Many of you wrote asking more about ideas and how you get them.  They just involve some creative thinking.  Here’s an example:

I was conducting a prosperity class at my church when a guy said that he was destined to be broke.  He explained that he was a nurse, worked in a government owned hospital and was at the top of the civil service pay scale, so no matter what he did, he couldn’t even get a raise.  He felt his prosperity was blocked.

I looked at his same situation and wondered what was stopping him from starting a home health care service.  And not just any home health care, but the very best one.  A service that would totally pamper and take care of people who were dying or facing serious health challenges.

Think about that…

If Bill Gates or any other wealthy person were sick, wouldn’t they want and be willing to pay for the finest home health care available?  I know I would.

Ideas are what allow us to manifest prosperity from the ethers into the physical realm.  Now if you’re sitting in front of the TV five hours a night watching cheesy sitcoms and stupid reality shows, don’t expect to have a lot of creative energy.  But there are lots of ways to expose yourself to creative thinkers and develop better critical thinking skills:

Hang around successful and interesting people.  Hint: There are more at Barnes & Noble on a Friday night than in the bars.  Do crosswords, Sudoku and other brainteasers.  Read biographies and especially autobiographies of successful people.

And a very simple way to come up with ideas is simply look at problems and challenges that people face.  If you can make their problem go away, they will gladly trade you money for that.

Think about recent billion-dollar success stories.  Hotmail, a way to offer free email to college kids.  Google: a way to find things on the Internet. Facebook: a way for friends to connect online.   And it doesn’t have to be sexy Internet stuff.

Richard Branson simply made flying fun again. Wayne Huizenga became a billionaire taking away people’s trash.  Then he made another billion giving them a place to rent movies.

You may start by walking people’s dogs, watching their homes or tutoring their kids.  But if you continue that line of reasoning and extend it out, prosperity awaits you.  All from the power of ideas.

I’m heading off to Riga, Latvia where I have some seminars this weekend.  I’ll post tomorrow’s blog when I land.  And since we’re on this topic, I’ll give you some Mental Aerobics to work some rust off your brain!  In the meantime, please check in with your ideas about ideas…

-RG

The belief that your prosperity comes at the expense of those less fortunate than you.  This is a very real issue for a lot of people, and they don’t even know it.

That’s why you see so many comments like, “You paid $5,000 for a pair of shoes? Do you know how many starving kids in Africa you could feed with that” or “Why would you spend so much on a car?  Don’t you know what a charity could do with that money?”

These types of questions are riddled with lack programming and designed to create guilt.  And they miss the single most important element about prosperity:  Namely that it is infinite.

Anything that is real prosperity is limitless.  Things like hugs, love, sunshine, and understanding are not finite, they are infinite.  The more you give away, the more they spread their good.

Imagine some asks you for a hug and you reply, “Sorry, I only have two hugs left and the weekend is coming up.”

Ridiculous right?

The fascinating thing most people don’t understand is that even money is infinite.  Because money in and of itself is meaningless.  It gets its value when it is traded for other things.  And as long as you create value for the universe it will reward you with money.

So instead of thinking how you can get more money, think how you can create more value and money will not be an issue for you.

Which means you can get those amazing shoes and help out Haiti.  You can buy that ferocious car and help the Make a Wish Foundation.

Charles Fillmore taught that our creator has surrounded us with prosperity.  There is no place on earth that prosperity is not.  (Even in what may appear to be desolate places such as earthquake ravaged Haiti or South Central LA)  Prosperity is in the ethers all around us.  And how we manifest it in the physical realm is through IDEAS.

The only thing between you and more money (which you can then trade for the things you really want) is your next idea that creates value for others.

No one ever has a money problem.  You only have an idea problem.  So you know what to do next!

-RG

A perfect example is an introduction to Biblical Christianity that Helen sent me.  It states, “Mankind’s inherently sinful (evil) nature has created a gulf between God and man which is unsurpassable by any human effort whatever…Reconciliation was made possible by the removal of man’s sin by the sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth”

Later in a suggested prayer it says, “Lord God I know that I am a sinner by nature and choice.  I believe that you sent your one and only son Jesus to pay the penalty for my sin.”

Now if you buy into this crazed belief that you are born a sorry sinner, how are you ever going to believe you are worthy of good things?  And of course Christianity doesn’t have a monopoly on these kinds of poverty consciousness mind viruses…

The same thing horrific manipulation of young minds is happening in many temples, mosques and synagogues all over the world.  Millions more children are right now receiving the same negative programming which will relegate them to lives of lack and limitation.

