Money

Spiritual Marketing

By Spiritdancer | 2010/05/30 07:55 Posted in Angels, Joy, Love, Money, The Economics of Love | Comments (10)

I have often been turned off by traditional marketing methods. While they work, many have struck me as ways of manipulating people to make a sale, pressuring people to buy, or convincing people they had a need. It seems like so much work! And yet I get people starting businesses all the time who ask me how to market themselves. The answer from the angels is pretty simple: 1) Be yourself rather than what you feel people expect of you, 2) Do what you love and are good at, and 3) Find a way to let people know what you are doing without any pressure – just share what you do. In simply radiating our light and love out to the world – however we do that best – people who need us can find us.

I’ll never forget when I started doing readings in a local bookstore. I was a psychic in the window on the slowest days of the week. Hardly anyone came in! I had just quit engineering and left behind a nice big salary and I was terrified about paying my bills. Furthermore, I made only about $6 after taxes for a 15 minute session even when someone did come in! I prayed very hard. The angels gave me two tools to build my entire business. Simple as they seem, they both worked.

The first was just a little meditation. They had me sit quietly every morning, feeling how much I loved to help people. As I felt the love for my work, they had me imagine the light in my heart radiating out in all directions. I would let the light build until I was floating in a bubble of radiant light. At that point they told me to simply say in my mind and heart, “If I can help you with my work, and you will honor the exchange, please find me.” People started walking into the bookstore saying, “I’m not sure why I am here, but I think you can help me.” I knew I had connected with their soul and that the interaction would serve us both. Talk about angel marketing! Heaven always seeks to bring us mutually beneficial partnerships whether business or personal.

The second tool was gratitude. After each client the angels tasked me to drop into my heart and feel gratitude for the ability to serve that person. “Thank you God for allowing me to serve this soul. I am ready to help the next one.” They asked me to say this after each client. Discussions of money were not allowed in these prayers. Instead they suggested I focus on my soul’s true gratitude. I did love helping people so that was easy. As I focused on the service, rather than the money, two magical things happened. I felt rich because I was able to share my gifts with people and in this vibration people sensed that they would receive help. Secondly when I removed money from the discussion, fear went away as well. In the absence of fear, business picked up. Soon the two slowest days of the week became the two busiest days. Love is what built my business, not strategy, manipulation, glossy ads, or any sort of conventional means. Just plain love.

I also taught one-person classes when I started teaching. The angels taught me to value these experiences. We cannot judge the value of our work by the magnitude. We have to simply ask, “Am I doing what feels right in my heart. Am I sharing of my true self?” If so you are already right in God’s eyes. I needed to start small to grow in confidence, to refine my teaching style, and to begin in humility. Had I not done that I would not be able to teach the masses now.

So if you are starting a business or a project that involves others, center yourself in the love within you. Focus on the service and the joy of serving. And if you cannot find the joy, question whether or not you are doing what you are doing for the right reasons. It is your love and your joy that are the true abundance in the world. It is the ability to share of the God light within you that is the richest possession you have. In sharing of your time, talent, kindness, inspiration, or even simply your prayers, you make the world a better place… simply because you are in it. This is the true wealth that we all long for, and funny… when you feel rich with the ability to share, the universe somehow meets the rest of your needs as well.

Have a week of true abundance and let your light shine!
Love and hugs,
Ann

Frictionless Work: How to Clear Your Life of Non-Essential Tasks

By Spiritdancer | 2010/04/09 16:13 Posted in Blogging, Living, Money, Simplicity | Comments (1)

Leo doing minimalist work. Photo courtesy of Norman Taruc.

“It’s not the work which kills people, it’s the worry. It’s not the revolution that destroys machinery it’s the friction.” ~Henry Ward Beecher

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on twitter or identica.

How much of your day is spent doing administrative tasks, and not creating or doing other important work?

How much time do you spend responding to emails and IMs and social networks, making payments, doing paperwork, filing, sitting in meetings, driving, doing errands, and so on? How much of that could be cleared up for more important work?

Imagine this for a moment: you have no administrative tasks, only the core work that you love doing. Your day has been cleared for creating, building, doing high-impact projects. Isn’t it lovely?

