One of my favorite seminars, The Millionaire Mind Intensive is going to be in Chicago February 22nd thru 24th. I have encouraged many to go to this weekend intensive because it transforms you from the inside out. Although the premise is about changing your financial blueprint, it is about so much more.

I received a comment/question today from someone I referred that prompted me to write some thoughts down. The person had just gotten their confirmation and saw the times for the seminar and asked:

I don’t understand why anyone who is healthy and self respecting would stay in a conference from 9am to ll pm two days straight.  This is very unappealing to me.  Can you offer some thoughts?

I have received this same reaction before and know there are more out there thinking the same exact thing.

I thought the best way to approach it is to talk about the top five things that I truly appreciate about the long hours and tight schedule.

1. Having very long hours over three days means that I don’t have to take a whole week off of work to get this really great information. Think about this…over the three day weekend you will get close to 40 hours of life changing instruction, and you only had to take one day off of work to get it in!

2. Having an entire three day stretch consumed with learning how I can change leaves me little to no room for distractions. I get to stay focused on the subject at hand, be immersed in it and take it all in.

3. When captivated by the subject matter, I don’t notice the time passing by.

4. I have plenty of time to meet other like minded people.

5. I love the fact that going to seminars that are this long (which are actually very common) are a great reminder to me to take care of myself and that I am the only one responsible for my comfort. I make sure that I have a sweater or two in case the room is cold, a water bottle to refill and stay hydrated, a whole food bar or two in my purse in case I need a snack and it’s not break time yet, etc.

Now, only you will know if the seminar is right for you to go to. Check in with how you feel. A major thing to note is that this seminar is not for someone that needs to be coddled or have things sugar coated. This is pure tell it like it is interaction. The main question I have for you is do you want to learn how to think like a millionaire or do you want to stay broke the rest of your life? It’s your choice. This seminar is simply one tool that I have found to be very effective in expanding your abundance in all areas of your life.

If you want to know more about the seminar, there is a teleseminar being lead by Peak Potentials tonight at 9:00 PM Central. You can sign up for it at http://www.millionairemind.com/a/?wid=288018&page=/preview/tele

If you just want to read the book and skip the seminar, go here http://www.secretsofthemillionairemind.com/a/?wid=288018

Finally, if you want to check out a Millionaire Mind Evening in another state that will give you a three hour preview of the event, sign up here http://www.millionairemind.com/a/?wid=288018&page=/preview/mme

I know there will be other questions about the seminar. Feel free to ask me in a comment below.

Yours in prosperity,
Lena

Happy Thanksgiving,

Today we are having our first snow fall of the season, and I’m happy about it. Interestingly enough I’m a little amazed that I just typed that. In the past, I have not appreciated snow that much – or even at all. I considered it a four letter word not to be mentioned in my presence.

Today, for the first time in many years, I am looking at it with fresh eyes. Rather that focus on what I don’t like about snow like cold weather, slush, etc. I’m appreciating the beauty of the big fluffy flakes floating outside of my window. I also have tremendous gratitude for the things that protect me from the harsher elements of nature.

Once you start appreciating and expressing gratitude for one thing it starts to spiral into a gratitude fest. Well my gratitude fest, hmm or feast per se, started when I woke this morning and said to Chris Happy National Gratitude Day! I quickly started thinking of all the things that I am grateful for and you, the collective you of all the people I’m connected with, came to mind. Chris mentioned it was snowing and instead of my knee jerk cringe when I hear those words, it didn’t even faze me. You see, all I could think of was how much I appreciate having each and every one of you in my life.

So to you, I say thank you for being here. Thank you for being a part of my life. Thank you for providing joy or contrast into my world. Thank you for being a part of what I do to create more joy in my life. And thank you for being my first serving in my gratitude feast for today.

So now, what about you? What are you going feast on during this national day of gradtitude we know as Thanksgiving? What will nourish your soul on this day? Will it be the abundance around you? The love you give and get? How about the joy that you’ll be enveloped in? I know I’m going to go back for seconds and thirds of all those delicious morsels.

