A blinding flash of the obvious
I have a friend who wants to be a musician, but he doesn’t believe it’s possible. He believes that he’s too old, too ingrained with his current work, too many responsibilities, too short on time, etc.
I listened as he lamented that his dream was dead and refrained from responding for a bit. I knew he wasn’t open to hearing me in that moment.
But a little while later, as the energy cleared around him, I suggested that he had to have faith first. Then he had to do something – anything – towards his dream.
I reminded him of this joke:
A Jewish man goes into the synagogue and prays. “O Lord, you know the mess I’m in, please let me win the lottery.”
The next week, he’s back again, and this time he’s complaining. “O Lord, didn’t you hear my prayer last week? I’ll lose everything I hold dear unless I win the lottery.”
The third week, he comes back to the synagogue, and this time he’s desperate. “O Lord, this is the third time I’ve prayed to you to let me win the lottery! I ask and I plead and still you don’t help me!”
Suddenly a booming voice sounds from heaven. “Benny, Benny, be reasonable. Meet me half way. Buy a lottery ticket!”
There are many versions of this joke, but I like this one because of God telling the man to ‘Meet me half way”.
That’s what we have to do, right? Just take one step forward and the Universe will take one step towards us. Take the first step and the next step will be shown to us. Do one thing in the direction of our dream and the allow God/Universe/Source/Higher Self/Whatever to guide us on the right path.
My friend doesn’t know HOW to make his dream become his reality. I don’t know his HOW either, but I do know that it won’t be shown to him if he doesn’t ‘buy a lottery ticket’.
I told him, “If you want to be a musician, then play music.”
(To be fair, I likewise told myself, “If you want to be an author, then write.” 😉 )
What’s yours? What do you REALLY want to do/be/have?
What’s one thing you can do – just one thing, one step – to move you in that direction?
What’s your lottery ticket?
Making decisions…
Greetings from the Lake! The sun is just rising here… there’s so much beauty and peace at this time of day…Â 
But I do treasure these early mornings at the water, with my journal, sometimes a book, oftentimes just my thoughts – and my coffee. 😉
It usually takes me a couple of weeks to fully decompress and relax into the summer’s ease… but I’m already starting to feel things loosening.
People often tell us how lucky we are to spend the whole summer at the lake – but I always tell them, it’s not luck. It was a decision to do so a long time ago and then taking action to make it happen.
The first summer we were here for 2 weeks, and last summer we were here for 13. We just kept adding weeks every year until we were staying from Father’s Day to Labor Day.
But it all started with a decision. I knew what I wanted and I decided to make it happen. And this is our 12th summer doing so.
What decision could you make in your life or your business that would bring you more peace, joy, ease, freedom, happiness, laughter, wisdom, abundance?
I’d love to know – please share with me in the comments.
Until next time…
cheers,
Give more to be more…?
Ever have a project due or a deadline looming
that really stresses you out?
This girl had a vision, and she made it come alive, but wow – what it took to get there was some serious time reconfiguration, lots of that time spent in the Fabrication Lab at school during lunch, recess, and after school when she wasn’t at musical rehearsal, and lots of support, though she did all the work herself.
This photo is her completed project, and I have to say, from it coming home in many separate pieces to 4 hours later to completion – I’m impressed.
I’m even more impressed that she had a really great attitude about it all – even when she had to go back to store at 7:30pm to get less strong magnets! (Thank you, James, for taking that trip with her.)
But something she said while she was hot glue gunning struck me (I admit, with a tad bit of unease)…
Yikes!
From a recovering (almost) perfectionist, I cringed a little. But I also recognized that part of the reason this project was stressing her out wasn’t just the limited time she had to work on it, but because it’s really important to her to do well.
In this case, she saw clearly what she wanted and she went for it – focused, determined, and yes, it took
And that’s not a bad thing at all.
And it made me think, where in my business could I give more so it could be more?
You?
I’d love to know your thoughts…
Cheers,
~ A
Wiping out overwhelm bit by bit
The next two weeks are a bit overwhelming with so much going on, both personally and business-wise, so I took time yesterday to clear the decks.
I boxed up a ton of old binders and notebooks to go to the recycling center. I started filling my ‘summer bin’ mostly of books I want to read over the next few months. And I’m about 75% through my inbox as I head to zero before we leave for the lake.
I walked into my office this morning feeling considerably lighter and more energized to move forward.
I also made a list of exactly what needs to happen when over these next few weeks. Now I just need to focus on that list. 
😉
I share more about wiping out overwhelm here:
http://aliciaforest.com/how-to-wipe-out-overwhelm/
Enjoy!
Cheers,
~ A
Turning On Your Money Taps
One of the things I worked on for several years is cleaning up my money issues. That included everything from thinking I have to work really hard to make a lot of money, to taking care of old debt, to having a plan for paying down new debt, to plugging even the slightest money leak.
The truth for me was that I tended to not pay attention to my money as much as I should, so inevitably something happened where money MADE me pay attention. It wasn’t usually a positive experience. 😉
As I made some big strides in this area, I discovered that once I started really paying attention to my money, it started showing up a lot more in a lot more positive ways.
Here are 4 tips that helped me immensely to turn on the flow of money into my business and my life that I know can help you too.
TIP 1. Keep a daily tracking sheet of what comes in…
I track every penny that comes in on one simple sheet each day. When I first started doing this, I had days where I didn’t have any money coming in, but within just one month, it started to become rare if there was even one day that didn’t have some sum attached to it. My clients who use this method of tracking absolutely love it because they can see the results of this simple yet powerful attractor of more money flow into their business so quickly.
TIP 2. Have a purpose for each income stream
I’ve always done this without really thinking about it, but once I started getting crystal clear about the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ for each and every one of my income streams, they turned from trickles to rivers.
TIP 3. Take care of any outstanding money issues
Periodically, I sit down with all the info in hand to cancel memberships I’m not utilizing, get refunds I’m owed, and ask my assistant to send reminders for any overdue invoices. When I do this, inevitably I’ll receive a check or payment to me totaling as much as or more than the amount I just took care of. See, money likes being paid attention to.
TIP 4. Find and plug those money leaks
In every business, there are places where money is leaking out. It could be the webmaster who charges by the hour and takes too long to complete a task. It could be a monthly subscription that you either don’t utilize at all or that you aren’t clear on its return on investment to be sure it’s actually a good one to make. It could be paying monthly for a service you use all year in your business, and that you could save 10% on if you chose the annual payment plan instead.
When you start to pay attention to your money, it will immediately open up the flow of it into your business and your life.
Which one of these tips are you going to start doing today? Share with me below…
At Simplify & Amplify, we work on YOUR money stuff and these 4 tips are the tiniest sample of the kinds of shifts you can start making today to start making and keeping more money in your business.
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