of the core principles that lead to personal growth.

This led him to an understanding of 3 primary and 4 secondary factors which determine the quality of our growth experiences.  The factors are: Truth, Love, Power and the secondary principles of Oneness, Authority, Courage, and Intelligence.

Truth:

Truth is the ability to get develop an accurate understanding of both our current state of being and the steps we need to take to develop the state of being we desire.  Truth is coming to grips with what our life is like in the current moment. It is also being able to accurately assess how our lives will be later on down the road if we stay on the path we’re on.

This leads to hard questions we have to ask ourselves. Questions like “If I keep eating the way I eat, will I have the body I want as time passes?”

Truth is that factor which keeps on the right course to reach our self development goals.
Love:

Love is that factor which binds us to other aspects of our reality.  Love is the bond of kinship which arises from being connected to other people, animals, and even “inanimate” objects.  This arises from finding the common ground with which to connect to others.

Power:

Power is the factor which determines how we create our reality and build our life experience.  A mastery of Power leads to wielding the power of manifestation in our outer reality.  Lack of power leads to the “victim” mindset.  Lack of Power is akin to being in a boat on a river with no oars or motor.  You are simply carried by the current until you eventually run aground or get dumped into the ocean.

Power in the context of this book does not imply merely the type of power we think of someone in political office wielding.  Even those in political office sometimes find themselves being pushed back and forth.

How they relate:

The awesome thing about these three primary factors is that they relate with each other with the beautiful precision and universality that we find in mathematical equations.  In fact, in the book, Steve has a diagram which is a triangle, to illustrate.  The three primary factors make up the “corners” of the triangle.  This leads to an intuitive visual understanding of how the principles work together.

The three primary factors actually lead to the emergence of the 4 secondary factors of Oneness, Authority, Courage, and Intelligence.

Oneness:

Oneness is the principle which is represented by the union of Truth and Love.  With Truth and Love working together, we have an accurate model of our reality and life, coupled with the universal knowing that we are all connected. This naturally leads to behaviors such as empathy, compassion, and unity.  This is where we intuitively know that we are not separate from our fellow human beings.  At the core we are one. Namastè
Authority:

This is the union of Truth and Power.  Here, we have an accurate model, we know what must be done to shape our reality as we desire.  This is coupled with the ability to actually share reality.

Truth without power leads to what some call “thinking about it” syndrome.  “I’m thinking about starting a business”, “I’m tnking about changing jobs”, and so on.

Power without truth leads to haphazardly affecting life as we know it, with no regard for whether what is being done is the right path to be on.
Courage:

Courage is the union of Love and Power.  This is taking action which is in the best interest of all involved.  Love without Power leads to caring inaction.  Power without Love leads to abusive action.
Intelligence:

Intelligence is the principle which emerges as one approaches a synergistic union of the other six principles.  When we act with intelligence, we are operating with sheer definiteness of purpose, for the highest good of all, in a way which is in keeping with the reality of the present moment.  Intelligence is the ultimate prize of personal development.  To act intelligently is to make reality better day than it was the day before.

A (minor) point of contention:

Ok.  being as biased as I still am, I found one part which didn’t QUITE resonate with me, although I think I can understand where Steve is coming from.

In the section on Money, on page 188, Steve makes mention of how money that is put into a savings account is not adding value to the mix.  I wrote previously that even money in a savings account satisfies the Law of Circulation.  This is in the fact that the banks loan this money to customers for things such as buying a house, starting certain types of businesses, and so on.

I will admit that a savings account might not be the best use of the money to make the most good come of it.  It is, however, a choice which can be made.
Why I am excited:

I’m excited because a lot of the things  Steve talks about in the book, I’ve written posts on this blog which touch on a lot of the ideas he has so eloquently put together.  One example is the notion of “Emergent Properties“.
Why I am troubled:

In the book, and on his blog, Steve talks a LOT about purpose and meaning.  He offers exercises to help determine what our purpose is.  And, he says that the way to know once you’ve found the purpose that resonates with you, is that each time you read it or say it to yourself, it makes you cry.

