Abundance Mindset

While in my journey through the Winning the Game of Money program, I realized that I don't always have an abundance mindset.  I noticed a post in the facebook group where another member discussed not quite having an abundance mindset just yet.  I realized that mindset, just like skills and habits can take time to cultivate.

So, how does one gain an abundance mindset?!  There are activities that you can do to help cultivate an attitude of abundance.  Yesterday, I watched a Tony Robbins clip on how he was completely broke and he gave away his last $17 to a child who was going out to lunch with his mother so the kid could pay for his mother's meal.  At that time in his life, he made the mental shift from scarcity and lack to abundance.

We listen in the Winning the Game of Money program to affirmations that help us to cultivate an abundance mindset.  The repetition helps them to sink into our habits and daily lives.  Something that Mark Waldman teaches us to do is mindfulness.  Be mindful of your thoughts.  When thoughts of scarcity and lack creep in, simply change them.  Whip out an index card with thoughts of gratitude and abundance and review it.

A big thing is actually recognizing the thoughts that are associated with scarcity and lack.  Below is a comparison between scarcity thinking and abundance thinking.

A great exercise to help you get into the abundance state of mind is writing three things down each day that you are grateful for in your life.  As you do this, you become more focused on the positive and good things that are happening in your life and you invite more of the same.  I close this blog each day with three things I am grateful for in my own life.  Today's three things include:

1. Having dinner last night with my brother and my mother
2. My blog where I can share what I learn with other people
3. My treadmill desk which helps me squeeze in more physical activity while I work
   

Focus is Essential

As I was reviewing some of the materials in the program, Winning the Game of Money, the thing that stood out to me today was John Assaraf saying, "Do less to completion."  In life, we tend to want to tackle too many bad habits at a time.  You really can focus on no more than 3 goals at once.  However, if you focus in on changing one habit at a time, it only takes about 60 days.  You can therefore change six habits per year.  That is a powerful message.  Focus in intently on what you want to change.

I'm reflecting on the changes that I have made in the last week.  I would like all the changes that I made to last, but I can feel my focus on some of them slipping already.  I intended to read my affirmations 3 times a day and I'm only hitting once or twice a day and it has only been 5 days.  My diet was the easiest change to make.  I'm eating vegetables for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but I had accomplished that in the past.  It was easy to create a plan of action and make it a routine.  I just had to find foods that fit the diet that I could make quickly.

Planning is probably one of my weakest areas.  I'm always wanting to be flexible and sometimes feel that not planning will open up my options, when I think it ends up doing the opposite.  Planning sets you up for sWinning the Game of Money program.  It tells you exactly what the next baby step is to creating the habits that lead you to success.
uccess.  Taking a step towards your goal consistently every day will inevitably lead you to your goal.  That is one reason I love the 90 day

This week, I'm going to focus in on planning every single day and reviewing my day to identify what I could be doing better.  Checklists aren't my forte, but this week I am going to focus in on writing down the most important things that I need to do to accomplish my goals.

Today, I'm ending my blog post with my gratitude section.  Gratitude helps you raise your self-esteem and self-worth.  Having a high self-worth is essential to earning more money, so this gratitude exercise is important for me to make a habit.  Here are today's things I'm grateful for:

1. Grateful to be learning the secrets to success
2. Grateful for the autoimmune paleo diet that I'm implementing
3. Grateful for the numerous fitness and recreational classes available to me in the DC area

Changing Your Habits is the Key to Success

This morning, I woke up and listened to the Winning the Game of Money audio.  This is a new morning habit for me.  I am now priming my brain daily to think more positively and become more in tune with financial opportunities.   Some of the other great habits that I have been inspired to make since starting the Winning the Game of Money program is eating veggies three times per day, reviewing my vision board, reciting my positive affirmations and exercising.  I love that this program is 90 days.  I can stick with anything for 90 days.

I had some extra time this morning and decided to pull up one of the bonus videos.  I'm listening to Darren Hardy, publisher of Success magazine, talk about maximizing your personal effectiveness.  In the past, I've been guilty of buying personal effectiveness books and halfheartedly implementing the strategies.  Now that I'm blogging about my results, I'm going to be a bit more invested.