Is this a pipe dream? Perhaps for some, who have little control over their work. But if you have a larger degree of control, let’s explore the idea of “frictionless work” or even “frictionless living”.

If you have little control, consider a change.

My Frictionless Business

I know I don’t have a typical job, but that didn’t happen overnight and I did this on purpose. Today, I have a few successful blogs and a handful of successful books.

Only a year ago, that required a lot of administrative work — so much so that I hired an admin assistant to help out, and outsourced other work.

But assistants, employees, delegating, and outsourcing are not hassle-free … each comes with work of its own: email or phone calls, following up, checking the quality of work, doing contracts, reviewing terms, clarifying, firing, searching for a better employee/contract company, paying, filling out tax info, and on and on.

The better solution is to simplify. Eliminate non-essential tasks. And so I did, slowly:

I eliminated comments from Zen Habits, cutting back on a huge amount of work for me. Comments turn a major blog into a forum, where the blogger is the moderator. It takes hours to moderate a major blog, and while I outsourced that for months, it was always a major headache that required a lot of work. Eliminating comments, which only a tiny minority of readers used, eliminated my need for that admin work or for hiring a moderator.
I stopped doing work that required me to do paperwork or admin work. That meant losing some income from consulting and other business, but it also meant a lot more free time for what I love doing.
When a guest writer submits a guest post, I no longer format the post but require the writer to format it and submit for my review. Mostly now I just need to read over the post and hit publish.
I got out of a bunch of ad networks that were always asking me to do admin work. That was a loss of income, but it also simplified my website. Now I sell one ad a month (which I’m also eliminating), and do almost no work — the advertiser presses a Paypal button to reserve the ad, and emails me the ad image and link code.
I eliminated email, for the most part, except for collaborative projects (which are few and far between). My email time went from half my day to a few minutes a day.
I sell ebooks automatically through e-junkie, and affiliate payments are also computed automatically.

I now have almost no admin work to run my blogs: I write, and publish. Once a month I log into my Paypal account, send out affiliate payments, and transfer money to my bank account (and from there, my bills are automatically paid and money is automatically transferred to savings).

This is not to brag. I know I have it easy compared to most, but this has all been done gradually and on purpose. I created this frictionless work.

What Are Your Admin Tasks?

Take inventory of your work: what admin tasks take up your time? Add to this list over the course of the next couple of days, because you’re probably forgetting some.

Now ask yourself: which of these can be eliminated? Many of you will probably answer, “Very few”, because you’re used to the way things are done. “This is how things are done.” But that’s an artificial limitation — instead, ask yourself how it can be changed. How might it be possible? Think radically different.

To eliminate tasks, you might have to make major changes over time, but the beauty is that you’ll also be freeing up time. Consider some examples:

If you do a lot of paperwork, can you require forms to be filled out digitally, perhaps online? This will eliminate a lot of work, and if the database is set up right, eliminate filing.
If you spend a lot of time on calls or email, can you provide other ways for people to get info or get things done? Perhaps put up an FAQ online, so common questions are answered (like Google does for its product support), or provide web pages where people can automatically download products or get other things done without you as the bottleneck? Or can you route those requests to someone else?
Also unsubscribe from newsletters and notifications and so forth, so you don’t have to spend time processing them in your inbox. Consider each email that comes in and ask yourself: “How could this be eliminated?”
Can you eliminate meetings, or at least get out of them? How can you get the info without meetings? How can projects get done without the meetings?
If you worked at home, you wouldn’t have to commute, or do a lot of other tasks associated with working in an office. It’s not always possible, but often you can work towards that goal.
Can you drop clients or parts of your business, losing a little income but eliminating all the admin work that goes with it? The free time could be spent creating something that would more than make up for the loss of income.
Can you eliminate features that aren’t completely essential, so you don’t have to do all the work to support those features (similar to how I eliminated comments)?
Can you stop worrying so much about growth, customers, competitors, statistics, and so forth — and focus instead on what you love doing? A great quote by web designer and developer Sam Brown: “I used to stress a lot about my business, my clients, the amount of work I was doing and my competitors – but the minute I stopped worrying about all of that and focussed on just doing great work that I was happy with it really made a big difference, to me and my business.”
If you think a task is necessary under the current conditions, consider changing the current conditions.

