Competencies are a major component of our Wealth Potential and include the combination of talents, skills, knowledge, experiences, contacts and many more resources that are an integral part of who we are. It is a part of the Unique Value Proposition that each of us can contribute in exchange for what we want, specifically, wealth in whatever dimension we desire.

If you are employed, your employer expects that you will contribute value to the company’s objectives above and beyond what they are paying you. If you buy a service - cell phones, yard maintenance, business coaching … whatever - you expect a certain value in return for the money you pay.

If you help your neighbor rebuild his deck, you have a reasonable expectation that he will return the favor. This is not necessarily WHY you help him in the first place as giving of yourself has it’s own rewards beyond an in-kind exchange. Realistically though, you would feel as though the balance sheet was a bit awry if when it came time to rebuild your deck, The Neighbor was ‘tied-up’ for three weekends in a row.

Identifying and deploying your competencies builds on the foundation of values I discussed in an earlier post. It is an integral part of The Wealth Manifesto system and something everyone can do … everyone can create value.

This is part of the path to wealth.

It is this collection of values, most of them reflecting our beliefs and those we grew up with, that we use to make decisions everyday about the tradeoffs in our lives.  More work vs. less time with the kids, more exercise vs. less dessert, being honest vs. lying to get what you want etc.  This is one function of our system of values.  You will make choices between these kinds of things based on what is most important to you at a given time in your life.

The other thing I use this values-based approach for in working with and coaching others is a way to come up with the categories of our overall wellbeing, of our wealth, that mean the most to us.  If you are a musician, music is going to rank very high is what you spend time, money and attention on.  If health is a priority (which of course, it should be with everyone), you will pay more attention to your diet and get plenty of exercise.  The list goes on.

The whole idea of a Wealth Manifesto is to create wealth in all dimensions of your life.  This is based on your system of values.  The qualities of life we value most are how we experience value in all the dimensions of wealth (health and fitness, intellectual, emotional, cultural, financial, etc.).

Values are the foundation of wealth because they truly are what we build on: it is how we find out what wealth really means to each and everyone of us.

The Moses Code was released in a similar way as The Secret with a movie tied to a book of the same name. The format of the movie is similar as well wherein you are presented with long lost and/or overlooked profound truths that have been discovered by someone. The discoverer in this case is Moses Code author James Twyman and, it appears author Neale Donald Walsch who figured out there should have been a comma in the key phrase around which the book/movie is built (more on that in a minute).

Much of this ado centers around Moses’ conversation with God when he was in front of the Burning Bush “that was not consumed by the fire.” When challenged by Moses as to His identity, God (sort of) tells Moses “I am that I am.”

This, as it turns out, is a big deal.

The movie then turns to explaining the omnipresence of God through this statement, which as ND Walsch points out, really should be interpreted as ‘I Am That (COMMA) I Am’ in a sort of ‘Aw shucks’ way of God saying, “I am everything (that’s the omnipresence talking), you know? Really, I AM.”

The entire balance of the movie is built around how we implement this “code of creation” in our lives and make this concept work for us. Coincidentally enough, this process includes:

Giving, Oneness and Destiny. Yes, I know you see it too: that spells GOD.

Dont get me wrong, I agree with the fundamentals behind this movie/book. I think anything that gets these ideas in front of more people is a good thing. What I object to is people stretching a thin idea (and the facts) into a revelation in the guise of a marketing platform. That they are taking this a different direction than The Secret and pointing out that what you want needs to go beyond new bicycles and jewelery is fantastic…a far more soulful approach (which of course if reflected in my book as well). I think The Secret was much more a statement to crass consumerism in that sense.

First of all, none of this at the fundamentals level is really new. Giving, the principle of reciprocity, creating value for others is found all through my book (The Wealth Manifesto). Oneness is exactly what the concept of the superconscious mind is based upon (Chapter 6 of The Wealth Manifesto). Destiny (purpose, meaning in your life) is covered in Chapter 5. All of this is tied together nicely in Chapter 14, without my having to manufacture significance using a story out of the Bible.

At the Burning Bush, God did not literally say, ‘I am that I am’ so there would be no need for the profound observation that the comma was missing and God was really telling Moses that they (God, Moses, and everything else) were one and the same thing. God, according to the Bible identified Himself as Yahweh. Yahweh comes from the Hebrew word “Hayah”, meaning “he who is, or I am that I am”. Oh … there is that phrase again! But wait, if you think for a second of all the translations, interpretations, biases, editing and such that the Bible has gone through, how can you base your whole concept on supposedly missing punctuation in the ENGLISH version of something that happened 3200 years ago?