First and foremost, you must take responsibility for your life.  At some point, you have to stop the blame game.  I played it for years.  I have epilepsy and people treat me differently and restrict my freedom.  Blah, blah, blah...Guess what?  No one cares.  The other thing is that when you stop blaming others, it is very empowering.  It's okay to have been making crazy mistakes or failing.  You can change right now.  You can be real with yourself and say, "I'm here right now.  I'm going to move forward.  I'm going to learn from these mistakes and fill my life with habits of success."  There is power in taking responsibility and refocusing on the fundamentals.

All the outcomes in your life are the cumulative effect of the choices in your life.  Changing your choices will change your results.  Every choice you make starts a trajectory.  Compounded over time, it ends up in colossal success or colossal failure.  Healthy eating habits and exercise will lead to a smaller waistline, muscles, a greater ability to lift things and more energy.  Focusing on generating cash flow and money will result in having money.  The important thing is to identify what isn't working and make adjustments along the way.  Don't get "stuck on stupid" as my father would say and continue to make the same mistakes over and over.

The most successful people in the world find a way that no matter what the circumstance, excuse, find a way to overcome it.  You have a choice to how you respond to your choices.  There are thousands of cases of people who had it much worse than you that end up doing much better than you.

It is our responsibility to change.  It starts with how you think and what you do.  One thing that I'm doing daily is writing down what I'm grateful for at the end of each blog post.  This is going to improve my self-esteem and my overall attitude.  Here are the three things that I'm grateful for today:

1. My healthy eating habits are becoming easier and more enjoyable
2. I created a wonderful recipe for sweet potato fries that will make my autoimmune paleo snacks yummier.
3. I am grateful for the work from home appointment setter job that I discovered and the opportunity that I have to earn money in my spare time.  

So, today, I encourage everyone reading this blog to take full responsibility of their current outcome and identify a healthy habit that you are going to apply to your life today.  In the infamous words of Nike, "Just do it."  Make it a habit and for best results, track it so that you can see what the impact it is having on your life.  

Priming Your Brain for Success - Week 2

As I start the second week in Winning the Game of Money journey, I am noticing things that I neglected the first time through.  One of the things that I neglected to do regularly was write in a journal.  For me, this blog is my progress journal.  It is helping me to stay focused on what I should be doing in order to achieve my goals.  The other thing that I sort of neglected was priming my brain for success.  While I was fabulous at consistently listening to the audios, I didn't pick up on some of the things that were mentioned in the video as ways to prime the brain for success.  One of them being reading your affirmations out loud each day.  I listened to a lot of affirmations, but reading them out loud was something I neglected.  Going forward, I'm going to be reading the Winning the Game of Money affirmations after I get out of bed and before I go to sleep.

This week's assignment is to create a vision board.  My last vision board had pictures of things I wanted, but they weren't in color and it got placed in my closet.  I'd still see it everyday because I have to get dressed, but it mostly was out of sight.  I'm going to laminate this affirmation page on the back of my vision board and carry it with me throughout the day to be a constant reminder to refocus in on the goals that I have.

Making goals specific for me has always been a bit challenging.  When seizures disrupt my life, things change drastically for me.  Often my driving privileges get suspended by the state and my employment changes.  However, one of my goals is to get a driver's license and a car.  It is at least six months out legally, but I put a car on my vision board.  In some ways, this goal seems unattainable, but I'm going to have faith in the process.  Sticking with the autoimmune paleo diet (my seizures pop up when I fall into unhealthy habits ie. junk food and not exercising) will help my overall health.  As my finances increase, I should be able to afford a car and insurance.

Today, I'm listening to the special training from John Assaraf while I walk on my treadmill.  I realize through this video, I need to work on making the goals more real in my mind.  Visualization for me has always been kind of challenging because I'm a logical person.  It is getting easier and more enjoyable.