I started this blog in June of 2006.  I was one of the many who were inspired by Steve’s nearly unfathomable success even at that point in time.  So, since I was interested in prosperity and abundance thinking, I started this blog with the intent of making it a place to learn about things such as Manifestation, Law of of Attraction, Spirituality and so on.

This is what troubles me.  I realize now, after his book put things in perspective for me, that I am strong in the Love department, as far as this site goes.  The passion is there.  I have been getting better at the Power angle, as I refine my intentions and manifestations.

I have the most problem with “Truth” at this point.   How can I write about financial freedom, knowing that I work at a Job, that I don’t love, but I don’t dislike enough to leave?  And also knowing that without my Job, I would not be able to meet my physical life needs?  I’m troubled because I feel inauthentic with it.  I think that’s the reason I’ve felt so uninspired and “stuck” as far as what to write on here for such long stretches of time.

It almost makes me cry to think about this, so I don’t know if it’s from being so close to an approximation of my purpose, or if it’s just a feeling of having went on such a long wrong path for the past 2 years.  Maybe I’ll have to reread the book.

Anyway, this book is the absolute best self-help book I’ve ever read.

Steve, if you’re reading this:

Thank you.  I love you for writing this book, it really made me think.

Sunday, February 24, 2008 7:43 PM
So today has been yet ANOTHER productive day. I read some today, and made progress toward my goal of launching a money-producing website.

My problem before has been setting my goals as the “end goal”. I heard Dave Savula once talking about how long-term goals are actually detrimental to long-term success. He said that long-term goals act as a much bigger yardstick, and if you’re not careful you can get discouraged. He says to take whatever your long-term goal is and break it down into smaller daily ACTIVITY goals, as opposed to RESULTS goals.

Then, if the activity you’re doing doesn’t get the results you’re wanting, alter your activity.

Saturday, February 23, 2008 11:17 PM
Today has been a very productive day, got the keywords I plan to target, and am now looking at how best to use them.
I am glad to finally have a sense of focus on a possibility for a money-making online venture.

Today was really a very awesome day. My business partner and I got a lot done today. I’m glad of it too.
it’s nice to feel like you’ve accomplished something worthwhile.

I wonder how long income like this could last? I am certain it could last for a very very long time, unless the internet just “dries up”. yeah right.

Thursday, February 21, 2008 9:59 AM
I’m doing more work today. I’ve decided on the topic for the first website to test in my new project, so now I’m collecting some PLR content. Not really doing it so much to re-publish it, but to read it and get an understanding of the material. This may help me with making the website better.

Which brings me back to the whole lucid dreaming thing, how can I effectively monetize this as a niche? I mean, Lucid Dreaming has low-ass CPC’s in AdSense, and I’ve never been able to get AdSense to convert well with that stuff.

The best I’ve ever done is with affiliate programs of Lucid-Dreaming-related products. I imagine there are several ways I just haven’t thought of yet.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 10:00 AM

I’m feeling a bit better today. I have been shifting my focus slightly back to Internet Marketing a bit. I am focusing on finding a way to generate enough passive to meet my expenses, as well as be able to save at least 10% of whatever the income is. I think that might be a more useful goal that to just simply “get rich”.

As long as I can meet my expenses, and have enough left over to save, and have a small amount of discretionary income to do a few of the “nice to do” things, I think I’ll be able to work from home full time and focus more and more of my time on how to realize my goal of helping people make useful changes, without worrying about making money right away.

Monday, February 18, 2008 7:00 PM

I really don’t have much to write here today, I slept a lot today, now I have to be at work in a few hours.
I feel like I’m on a sort of emotional roller coaster these past few weeks. There are certain things I want to do in my future, that I can’t honestly see how to make it happen. I know I should trust the Universe, and that always works when I do it genuinely. I guess I’ll see what happens as I ponder and meditate on the things I want to experience in life.

It all has to do with my mission of helping people make useful changes in their lives.
I have a few ideas of how it could happen now. Now, I just need to let it happen.

Sunday, February 10, 2008 11:13 PM

Today, I took a nap that ended up being 7 hours long. All I had was earplugs, no PingPong Balls this time.
Anyway, for this nap, I ended up having a bunch of dreams. So many that I couldn’t remember specifics as I woke up. I mean, it’s like I had them, then POOF, they’re gone.