I’d love to hear about what you’re feasting on today and how it nourished your soul. Please comment. I’d love to hear from you.

May today and everyday be filled with abundance, joy and love!

Yours in gratitude,
Lena

Last night I had an experience that was a good reminder for me.

While working on a project I decided to write in my calendar in red marker the countdown in days to the end of the year from 90 down to 1. To my surprise it turns out that I miscalculated when day 90 was – Oct. 3 instead of Oct. 4 – and therefore my countdown to the end of the year was off by a day.

When I saw what I had done, I began to laugh. When you’re setting your intentions and outcomes, you should always ‘begin with the end in mind.’ Having a clear vision of the outcome keeps your eyes on the prize and makes it easier for you to hit your mark. Working backwards from the perspective of your outcome also makes the path to take much more apparent.

Had I started writing the countdown from day 1 – December 31st – and worked backwards to day 90, there would be no way that I would have missed my count – not to mention having a lot less scribble marks on my calendar.

As I was fixing myself a late breakfast Lena came into the kitchen feeling a little overwhelmed with all the projects we have going on. Since I happened to be spreading some jelly on my toast at the time, I offered her some toast to make her feel better.

She declined, saying that toast isn’t an anchor to feeling good for her as it was for me. She was referring to my experience with toast I wrote about awhile back. That experience of being so present while enjoying my toast that day is forever etched into my mind and toast will always be a happy anchor to that experience.

But for her, toast simply was not enough to bring forth those feelings of being present and grounded.

“So go find your toast, then,” I offered half-jokingly.

So simple, but profound. There’s something that everybody can use as an anchor to feeling sublime. We’ve all had moments of greatness, where we’ve felt so alive and unstoppable. No matter how fleeting the moment might have been, calling forth the feelings you experienced in that moment can be one of your most powerful tools to keeping yourself in a high vibration or state of being.

So think back to a past time of triumph, no matter how large or small the event may have been. Focus on your feelings, call them forth, make them bigger, stronger, more vibrant. Then repeat your anchor, or make up a completely new one. It can be a fist pump while shouting “Yeah baby!” or snapping your fingers or even a humble piece of buttered toast. Whatever it is, practice it often, because the more you feel triumphant and powerful the more you attract triumph and power to you.

So I happen to be in a fabulous mood right now and I decided I want to feel even better. Gratitude is always a great way to raise one’s vibration. So here’s a random list of things I’m grateful for in the moment.

• A plate of bacon and eggs, sunny side up, with lightly buttered toast
• Electric pencil sharpeners
• Indoor plumbing
• Being in touch with my creative genius
• Being a BIG thinker
• Toothpaste
• The refreshing crispness of winter air
• A good snow shovel
• Whiteboards
• The sound of a pencil as it scratches across paper
• Hot water
• Oreos
• A great metabolism
• Great health
• Sunshine, especially in winter
• Comfortable chairs
• Sleep

The Law of Attraction.

Thanks to the movie The Secret (and its appearance on Oprah), the Law of Attraction has been receiving quite a bit of attention lately.

Simply put, the Law of Attraction states that “Like Attracts Like.” This is nothing new. Though the name “Law of Attraction” was originally coined by Abraham Hicks in the mid-eighties, the concepts behind it have been around in one form or another for ages - even in biblical times.

You can see evidence of the law in action all around you. Sayings like “birds of a feather flock together” is a common example. Your friends are your friends typically because you have things in common.

What the Law of Attraction means to you is that everything in your life (and everyone else) was attracted to you based on what you are putting out to the Universe via your thoughts. Your thoughts are “things” - energy waves, or vibrations, and are tangible. As you think something, you put that energy out to the Universe and the Universe responds by bringing something that matches that vibration into your experience in one form or another. The more you think it, the more you’re putting it out there, and becoming a stronger attractor to that vibration.

A common response I get when explaining the Law of Attraction to others is “but I didn’t want that and I got it anyway.” The point is that you were thinking about what you didn’t want - and therefore still putting that thought energy out into the Universe. The concept of negation (”NOT”) is a logical language concept and doesn’t exist in nature. There’s no such thing as a “not” anything in tangible form. In a previous post I talked about that further.