The gratitude that I want to focus on today in order to raise my vibrations and attitude  is this:

1. I am grateful for discovering ways to improve on my past performance
2. I am grateful for people who are supporting me in my goals
3. I am grateful for a healthy diet that will propel me towards success

Week One of Winning the Game of Money - Complete

As I reflect on my first week of Winning the Game of Money, there have been some improvements in my life outside of the financial area of my life.  I have started the Autoimmune Paleo Diet and created an exercise program for not only my body, but also my brain.  I discovered that I need to improve my memory and processing speed to bring myself up to par.  I have incorporated a ton more veggies and fish into my diet.  I have started to say "No" to opportunities that aren't in my best interest.  These are great improvements.

This week, I started organizing and planning out my finances more.  Thanks to Winning the Game of Money, I have been more focused on finances.  Whereas, in the past, I was so overwhelmed with my "inability" to effectively earn a living, I ignored my budget.  My parents and doctors definitely contributed to the mental attitude that I had with money.  When I was a teen, I was prescribed expensive medication that I couldn't afford unless I became a dependent or went on medicare.  That is a horrible position to put a young adult into.  When I graduated from high school in the 90s, my monthly medical bills were around $1000.  As long as I had a job with group health insurance, I could cut that cost down.  However, keeping a job with a cognitive deficit and even controlled epilepsy is easier said than done.  I was very discouraged from entrepreneurship because that meant I wouldn't be eligible for health insurance.  My frustration with earning money started early.

While I didn't have a ton of insights today, I wanted to emphasize the importance of determination and sticking with a task.  Einstein said, "It is not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems
longer."  This retraining the brain is going to be a marathon and not a sprint.  Some days, I'm sure I'll start feeling like these are useless tasks, but in a few months, I should be a changed person with a better attitude and more financial resources.

Yesterday, while listening to the Winning the Game of Money program, I focused in on the gratitude aspect.  While, I can't always control the flow of money into my bank account, I can be grateful for three things everyday.  I decided to pick three things to be grateful for and share them here on this blog.  So, here they are:

1. Grateful to discover a quick and easy autoimmune paleo snack
2. Grateful to receive my residual check in the mail yesterday
3. Grateful to discover a fun rebounding 15 minute workout to invigorate me in the mornings

Gratitude - Day 6

I'm on Day 6 of Winning the Game of Money.  As I listened to the audio this morning, the thing that stuck out to me was hearing John Assaraf say, "Be grateful for the other people in your life who are leading you to the right financial opportunities."  This morning, I am grateful for people leading me away from some of the opportunities that I found this week.

Yesterday, I went to explore a financial opportunity that wasn't quite a good fit for me.  I went to LearningRx to inquire about a brain trainer position.  I've done tutoring before.  I love LearningRx's approach to learning.  They focus on strengthening the executive function of students so that their content mastery is easier.  While I was there, they gave us an exercise.  I was extremely slow on the task.  My auditory memory was getting a little confused by it.  While I rarely notice my slowed processing speed in the tasks that I do on a daily basis, challenging my mind yesterday was eye opening.  I was twice as slow as the other two people there and I didn't complete the task.  I realized that sharpening my mind is something that I should prioritize.  I'm grateful that neurogym is having me work to improve my mind so that I will see more success in my life.  I decided that I may utilize LearningRx's services and perhaps do some Lumosity brain exercises.

It feels a little odd to be grateful for an opportunity not working out for me.  I'm not going to increase my cash flow from this opportunity, but it opens me up to other opportunities that may be more financially beneficial.

I'm grateful that I could easily and quickly discover financial opportunities that fit my needs through Craigslist.  I'm grateful that some of them didn't work out, so I didn't have to put energy into too many different things.  I'm grateful for Barbara at Fairfax High School, who always says positive things to me each morning and offered to be a reference for me for job applications.  I'm grateful for bus drivers, uber drivers and friends and family who are willing to help me get to my job interviews and work sites.