I suppose maybe it was too much of a stretch to come up with things like Giving, Oneness and Destiny that spelled out ‘YAHWEH .’ OK, I feel like I am ranting…we’re done here. More power to Mr. Twyman and friends for getting the message out there…I wish them great success because indeed, much learning is done by storytelling.

And by telling jokes … reminds me of that classic where a Buddhist monk walks up to a hot dog vendor and says, “Make me one with everything.”

Oneness indeed.

We all have several dimensions of mind that we work with and that work for us. Understanding the roles of your conscious, subconscious and superconscious minds is critical to becoming wealthy.

Our conscious mind is the day-to-day mind that deals with the “real” world of time and space (not to be confused with space-time because this starts us down the rabbit hole of quantum mechanics …. let’s stay away from there for now).

The subconscious mind is a kind of database for all the knowledge, experiences, trauma and triumphs that have ever occured in our lives. It supports the conscious mind by retrieving data based on the commands or needs of the conscious mind.

The superconscious mind is less familiar but the concept is broadly used. It has also been called the Universal Mind, the collective unconscious, Non-Local Intelligence, and many other names. For all intents and purposes, it fulfills the classical Christian definition of God

The classic book on success, Think and Grow Rich was about this very same topic. It is the core of the Law of Attraction and other aspects of the metaphysics of creating your own reality.

Of all of these, the conscious mind is the most familiar to us … we have the most experience with it and the most control over it. When we get to the subconscious mind, things start to get a bit more tentative as to who is controlling what. It is critical to train your subconscious to focus on the things you want. The information held in your subconscious can be a self limiting belief that keeps you from a dream or a persistent determination that pushes you on when your conscious mind wants to quit. It is important also to note that the subconscious mind does not really “think” all that well. More than anything else it is important to pay attention to your emotions as this is how the subconscious communicates best with the conscious - this will give you an idea of how aligned your actions are with your true desires.

The subsconscious is also how the conscious mind communicates with the superconscious mind, the source of creativity and intuition - it is what some people say is our sixth sense.

Harnessing the power of all of our minds is critical to manifesting wealth, hence Article 6 of The Wealth Manifesto: wealth is exactly what you think it is. More next time on how our beliefs, attitude and intentionality figure into the equation.

I agree, in principle but for a far different reason. I dont believe in giving in to a hostile force trying to bend my will to their way of thinking (Microsoft has been referred to as a corporate version of the Borg … sort of fits if you think about it in a monopolistic sort of way). I have a quote in my book that explains my perspective a little bit better:

“The root cause of anything that diminishes our wellbeing can be found in resistance.”
-Abraham-Hicks

This is from the teachings of Abraham, provided to us by Jerry and Esther Hicks, a couple of very leading edge thinkers and teachers in the area of the Law of Attraction and other metaphysics. The point is that when you are resisting, the universe is trying to tell you something: you should not be doing this, it is not the right time to be doing this, you are doing this for the wrong reasons, etc.

You emotions are how your subconscious communicates with the real world and your conscious mind. If you are pissed off about something, angry, sad … whatever … resistance is rearing it’s head. Listen to your feelings, explore all the possible sources of why you may be resisting the situation, activity, or person that is causing you to not go with the flow.

An example: I am in the process of writing news releases for my book coming out on May 9th (The Wealth Manifesto). I have been struggling with getting this done for the better part of a day and a half. I MUST send these out to all the major reviewers (everything from the New York Times to any magazine that has anything to do with my subject material) as this is free publicity and an essential part of my marketing campaign. I wont get into the reasons I uncovered for WHY I was resisting this (unless someone asks me to) but I finally figured out that it was not the right time to be writing these news releases, the flow was not there.

It’s not like I dont have plenty of other things to do in getting the promotion together for my book (dozens of things, many of which I really enjoy) - I was essentially wasting my time beating my head against the monitor trying to crank these out.

If you are having a hard time with something and it is causing you grief (”diminishing your wellbeing”), leave it and move on to something else that feels better for the time being. Your mood and your productivity will increase dramatically if you dont resist the subliminal messages you are getting from the superconscious mind.  There is great power there … we must learn to listen to it.

Cheers.

Things work out the way they are supposed to. How many instances in your life can you think of things where you DID NOT get something that you were just going to DIE if it did not happen for you (new girl/boyfriend, acceptance into a specific college, this or that job, house … whatever) only to find in retrospect that you were far better off without out it.

