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Create the Life of Your Dreams

 

 

“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” —Mother Theresa 

 

 

Give Love to All Living Things & the Earth

There are deep wells of love, wisdom, and strength within each of us. There is no limit to the depths of these reserves. When called upon, the love, wisdom, and strength inside of you will carry you through any nightmare. The challenge is not in knowing that these wells exist within you, but rather in learning how to tap into them. And once you know the secret to tapping into them, you will have access to these reserves when you need them most.

The key to accessing your reserves of love, wisdom, and strength is easy. In order to get to these things, to harness and use them, you must give. The more you give, the more you in turn will receive.

Every living thing deserves to be treated with love and respect. This is the law of the Universe, the law of life, light, and truth. If we fail to treat living things with love and respect, we ourselves are doomed to misery. The energy that we put out into the Universe and the way that we treat other living things come back to us.

We all live in an immediate place — a trailer, a cottage, an apartment building, a mansion, a castle, a grass hut — but none of these places are our true home. Our true home is the Earth. It is our common home. We are all one family living in this home. No matter what dwelling we sleep in at night, the Earth is our common home. The Earth sustains us, protects us, and provides for us. Without it, we would not exist. We would float out into the infinite Universe where we could not breathe. The Earth is our home and therefore, we must treat it with love and respect.

Karma and The Law of Attraction

By now, most people have heard of The Law of Attraction. The theory gained popularity over the last several years after the huge success of the book and DVD, The Secret. The main idea of both The Secret and The Law of Attraction is that whatever you put out into the Universe, you will then attract. By sending out vibrations of abundance into the Universe, you can change every aspect of your life. You can attract prosperity, health, relationships, and happiness.

I agree with this idea in theory; however, it has been greatly abused and distorted. Many so-called Law of Attraction experts have taken advantage of this idea and convinced people that all they need do is sit down, send out “money vibrations” to the Universe, and a check will come in the mail. Or that a woman only need sit down and send out “love vibrations” to the Universe and Mr. Right will come knocking at her door. Those things are not reasonable, they are just not going to happen.

Karma, on the other hand (which is similar to the Law of Attraction) is absolutely, and in all regards, real. Everything that comes out of you — each action, word, thought — is absorbed by the Universe and the living beings around you.

For every action, there is an equal (in size) and opposite (in direction) reaction. This is a law of physics. To put it in more modern terms, if a force acts upon a body, then an equal and opposite force must act upon another body. Just as this concept applies to the physical world, it also applies to the spiritual world.

Have you ever had a sensation when you met a person for the first time? For example, say you are at work and your boss comes around to introduce his new receptionist to you. Her face is neutral and she is pleasant enough but you just get a really terrible feeling about her. This is not an illusion, it is a gut-reaction. You are picking up on her energy.

Energy is real and it exists in both positive & negative forms. Actually, each of us has the ability to read this energy; but for some reason we often try to “silence” our gut-reactions. That is a bad habit. You should always listen to your instincts. We have them for a reason (thousands of years of evolution!) and our species would not be what it is today, without them.

In the same way that you are able to read the energy of others, others are able to read the energy of you. All of this energy is constantly circulating and being absorbed into the Universe and, like a boomerang, eventually makes its way back to its starting point. So whatever you had put out in the beginning is what will come back to you at the end, and sometimes it will have picked up even more energy along the way — good or bad depending on what you put off to start with.

What Are You Giving & Attracting?

There is no limit to the various types of energy, action, thoughts, and words that you can exude to the Universe and to the living beings around you. You can exude hatred, fear, anxiety, rage, greed, or envy. You can exude love, kindness, patience, wisdom, strength, or confidence. And you are giving off any number of these things at every single moment. Even when you are at rest, there is energy flowing from you. Have you ever taken the time to analyze all that you are giving?

Stop now, close your eyes, and just feel yourself existing. Feel the energy that is flowing from you and analyze it. How would you describe it? Next, imagine yourself in different situations — when you are riding in the car, talking with your spouse, watching television. What are you giving off in each of those situations? Are you giving off what you would like to be giving off? Is the energy that you are exuding aligned with your values and beliefs?

All of these questions will lead you to awareness. What you will find is that what you consistently give is also what you consistently attract. This is the true Law of Attraction.

Using The Law of Attraction to Manifest the Life of Your Dreams

Whether you want to call it The Law of Attraction, karma, being a good person, or simply hard word it does not matter. All of these titles are not relevant. What matters most is the life that you live — and not the life that you “think” you live or would “like” to live — but the life that you actually live. I started this post by talking about the three wells that exist deep within you: love, wisdom, and strength. Those should be the key sources that guide your life. If you focus on letting the principles of love, wisdom, and strength guide you, you will effortlessly lead a life of wonder and beauty.

However, it is not enough to simply exist and live well. If you truly want to live the life of your dreams, you must work for it. You will never send enough “vibrations” out into the Universe to fill your bank account with money or land your dream job or move to Fiji to pursue your passion of seashell-hunting. If you want any of these things you must first become aware and align your thoughts, words, & actions with your values. You must show love & respect to all living things and the Earth. And finally, you must apply the brut
e force of hard work &dedication to accomplishing your goals.

 

“Everyone wants to be strong and self sufficient, but few are willing to put in the work necessary to achieve worthy goals.” —Gandhi 

 

 

Once you get started on your path, you will be unstoppable. You are entirely capable of this. You have all of the tools that you need within you. It is time to get started on your journey.

 

 

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    My Journey to Financial Freedom | Part 2: The Climb

    Emergency Fund

    Three years ago, I was nearly $60,000 in debt. I had a Bachelor’s degree that didn’t appear to be worth its weight in salt and a job that couldn’t cover a fraction of my monthly bills. I was terrified.

