This year I’m choosing prosperity. I’ve chosen a multi-layered “theme” this year described most easily by five different words. In recent posts I’ve written about the first three words, Powerful, Magical, and Safe. The fourth word on my list is Prosperous. All five of my word choices explain how I want to feel this year.

One day during the Summer of 2015 I was thinking about the theme of “Love & Magic” and how it not only was my theme for 2011 but it ended up becoming an overall theme for my life and business. On that particular day I was in the midst of a tight spot financially and I had an forehead slap moment – I actually said to myself, “Why didn’t I choose Love & Magic & Big Money?”

And then it hit me. It was as simple as that. I made the choice to have a magical life. I made a choice to find love. A decision. A non-negotiable decision. I hadn’t yet made a non-negotiable decision to prosper.

If you had asked me I would have said, “Yes, I want to prosper”,  but the truth is I was still in the wishing and hoping arena. I hadn’t decided for prosperity. I was finding myself “hoping” that more money would come in, instead of “deciding” that more money would come in. Can you tell the energetic difference in those two ideas?

That realization hit me so hard that I made the choice that day. I was not waiting until the beginning of the year to have a new theme. I was choosing prosperity now.

You’ve heard me say plenty of times that our experience is directly connected to our identity. Well, here is the perfect example – a woman who is hoping to be prosperous is a completely different identity than a prosperous woman. I know that anything is possible once we make a choice. So I made the choice immediately.

Things began to shift very quickly, as soon as I stepped into the shoes of someone who was choosing to prosper and making it a non-negotiable decision.

Since I’m a relationship coach I study a lot of material dealing with relationship issues, and I coach a lot of people around their relationships. A common thing that happens in relationship is that someone can be very afraid of being alone/lonely/abandoned AND be afraid of being vulnerable/being known/connecting deeply. This creates a dynamic of pushing and pulling. Pulling in close, then pushing away.

I had such an aha moment about how this same strange dynamic can play out in other areas of life as well…like our finances – being afraid of poverty AND afraid of being wealthy, being resistant to lack AND being resistant to wealth. Or other endeavors where we are afraid of failure AND afraid of success.

What I realized is that in these scenarios where we are afraid of both ends of the spectrum we end up keeping ourselves stuck in the middle – which most of the time means lukewarm, mediocre, ho hum, not to mention boring and frustrating.

We can make a conscious non-negotiable decision to be the person who has an amazing and exciting soulmate relationship, a consistent flow of prosperity, and a high rate of success instead of a lukewarm relationship, just being comfortable (or maybe even just getting by) and a ho hum success rate.

But here’s the catch – when we make a conscious non-negotiable decision it’s going to show up in how we behave, how we think, what we say, who we are. There will be evidence of that decision. There will be action to back up the intention.

So this year I’ve been doing things a little differently. Here are few of the habits I’ve developed that have had the most impact where prosperity is concerned.

1. Tracking it. Every financial planner will tell you that you need to track your expenditures. But for me that just puts the focus on what’s going OUT – and since what we focus on expands, I’ve had a much better result when I’ve focused on what’s coming IN. I use a little notebook that sits on my desk and every penny that comes in gets written down. Even if it’s a penny I found on the sidewalk. Giftcards, found money, discounts on items that I would have spent full price on anyway – all get noted and tracked. Another great place to “track” your money goals is my all-time favorite work book for money relationship management: 12 Months of Miracles & Manifestation by Morgana Rae.

2. Welcoming it. I have a little bell, when money comes in we ring the bell and welcome it in. It’s a very celebratory feeling to ring that bell and say “Welcome Money!” I like to think that money feels so appreciated it just can’t wait to show up at my house.

3. Reading about it. I read a lot. Mostly I read books that will help me be a better coach. This year I’ve added a steady stream of two other genres – the first being books on money consciousness.

There are so many great books on this topic it was hard to narrow it down but I didn’t want to over load you!

Here are a few of my favorites:

Money Mojo Magic by Jeannette Maw
The Energy of Money by Maria Nemeth
The Trance of Scarcity by Victoria Castle
The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist
Feel Free to Prosper by Marilyn Jenett

The other genre of books I’ve added over the past year is fiction. You know, reading just for fun. This week I’m reading The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic: A Novel (and it is a fun book so far!) and the Handsome Sweetheart and I are reading All the Light We Cannot See (it is a very powerful and beautiful book). I’m enjoying both books and the bonus is that  having fun has an effect on our level of prosperity.

4. Mantras: “The more fun I have the more money I make”. <—this is a money mantra I got from my friend Jeannette Maw, isn’t it great?! Plus it reminds me to have more fun (like reading fiction and playing outside!). Money mantras and affirmations are powerful. I’ve been adding these into my daily meditation time. Another one I really love from Catherine Ponder: “I accept prosperity as my divine right”.

5. Minding how I speak about it. Removing any words that reflect a poverty mentality. Our words are so powerful. We create an experience of lack when we continually use words that reflect it. There is no need to say “I can’t afford it”, when saying “I’m not going to buy that right now” or “buying this isn’t a priority for me today” works just as well. 😉 Be careful with your words, they create your experience in the world. When we use words and phrases that reflect a scarcity mentality we create that experience over and over.

How about you? Have you made a conscious decision to prosper this year? To have an amazing soulmate relationship? To create success in your life?

What practical steps have you taken to get your desired outcome?

Love & Magic,