These are just a few ideas and questions to get you started, but you can see that by radically rethinking your work, you might be able to eliminate a lot of admin tasks.

And free up time for what truly matters.

Frictionless Life

This concept of eliminating admin work can apply to your personal life as well. Imagine your personal time with as few chores, errands, paperwork, and commitments as possible. You’d be free to … well, do what you love most.

I can’t claim to have done this completely, but I have made huge progress towards a frictionless life. Of course, I still have chores to do (washing dishes, laundry, etc.), but I’ve eliminated a lot of personal tasks:

I don’t pay bills anymore. I either pay them in advance if I get a big lump payment, or I set up automatic payments each month. In fact, because all my transactions are electronic, I never go to the bank.
I don’t file personal paperwork anymore. I’ve gone paperless, so all documents that I needed to keep are scanned, and everything else is already digital. Even contracts are done digitally.
Housework is minimal. Admittedly, my wife does the laundry, but we share in cooking and cleaning duties, and most of it is painless as we have a pretty sparse home. It’s fairly clean all the time.
Errands are minimal too. Mostly it’s going to the grocery store or post office, and we moved last year so those are within walking distance. So we often walk to those errands, getting a nice workout and enjoying the outdoors in the process.

There isn’t much else we have to do, except things with our kids and each other. The fun stuff. Much of the friction of living has been eliminated.

A Warning

It’s not always easy to change your work and your life to get rid of the friction of admin tasks, but once you do, it’s simply lovely.

However, there will likely be a temptation to fill up your freed time with more email, social networking, blog reading, and so on. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do this, but before you do, consider how you really want to spend your time. Do you want to remove the friction just to fritter it away with distractions?

I’m a big fan of doing nothing, of solitude and relaxing and playing. So if that’s how you use your freed time, I’m jumping with joy. You might, however, spend this time creating, and that’s one of the true wonders of creating frictionless work and a frictionless life. Spend your time doing what you love, living your passion, making something new and beautiful. You’ll be glad you did.

“The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.” ~Frances E. Willard

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If you liked this guide, please bookmark it on Delicious or share on Twitter. Thanks, my friends.

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Read more about simplifying in my book, The Power of Less.

Homeless artist paints his way around Seattle

By Spiritdancer | 2010/03/11 01:29 Posted in Creativity, Dream Warriors, Inspiration, Inspiring Films, Living in the NOW, Money, Painters, The Economics of Love, Videos | Comments (2)

I want to introduce you to an artist in Seattle called Henry Ward. What makes him unique and an inspiration to us all and a true Dream Warrior is his commitment to his work, his art and the expression of it to help others. He was so committed in fact or moved or called, that he was willing to live in his car and work for free. He has painted over 60 murals around Seattle and is just now starting to become recognized in the city as a major influence. But I love the fact that he just gives, he does not seem consumed by what he is getting out of the deal. He seems so moved to paint no matter what. The thing about him is he listens, he listens to that voice within that says paint that wall! If we could all, including myself, listen, hear and act on that voice, what would our lives become? How many people would we touch? Who knows. Henry, is a master teacher in listening. I know he thinks he is an artist but his example shows us what it means to listen. Usually our over-thinking ego/heads talk us out of whatever inspiration just hit. Anyway, he has inspired me to listen more and I hope by doing so I can enter a world as magical as his. See the videos below for more about his paintings and murals in Seattle.

His website is: http://ryanhenryward.com

Henry Murals from Adam Bale on Vimeo.

Making A Living Online

By Spiritdancer | 2010/03/10 01:19 Posted in Blogging, Interviews, Money, Videos | Comments (2)

I am a big fan of the simple living blog Zen Habits. Below Leo Babauta of Zen Habits and Eric Hamm of Motivate Thyself discuss their journey to making a living online. I am a big fan of using blogs to share your passion and purpose. Blogging can be a great way to earn some income while one tries to make it in the “real world” with their passion. Leo and Eric have some really good insights on how to do that successfully and what it really takes.