The real problem is the fundamentalists in most organized religions.  They have highjacked the true message and distorted it to reflect their agenda.  So hateful bigots like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Oral Roberts claim to teach the Bible.  Murderers like Osama bin Laden profess to represent true Islam.

I remember a few years ago.  The press was reporting that the Arab world was outraged because Israel killed Islamic cleric Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas.   What kind of world is it, when you can get a job running an organization that organizes and trains assassination squads and suicide bombers – and still be called a “cleric” or a “spiritual leader.”

Fundamentalism has today evolved into a code word for hate, persecution, and intolerance.  Idiots like Robertson, Falwell and Roberts no more teach the message of Jesus Christ than bin Laden, Yassin, and Saddam Hussein represent the true Muslim message.  They have simply highjacked the message and use it to manipulate their mindless followers.

They assure you that you are meant to suffer here, to demonstrate your worthiness for the afterlife, when the real good stuff comes.

And depending on the religion:  if you prostrate yourself enough, beg for forgiveness enough, say enough “Hail Mary’s,” ambush enough American GI’s, rub enough rosary beads, pray to Mecca enough times each day, blow up enough abortion clinics, kill enough Jews, or send enough money to the televangelist – you will be saved.

Most of the world’s major organized religions are set up as cosmic frequent flier programs.  If you collect enough points, you win the free trip to paradise.

Whether we look at the Christian concept of original sin, the Buddhist 8-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish Covenant, or the Muslim Code of Law, they all are set up with the basic presupposition that you are a flawed being who needs salvation.

And if that’s what you are taught beginning at four or five years old, is it any wonder that you would grow up with worthiness issues?  Is it any surprise that today there are millions of people with low self-esteem, fear-based consciousness, and a tendency to self-sabotage their prosperity?

If you went to a private Catholic school and the nuns told you that you were born a sorry sinner, what are the odds you are going to grow up liking yourself?  If you are a Hindu who believes that this time around, you are reincarnated from an Egyptian horse thief to pay penance, what are the chances you’re going let yourself be successful?  If you’re a Buddhist who believes you must go through 129 lifetimes to find enlightenment – and you’re only on lifetime 92 — what are the odds that you’re going to let yourself become wealthy this time around?  And don’t even get me started on the guilt in Judaism!

One of the best steps you can take to become healthy, happy, and prosperous is to do some serious critical thinking about your religious beliefs.  Think about the subliminal programming contained in them, and what you were exposed to as a young child.  There you will find many clues on what has caused you to create the results you have in your life right now.

If you need help on this, read my book, “Why You’re DUMB, SICK, & BROKE . . .and How to Get SMART, HEALTHY & RICH” I go into great depth on the role that mind viruses play in programming you for lack.

You are not serving God, the world, or yourself by playing small.  Your assignment on this planet is to unfold into the true greatness you are capable of, and model that success to inspire others to escape the mediocrity their lives have become.

So how are you doing on that?

-RG

This is a very common symptom from people that are infected with mind viruses from organized religion.  The couple in question are fundamentalist Christians, and like many of them, actually felt that serving everyone except themselves was a sign of spirituality and prosperity.  I think it’s just craziness.

Like most Christians, my client felt that he has a rich heavenly Father who wants him to have the kingdom, yet doesn’t see the disconnect in the subliminal programming that it is somehow spiritual to be poor.

He is often offended by my attacks on fundamentalism, and feels that he is not infected with lack programming because he equates believing in Christ as believing in prosperity.

He talks a good game, saying God gave his only begotten son for us, wants us to have the kingdom, etc.  But the problem is he doesn’t walk the game.

He keep struggling along, trying to serve others and serve God, and keep his creditors at bay.  There is nothing spiritual about this.

I don’t see his lack programming coming from the common mind virus that God is withholding things from him, or is not a benevolent provider.  While many fundamentalists have that programming, this is not his problem. He is infected with THE OTHER virus that comes often from organized religion:

The problem he and millions of others face is that deep down on a subconscious level, he feels unworthy of those blessings.  The problem is not that he doesn’t believe in God’s love – it is that he feels he is unworthy of that love.  Everything he does he compares with the feats of Jesus from the Bible, so of course he always comes up short, since he can’t feed the masses from a couple fish or turn water into wine.

And that is an issue for millions of people.  And that is the real crux of what we’ve been talking about on the blog for the last week.  Do you really get that?