So, I started re-reading stuff on Stephen Thaler’s “Creativity Machines”. and I started wondering if perhaps these could be used somehow in conjunction with NLP. Since the creativity machines are basically just a “brainstorming” neural net, and a “training” neural net, it might be possible to program the “Training” neural net with NLP language patterns, along with corresponding situations when each pattern would be matched, like program it with the meta model language patterns and the types of statements someone might make during an interview session. In a sense, while the “learning” neural net would be learning the linguistic patterns of the Meta Model, it would also be originating new patterns which might be just as effective, if not more effective.

The possibility of combining AI with NLP was broached yesterday by Steve. So, maybe we’re onto something with this.

Another idea would be to create a different neural net for each of the NLP linguistic pattern Models. One for Meta-Model, one for Milton-Model, one for Sleight-of-Mouth, etc…

have all of those start feeding their signals into a training net and have it’s feedback basically create a neural net built up of only the effective patterns.

A new neural net that incorporates the best of all the other language models. An Artificially Intelligent Therapist?

Steve’s latest 30-day trial was another trial run of his on eating a raw-foods-only diet. Ever since being shown his site originally by a friend when we were both interested in polyphasic sleep and I read a good majority of the logs Steve kept during his polyphasic sleep trial.

His raw food trial was my first opportunity to watch one of these day-by-day as he posted his results from the previous day, and honestly, it changed me more than I expected, just following his results.

I’d been toying with the idea of doing my own 30-day-trials but never seemed able to either commit or even settle in on one thing to work on.

So, now, I’ve decided to do my first 30-day-trial on Journaling. I’ve long heard of the potential power of journaling from reading Steve’s blog and also by listening to some of the works by Jim Rohn. So, I’ve decided that my first ever Trial will be Journaling.

The question is, however, how to make myself accountable to sticking with this challenge, other than writing this blog post? Since some of the things I journal about will likely be of a highly personal nature, I don’t think I’ll be posting all of it on here.

For my public accountability of this exercise, I will simply state that in my journal, I intend to write at least ONE entry that I will post on here, to show my progress, if nothing else.

The reason I don’t think I will post everything on here is because sometimes it’s not ecologically sound to post it all, because it may inadvertently cause public harm to anyone I write about, even if I “change names to protect the innocent.” I hope that makes sense.

The think I’ve been noticing more and more is the debate that has cropped up as to whether or not hard work is required to bring about manifestation. I first noticed this debate on Andy Wibbels’ blog post which was basically a rant about The Secret. The main focus of the post was about the marketing of “The Secret“. I’ll be the first to admit that, while I overall enjoyed the DVD, a bit of the marketing behind it is over-the-top.

What is interesting, however, is that in the ensuing comments thread on the post, the debate of hard work vs. affirmation/prayer cropped up. I’ve since noticed this debate being discussed on many other venues.

Basically, the debate is this: On one side of the proverbial fence, we have the group which maintains that hard work is the only way to bring about (manifest) change. I agree with this view, to a certain degree.

On the other side is the belief that prayer/visualization/affirmation is enough to bring about (manifest) change. I agree with this view, to a certain degree.

You may have noticed that I agree with BOTH views, to a certain degree. This is because, since I am a believer in the LoA, I must realize that both views are correct from their own points of view.

The reason that hard work is necessary for manifestation to occur on the one side of the fence is the BELIEF that it is necessary.

The reason that hard work is NOT necessary for manifestation to occur on the other side of the fance is the BELIEF that it is NOT necessary.

In my own experience, I have had situations where hard work was necessary, whereas other times, I have brought about awesome change with only mental work on my part. No physical action required.

Interesting how that works.

Anyway, please realize that my beliefs in this matter are just that…MY beliefs. You may not agree with my beliefs on this, but that’s OK. In the paraphrased words of Morpheus, “My beliefs do not require you to.”

For some interesting reading about the LoA:

Steve Pavlina’s posts about Intention & Manifestation

Andy Wibbels’ post about The Secret

I’m interested in hearing in the comments about YOUR experiences with the LoA and whether or not it works for you.