Video Interview With Leo Babauta of Zenhabits:
Making A Living Online

by Eric Hamm of motivatethyself.com

In this video interview with Leo Babauta of zenhabits.net Eric and Leo talk about making a full time income online. Both Leo and Eric have been supporting their families with their online incomes for some time now and they hope this discussion is useful to some who are working hard to do the same.

by Eric Hamm of motivatethyself.com

Money Cannot Buy Happiness, So Man Gives Away Every Penny of His 3 Million Fortune

By Spiritdancer | 2010/02/10 15:36 Posted in Money, Peace, The Economics of Love | Comments (2)

Posted by TelgraphPost.co.uk

Karl Rabeder grew up poor and thought that life would be wonderful if he had money. But when he got rich, Karl discovered that he was unhappy … so he decided to give away every penny of his £3 million fortune:

“My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “Money is counterproductive – it prevents happiness to come.”

Instead, he will move out of his luxury Alpine retreat into a small wooden hut in the mountains or a simple bedsit in Innsbruck.

His entire proceeds are going to charities he set up in Central and Latin America, but he will not even take a salary from these.

“For a long time I believed that more wealth and luxury automatically meant more happiness,” he said. “I come from a very poor family where the rules were to work more to achieve more material things, and I applied this for many years,” said Mr Rabeder.

But over time, he had another, conflicting feeling.

“More and more I heard the words: ‘Stop what you are doing now – all this luxury and consumerism – and start your real life’,” he said. “I had the feeling I was working as a slave for things that I did not wish for or need. I have the feeling that there are lot of people doing the same thing.”

However, for many years he said he was simply not “brave” enough to give up all the trappings of his comfortable existence.

The tipping point came while he was on a three-week holiday with his wife to islands of Hawaii.

“It was the biggest shock in my life, when I realised how horrible, soulless and without feeling the five star lifestyle is,” he said. “In those three weeks, we spent all the money you could possibly spend. But in all that time, we had the feeling we hadn’t met a single real person – that we were all just actors. The staff played the role of being friendly and the guests played the role of being important and nobody was real.”

He had similar feelings of guilt while on gliding trips in South America and Africa. “I increasingly got the sensation that there is a connection between our wealth and their poverty,” he said.

Suddenly, he realised that “if I don’t do it now I won’t do it for the rest of my life”.

Mr Rabeder decided to raffle his Alpine home, selling 21,999 lottery tickets priced at just £87 each. The Provence house in the village of Cruis is on sale at the local estate agent.

All the money will go into his microcredit charity, which offers small loans to Latin America and builds development aid strategies to self-employed people in El Salvador, Honduras, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Chile.

Since selling his belongings, Mr Rabeder said he felt “free, the opposite of heavy”.

But he said he did not judge those who chose to keep their wealth. “I do not have the right to give any other person advice. I was just listening to the voice of my heart and soul.”

Leave a comment about what do you think of this?

How to start a blog

By Spiritdancer | 2010/02/07 07:23 Posted in Blogging, Creativity, Inspiration, Money, The Economics of Love, Writing | Comments (2)

All about Blogs
If you have something to share that is information based, now you have no excuse. The Internet is the sharing highway because it really facilitates sharing in ways that mankind has never had before. And if you are wondering why sharing is so important please check out “The Economics of Love.” Whatever your gift is: be it writing, or film-making, music, cooking, teaching, painting, photography, if it is information based, than the Internet is for you. Gone are the days when the gatekeepers; the publishers, TV networks, movie studios, agents etc., controlled what you were allowed to share. Now the Internet is the information aggregator and we can bypass the gatekeepers. Don’t let desire for fame or fortune stop you from sharing your stuff, also don’t worry about copycat’s as your work is still protected under the creative common license, a legal way for you to protect your work and share it freely at the same time. The bottom line is that the more you share the better off you will be. Plus your gifts were given to you to share with others. If you have a book, don’t let it languish on your computer or God forbid your notebook, waiting for a gatekeeper, i.e. publisher, to tell you that it’s worth sharing. Share it now! You can and there are several new and not so new tools on the Internet to facilitate that. The first and greatest of these tools is the blog.

Now, many of you have probably heard about blogs and that is great. Well the thing is, blogging is now going to a whole new level. No matter who you are or what you are working on I beseech you to start a blog today. Just get started. No matter what you just said as an excuse not to start please just do it anyway, just start. There is a lot of power in starting. You can always delete it or never share it, but at least you will have started. Now you can start sharing your stuff. Even if your gift is not information based. Say you are working on the something very solid, like the latest electric green car that will revolutionize the world and eliminate global warming. Well you can at least share your journey and experiences! So start a blog.

