Prosperity

Fantasizing about great wealth is a frequent pastime for many of us. How wonderful it would be not to worry about paying bills, to be able to buy whatever we want, and have the freedom to travel as often as we'd like. It's a lovely fantasy, but how accurate is it, really?

One mistake most of us make is believing that money will solve all of our problems, and our lives will become smooth and serene. Not true! Having more money might help ease certain struggles, but it will not transform our lives. If anything, having a lot of money will bring on a new set of problems beyond anything we might imagine.

Before we will TRULY be ready to handle increased abundance, we need to foster certain qualities within ourselves:

Self-Worth - We first need to be willing to believe that we deserve better financial circumstances. If we struggle with poor self-esteem and don't have a positive self-image, we will continue to push abundance away when it presents itself. Though this is largely a subconscious process, we can gather clues from the rest of our lives to determine if this is an issue we need to work through. If we continuously resist positive changes in our lives, in everything from relationships to health habits, we might need to work more on our level of self-worth before we can accept true abundance.

Confidence/Courage - Wealthy people need to be strong people. Why? Because of all the shysters out there who would do anything to get their hands on our money. This could be anyone from close friends and family members to complete strangers and scam artists. If we are timid by nature and afraid to stand up for ourselves, we might subconsciously push prosperity away because we'd feel threatened by all the attention we would receive from others who want a piece of our pie. Wealthy people need to be shrewd, firm and confident about saying "No" when necessary.

Perspective - As mentioned above, money will NOT solve all of our problems. When we don't have any money, it's easy to convince ourselves that money holds much more power than it really does. In its tangible form, money is simply slips of paper and chunks of metal. It has no magical abilities. We don't really want money, we want what money can provide us with! Understanding that money is simply a form of energy in our lives, we can learn to welcome the ebb and flow of financial abundance, and therefore attract more of it without being emotionally attached to it.

Responsibility - Though this is a hard thing to admit, we need to acknowledge the part we play in our lack of financial resources. We need to examine our own spending and saving habits. We need to look at the ways we might be careless with the money we do have, and the ways we set ourselves up to experience lack. If we live paycheck to paycheck and never seem to have enough left over, we might need to explore higher-paying jobs, or other avenues of income generation. We might need to learn how to wisely invest our money so it will grow, rather than continuously leak out of our budget. The truth is, proper handling of the money we do have right now will encourage more money to appear in our lives.

We need to remember that we create the quality of our own lives, moment to moment, and it all begins with our thoughts. If our lives don't resemble the lives we'd rather be living, we can choose to examine the reasons for it, take responsibility for our actions, and make a commitment to improving our circumstances. While this can be a daunting task, how freeing it is to finally understand that it's all within our control.