I'm almost to the end of week 1 - Finding Financial Opportunities in Winning the Game of Money.  Here's what I have accomplished:

• Acquired a work from home appointment setter job
• Discovered a need to improve executive functioning skills
• Started the Autoimmune Paleo Diet (to eliminate seizures, alopecia and allergies)
• Started this blog and got an affiliate link to promote 

Take One Step Forward

Today is Day 5 for Winning the Game of Money.  Woo Hoo!  I have found new financial opportunities for myself and started identifying more and more ways to earn money in this thing we call life.

Yesterday, I didn't really feel like starting on a task that I needed to complete to get my finances in order.  During my lunch break, I opened up Srini Pillay's interview with John Assaraf that was in the Brain-A-Thon.  During his interview, John reiterated that often we have these ideas that the task will be difficult or hard and we don't start it.  Getting started is the key.  A good thing to do is to chunk it down into smaller tasks and feel great about getting started.  Often setting the goal for just starting and doing a portion of it instead of procrastinating will get your wheels in motion.  Every goal can be broken down into small tasks from cleaning your room, to organizing your finances, to dating and eating healthy.

With the Winning the Game of Money program, I am breaking down the task of earning $10,000 a month into smaller goals.  John Assaraf recommends starting with the goal of increasing your income by 2.5 times instead of increasing it by something that sounds unattainable.  The great thing about doing this program and blogging about it is that it is keeping me focused and accountable for taking action.

Today, I have a meeting with LearningRx.  While my end goal isn't to be a tutor at a learning center, it will help me reach the 2.5 times my own goal.  I will be able to interact with different people and it will give me the opportunity to gather different ideas for earning.  A part-time position is a win-win especially if it is at a fun place to work.  The other thing that a fun part-time job will do is to build up some of my confidence.  This week, John Assaraf talked about how building confidence is an essential part of earning more money.

Day 4 Winning The Game of Money

I have a new job, which means a new source of income!  Bam!  Actually, I applied for a commission based appointment setting work from home job about a week before starting this.  However, this is perfect for me.  I can do it whenever I have free time.  Time is money and there is no reason to watch television being bored.  In fact, now I have a hard time relaxing in front of the television.
I also received an email from LearningRx, where I was hoping to tutor and have an orientation tomorrow.  While these two sources may not provide a huge source of income, they will give me an opportunity to earn income when I have extra time.

I listened to the audio this morning.  I am starting to enjoy the audios as a way to rejuvenate and relax.  While the audios are focused on finding financial opportunities this week, I have discovered that my focus on other goals has become much more intense.  One thing that happened to me a few years ago was that my hair fell out due to an autoimmune condition.  All of it.  It is called alopecia universalis.  It is basically the hair follicles being inflamed to the point where they aren't producing hair.  It doesn't hurt and isn't life threatening, but I still want my hair back.  Yesterday, I made the decision to go on the ultimate elimination diet for autoimmune disease, autoimmune paleo.  I had tried the Gut and Psychology Syndrome diet, which allows eggs and dairy, but autoimmune paleo suggest people who are suffering autoimmune disease need to eliminate even those at least for a time.

In the Winning The Game of Money program, you are encouraged to get an accountability partner.  This has always been a challenge for me.  I don't always want people to know what I am doing because often I will fail at things.  Yesterday, I jumped into the neurogym group and asked for an accountability partner.  Another member directed me towards all the resources for accountability partners.  I am definitely getting out of my comfort zone with this program.

  Today, I am going to focus on finding people who will support my goals and dreams.  I am going to start my appointment setting calls.  I am going to apply to become a Fairfax County Public Schools Adult Continuing Education teacher for the fall.  I'm going to look for more summertime opportunities that would be fun and exciting.

So, what I've learned from Winning The Game of Money lately is that other people are essential to your success.  You are not an island.  You can become better.  Challenge yourself to do more.  You can find the people who will support your goals and dreams.  Allowing them to know about your failures is essential to your success.  Even though it can feel difficult to tell other people about my own failures and embarrassments, it helps other people connect with me and realize that I am human as well.  

Finding New Opportunities to Make Money

Today is Day 3 in Winning the Game of Money.  As I listen to the daily audio, I am training myself to become more in tuned with the financial opportunities that are available to me.  I started to recognize people who have been helpful to finding me opportunities in the past.