What is a blog? A blog is nothing more than an online journal. You write entries in it that are dated just like you would in a paper journal. But that is where the similarities end, because now with the power of the Internet you can share these journals with the world. People can subscribe to your blog as if it was your own private magazine. You can even have ads on your blog and make money. You can then spread the word or promote your blog though bookmarking sites. OK that’s a lot of stuff so I will cover each one in detail.

Create Your Blog
First the blog itself. There are several blogging services out there, check out the top ten blog sites to find the one that’s best for you. But I recommend wordpress.org because from what I’ve read it’s the best and it’s the one that I use for this blog. For a video tutorial on how to get started I recommend a site called BecomeABlogger.com If you want an easy way to start with out a lot of technical hassle just go to wordpress.com and you can have a blog setup in a matter of minutes, it’s easy. If all of this is still too overwhelming for you you can sign up with a service called Site Build It and for $30 a month they will take you step by step to a successful blog. Most of their blogs are at the top one percent of Google searches. They are an excellent choice if you are a non-technical but still want a successful blog, click here for some examples. Ok, now to the next step. Let’s say you have created your blog. I would say as a rule, from now on, you should put all of your writing on a blog. As soon as you create a blog, it instantly gets indexed into the search engines and in a few days anyone in the world could do a search and your blog entry might come up. Now that’s cool! Instant sharing.

Share Your Blog
Ok, the next step is that you want to make it easy for people to subscribe to your blog. Now this is a slightly hard subject to understand but hang with me, it’s really not so bad. Basically there are these things called feeds and what they do is allow people to subscribe to your blog. when they do this, if you make a new entry, they (your subscribers or readers) will be automatically alerted and shown your new entry. This is what I did with my Plan G book. For someone to subscribe they need what is called a feed reader. A “feed reader” is a piece of software that lets people subscribe to different web pages etc. and see the updates. Sound confusing? Well no worries, you already use readers and probably don’t even know it. Yahoo, Google, msn and everyone else and their mother have included feed readers in their personal versions. I use iGoogle but yahoo has my yahoo and msn has my msn. For instance, on my iGoogle page, any blog I subscribe to is summarized there. For instance, I am subscribed to a Vancouver blog about Vancouver BC. Whenever the author of that blog makes a new entry the title of that entry shows up on my iGoogle page. This way I don’t have to go and check the Vancouver blog everyday to see if they have made a new entry. Feeds can also email you the latest post from your favorite blogs.

Setting up a feed
Ok, this all sound every cool, but how to do it? Is it complicated to make it so people can subscribe to your blog? No it’s not. Why, because there is a new service that Google also just bought called Feed Burner. Via feed burner you can easily make it so people can subscribe to your blog via email and or their feed reader. Just go to feedburner.com and enter the address of your blog and just follow the instructions. They take you though the process step by step and teach you all about the whole feed system in the process. Since feed burner and blogger.com are both part of Google. You can add subscription services to your blog at the touch of a button. It’s all integrated together and it makes doing this very powerful thing as easy as pie. To watch a video tutorial on feeds go here.

Making money with your blog!
Once you’ve added subscription services to your blog, you can learn how to make money with it by checking out Yaro Starak’s site entrepreneurs-journey.com. Yaro makes a lot of money blogging and he’s a really nice guy. I could go into detail but he’s already done it so just check out his site for info on making money with your blog. But to sum it up, you can make money with advertising, an online store, affiliate marketing, referral links or just take donations. Also check out propblogger.com which has all kinds of cool tips on how to make money with your blog too.

Promoting your blog
Ok, we are almost done. Now you have a blog, you have added subscription services so people can subscribe to your blog and you have added a way to make money from your blog. Now there is just one more thing and that is how to promote your blog so people can find out about it. One way to help people find your blog is to sign up for what are called book marking sites.