    Today, I am closer to complete financial freedom than I ever dreamed possible. Last week, I paid off my last remaining credit card balance. This two-part post is a celebration of this incredible milestone in my journey.

    In part one, I explained how I got to that terrible place. In part two, I will explain how I’m getting out of it (and how you can do it, too).

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    1. Change the way you think about spending money. For most of my life, I believed that money was made to be spent. I believed that I *deserved* to spend every dollar that I earned on some material thing that would “make me happy.” I coveted material possessions—clothes, jewelry, electronics, cars. What I realize now is that money is not meant to be spent. You only need to earn enough money to survive. You should have enough money to buy only what you need. There is no need for excess.

    “You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fuc*ing khakis.” (Fight Club)

    This shift in mindset is hard to adjust to at first. You may not like the reactions that you receive from people. Believe me, I’ve been called cheap a few times, but I pay no mind to it. I would choose cheap over poor any day.

    2. Keep a budget. I highly recommend using Mint.com. I started using it in September and it has been one of the most transformational and useful tools throughout my journey to financial freedom. It allows you to sync up all of your accounts (loans, checking, savings, etc.) in one place. Then it keeps track of every transaction that you make and sorts/organizes all of the data for you. It allows you to track your spending over time and by category. It gives you incredible perspective and insight about where your money goes each month/year. It has been a truly eye-opening experience for me.

    If you’re unwilling to try Mint, you can keep a budget on a spread sheet or even by hand. However, the important thing is to be completely conscious about where every dollar you spend is going.

    3. Use a debit card. To reap the full Mint.com experience you should use a debit card for every purchase you make. Using the debit card will automatically flag each transaction you make into the appropriate category. So if you go to Shoprite, it will get marked as groceries. If you go to Home Depot it will get marked as home. If you stop at the gas station it will get marked as automobile, and so on.

    I use my debit card (linked to my checking account) for almost every single transaction that I make. I also have all of my monthly bills (like my auto insurance, utilities, and gym membership) automatically debited from the same checking account each month. It makes keeping track of my spending that much easier. Plus, I do not like dealing with cash. The debit card is quick, easy, and is accepted almost everywhere now.

    Whether or not you use Mint.com it is a good idea to use a debit card simply because you can review all of your purchases and purchase amounts on your monthly statement. Trying to keep track of receipts is a hassle that I don’t have time for.

    4. Pay off credit cards and cut them up. Paying off my credit cards was my first priority. For awhile I tried “credit card surfing.” Let me just tell you from experience, it’s overrated and it really doesn’t work. The idea is that you surf from credit card to credit card by transferring balances. A lot of companies will give you 0% APR for 6 months if you transfer your balances over to them. After the 6 months, you “surf” to a new card with another promotional rate.

    The problem with this tactic is that it gets messy quickly, it becomes difficult to keep up with, and if you lose track you will end up getting burned by high APRs, finance fees, cancellation fees, etc. Also, it probably doesn’t look great on your credit report if you’re opening up a new card every 6 months or so.

    It is much safer and wiser to just stop using credit cards! My theory is simple and has taken me very far: If you can not afford to buy it, then you can not afford it. Period. It is simple logic.

    5. Eat in. This is one of the easiest changes to make, but it also comes with an enormous, positive impact. When I started closely tracking my spending habits, I was shocked to see how much I was spending on eating out. A meal at a decent restaurant goes for about $25 per person. If you eat out twice a week, that is $3,120 a year. If you grab lunch out during the work week, it’s about $8 a day. That’s $2,080 a year. Put those together and you could be spending $5,200 a year or more on dining out! That is outrageous and completely unnecessary.

    Since I started eating in and packing lunches, I’ve taken my monthly food spending from $500 down to $200 or less! Over time, that means enormous savings. Check out 5dollardinners.com for some awesome, inexpensive recipes. I love it! Also, investing in a crock pot was one of the wisest decisions I ever made—chili, sausage & peppers, and goulash will be your new (delicious, cheap) best friends. (Here are some more tips for eating healthy & mindfully.)

    6. Direct deposit money into savings every month. This is my final—and perhaps most important—tip. When I began my journey to financial freedom, I opened a savings account with ING Direct. It is an easy-to-use online savings account and it gives you interest on the money that you save. It also allows you to set up easy direct deposits.

    I started out small, depositing $50 a month into my savings. As I learned to keep my budget tighter and tighter, I increased the amount that I put into my savings each month. Currently, I am putting away $500+ per month and hope to get closer to $1,000 per month in the very near future.

    When you direct deposit the funds, it comes out automatically. It is painless because you don’t have to do a thing. Because it’s automatic, after awhile you don’t even notice that it’s missing. (I remember reading that on another blog several months ago and thinking, “Are you out of your mind?! I’m not going to miss it? Yea right!”) But I can honestly say that after a few months, you adjust to the missing money. You truly do not miss it once it becomes normal for that amount to be deposited into savings automatically each month.

    It has been one of the best decisions that I’ve made and because I’ve worked so hard to get to this place—I don’t touch that money! I am keeping it there for a rainy day or to pay off my student loans someday in one fell swoop.

    ————————————————————————

    As I stated at the start of this post, three years ago I was almost $60,000 in debt; I was twenty-three years old; and I was scared to death. Today, I have my finances under control! I am on the road to financial freedom and you can get here, too. Truly, it is not as hard as it seems. With common sense and a bit of dedication, it will happen. Paying off my last credit card balance was like taking chains off of my wrists for the first time in seven years. The feeling was completely priceless. If I can do it, anybody can.

    So, what are your financial goals? Have you ever been in financial prison? How did you free yourself? If you’re still there, what are you going to do to break free?

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