It occurred to me that I love taking the Adult Continuing Education classes with Fairfax County.  As a published author, I realized that I could create a network of budding authors in this area and teach them how to publish their own works on Amazon.  It wouldn't be until the fall and it wouldn't be a ton of money, but applying for it is the first step.  Teaching a workshop with adults could be tons of fun, so I think I shall try it.

The other thing that I realized yesterday while I was reflecting after listening to the audio was that I am part of a wonderful network.  My friend has a networking group that I joined last year.  He encouraged me to work for him and grow his network.  I think I can contact him and let him know that I'm available to do that this summer.  At the very least, I can start attending the weekly meetings and start to make some sales, participate in networking.

So, this week, I am focusing on building the door for opportunity.  As I listened to the audio this morning, one thing that stood out to me was learning to focus on the right opportunities for me.  While I am noticing more and more opportunities around me to earn money, not all of them will work for me.  One example is driving for uber.  I have a friend who turns the uber app on when he runs errands and will pick up a few dollars here and there in his spare time when he is running around.  That isn't going to work for me, since I don't drive, but it may be the right opportunity for someone reading this blog.  For some people driving for uber can be their full time job.  If they get an advertisement on their car, they can maximize the money they earn just from driving around.

Winning the Game of Money is helping me stay positive and gain focus.  Having daily assignments is great for helping me to build consistency in taking action.  While I love the ThinkRightNow behavior modification programs and their price tag, it is easy to give up early on behavior modification because they are lacking daily activities and a facebook group.  I love the EquiSync meditation programs, and meditation is one component of Winning The Game of Money, but it is easy to forget and not create a habit when you haven't invested as much money into it.  So, while it is a bit of an investment, you are more likely to see results because you are investing more time and money into improving yourself.  By the third day, I haven't seen an increase in income, but I have started increasing my activity level in terms of making more money.      

Gaining New Insights and New Ideas

Today is officially day two of my Winning the Game of Money journey.  Although, technically, it is not my first round of Winning the Game  of Money, it is the first time I have been meticulous about documenting my progress and wearing headphones while listening to the meditations.  (I didn't think that was a big deal until I read up on binaural beats and how they are good at creating a deep sense of meditation quickly.)

So, what changes have happened since yesterday?  What does day 2 hold for me?

This week's brain retraining is about finding financial opportunities that are a good fit for you.  This is much more challenging for someone who has epilepsy because there are jobs that are not available to me despite the fact that I am capable of doing them.  Transportation poses a problem especially right now as the D.C. area metrorail has announced that they are going to start shutting down some of the lines this summer for maintenance, so relying on public transportation to get places is not a good idea.  However, I am determined to find more income sources for myself!

My action steps yesterday were to apply for some summertime tutoring positions, so that when my substitute teaching disappears on June 24, I still have some income.  I brainstormed and came up with some marketable skills that I could monetize.  I remembered that the Winning the Game of Money program has an affiliate program.  Everyone who clicks on my link will be cookied to me and I will earn a commission off of the people who purchase the program from me.  It is basically a sales commission.

Here are some of the other ideas for earning money that occurred to me in the last couple of days:

• Monetize my folk's old car with a car wrap ($400/month - this idea came from an email I received.  Although I wouldn't receive the money, I thought I'd share the idea on the blog.)
• Write this blog and attach affiliate links for commission
• Use this blog as a starter for a new book!  Have John Assaraf endorse it, since it promotes his products!
• Tutoring at LearningRx, a company whose mission I love
• Online tutoring
• Telemarketing that I can do from home

Another thing that I did yesterday was to watch the Brain-a-thon that is basically a long sales pitch for John's program.  It actually gave me a ton of insight into what I had done wrong the first time through the program (hadn't fully committed and held back a bit not wanting to let myself down if I failed).  I learned more about how we are programmed for fear.  I identified with some of the guests and experts on his show and was inspired to do more.  I realized that I want to be more.