Or more specifically, better off with whatever, whoever or wherever you ended up instead of what you thought you wanted. This is the divine working in your life. This is the universe looking out for you.

This is how your purpose happens, and happens uniquely to you. This by itself is not a revolutionary idea; we all intuitively believe that we are special and that there is a “calling” awaiting us if we can just find it.

Typically your purpose will not turn out to be a singular function that you will perform for the rest of your life. I find that many people are forever searching for that one elusive activity that they can dedicate their lives to. Can such a singular “calling” happen? Sure. There are lots of famous examples of people who became single-mindedly tied to the causes they championed (Martin Luther King and Mother Theresa quickly come to mind).

But instead of searching for plagues to cure, tyrannies to overthrow or dragons to slay, the first place to look for purpose is within yourself. You don’t have to go searching for your purpose in some kind of Magic Forest; you just have to be Who You Are, fully and completely.

You are unique for a reason. Not only is your uniqueness of value to you as you create the wealthy life you deserve, it also simultaneously facilitates your contribution to the bigger picture – the value you add will be like no one else’s on Earth. The universe does not respond to anyone else the same way it responds to you. You share a one-of-a-kind connection with the infinite energy of Source.

In The Matrix Reloaded, the rogue artificial intelligence program (Agent) Smith tells Neo: “Without purpose, we would not exist.”

I would modify that slightly to “Without meaning, we might as well not exist.” That is what being wealthy will do for you: it takes you to the core of who you are, discovering what you value the most and helping to create that reality.

OK … yeah, I was getting out there on the moonbeams with the AI stuff and all. But as The Boss once said. “Mama, that’s where the fun is!”

Awhile ago a friend of mine told me that nearly all self-improvement books talk about one of three things.

Guess which three things? If you took notice of the title, that would be a good guess. These are all dimensions of your overall wellbeing, which along with anything else that is important to you, is how we decide if we have a high quality of life or not.

If you are overweight, it is easy to perceive your life as miserable. However, in all but the most extreme situations, you can do something about it.

It is very simple - Eat better quality food, less food in general and exercise more.

Dont have any friends? Not yet hooked up with your soul mate? What are you going to do? Sit around and wish that these people walk into your life? No, you have to be a better friend, you have to be worth someone wanting to know you. You have to like and love yourself before someone else will.

Dont have any or enough money? I have seen several instances lately of people saying (to everyone they know, everyone that is listening): I dont have any money, please give me some.

I dont know how that is working out for them … I doubt very well. I think of money as another form of wealth for which, like the other examples above, it is required to offer some kind of value for what you want. This goes back to Articles 2 and 3 about energy exchange and our inherent potential for wealth. If you want money, you need to offer someone value (in any number of different forms to get it). You need to invest it and take the risks associated with the return you expect on your investment.

No matter what kind of wealth you are talking about, you need both the desire to change and be able to make the decision to change.  Then you need to take action.

The nice thing about developing your Wealth Manifesto is that all aspects of your life, everything you want, can be attained using one systematic approach.

The Wealth Manifesto: Try it, you’ll like it!

This brings me to today’s epiphany. Actually, it was yesterday but that’s OK.

I’m a big fan of Eckhart Tolle. He is now well known to many more millions of people because Oprah (notice how we rarely use her last name when referring to Ms. Winfrey?) has “found him.” I read the power of Now about 4 years ago and have been slowly working my way to The Now ever since (that sounds a little strange, eh?)

In one of the teleclasses (held every Monday evening), Eckhart said something to the effect that “the past and the future can only exist in the Now.” If you think about it for just a second, you can see the wisdom in that statement. When you are thinking about something that happened in the past, you are thinking about it Now. When you are worried about something that may happen in the future, you are worried about in the Now. I personally believe a lot of the stress in our lives can be shed if we are less conditioned by our old stories (the past) and less concerned about the future by living more in the present.

When you “get” this, your life will change significantly for the better. One of the reasons is that it will eliminate fear from your life.

“Huh?” you might be thinking, “How is that going to happen?” That’s where the connection comes in. A good friend of mine, Jim Britt, defines fear as “Taking something that has happened to you in the past, projecting it into the future and experiencing it in the present.” Combine this with Tolle’s past and future only existing in the Now. If you eliminate the past as a consideration in your present (you cannot change it), there is no basis for your fear. If you ignore what you seek in the future as something lacking in present, all that is left is Now.