By the way, this discussion is really not about fundamentalism, God, or Christianity.  If you start a knee-jerk defense of any one of those, you’re actually missing the real point and falling victim to your lack programming.  The issues we are talking about are very prevalent in agnostics and atheists as well.  The ultimate issue here is believing that you are worthy of great prosperity.  Organized religion infects a lot of people with this mind virus, but there are plenty of other guilty parties as well.

So how are you doing on this worthiness issue?

-RG

As I sketched out the concept, I felt him and his wife tuning out.  It became obvious to me and the group, that they simply couldn’t put themselves in that picture.  They came expecting to learn how to make an extra $50,000 or maybe $250,000, but when we started talking millions, it just was too unbelievable.

Now to be fair, they didn’t first see the situation that way.  They just thought that the idea was difficult, needed more research, would take longer to develop, etc.  It was only when the entire Mastermind confronted them that they accepted the possibility that they might be running from the idea because it was too prosperous for them to accept.

They left with the agreement that they would listen to my “Prosperity” album to expand their prosperity consciousness.

They returned to the next retreat and both felt that they had worked through their prosperity issues and were willing to accept abundance.  So I asked the wife a very simple question….

I wanted to know how her life would be different if their business did $30 million this next year.  The answer was fascinating…

She insisted that it would pretty much stay the same.  She made a great point to confirm that her needs were basically met, and the only real difference was she wouldn’t have stress about paying bills.  I pressed her for tangible changes that would take place in her lifestyle.  EVERYTHING she came up with had to do with helping someone else.

She would sponsor a Boy Scout camp, help out her parents, sponsor a school, etc.  She didn’t name one thing she would do for herself.  I threw the question to her husband.

He started where she left off, but he got more specific.  He mentioned the exact Boy Scout activities that would sponsor, and suggested that he would hire a 24-hour caregiver for his sick father.  But he was still only talking about giving money away to others.

I let them know that I felt their religious upbringing had programmed them for lack, because they didn’t think they were worthy of anything.  They of course got very defensive.  But I again pointed out that everything they suggested would be for someone else.  Finally exasperated, I blurted out to the woman, “Come on, I just asked you to picture you’re making $30 million dollars a year.  You can’t even tell me you would buy yourself a fucking pair of shoes or something!”

After much searching, he finally suggested that they could get a cabin on the lake.  This prompted his wife who finally acknowledged that she would like a 4-wheel drive vehicle.  Then they said if they got these things, they could bring more Boy Scouts on field trips there.  (Sigh.)

I love that they want to help other people and I hope you do too.  But what about your needs?  Giving comes from abundance, and that means taking care of yourself too.   If you don’t think you are worthy, you won’t manifest prosperity and you can’t help anyone.

So how are you doing on that?  How would your life be different if you made $30 million this year?  Tell me what you would do for others.  But also tell us what you would do for YOU!

-RG

I used to say these kinds of things were issues for people who grew up in the great depression.  Then I came to realize that this was a problem for most people.  It’s no surprise really, when you think about it.

Even if you were raised by prosperity conscious parents (which would be VERY unlikely), the programming you get subconsciously from the data-sphere would do the trick.

If you are my age, you grew up with “The Beverly Hillbillies.”  Think about that show for a minute.  How stuffy the banker, Mrs. Hathaway, and the other rich people were.  Jed Clampet and his family were the constant foils, showing how silly those wealthy people were.

Then there was Gilligan’s Island.  Remember how goofy the millionaire was?  And how stilted, going by the name of something like Thurston Howell “the third.”    Then there was M.A.S.H.  We had good guys Hawkeye and Trapper John, who were always ridiculing the rich guy who liked Opera.  When I look back on it now, I realize that my lack programming of jealousy and hate for rich people was probably established before I was ten years old.

Nothing much has changed today.  The Spiderman movies, Titanic, “House”, John Grisham novels and most mass culture entertainment is filled with lack programming.   (BTW, the next video for my prosperity channel is on why Avatar programs you to be poor.  Be sure and subscribe here, so you don’t miss it!)

So if you grow up with programming like this, is it any wonder that you feel guilty about buying something special for yourself?

Now a few of you fell for the bait and talked about what good you could do if you donated that $10,000 to charity instead of buying the coat or shoes.  But that is lack thinking, because of course you can do both.

Several of you commented on buying luxury if it was prudent and not going into debt.  That is very important and we discussed this on a previous blog here.

