Your Relationship With Money

I got to thinking about how my relationship with money has evolved over the past year from being in debt and not making a lot of money, to getting almost completely out of debt and making a lot more income.

I realized it began when I read the book, The Secret while I was on maternity leave with my daughter. I also watched the movie, The Secret online, which was very inspiring. Now, I’m in no way trying to “plug” this book, and I won’t receive one cent if you go out and buy it right now.

Nevertheless, I thought I would share this on Destroydebt.com since the focus is to get out of debt and live better “within our means.”

But what if living “within your means” was exactly what got you into debt in the first place? What I mean by this is, what if you were trying to live within your means, but there were things you either wanted or needed (a new couch, medical or dental expenses, being out of work on an unpaid maternity leave for eight weeks, etc.), and you were forced to take out the ol’ credit card?

I actually stumbled across The Secret totally by accident, but I think Rhonda Byrne would disagree and say I attracted it to me. My sister and I were going through a box of our grandparents’ old things that our mom sent to us. Our mom threw in her own copy of The Secret. It looked intriguing; my sister wasn’t interested, so I shrugged my shoulders and took it home – not realizing it was going to alter my life forever. I’m not being dramatic here. Just hear me out.

That was in October of 2007 actually. I read the book and wanted more, so I went online and paid a measly couple of bucks to see the movie.

The main point of the Secret is to alter your way of thinking about money, relationships, what you want, life, etc., to the point where you are attracting all the things you want. This sounds pretty far-fetched, but when I started applying The Secret principles in my life, amazing things began to happen.

First of all, I read this quote in the book by John Assaraf:

“The simplest way for me to look at the law of attraction is if I think of myself as a magnet, and I know that a magnet will attract to it.”

The book goes on to say, “ You are the most powerful magnet in the Universe!”

Half way through the book, my new mantra became, “I am a money magnet,” and I envisioned money literally flowing to me every day.

Next thing I know, I am getting checks left and right from all sorts of places: One person wanted to buy a book set I had; another wanted to hire me as a freelance editor for their reports; I got a nice tax refund, and many other similar things.

By June of the following year, only six months after reading the book, we had paid off all but one credit card, we went to Disneyland, and we stashed away a couple thousand dollars too.

Now, things aren’t perfect yet, and I’m not a millionaire, but I can honestly say that every time I remember to use the tips I learned in The Secret, good things start happening.

What I think it all comes down to is simply the power of thinking – positively. Don’t confuse this with being a naïve optimist either. You can’t wish for things to get better or to win the lottery; there are actions you need to take to improve your situation. But if you focus on the negative, you will get negative.

My words of advice: Decide to focus on the positive and get the feeling that you already have it. Then take proactive steps to make it happen. I’d be interested to hear other people’s thoughts on the subject too!

   

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