by Marc Allen
2. Net worth of over $1 million, not counting the value of my business. Like a great many small business owners, I was a millionaire on paper about five years after I started my business, but almost all of my equity, almost all my net worth, was tied up in the business. It took me a while to reach the goal of having over $1 million in assets not counting the assets in my business.
3. Having over $1 million in liquid assets — cash, stocks, mutual funds, not counting the less liquid assets of real estate, the value of my business, or art.
4. Attaining true financial independence: Having enough assets to generate more than enough income to live on, so I can do whatever I want to do in life.
It took me about five years to reach the first stage, and roughly five more to reach the second. Then something interesting happened: I leapt to the fourth stage before reaching the third, for my company grew to the point where it easily supports me, and I work only as much as I want to. I achieved financial independence, and it was not necessary for me to have $1 million in liquid assets before I was able to do exactly what I wanted to do in life.
In recent years, I’ve been doing this affirmation regularly: In an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way, our company is increasing its profits by at least___percent per year.
The number I put in varies. My subconscious mind has no problem accepting that affirmation, because it has come true in reality.
WORKING WITH YOUR AFFIRMATIONS
Read your goals out loud, stating them as affirmations. Do this repeatedly, and watch what happens, first in the inner world of your mind and body, and then in the outer world of your life experience and conditions.
A book reviewer once put it beautifully: When New Age magazine reviewed Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain — a book I highly recommend — they wrote this key phrase, and it’s something I certainly feel is true of this book as well as Creative Visualization:
An open mind and heart,
plus the desire to greatly enrich one’s life
are all you need to bring to this book —
then prepare yourself for some truly marvelous results.
Read your affirmations repeatedly over a period of weeks, and suddenly things start to happen: Ideas come to you, plans form, opportunities appear, the right people who can help and support your dreams walk into your life.
I discovered the power of imagining my ideal scene on the day I turned thirty (that birthday still remains one of the worst and one of the best days I ever had). I wrote my ideal scene down, and then made a list of the goals that were embedded in it. Over the years, there have been as many as ten or twelve of them, and as few as five or six. I wrote them as affirmations, to the best of my ability at the time, and read them nearly every morning. Then I added something we’ve seen before (and will see again), something I read years ago in a book by Catherine Ponder, a Unity Church minister:
Begin (or end) each goal with these words:
In an easy and relaxed manner,
in a healthy and positive way,
In its own perfect time,
for the highest good of all.
— Catherine Ponder
The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity
At times that feel appropriate, you can just say the first two lines; at other times, say all four lines, either before or after your goal.
Then say your goal to yourself, silently or out loud. Soon you’ll remember it, consciously, and before too long it will become imprinted in your powerful, creative subconscious mind.
You notice some inner changes first. They may be small, like a new idea, a new possibility that pops into your mind, or an unexpected new bit of confidence in what had been a stressful situation — or they may be major, like a great dream that unfolds in front of you in remarkable detail, a great idea, a great challenge, or a great purpose that reveals itself to you.
And once it is revealed, the first steps to take become obvious. As you take those steps, your world — in a large number of unexpected and creative ways — supports your dream. Then the next step to take becomes clear — and you take it in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way.
THE POWER OF IMPRINTING
The process works. My theory is that the repetition of your goals and dreams imprints them on your subconscious mind, the deep, vast part of your mind that is intimately connected with, and — in some mysterious way — united with the whole universe. By simply repeating your goals, you are aligning yourself with the creative power of the universe.
Some wise person (I don’t remember who) said,
Your subconscious mind
always says yes.
That key phrase led me to another great key:
Your subconscious mind is a vast reservoir of energy
that powerfully supports you in whatever
you think or dream about.
We fantasize something, we come up with a dream, and our subconscious mind says, “Yes!” and immediately gets to work to manifest that dream. But then so often our doubts and fears arise, and we say to ourselves, “But it’s so hard to really live that dream. So few people have achieved that dream.” And our subconscious mind says, “Yes, it’s so hard,” and immediately gets to work showing us how hard it is, and the road ahead seems filled with obstacles.
Our subconscious mind is, in some ways, like a five-year-old child — though an incredibly powerful child. We have to program it with simple phrases a five-year-old can understand; we have to carefully and consciously imprint our dreams on our subconscious mind. Then the magic happens.
When we affirm we’re going to create our dream, in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way, our subconscious mind gets immediately to work on it.