Bookmarking sites
Ok, book marking sites are easy to understand. Someone got the idea that it would be cool if everyone could share their favorite sites or book marks and so bookmarking sites were born. So your blog needs to be one of those sites that people bookmark. The way you start this process is to sign up for the top ten bookmarking sites. (there are tons of them but we want to focus on the most popular) One of the most popular is digg.com there is also stumbleupon.com. Sign up and then make your blog your first entry, write a rave review, give it five stars etc. and what this does is get you in their site database. I have heard that all it takes is 2 votes to get a site to start to rise up the popularity ladder. If you do this on all the bookmarking sites your blog will start having hits immediately. With hits you will get subscribers. There is a service called OnlyWire.com that will automatically post all of your blog entries to the top 30 bookmaking sites for you.

Successful examples
Some great examples of blogs: one of the most popular blogs out there, as in top 100, is Zenhabits.net, study it to see what a good blog can be. Also check out Stacy Parks of Film Specific, she is a film sales agent. Every day I get an entry from her about film distribution. She might be at a festival or conference and she will drop in telling us all about what she has learned that day and how it can help us. Her entries are not formal at all but after a while you start to feel that you are a part of her journey. If I ever did have a film to distribute, who do you think I would call? Also check out independent foreign news correspondent Michael J Trotten of michaeltotten.com. Michael is a freelance journalist who lives entirely from the donations and ad revenue from his blog.

So that’s it. Please let me know how your doing. Blogging is a great way to start sharing your gifts. The more we share our gifts with each other, the better the world will be.

Release yourself from worry

By Spiritdancer | 2010/02/06 00:41 Posted in Angels, Fifth Dimensional Living, Money, Prayer | Comments (2)

From: www.visionsofheaven.com

So many of you have been taught that to worry is to care, to obsess over things is to be ‘responsible,’ to save and fix others is a display of compassion, and yet, there are higher ways to care, more truthful ways to be responsible, and ultimately more loving ways to show compassion.

When you worry, you are simply spinning your wheels and projecting negative energy out into the universe. You are focusing upon what you do not want to happen and therefore sending out a magnetic, although thankfully weak, signal to attract it. Your positive thoughts carry so much greater sway in your life. So instead of worrying, when you catch yourself worrying, stop, breathe, and take time to think -what is is I DO want to see happening in my future? You worry about not being able to pay the bills, for examples. Many of you waste so much of your precious life in this frame of mind, and yet how much more productive it is to simply do what you know to do and say a quick prayer, “Dear God who takes care of all things, the birds in the sky, the grasses, the flowers, indeed the entire universe, you know I have a bill to pay here and I am not sure how I am going to do it. Please guide me, provide me with resources, and allow me to learn any lessons I need to learn with grace and ease. Thank you. Amen.” Then, dear ones go about your day giving thanks for the abundance you have and replacing every worrisome thought with a feeling of peace. Imagine that peace if you must, but rather that than imagining dismal circumstances.

Suppose you worry about a child of yours. Instead of worry focus on seeing them happy, purposeful, feeling loved. When you look at them, look at them as if there is success inside of them and speak this way. In this fashion you contribute towards their confidence and well being rather than their lack of self esteem. We are not suggesting you put up with or enable bad behaviors. You can indeed put your foot down there, but do so with love, and with a suggestion that you see more in them than what they are currently displaying.

When you obsess and worry about whether or not you are doing everything in your power to make a goal happen, well dear ones, you aren’t giving God, your loving creator enough credit. Rather than anxiously spinning your wheels, sit, breathe, pray… “Dear God, I have done everything I know to do to achieve this goal. Let me know what is next when you feel it is right timing. Thank you.” Then go about your day, enjoy your life and wait for further guidance.

When you have an urge to save or fix someone, go within, pray. “Dear God, I want to help my friend/family member/etc. I want to help them out of their unpleasant circumstance. Guide me and let me know how I may truly be of service. If you want me to share resources with them, make my cup full enough to do so and let me do it with a glad heart. If you want me to share time with them, give me the time and make it enjoyable for both of us. If you want me to share advice, guide the words I speak. And if you want me to withdraw and allow them to learn, then please make it obvious to me that no other assistance is asked of me.” Then dear ones, check in with your heart and see what feels uplifting, pleasant, and enjoyable to do. When you give from love you give according to God’s dictates.

When you release yourself from worries, from false obligations, from obsessing, you allow God to work in your life. You allow God to guide you with grace and ease. You allow your life to move according in coordination with the entire universe. You stop acting independently and become part of a bigger picture – one in which you and your needs count, and one in which you are loved, cared for, and guided.