In an upcoming article we’ll talk in detail about how to use the Law of Attraction in your life.

By the way, if you haven’t seen The Secret yet, I recommend you go out and pick up a copy from your favorite bookstore or through Amazon.com.

If you happen to be in the Chicago area, Transitions Bookplace occasionally does screenings of the movie (yes, they carry it and yes, it’s probably in stock). Check their calendar for more details.

So… I just got back last night from being in Mississippi since last Thursday. This was the weekend for our annual family picnic in Hernando, a little country town turning suburb not too far outside Memphis.

I used to say this wasn’t a vacation by any stretch for me - it’s quite a bit of work. Since I’m in charge of grilling (woo hoo) I basically spend most of Friday and Saturday prepping the meat and standing outside manning the grill. (I found out that I do indeed sunburn.) Plus there’s all the shopping and other stuff that’s part of the prepwork. And I usually end up doing this mostly myself (Lena does come with, thank goodness) before most everyone else gets down there.

It occurred to me just before I left, that even though it’s a lot of work to do, and I’m involved on the front end of things, that really I do love the parts that I do - well, the grilling anyway. I’m well on my way to becoming a barbecuing guru. Plus, that also means I can usually coast the rest of the weekend, letting everyone else do the cleanup and all that other jazz as they gush about what a great job I did on the grill. The fact that I’m out there for about twelve to sixteen hours in the hot Mississippi sun doesn’t hurt either.

So is it a vacation? I say heck yeah. Compared to the stuff I usually do during the week, this is kind of a getaway. Can it be tough? Sure, but it’s a labor of love. I honestly do enjoy almost every moment (I’d be more than happy for someone else do some of the prepwork).

The point is, event though some of it is indeed tedious or hard, it doesn’t really feel like work in the long run. The enjoyment I get while doing it, and the satisfaction of doing it well, really makes it seem effortless to me - though honestly it tends to feel more effortless after I’ve finished.

So I can call my weekend a vacation, even with all that hard work. And then it dawned on me: How often have I thought about a job or project being tedious and unpleasant and not been psyched about getting it done? Plenty. But what if I could reframe the work, and instead focus on the joy it brings me - whether I get that joy while doing the job or after it’s done. If I consciously choose to find the joy in the things I do, then it feels less like work - becoming more ‘effortless’ to me. And every job could then feel more like a vacation to me.

Gratitude is an important element of our prosperity. When we express our gratitude for what we have in our lives we align our energy to receive even more of the same in our lives.

Put simply, being grateful makes us magnets for more prosperity and abundance. Huge magnets.

Invoking this power is simple: express your gratitude for something, anything you have in your life. Size doesn’t matter on this one. If you found a penny on the ground this morning, celebrate it! After all, you just got something for nothing - free money - two things, interestingly enough, that “common wisdom” says don’t exist.

Still don’t think you have anything to be grateful for? How about the fact that you managed to read this blog in the first place? How great that you’ve got access to a computer and the internet! Got a roof over your head? How about the fact that the air you breathe is free? If you take the time to look, you’ll absolutely find something to be grateful for. And the more you find, the more you’ll find.

So on an ending note, here’s my own list of things I’m grateful for today:

I am grateful to be on this path of prosperity consciousness and effortless living I am currently sailing.

I am grateful to share my knowledge with others to help them determine their own paths.

I am grateful to be in such positive energy that grows more each moment.

I am grateful to have released so many beliefs that didn’t serve me and replaced them with beliefs that support my abundance.

I am grateful that I am increasingly more present in every moment of my life.

I am grateful to know that I can choose happiness at every moment, and do so most of the time.

I am grateful that I release judgment, especially of myself in those times I do not choose happiness.

I am grateful that I attract more abundance into my life, and celebrate every time I receive, be it a penny on the ground or a thousand dollars into my bank account.

Above all else I am grateful for my entire life experience, and that I am truly enjoying every aspect and experience of my life.

