This is a very slow process and the hope is that the end result will be a great improvement.

Please bear with me while the blog is in this in-between state, and celebrate with me as things improve and we continue on our path of living a Life of Abundance.

Love and peace,

ElinAnna

How often have you not seen any feasible solution in a situation because you have already decided the outcome, i.e., the story is already written?  What would happen if you just changed the story, since it is only invented anyway?  Would the outcome change if you wrote a new story?

I often tell people about my problem finding things.  My story was; I can’t find anything.  I’m always loosing things.  Then I would go on to the problems I was going to have because of it.  I don’t have to tell you about all the anxiety and wasted energy because I was holding on to this story.  One day I decided to add something to the story.  It was; and then I always find those things.  When I’m relaxed I find them.  And by some magic I started to find things.

Saying this is what the book is only about doesn’t give the authors proper credit.  It actually goes on to talk about eleven more practices that give you great ways of doing things differently.  The possibilities are endless and we can do so much more with simple changes.

Using these practices can definitely help you live a Life of Abundance.

Love and peace,

ElinAnna

This has come up a lot since her mother passed away.  Her mother didn’t want to change a thing.  This included doing any improvements on the house she lived in.  And this risk adverse behavior would then result in emergency calls to my friend when things were breaking down.  Like one Christmas Eve when the water came pouring into the kitchen because of an ice dam on the roof.  For my friend this meant climbing up on the roof to try to stop, or at least minimizing the water damage.  Fortunately for my friend she is in good shape and not very risk adverse.  Otherwise this would not have ended as well as it did.

As we talked about this risk avoidance the discussion went on to how we train our muscles to be able to handle situations like the one she had.  Although I doubt her training was aimed at tackling damaged roof in an ice storm.  She is always in a good shape.  What is also the case she can take on all kinds of situations, no matter how risky they are.  She evaluates the situation and starts tackling it.  It’s like she is dealing with risk in the same way and her risk muscle is in just as great shape as the rest of her body.

When we talked about it more we realized that her risk muscle is in great shape because she has been exercising it.  She takes on calculated risks and deals with them as they come along.  When she was younger she would be hastier in taking the risks.  Now she has learned it is much better to go slower and do a better job.  No reason to overextend the muscle.  This is why she could climb onto the roof on that Christmas Eve.

It is by taking these small, or not so small, risks we train ourselves to live with and take the risks that have the ability to change our lives.  It all starts with small risks, then we start taking bigger steps, which help us change how we live our lives and start living a Life of Abundance.

Love and peace,

ElinAnna

Some go on to think about how they have never been able to make more money and take it as a sign that they will never be able to change this fate.  They will tell you about how it has always been this way and why it will not change.  They have thought a lot about this and know why it is like this.  They even have proof of why it is so.

Then you have other people that take it as a sign that there is time for a change.  So they will start to work out how things will change.  They might not even know how, but they know it will and set out to be proactive in making the change happen.  They do not sit and wait for life to happen to them and then explain why it did.  They live their lives.  It’s with the mindset of being proactive, to do, to take action and moving on.  Their mindset is to take responsibility of their lives and knowing that the past is behind them and the future is in front of them.  That’s where they are heading.

How can being proactive help you live a Life of Abundance?

Love and peace,

ElinAnna

The question is how is it going to change?  What is needed for them to get paid more?  If you are one of these people then you need to do something different.  It is obvious that the same old – same old is not working.  Since it hasn’t happened in the past it is very unlikely to happen in the future.  There is a saying that if you want a different result you have to do things differently.  Doing the same as you have always done will only give you the same results, therefore different result require different actions.

The first thing you can do is to sit down and brainstorm about what you can do differently.  There are for sure simple things that you can start doing today and then there are other things that will require more time.  By looking for opportunities to do things differently, you have already started the process.  It is important to keep at it.  You are the catalyst in your life!  It is only by changing your actions and your mind that you can change your life and start living the life you want to live, a Life of Abundance.

Love and peace,

ElinAnna

Both places have their charm and I enjoy both.  This shows us how very different surroundings can be great when we open our eyes and hearts to it, and how it can enrich our lives.  Too often we get stuck in our ways and don’t want to change.  As a result we miss out on the great life that we are meant to live.

It doesn’t mean that there was something wrong the way we were living.  It just means that Life has more to offer and we can joyfully accept it.  It is up to us to take the opportunities that are given to us.

How can you see the opportunities that are coming your way and joyfully accept the new direction in your life?

Love and peace,

ElinAnna

Oh, you think things will be all better when the economy turns around.  That it will be better in the future.

This is a very common thought pattern with underearners.  Something or someone will make all things better.  I know this inside out.  Having lived like this for most of my life.  Do you know what I found out?  To my surprise and horror, it doesn’t work like that.

Well, actually someone will make things better, and that someone is I.  Yes, I am the one that will make it better.  It is amazing to think that I am that powerful.  But I am!  I am the best person for ME to change my life.  It is I that am having the underearning beliefs and I who am behaving accordingly.

For me it was and is even today a scary thought.  This power belongs to me.  By accepting this power, and taking actions to change my behavior, things change.

In today’s world this means I will not wait for the economy to improve.  I will take the steps to leave underearning behind.  Life is simply too good to waste on waiting.  I have a life of abundance ahead of me.

Love and peace,

ElinAnna

What ever I read these days the concept of persistence comes up.  What is persistence?  The Oxford American Dictionary defines it as:

• firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition : companies must have patience and persistence, but the rewards are there.
• the continued or prolonged existence of something : the persistence of huge environmental problems.

The behavioral pattern of an underearner is very persistent.  We have spent a very long time, actually a big part of our life, living according to the beliefs we hold true.  I am talking about the, often unconscious, beliefs that dictate how we live our live of underearning.  There are different beliefs for different people.  They can be grouped into different groups, and many authors have done an excellent job of categorizing these behaviors.  Here I will only put them into two groups.  The two groups are belief of unworthiness of some kind and not wanting to deal with money for some reason.  These behavioral patterns have put us in an uncomfortable situation.  Put it differently we do not like what we are seeing and feeling.  How do we get out of this pattern?  Here the word “change” comes in.  The dreaded word “CHANGE”.  We have to change how we relate to money.

Changing something so fundamental to us is difficult.  I know that.  For so many years I lived with the belief that I was unworthy of money, I could not make money, and so on.

It takes a fundamental shift in our being to change that.  It is tough.  People do not like the unknown change brings.  So we resist.

I have made the decision that being an underearner is not serving me, it will take persistence to change, because one so often fall back into the old behavior.  It is an old habit and creating a new habit takes a lot of persistence.  When I fall I need to stand up again and keep moving.  It is like learning to ski.  You fall often.  The only way to get to the end and learn how to ski is to stand up after each fall and keep skiing.  In the end it becomes like a second nature and one rarely falls.  I know that falling is a part of the game.  Even Olympic skiers fall.  I still keep persisting and reminding myself that this is a new way of living and the rewards are great, a life of abundance.

Love and peace,

ElinAnna

The House rejected the rescue plan!

A new plan has arrived and the Senate approved it.

There is a plan in the process and maybe the House will approve it.  Maybe it is a good one, or maybe not.

What can an underearner learn from this?  A plan is easy to make and to reject.  We often make plans and then just as quickly we change them.  What do we want to do and how?  What it comes down to, there is no plan at all.  We keep on doing the same old thing, because it is difficult to make a decision on what to do differently and stick to it.  We don’t want to have to do things differently.  All we want is things to turn out different. 

The reality is that nothing will change until we start to change.  We have to start to make a different choice and follow through with it.  Making the decision is easy compared to what follows.  First we have to come up with a plan. That plan has to spells out how we are going to do things differently.  What is going to be different now with this plan? The same old, same old, doesn’t work any more if we want different results.  The plan has to allow us to face the truth about our finances.  And it also has to allow us to take a different route.  This route has a final destination.

This sounds so easy, how come we haven’t done this.  The answer is; we humans are creatures of habit.  We do not like to do things different or do what we are used to do differently.  We like to do the same old thing and we want to get different results.

Is that maybe the reason that the House rejected the plan?  Was it too much the same old thing or was it too different?

To get different result we must do things differently.

The funny thing is that when we are down and have nowhere to go, then the situation becomes desperate enough for us to change.  There is no choice and therefore we get the new result.  That is what is happening with our economy today.

This is a big, big mess.

Love and peace,

ElinAnna

So, the government of the U. S. A. is going to save the financial market with the taxpayer’s money.

Hmm, what does that mean to the average underearner?  Is the government going to save the underearner?  The underearner might think so.  To believe that someone is going to come and save us from our mistakes, and that someone or something out there is to blame for the our situation.  If it isn’t the lottery, then is has to be the government.

How about opening the eyes and turn on the lights, the bright fluorescent lights?

Yes, the financial masters messed up.  It looks like they didn’t operate with their lights on.  There is a reason why gambling and the bright light do not go together.  Yes, it is difficult to turn on the light; we are going to see the mess.  Unfortunately, it is also difficult to clean in the dark.  We need the light to be able to really CLEAN.

Face the truth was the theme of my last blog.  We can face the truth; tell the truth until we are blue in the face.  Nothing will change until we make the decision to change.  Clean up the mess and decide to change.  Make a decision to have the life we want.

Love and peace,

ElinAnna