THE UNIVERSE SAYS YES
There is a powerful book I highly recommend called The Architecture of All Abundance by Lenedra J. Carroll. She says that it’s not just our subconscious mind that says yes all the time, it is the entire universe as well. (This should have been obvious to me before, because I know our subconscious mind and the universe are inextricably linked, but it wasn’t until I read Lenedra Carroll that I understood it in a new, deep-seated way that affected my life.)
Here’s a great key from The Architecture of All Abundance:
The universe is constantly saying yes to us, yes.
It is our task to discover what within us
it is saying yes to....
We live in a vast and supremely responsive universe.
Within this great being, we are infinitely prosperous.
Reflect on this key awhile — can you understand this secret of success? The universe is constantly saying yes to us, constantly supporting whatever we say and think and do. What are we telling ourselves that it is saying yes to? Are we telling ourselves we are on our way to success as we choose to define it, or are we telling ourselves that life is a struggle, and maybe we don’t have what it takes to succeed, or don’t deserve to succeed?
The universe is supremely responsive to every thought, every word. And it is infinitely prosperous — ready, willing, and able to share its infinite abundance with you and with everyone else who asks for it.
If you can relate to these words, they can be important keys to success.
TWO POWERFUL, AM-INCLUSIVE AFFIRMATIONS
There are two great affirmations to include in your affirmation sessions, or to say at any time during the day if you find yourself thinking or saying anything limited or destructive. The power of these words becomes obvious when you affirm them to yourself.
The first is from a famous French pharmacist, Emile Coué, who saw healing after healing in his customers after he began giving them this affirmation instead of drugs (there is more about this in How to Think like a Millionaire):
Every day, in every way,
I am getting better and better.
And when you’re affirming a particular goal, it’s very good to add the words that follow as a kind of “cosmic insuran
ce policy,” ensuring it will be for your highest good as well as that of others:
This, or something better, is now manifesting
in totally satisfying and harmonious ways,
for the highest good of all.
Affirm it to be, and it will be. Discover for yourself the power of affirmation.
Write your list of goals, word them in the form of affirmations, and read them over repeatedly. Add your list of goals to your folder or binder, along with your idea scene.
You are creating the foundation of your success.
You will be what you will to be.
SUMMARY
• A powerful step to take to create success — in any way you want to define it — is to imagine your ideal scene: your life and your world as you want it to be five years from now. Put it in writing, save it, and review it occasionally.
• Within your ideal scene is a list of goals. List them on a separate sheet of paper, and put it with your ideal scene.
• Each one of these goals can be expressed as an affirmation, stated in the present as if you are now already moving toward that goal. Write each of your goals as an affirmation.
• Get a separate binder of some kind (I use just a folder with pockets on the inside, or sometimes a file folder) and put in the written exercises you do as you work with this book. Eventually, you’ll create your own personalized version of this Course. It could become the most powerful key you have.
• Read your list of affirmations often, preferably nearly every day. Add these words before or after each goal: in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way. At times where it feels appropriate, also add: in its own perfect time, for the highest good of all.
• Your subconscious mind says yes to your dreams, goals, and affirmations, just as it says yes to every thought you have.
• Prepare yourself for some truly marvelous results!
You will become as great
as your dominant aspiration.
If you cherish a vision,
a lofty ideal in your heart,
you will realize it.
— James Allen
As You Think
* If all this sounds impossibly vague or confusing, I highly recommend reading or listening to The Power of Now or Practicing the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Those books simplified and improved my life. If the books don’t work for you, listen to his CDs titled Living the Liberated Life and The Realization of Being, or the audios on his website, www.eckharttolle.com.
LESSON 2
WRITE YOUR PLAN AS A SIMPLE, CLEAR VISUALIZATION
THIS KEY IS YOUR BLUEPRINT
To build anything, you need a design, a blueprint. What is your plan? To use Lenedra J. Carroll’s great phrase, what is the architecture of your abundance?
If you’ve done the exercises in the previous chapter, you have a list of goals. If you’re like me, you’ll have two or three major goals at any given time. Now we’re ready for the next step — it’s another one of those keys that seems so simple and obvious that you would think more people would be doing it:
For every major goal,
write a short, simple plan.
Summarize it clearly on one page.
So many people never discover this key, and think that writing a plan means creating a forty-page document with five-year projections of income and expenses and cash flow. A detailed business plan is useful if you need to raise money from certain sources (venture capitalists, banks), but most often, a plan that lengthy isn’t necessary at all.