So, what's on the agenda for today?

• Meditative audio
• Review the weekly video
• Review my goals
• Apply to telemarketing and sales positions on Craigslist
• Write this blog post (check!)
• Brainstorm titles/topics for book

Do I recommend Winning the Game of Money to you?  Well, it definitely is a comprehensive program.  I find that addressing your subconscious through meditation is kind of tricky.  I love the ThinkRightNow programs that work on changing your conscious thoughts first and that starts to change your subconscious thoughts.  However, it is easy to forget about those programs.  They are less expensive and when you spend a bit more money, your commitment level tends to be greater.  I love that Winning the Game of Money has assignments for me to work through.  It forces me to set goals and work through them.  I'm certain that this week, I'll discover a couple great opportunities for myself.

Week 1 in Winning The Game of Money

Today, I started Winning The Game of Money.  The program has a few components.  One of the components is a weekly video to watch along with some assignments.

Throughout the program, John explains that he teaches you to use your conscious and your unconscious brain.  Apparently the unconscious brain is ten times as powerful as the conscious brain.  

In this first video, John explains that you can use your imagination to imagine yourself doing different things.  The first time I went through Winning the Game of Money, I imagined myself becoming an author.  That was quite a journey.  I utilized Alicia Dunam's Bestseller in a Weekend course to write my first book.  The picture on the right is a picture of me after my first book signing.  My books aren't perfect and I need to improve my marketing skills, but I am now an author.

His first video has you start to set some goals for this program.  You are to set goals based on your current beliefs, your current goals, and your current money story.  He encourages you to push outside your current limits.  He encourages you to discover what you truly like to do and what you want to achieve and set goals surrounding that.

For me, I had often been flaky about setting goals, which may be why the first time I went through the Winning The Game of Money program, I didn't make as much money as I had hoped to earn.  However, this time around, I am documenting my progress for my friends and family to see.

The goals that I set in week 1 this time around are quite challenging.  The first goal that I set was to create $10,000 per month in income.  I set a goal to have my finances organized and to be completely financially independent.  The third thing that John asks you to do is create a why.  My big why right now is to be able to travel.  I currently have a plane ticket that I received from being "bumped," but in order to travel, I need to generate some excess income to spend on fun activities.

The program has a video component of John explaining how wealthy people think and do things differently.  It also has a daily meditative audio component to it.  Meditation is a wonderful exercise.  He does a guided hypnosis along with the meditation and uses imagery and positive affirmations.  He tells you that he is training your brain to identify the financial opportunities that are all around you.

Today, I am going to review my books and videos on day trading.  I am going to apply for some part time jobs for this summer when my substitute teaching position ends and I'm going to follow up with the telemarketing position that I applied for last week.  I know that something wonderful is going to come out of this!  I'll keep you posted on how and if my attitude changes, what action steps that I am taking towards my goals, and whether or not I think Winning the Game of Money is worth your time and money!

Is John Assaraf's Winning The Game of Money effective in helping people generate new income??

John Assaraf was featured on The Secret.  He has a few expensive programs out there that make a lot of promises, but do they deliver?  I'd like to take you on a journey through one of his programs and let you know my own personal results.

I purchased John Assaraf's Winning the Game of Money in 2014.  I listened to the audios diligently for 90 days.  My attitude towards money did change.  I started to notice different methods of creating income.  I started to feel more free to invest in myself and I did.  However, I wasn't diligent with some of the assignments in the program the first time around and have decided to go through it again, documenting my progress along the way for other people's benefit.  I will add my affiliate link in case you decide that this is something that will benefit you, but I want to be completely transparent about the efficacy.

Let me be 100% honest and clear.  I have been routinely meditating and listening to other self-help tapes in addition to Winning The Game of Money.  However, currently I still am simply working as a substitute teacher.  This is a position that I enjoy and feel successful doing after having a horrible first few years as a Special Education teacher.  

Since I suffer an occasional seizure here and there, I follow the state laws and don't drive.  This limits my employment choices.  This is going to demand more creativity from me in following the Winning the Game of Money program.