Money is not the key to happiness!

By Spiritdancer | 2010/01/28 04:57 Posted in Money, Uncategorized | Comments (1)

Good. Now I am glad we got that straight because see, if we didn’t, than this whole thing would be for nothing. I mean you would go and read this blog and just head off in the wrong direction. This myth of money equaling happiness is so strong and so pervasive in our culture that we never ever question its validity. But trust, me it’s true. Do we need money, yes. Is money a tool, yes. But that’s it. Your happiness comes from another place and you don’t need to get a million dollars to find it. And this blog is about helping you get in touch with that place.

The Four Stages of Awakening to Your Life Purpose

By Spiritdancer | 2009/08/16 09:20 Posted in Awakening, Discovery, Living, Money, Purpose | Comments (0)

Stage one – AWAKENING
In stage one, we are the restless. We go through life asleep to our true purpose for existing. We feel restless, searching for meaning in the meaningless things of the world. We live a never-ending search, looking for happiness and peace in everything outside of ourselves. At some point, we realize we are barking up the wrong tree and turn within. Many times this will be brought on by a crisis in our lives. Eventually we start to awaken to the idea that we were born to make a difference; that there has to be something more to our lives. We are not just cogs in some machine. We realize that who we truly are is important and that we have something meaningful to contribute to the world, even though we may not know exactly what that something is. It is at this point of awakening that we enter stage two and begin the journey of finding out exactly why we are here and what we are supposed to do with our lives.

Stage two – DISCOVERY
In stage two, we are seekers, determined to discover what is our gift, what it is that we love to do? We start noticing what we really enjoy doing for the pure joy of it versus for money and recognition. Eventually we understand without a doubt what it is that we love to do, and we realize that this is our gift for the world. Once we realize what this gift is, we can enter stage three.

Stage three – INITIATION
In stage three, we are artist, determined to cultivate our gifts and win the battle against our ego and the many inner demons that arise to convince us that we are not worthy, not good enough, or that no one will need what we have to offer. We will deal with issues of survival, and money. But eventually we will defeat these demons. We will begin to understand that there is a larger purpose for what we love to do; that there is a loving higher power that is guiding us; that what we love to do is a necessary and meaningful part of healing the planet. At this point, fears about survival will be washed away by our deep desire to help make the world a better place. We will finally answer the questions: “Why am I here?” and “What am I supposed to do with my life?” When we realize that we are to heal the world with our gifts, we enter stage four.

Stage four – PURPOSE
In stage four–the last and final stage–our life purpose has become clear. It is clear who we are, why we are here, what are our gifts, and how we are to use these gifts to heal the planet. Now our focus shifts from what we can get with our gifts to how can we can give and contribute unconditionally. Now we see that there is much work to be done. No longer do we stand back and feel powerless. With God at our side, and his love in our hands, we boldly jump into the fray. When we give of our gifts freely and unconditionally to the world, we have become dream masters!

The Best Money Making Blog Tools 1: SBI

By Spiritdancer | 2009/08/15 08:41 Posted in Blogging, Money, Videos | Comments (0)

So, I have been studying the tools out there that can catapult my blog to the top and allow me to make money quickly or relatively quickly. Actually, it’s not quickly I am interested in as much as knowing that if I put the work in, even if it’s a year, that that work will produce something. One of the products out there that I really like is Site Build It or SBI for short. The reason I like SBI is that it sounds like a simple and relatively easy way to get started. The kind of tool that anyone can use. Even people who have no web or blogging skills. it sounds like all you really need is determination and a passion. Basically the SBI software does all the technical work for you so you don’t have to worry about being a web developer. You can just focus on your content and that’s it. Watch the testimonials, what is so striking about them is how down to earth they are from everyday people. Some people have even went so far as to make home movies. I have not seen a product that garners that kind of praise! Anyway I am so excited about SBI that I am telling everyone I know especially my starving artist friends. I have also decided to sell it as an affiliate and I plan to buy it as soon as I can afford to and use it myself to relaunch the MyDreamPower.com site. Below is a link to some of the videos I’m talking about.

// Money Making Videos

Dream Warrior

Money