KEEP IT SIMPLE, KEEP IT SHORT
Whether you write it for a business or a personal goal, a plan is a powerful tool for your use. The single most important thing your written plan does is remind your powerful subconscious mind that you desire this, and you are focusing that desire by putting it in concrete words on paper so your subconscious can get to work on it.
Keep it simple: The simpler it is, the more powerfully it impacts your subconscious mind. Remember:
Your subconscious mind says yes
to every one of your intentions,
and summons the forces to create them in reality.
YOUR PLAN IS A MAP OF YOUR FUTURE
Write a short, one-page plan for each one of the major goals on your list. Perhaps you’ll ultimately write a longer and more detailed plan, or the one-page version may be enough as is.
I recommend you first write the plan in your own way, without imposing any kind of structure on it. Once you’ve done that, you can consider possibly using some or all of the simple types of architecture I’ll suggest later. But first, write your own plan in your own words — whatever words come to mind. Let your subconscious mind show you what it wants as you write that one, single page. Keep it simple:
You must simplify.
You must make the complex simple,
and then make it work.
— I. M. Pei, Architect
WRITTEN WORDS BECOME POWERFUL
You’re developing a powerful set of written tools that will show you how to create the success you desire.
It bears repetition: If you have worked through the first lesson in this Course, you have begun to create a map to your success. You have, on paper, your ideal scene. Embedded in that vision of the future are numerous goals that you have listed on another page or two. You’ve rewritten your goals in the form of affirmations.
Maybe you’ve done it differently than this, but in some way or other you’re visualizing your ideal scene. Now add a single-page plan for every one of your major goals, written in your own words.
Take this next step and, in its own perfect time, great results will happen in your life, for the highest good of all.
WRITING A ONE-PAGE PLAN
Take a sheet of paper, and write something at the top like “Plan for________________.” Write your goal, big and bold, and then write in your own words a plan to reach your goal. See if you can do it on just one page — though it’s fine to run longer than that, if that’s what you’re moved to do. Be flexible, with any and all of this material. Trust your instincts; feel free to break any rules I may seem to be providing.
Sometimes the very best plans are simply written in the words that come up without having any structure or outline to follow. Just write your plan, in one page.
A one-page plan is powerful,
because it sets your powerful subconscious mind
in motion.
Once you’ve written it, you may want to add something based on the following outline, or even rewrite your plan using one of these two possible outlines:
A SIMPLE OUTLINE FOR A ONE-PAGE PLAN
• MISSION: Your broadest, highest reasons for doing it in the first place.
• GOALS: The steps you intend to take to fulfill your mission.
• STRATEGIES: The steps you will take to reach your goals.
In his book, The One Page Business Plan, Jim Horan suggests this format and defines his terms in this way:
THE OUTLINE FROM THE ONE PAGE BUSINESS PLAN*
• VISION: How do you visualize your company in the future? Where are you going with it? What will it look like in five years? Describe your idea in a manner that captures the passion of the idea.
• MISSION: Why are you in this business? What’s your passion? Why will customers buy this product or service?
• OBJECTIVES: What are the goals? What accomplishments must you achieve to be successful? List your goals in specific terms, with targets and time frames.
• STRATEGIES: What has made your business successful to date? What will make it successful over time?
• PLANS: What specific projects and actions will be taken this year to achieve the objectives?
You may have to write very small to get this on one page — two pages is fine, too.
TURNING DESIRES INTO INTENTIONS
It’s worth reviewing: When you make a plan on paper, you are sending a clear message to your subconscious, and to the whole universe,
and everyone in it: You have a dream or desire for something — and it has now become an intention. You have thought this through; you have put it on paper. You are serious; you’re going to make it happen, one way or another. You intend on doing, being, or having this, in your own way — and in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way, in its own perfect time, for the highest good of all.
As soon as you intend something, the universe says yes. And it starts throwing ideas at you: You could start here; you could start there. You could do it this way, you could do it that way. Many of my plans develop their own multi-pronged strategies: First we try this, then that, and if those don’t work, we go on to another possibility. Sooner or later, something starts working. Sooner or later, we reach that goal, in its own perfect time.
As soon as you intend something, you start to see opportunities where before you saw only problems and obstacles. You realize there are opportunities everywhere, always, and sometimes you see them and sometimes you don’t.
There’s a fascinating principle at work here:
