Posts Tagged ‘lack consciousness’

Two Secrets to Creating Abundance NOW!

Thursday, March 27th, 2008

Click here to view my English usage blogs.

The first secret to creating abundance is learning what abundance isn’t. Abundance is not happiness. Abundance is not determined by our bank account, the square footage of our home, or the make of our car. If it were, then we would see wealthier people behave as though they are happier and the middle class demonstrating signs of misery. Yet hundreds of experiments show unequivocally that, once basic needs for comfort have been met at a modest, middle class level, the correlation between wealth and happiness disappears. Poof! Chasing after money in the hope that it will buy us more happiness, intimacy, or fulfillment is a waste of energy based on an invalid hypothesis.

Many of us think we already get this. We say our “amens,” grateful to God/the Universe for our daily bread. But secretly, we believe that what we have, as well as fundamentally who we are, is not enough. We find ourselves grasping for more, feeling like dogs chasing our tails. Why can’t we stop?

The saying, “Seeing is believing,” reinforces that we must see something—notice something—before we will believe it. But how can we notice something we don’t have our attention on? Let me simplify the quandary with an example that we’ve probably all experienced. You buy a new car (or at least new to you) and suddenly you notice that same car everywhere on the freeway. Did everyone suddenly buy the identical car that day? Of course not. It’s just that your attention is now focused on something that previously you hadn’t noticed. Seeing your same car everywhere reinforces that there are more of them out there even if you “know” that can’t be true.

So when we are bombarded, through the media, with visions of excited, sexy, happy new owners of cars, yachts, homes, and clothes, we believe that there must be a correlation between having and happiness, especially if we’re not feeling excited, happy, and satisfied in that particular moment. We look at these successful happy people and compare them to us. The conclusion: Something is wrong with me. We now experience “lack consciousness,” which fuels the urge to have/get more so that we will feel enough.

So the second secret of abundance is to recognize that the saying, “Seeing is believing,” is backwards. When we focus on something, when we choose to believe it, we begin to see it more and more everywhere, just like in our new car scenario. Therefore, if we choose to believe we are abundant, we will begin to notice how abundant we are. So do you need to see it first to believe it? No! “Believing is seeing!”

Obviously, then, the first step to experiencing abundance is to check what your current beliefs are that stop you from seeing that abundance already surrounds you. Do you doubt that you deserve abundance? Do you define abundance in such a way that you can never “get” it? Do you think of abundance as something “out there”? Do you compare yourself to other people and make yourself feel miserable with jealousy or envy? Are you afraid of having “too much,” thinking you will become lazy or spoiled?

If you don’t feel abundant, then you must be holding onto at least one limiting belief. So how can you talk back to your limiting beliefs? How can you believe something new and different? In Enough Is Enough!, I encourage questioning the authority of your limiting beliefs and self-judgments. That’s right: question your own authority. Ask yourself, “Who the heck am I to think such a limiting/ridiculous/unloving/narrow-minded/silly/pain-producing thought?” I am reminded of Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver when he looks in the mirror and challenges his image with, “You talkin’ to me? Hey, you talkin’ to me?!” Who is that talking to you anyway? Whose views about lack and unworthiness have you held as unquestionable truths? Who told you that you can’t feel happy unless you match up or surpass others’ criteria?

Once we get that “Believing is seeing” we will begin to experience the abundance that flows within us and surrounds us. If you believe that YOU are abundant, you will have more appreciation of your body, mind, spirit, and talents. From this appreciation will grow your natural desire to share your abundance. And what we share we get back ten-fold. Every parent who has felt unbridled love for a child knows that all it takes is a smile or an “I love you, Mommy/Daddy” to feel like we’re the lucky ones. Those of us who have a beloved pet know the feeling of being given back ten-fold by a simple lick on our nose.

Believing is seeing. It sounds simple enough. Yet challenging our own authority about what is true and being willing to believe something new requires focus. As with any new habit, we have to practice believing we are abundant until it comes more naturally. We will know when we have practiced this new belief sufficiently when we can no longer ignore the signs of abundance everywhere: increased self-esteem, a sense of personal satisfaction, a desire to challenge ourselves more, an ability to let go, and an urge to share the richness of who we are.

As we share the abundance of ourselves with ourselves and others, abundance begins to permeate our life. Abundance is not outside our grasp because what is within us does not require chasing after. You ARE abundant. Get that and two things are likely to occur: 1. what you thought you wanted may change and 2. what you now want is more aligned with your spirit.

I’d like to invite you to practice honing your abundance skills in an exciting, supportive, beautiful environment by joining me and other self-help luminaries in Cancun from June 21-28. See below for details.

Announcements

Create Your Abundant Life NOW!

at Club Med in Cancun!
June 21-28, 2008

Enjoy the beautiful beach, delicious food, and luxurious setting while experiencing enriching programs by renowned self-help leaders, including a NEW program that I am offering:

Create Your Abundant Life NOW!

How do you know if you have limiting beliefs around abundance?
Just ask yourself:
Do I believe that abundance is that which already exists?

If you can’t answer that question with a resounding YES!, then don’t waste any more of your life suffering in lack.

Here’s another test of your abundance quotient:

Do you feel that you don’t have enough:

* Time
* Money
* Energy
* Love
* Intimacy
* Fun
* Self-esteem
* Inspiration, or
* Direction

There is a Buddhist saying that no enemy can harm us as much as our own worst thoughts. Three kinds of negative thoughts stop us from manifesting abundance:

* Fear
* Self-judgments
* Limiting beliefs

Any one of them can sabotage us, keep us stuck in a rut, stress us out, cause us confusion, or make us want to give up.

You will experience cutting-edge strategies and intriguing processes so that you will begin immediately to manifest your spirit’s deepest desires.

Price: Get your Friend of Jane discount $1999 (regular price $2600)/$1000 for children under 18, which includes lodging, meals, airport transportation, and all programs. Check out this beautiful, newly renovated Club Med for yourself.
Luminaries Joining Jane as Presenters:

Cameron Johnson: You Call the Shots

Maybe you’ve watched Cameron on the Big Give with Oprah – now meet him in person. Cameron is recognized as one of the most successful young entrepreneurs in the world. Over the last eight years, Cameron has given hundreds of speeches worldwide. Cameron is also the author of the international bestselling book, “You Call the Shots.” Cameron will inspire you with his story and motivate you to the next level of success.

Teresa Rodriguez Williamson: Build Your Personal Mission Statement

Teresa is the creator and founder of TangoDiva.com—a worldwide online social network and travel magazine for women. She is also the author of “FLY SOLO: The 50 Best Places on Earth for a Girl to Travel Alone.” She has appeared on hundreds of TV shows, magazines, and newspaper articles around the world. Teresa will teach you how to create and build a mission statement that can guide you to success.

Chet Holmes: How to Double Your Sales

Super Strategist of the Fortune 500, Chet Holmes had more than 60 of the Fortune 500 as clients, taking his place as America’s top marketing executive, trainer, strategic consultant, and motivation expert. He is the author of the NO.1 bestselling book, “The Ultimate Sales Machine.” Chet will teach you how to double your sales – no matter what your business is.

Stephen Pierce: The Art of More

For many, Stephen Pierce’s name is synonymous with success. Recognized as one of the world’s leading Internet marketers and Business Optimization Strategists, Pierce wears several hats when it comes to his businesses. He will teach you how to expand your business in a competitive world.

Spike Humer: Consciously Creating Your Future

Dedicated to the passionate pursuit of creating joy, excellence, and positive abundance in life, health, relationships, and business throughout the world. He will help you create a clear and compelling vision for your life.

Contact Teresa Williamson at media@podium-pr.com for more information and to register. Put in your Subject Line: Club Med w/Jane Or call Teresa @ 650-759-1005 or Raha @ 925-915-1515

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For over 20 years, Jane Straus has coached individuals and groups, facilitated organizational retreats, conducted training programs, and presented keynotes for corporations and nonprofits nationwide.

To get exceptional results from coaching and training, you need someone who knows how to assess blind spots as well as enhance strengths. Jane’s coaching helps individuals and groups maximize their potential and improve their productivity and work relationships. Jane works to ensure that each client receives the wisdom, skills, and support he/she needs to succeed and often co-facilitates with industry-specific leaders who have chosen to mentor the next generation.

Contact Jane directly at Jane@janestraus.com to discuss your coaching or training needs or visit StopEnduring.com for more information and testimonials.

The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation 10th Edition Now Available

Amazon’s #1 Bestseller in Three Categories!
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An indispensable tool for busy professionals, teachers, students, home-school families, editors, writers, & proofreaders. If you buy the book through Amazon, please write a customer review. Reviews are immensely helpful at letting other consumers know that The Blue Book is a valuable resource.

What’s New:

* 60 additional pages at the same low price
* More quizzes
* Spelling / Vocabulary / Confusing Words

View entire contents online

* Spelling / Vocabulary / Confusing Words
* Grammar Rules
* Punctuation & Capitalization
* Rules for Writing Numbers
* More than Two Dozen FREE Quizzes in interactive format with answers

Discounts available for schools, bookstores, and multiple copies.

The True Measure of Abundance: An Extraordinary Life

Monday, March 17th, 2008

To read my English usage blogs, click here.

One of my clients used the expression, “earning a living,” and it struck me that this phrasing is so painfully close to saying “earning a life.” If we equate earning money with earning the right to live, we are likely to find ourselves in what I call Endurance (yes, with a capital E).

Endurance comes from a belief that we are worthy because of what we do, not for who we essentially are. Endurance looks like waking up in the morning depressed, anxious, and/or convinced that today will be as boring or stressful as the day before and that tomorrow will be no different. When we are Enduring, life is a vicious circle, where we chase after money in order to be happy, finding that there is never enough of either and that neither money nor happiness seem to last long enough.

The only way out of this vicious circle and onto our path is to question the authority of the fundamental belief that we are anything less than fully worthy of an extraordinary life. Not just a good life—an extraordinary one defined on our own terms. If you don’t feel that your life is already extraordinary, you’re not alone, which means you can find ample evidence that an extraordinary life is reserved for other people, perhaps the wealthy or the lucky or the talented.

I would like to invite you to question the authority of that belief right NOW. Be willing to take off your blinders and you will notice people in all walks of life and from all socioeconomic levels leading abundant, creative, fascinating, fulfilling lives. They may work hard but they are Persevering, not Enduring. How can you tell? They have a goal in mind that inspires their spirit, keeping them on course during the rough patches and the times when nothing seems to be going as planned.

When we Persevere, we are listening to and respecting our Spirit, the part of us that knows what our highest good is, what we are here to do or at least to do next. The result is the feeling that life itself is extraordinary and that all we have to do is tap into its abundance. The key is the willingness to discard the untruth that we are worthy of anything less. So no matter what you were told as a child about having to please others to be loved or approved of, let that go this instant. Choose to see the truth: you are a human being, not a human doing, and therefore worthy because you are here.

Some people are afraid that recognizing their inherent worthiness will stop them from striving to reach their goals; on the contrary, it will allow you to pay attention to what your deeper values are and to focus on ways to achieve the goals associated with those values. You will stop attending to the superficial and pay attention to what really matters. You will find your courage along the way, regardless of temporary setbacks. Most importantly, you will admire the one you see in the mirror. Wouldn’t that be extraordinary? Isn’t living an extraordinary life the truest measure of abundance?


Announcements

Create Your Abundant Life With Jane
at Club Med in Cancun!
June 21-28, 2008
Enjoy the beautiful beach, delicious food, and luxurious setting while experiencing enriching programs by renowned self-help leaders, including a NEW program that I am offering:
Create Your Abundant Life NOW!
How do you know if you have limiting beliefs around abundance?
Just ask yourself:

Do I believe that abundance is that which already exists?
Do I believe that money is love?
If you can’t answer both questions with a resounding YES!, then don’t waste any more of your life suffering in lack.

Here’s another test of your abundance quotient:
Do you feel that you don’t have enough:
• Time
• Money
• Energy
• Love
• Intimacy
• Fun
• Self-esteem
• Inspiration, or
• Direction
There is a Buddhist saying that no enemy can harm us as much as our own worst thoughts. Three kinds of negative thoughts stop us from manifesting abundance:
• Fear
• Self-judgments
• Limiting beliefs

Any one of them can sabotage us, keep us stuck in a rut, stress us out, cause us confusion, or make us want to give up.
You will experience cutting-edge strategies and intriguing processes so that you will begin immediately to manifest your spirit’s deepest desires.
Price: Get your Friend of Jane discount $1999 (regular price $2600)/$1000 for children under 18, which includes lodging, meals, airport transportation, and all programs. Check out this beautiful, newly renovated Club Med for yourself.
Contact Teresa Williamson at teresa@tangodiva.com for more information and to register. Put in your Subject Line: Club Med w/Jane

About Jane Straus
Jane is a trusted life coach, dynamic keynote speaker, and the author of Enough Is Enough! Stop Enduring and Start Living Your Extraordinary Life. With humor and grace, Jane offers her clients and seminar participants insights and exercises to ensure that the next chapter of their lives is about thriving as the unique individuals they have always been and the extraordinary ones they are still becoming. She serves clients worldwide and invites you to visit her site, www.stopenduring.com. Here you will find excerpts from her book, more articles, TV and radio interviews, and clips from her presentations.

She is also the author of The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, www.grammarbook.com, an award-winning online resource and workbook with easy-to-understand rules, real-world examples, and fun quizzes. Contact Jane at Jane@JaneStraus.com.

Creating Abundance Through Trust

Wednesday, October 25th, 2006

Dear Jane,
I know I have fears about money which probably keep me from having more money. But how do I break this vicious cycle?

How do we trust enough to trust? It’s a koan or at least a dilemma. My friend James told me how he recently worked with his fears and limiting beliefs around money.

For six years he had been “at a loss”—literally, unable to figure out why he was living in poverty while everyone around him seemed to manifest abundance so easily. A few weeks ago, he decided to stop asking why and started to simply “walk the walk” of abundance. It started with his awareness that he was out of integrity with himself and his church. His church asks its members to agree to tithe 10% of their earnings to charity. Although he had made the agreement, he had been skimping, telling himself that he didn’t have enough money for food or rent so how could he possibly give 10%?

When he confronted this, he made a decision to tithe 10% anyway, even if it meant going hungry. He made one other behavioral change to stop reinforcing his fear of lack. He stopped letting his gas tank get dangerously close to empty or even running out of gas. From the moment he stopped letting the fear of lack control him, his business began to boom. Within two weeks, he was booked with work for the next three months and has since given the overflow to other contractors.

So how do we trust enough to trust God/the Universe? This is where faith and “working in concert” come in. Faith means allowing God/the Universe to provide even though we can’t know ahead of time how things will work out. Faith is trusting, even with our fears and limiting beliefs. Working in concert means not sabotaging God/the Universe through behaviors that reinforce our fears and limiting beliefs. As I write about in Enough Is Enough!, working in concert means acting as if—as if we have perfect faith, as if it will all work out, as if we can help ourselves and others even when we don’t see how.

This is what James did by tithing and by filling up his gas tank. He behaved as if his fears and limiting beliefs didn’t have to be true or run the show anymore. I acknowledge James for his hard-won mastery of trust. He is an inspiration to me and I hope to you as well.

About Jane
Jane Straus is a trusted life coach, dynamic keynote speaker, and the author of Enough Is Enough! Stop Enduring and Start Living Your Extraordinary Life. With humor and grace, Jane offers her clients and seminar participants insights and exercises to ensure that the next chapter of their lives is about thriving as the unique individuals they have always been and the extraordinary ones they are still becoming. She serves clients worldwide and invites you to visit her site, StopEnduring.com. Here you will find excerpts from her book, more articles, TV and radio interviews, and clips from her presentations.
She is also the author of The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, Grammarbook.com, an award-winning online resource and workbook with easy-to-understand rules, real-world examples, and fun quizzes.
Contact Jane at Jane@JaneStraus.com.

Your Relationship With Money

Tuesday, June 6th, 2006
 
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Dear Jane,
I feel like I have a love/hate relationship with money. How can I change this so that I am more financially secure?

Most of us struggle, at one time or another, about money. But what is that struggle really about? I read an article in USA Today about couples and their relationship with money. Most of the advice they received had to do with planning ahead, paying down high credit card debts, discussing long-term financial goals, etc. This is all worthy advice; however, our relationship with money runs much deeper, sometimes at an unconscious level. Here are a few questions I ask myself whenever I am in “lack consciousness,” where I worry about not having enough of something, whether it’s enough money, time, resources, help, skill, compassion–whatever I’m focused on lacking at that particular moment.
1. Where is the real feeling of lack coming from?
When I judge that I don’t have enough, I must, in some way, be judging myself as not being enough. As a result, I may manifest that judgment in the form of lack of financial resources.
2. What else might I be avoiding by focusing on money concerns? If I’m not living in my deepest truth or fulfilling my purpose and am afraid to address this, perhaps because I feel overwhelmed by the changes I might be required to initiate, I may find it easier to create money problems to focus on. Money can seem so concrete and real.
3. Am I seeking sympathy from others? If I create financial neediness, am I really needing love, compassion, sympathy, attention, or understanding from others? Is my money “problem” a way of indirectly getting my needs met because I am ashamed of this need?
4. Am I giving enough love, compassion, etc. to myself or is that where the lack really stems from?
5. If I’m fighting with my partner about money, what are we really fighting about? Is one of us resentful about something else? Do either of us feel undervalued by the other?
6. If I overspend, why am I filling up with stuff (material goods)? Is it that I don’t trust I can be filled up in any other way? What else do I really need?
I hope this blog offers you the opportunity to heal your relationship with money. But more than that, I hope that you allow more abundance of every kind into your heart and your life.