And the source of denial of the present is the ego; it holds onto the hurts and victories of the past as this is how it is defined. It craves the future because then it (the ego) will be more, more significant, more famous, more … whatever.

After all that, I have come to the conclusion that the source of fear can largely be attributed to our egos.

I integrate this concept into The Wealth Manifesto, specifically in the last chapter which discusses enjoying your quality of life now, not at some as yet undefined date in the future when you may have achieved some goal, financial independence, enlightenment or whatever.

You may never get there. Enjoy Now…does Now work for you?

Damn … I’m having fun all over again.

Thriving is the ultimate attitude to adopt if you want to become wealthy. Here are some definitions of the word “thrive”:

- To grow vigorously: FLOURISH
- To gain in wealth or possessions: PROSPER (from the Latin prosperare meaning “to cause to succeed.”)
- To progress toward or realize a goal despite or because of circumstances, as in she thrives on challenges

I also believe that one of the crucial steps towards unlocking your purpose is learning to thrive rather than survive. Many people, as you know, are barely surviving; they will have a hard time seeing their life as wealthy, now or in the future. To experience and accelerate wealth, it’s important to get beyond focusing on lower-level needs and raise our sights towards growth and prosperity. In short, we must learn to thrive. This is the 4th Article of The Wealth Manifesto:

The journey to wealth will transform your life from Survive to Thrive.

Thriving is far better than merely surviving. Of course, thriving is pretty tough when you are having trouble surviving. Since it is often the case that money takes care of nearly any issue that has to do with the lower level, physiological needs associated with survival - food, shelter, security … even sex - I think money is important (within reason). This is why I make the connection between your Wealth Potential, your ability to be fulfilled as a person and the ability to generate income. It is going to be very difficult for you to fulfill the valuable role you have on this Earth if you are lacking in the physical needs common to all human beings. You are here for a much bigger reason than to live in scarcity.

The path from surviving in fear to thriving in love can be challenging but it is the path of least resistance that we all must ultimately find. You are moving towards wellness and grace and away from that which causes you pain. This will put you on the path to who you were meant to be. This means the path to wealth is not only consistent with finding your purpose, it is your purpose.

I’ll finish up today with a favorite quote (found of course in my book The Wealth Manifesto )

Love is the only wealth that man absolutely needs.
Love is the only wealth that God precisely is.

- Sri Chinmoy, Indian philosopher and guru

One of things about writing a book is that you and your ideas at the time of printing are frozen forevermore. One of the nice things about something like a blog or a newsletter is that you can keep your readers up to date on what you thinking about, how your thinking is evolving, what new revelations have come your way. The idea - I have been told this is the idea anyway - is that you build a relationship with those readers, they get to know you, and if they appreciate what you have to say, they hang around to see what you are going to say next.

In the course of writing The Wealth Manifesto, a number of profound changes have come over me. I have told a few close friends that the book is the way I plan to live my life. In it are many things that I have learned and experienced and do in fact live everyday. Others are things I know to be true by observing others or through research. Still others are the way I would like to be but just don’t have my act together to quite be there yet. One of these is my own spirituality. I’m on a journey - just as every other conscious being - to discover more about my own spiritual wellbeing.

One of the ways that I suggest as an avenue to discover that about yourself is through your Wealth Potential. In my book, I proposed the idea that this is one of the most tangible methods to uncover purpose and create meaning in your life. When you are using your capacities, your passions, working in alignment with your values and what feels good, you are fulfilling your part. You are doing what you were meant to be doing. This does not mean you have to believe in anything - God, Higher Power, etc. - other than yourself. You and you alone are able to create meaning in your life. I can figure out what my gifts are, what I am passionate about, what interests and fulfills me. Attaching significance does not need to go beyond ‘I am enjoying life. I am content. Doing (this) makes my happy.’ If your beliefs are religious and you are fulfilling God’s will, God’s plan for you, deploying and putting your Wealth Potential into use works seamlessly with any religious preference. God is the Creator of all things, including you. If you are using your God-given talents and everything else that you are, it is impossible for you to be doing anything but operating according to God’s plan.

I do believe of course, that there is a connection between us and the Infinite. That our Wealth Potential - our ability to create value and enhance our own wellbeing and that of others - is a form of personal sacrament. It is our connection to the superconscious mind that is the Source of all intuition, the Source of unlimited abundance and how we do indeed play our part in this synergy of life. Our Wealth Potential is the real world manifestation of our sacred purpose, the consecration of our heart and soul to creating wealth. For ourselves and the world.

That is big ….