Friday, 20 November 2009

something I found about overcoming underearning

I am open and willing to find a way to make more money with the same amount or less effort doing something you can enjoy and be proud of.......

lifted directly from the following

1) Acknowledge to yourself that you have been underearning. You don't have to know the solution right now, simply name the problem. Commit to yourself that you are open and willing to find a way to make more money with the same amount or less effort doing something you can enjoy and be proud of. It may seem impossible now, but if you do not set your intention that this is what you want, you will never find the opportunity to create it. Remember life is full of the unexpected there are probably unexpected options right around the corner you just have to focus on looking for them.

2) Take a moment to realize that your fear, stress and resistance might be more about the past than the present. Make a statement of forgiveness for yourself and others about your money past and then turn your attention to the present.

3) Show gratitude for spending money as well as earning money. When you spend money, you are getting something of value - whether it be an item you have a strong emotional desire for like a new toy, or one that does not seem so fun like paying off a debt. Get specifically grateful about your opportunity to spend money cleaning up your financial worries and energy drains and for the opportunity to increase your financial integrity. Try meditating on the phrase: I am grateful for clearing up my financial incompletes and reducing the ways in which I draw debt and underearning to me.

4) Increase your confidence, energy, and attractiveness around money by taking physical steps to improve your situation-that are not related to money. Reduce clutter by simply getting rid of 20 items you no longer want or need. Reduce overwhelm and self judgment by picking five phone calls you need to return or tasks you need to do that you have been avoiding and just DO IT. By getting into productive action you will change your attitude. By getting the systems working in your life just a little bit better you will be more available for opportunity when it knocks.

5) Stop saying no to offers of money, help or material goods unless it is clearly immoral, illegal or comes with significant strings attached. Do not try to control when, if, or how you are going to receive money. Instead just try to focus on the fact that it IS possible that you will continue to receive until what is coming in is more than what is going out. Focus on this even if you cannot personally imagine how that might be the case. Then stay in action and keep doing what you can to take specific practical actions to be more organized and caught up on your tasks.

Just taking these five steps can change your world. I cannot tell you how many underearners we have worked with through My Creative Prosperity who have taken the steps of acknowledgement, forgiveness, gratitude, action and receiving and have immediately seen significant financial results. People find cash, have jobs offered to them, effortlessly increase their sales and reduce expenses or get debts forgiven on a regular basis when they take these steps. Usually the money coming in defies logic or does not seem to be directly related to the steps the student was taking to change their relationship to money. And yet the money is there in cold hard cash - so does it really matter how it got there?

I challenge you to greet your next unexpected expense as a messenger of abundance. When you take these steps as a reaction to increased expense you are opening yourself up to earning more and consciously breaking through the underearning barrier. The more you do this, the more the magic increases.

May your magic always lead to more abundance and less stress!

Mari Geasair is a writer, educator and coach dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and Information Service Professionals move from underearning to high earning. Check out her site My Creative Prosperity - http://www.mycreativeprosperity.com for resources to help you move to the next level.

getting rid of the ebay clutter

The Lovely Caroline - over at What's Happening at My House  - has set me a challenge.  Well sort of  - actually she just made a suggestion.  But NOW...... it is a challenge.  I am to list 6 items a day.  And I will be reporting back as to how I do.  

I am looking forward to being at home in the evenings for a while. What am I saying? I have had a blast going out 3 nights this week.  WOO HOO.  

right.  Off to Friday Playgroup now. 

Thursday, 19 November 2009

a bit more of a declutter

Oh dear god how much stuff do I own!!! I found several bags of it in the wardrobe I don't use that much.  All saved for..... I don't know.  I have filled another bag of mainly clothes for a charity run.  And a few items that might sell on ebay.  But the ebay stuff piles ever higher.  I am getting rid of some of it very very very slowly.  I really want it all gone now.  But it is some income.  And a lot of it I took on to help my friend A.  So I need to plough on (and on and on and on) with it.

It is my period today.  I am really feeling rubbish.  Mainly because I really had convinced myself that I was pregnant (again) and was going to have  a baby girl called Zoe Felicity (Life Lucky).  But no.  And then on top of that is the general feeling of blues that comes with the first day of your period.  I did a little shopping (some boot socks) and ate a fair amount of cake.  It doesn't help much. Just a little bit.

I am going out again tonight.  Which will be the 3rd time this week.  Highly unusual.  Poor old hub has hardly seen me this week.  What with my sweat shop work and going out.  

Wednesday, 18 November 2009

a bit clearer

Basically the question is - how far can I go to do 'what it takes' to earn more money?  Or.  Am I prepared to 'do what it takes'.  These questions have had me mulling.  Obviously to many caveats and I am not truly prepared to 'do what it takes'. However there are somethings I am thinking I will not compromise on.  

Bub is my priority.  All the time.  But Especially until he is at least three I want to be with him most of the time.  When he is 3 I think he would be very happy to go to nursery / preschool for half a day every day.

I want to maintain my relationships with Hub and my family and my friends.  I don't want to work ALL HOURS just for the sake of earning more money.  I want to have a life as well.  

Apart from that it brings up all sorts of other interesting ideas.  I read a wonderful blog called Operation Night Brace.  It has finished now as they have achieved their aim of paying off a debt as soon as was humanly possible.  But it demonstrated what you can do if you really are prepared to 'do what it takes'  This new couple moved into her mother's back room for nearly 6 months for example.   I wonder what I will do?  What we are prepared to do?  Hub I know is not prepared to get a lodger in.  Or even foreign language students for a short while.  To him his home is his sanctuary.  But I wonder if we could move in with my parents for a while?  They do at least have more than  back room to share!!  Hmmmm.  

Anyway.  Am thinking away.  think think think.

Overcoming underearning progress

Well I got up to the bit where basically - aside from the bits where you have to realise that very importantly  - all the beliefs such as - I am not good at earning good money  - I can't seem to get off the bottom rung of the ladder etc - making do on very little is a virtue (having a enough is something that other people have) - well the thing is - you have to realise that 

No one is doing this to me.  I am doing it to myself.  And that means I am capable of doing something about it.

And then you have to commit to making more money.  And make it a priority.  

As in 'IT IS TIME TO MAKE MORE MONEY'

And I do feel all empowered to do what it takes this time.   Like being a proper registered childminder.  (because bub is still my priority) I could actually earn quite well if, say I had 2 children a day.  It would be hard work.  But it would be good money.  And in the time I have bub free  - as in the swap I have - I could do proper job hunting into recruiting work.  Which can be done from anywhere too.  RIght then chaps and chappesses.  It is time.

Tuesday, 17 November 2009

from Hoarder to Order progress

today I schlepped another bag to the charity shops.  I cleared out the cupboard in the kitchen that houses all the implements that do not often get used.  The George Forman grill thing is going to the loft. I would have chucked it as I hate it, but it is not mine to throw!!  2 roasting dishes likewise to the loft.  Hopefully they will fit out new oven when we get it.  And a couple of cake tins went out, some diet drinks that I had bought in in bulk cos Hub used to drink a shed load of them, I left out on the street and someone took em.  It feels sooooo goooood!!  

Did I say that my dad (a retired architect) is doing some plans to see how we can fit a new kitchen in using Ikea units  - and also still knock through to the front room....  Very exciting.  Am going to talk to him about it on weekend of 27th when we go up to Suffolk for a wee family gathering.  Its a sort of Christmas thing as Bro and his wife are off to Argentina for December and Xmas (she is Argentinian / ine)

I finished my piece work - which I got faster at - so works out at almost £16 an hour.  Not at all bad!  AND I have some more supergroup work in December.  Although this is tricky with Bub care.  Am a little narked as I mentioned my idea of me and Bub going to some friends in London and them looking after Bub  for a couple of days.  Hub decided that he didn't like the idea of bub being with 'strangers' and he would 'worry about bub all day'.  And started planning taking time off work / and or his eldest son coming over and me paying him the £5 an hourI would have paid my London pals instead.  Given our regular differences about how little money I bring in and me saying that I give plenty value by looking after bub.......Funny that the fact that he never has to worry about bub ever matters.  And why should it be me paying for the childcare anyway - bub is our child not just mine.  Suddenly childcare has a value when it isn't me doing it.  Hmmm.. 

overcoming underearning by Barbara Stanny

Has anyone read this book?  "Overcoming Underearning".  I am going to be using it as my work book for a while.  Because, I think I would like to earn more money for my time.  It is an interesting thing, its not just about earning more, it is more about self esteem and getting paid what you are worth.  I am a capable person with a good brain, and yet I choose work that doesn't push me or challenge me.  I know that right now I have other priorities.  I am determined that bub comes first, and that my role as mother - especially until bub is 3 - is paramount. And that my role as housekeeper is also important, and that it is worth my while getting better at that too.  I think this whole decluttering effort, is part of this whole, self improvement I am going through.
No hanging on to stuff that has no place in my life, freeing myself up to change and all.  And bringing my life into my control a lot better.  

The Overcoming Underearning book is about several things but in a way it mainly about taking charge of your own life, facing up to your fears and embracing challenges and growing through this.  Part of it is about earning your worth, and as such, seeing yourself as worthy.  Part of it is about gaining control of your spending and your finances. (and ultimately it is also about giving and helping too) I am really doing much better on this side of things.  And achievements such as getting Hub to pay into the joint account the amount that is needed, was very much part of facing a challenge in the book.  Every conversation I had with him about this, was uncomfortable and difficult - and yet necessary.  And now achieved.  There are more challenges to go in this area.  For example, why can't he set himself a spending limit and save the rest for example - but at present every time I try to have this conversation it descends into a ferocious argument about how little I am capable of earning.   So for a while, my focus is going to be on how I can earn more.  And to this end, I am re reading this book - by Barbara Stanny by the way - and I am going to be focusing on upping my self esteem and my earning power.