This weekend I charged myself with completing writing something. This project has needed to be done for a while now, but I have kept putting it off. Finally, I made a commitment to it being in someone’s inbox by the time they started work Saturday morning.

It was Thursday morning when I made this commitment, knowing that I had two very full days ahead of me and very little time in which to accomplish it. Friday night would be the only unscheduled time I had to write it.

Friday evening I retired to my office and pulled out the document to work on. I read over my previous work on it and decided that it needed a fresh start.

I sat in front of my computer and stared at the screen for a few minutes before I walked away. It was in the moment right before I left my office when I realized when I have really wanted to complete a piece of writing, I go to bed relatively early and wake up in the wee hours of the morning.

I followed that prescription Friday night. I crawled into bed between 9:30 and 10:00 PM and set my alarm for 3:00 AM. I know…I usually find that to be a tortuous hour to wake, but when I absolutely have to write, 3:00 or 4:00 AM is when it gets started. I drifted off to sleep thinking that when I awoke, I would get straight to writing and I’d be able to send it off just before 8:00 AM.

At 3:00 AM I decided to reset the alarm for 4:00.

I finally get to the computer sometime around 4:20. I locate the document and start typing away. It is in those morning hours that the words flowed through me and seem to magically appear on the page. Before I knew it, I was done. It was about 5:45.

I did a quick review for typos and minor changes, not too concerned if I would have to do anything extensive since I knew that I was sending it out for a critique and would get revision suggestions in the afternoon.

I took a fresh look at it around 10:00 and did very slight tweaking. I realized that the editing needed on this piece was minimal.

I reflected upon past morning writings and noticed a few things. I started doing this type of writing in college, when I would have a paper, short story or any other piece of writing due. I would beat myself up about it, yelling at myself about procrastination.

As I got older, I still did this when I had something that I felt was really important to write. My stomach would get all tied up in knots as the deadline got closer. Then, I would again admonish myself for procrastination and not getting it done sooner.

These two things didn’t need any reflection. I know these two things because they run through my head any time I have committed to writing something.

The next few thoughts that came out of this reflection have just changed my life forever.

I realized today that what I’ve been doing all these years has not been procrastination. It has been a formula for my writing success.

When I feel compelled to write, like now, it can be any time of day and there are a few factors that are always similar like where I like to write, the instruments I use to write with, etc.

When I have to write, it is entirely different. Choosing to deliberately write takes discipline. Ask any writer, we all have a routine that we follow. I just never recognized mine until today.

Daily disciplines allow you to focus on the task at hand. It is just something that you do that eventually becomes automatic. You will often fall into a zone while doing it. My best deliberate writing, needing the least amount of editing is the outcome of a very specific discipline.

What I once thought was procrastination and being driven to work under the wire, I now know is my way of setting a very strong intention, focusing on the outcome and getting my conscious mind out of the way so that my subconscious mind can be open to delivering just what I need.

I know this formula now, and can use it with any project that I want to flow effortlessly through, be it writing or anything else.

I know that this formula will work for others as well – we just need to plug in the routine that is specific to them. For me it is sleeping on it and getting up and doing it. For someone else it might be brainstorming, going to play a game of golf and coming back to sort the brainstorming into a cohesive project plan they are inspired to follow.

The possibilities are as endless as the people who want to tap into how to move from procrastination to productivity in their lives.

Imagine your mind is a big room. Each of your thoughts is an item in the room, like furniture, artwork, knickknacks, and so on. Your positive thoughts are the stuff in this room that bring you joy, like comfortable couches, beautiful artwork, and so on. Your negative thoughts are the ugly, uncomfortable, tacky decor and clutter that at best does nothing for you and at worst repulses and hinders you.

Most people’s rooms are filled to the gills with all kinds of clutter and junk, most of it falling into the ugly, tacky category. There’s hardly any space to move around and do anything because the room is so full.

So the trick is to get rid of all the tacky negative thoughts, which for most of us on the planet means we’re left with a big, mostly empty room. But look at all the space to work with! It’s now up to you to decide what kinds of things you’d like to go in this room.