But when it is all said and done, it still comes down to value, worthiness and how big of a window you see the world through.

Yes the difference between a first class seat and one in economy is a great deal.  But you might find it is worth it if you are more than 5’6” tall, weigh more than 120 pounds, or want to open a lap top computer.  If you want to work (or sleep) on the trip, if you want to be treated with respect and not like cattle, and if you want to arrive relaxed – it could be worth the extra money.

The value difference between a room at the Four Seasons and a Holiday Inn one, or a Toyota versus a Bentley are undeniable.

If you have the money and aren’t going into debt, if it brings you joy, if you know you are worth it, then I believe you are making a prosperous decision.  And know that this is not about being elitist, because everyone has the chance to manifest more prosperity.

The great news is you get to choose:  you can be the slumdog or the millionaire!

-RG

Every team we faced came with one of two mindsets…

The first group was the teams that came to knock us off.  Their coaches were no doubt giving pep talks along the lines of, “Hey these guys are not invincible.  They can be beat…”

Then there was the second group.  The teams that feared us; afraid they would get seeded against us.  They said things like, “It’s just our luck; we got scheduled against the Predators.  They won the last three tournaments. They’re the best team in the country right now…”

The players in this second group never had a chance.  By making the statements they did, they were already preparing their excuses for getting knocked out of the tournament.

So here’s the million-dollar question for you:  On your journey toward success, which group are you in?

Are you already mentally making plans to fail with excuses about the bad economy, tough territory, difficult client, skeptical prospect, lack of education, etc?  Or do you see yourself as the reigning champion, who owns the title till someone can take it away from you?

-RG

I can understand why.  If you think about it logically, you could never justify buying a First Class airline ticket.  Can you quantify how much better a $5,000 suit is over a $1,000 one?  Do you really need to spend $50 dollars more for the room with the ocean view?  Can you justify paying $45,000 more for your condo to get on the water view side of the building instead of the city view?  Isn’t it wasteful to spend money on fresh flowers?  Do you really need cable TV, let alone satellite?   Can you really make the case for spending the extraordinary amount of extra money that anything from Prada costs?

Well the answer on all of these is probably no.  And yes.

The truth is, good shoes are a good investment for your health and career.  A pair of Bally or Santoni loafers mold to your feet like warm butter.  They also are well made and will last a lot longer than cheap shoes.  Plastic shoes are bad for your feet.

A good wool suit will travel better and look better.  A cheaper one will wrinkle just riding to your job interview, fall apart sooner, and start to look “shiny” after a few pressings.  A water view condo will hold its value and be easier to sell later.  So there really are some logical reasons for buying quality things, instead of cheap ones.

And of course there are lots of logical reasons to cut costs and save money on things…

I spend $250 a week on fresh flowers.  If I saved that and invested it, imagine what it would end up over time.  But I love having fresh flowers in my home.  (And it seems everyone that visits slaps themselves in the head and wonders why they don’t do it.)

If you save that $45,000 on the condo, you can invest it in your daughter’s college fund.  You can buy five $1,000 suits instead of one $5,000 one, etc.  And of course we certainly can’t forget all the good guilt arguments…

“You could save that money and give it to the church.  There are poor people starving.  We need to save the whales/rainforests/starving children in Africa/etc.”

So here’s my problem with all that…

Those arguments are based on the idea of prosperity being a finite resource.  Where I believe just the opposite.  I believe you can buy the Prada sneakers AND give money to the church.  You can buy three $5,000 suits and send money to Haiti.  You just have to make more money.

And all you have to do to make more money is raise your consciousness.  Oh and one other little detail…

You have to believe you are worth it.  So how you doing on that?

-RG

First I should clarify I don’t think it’s a sin to be born poor.  But it is a sin to stay that way.

Now it also would help if we define what sin actually means.  Of course most people would go with some kind of Biblical frame of reference for this.  But if you go back to the original Bible, which was written in Aramaic, the actual translation of sin means to “miss the mark.”

If you are a student of the Course in Miracles, then you know they would define sin as a lack of love.  I’m okay with either of these translations.  Because I believe that when we live in lack, we are missing the mark and missing the love our creator has for us.

When you are prosperous you are hitting the mark and accepting the love you are meant to have.  That’s why I say you were born to be rich.  So you up for that?

-RG

When we get anything, it does make a statement.  The car you drive, how you dress, decorate your home, and even what type of eyeglasses you wear – all make a statement about you.

When I buy a car, I do want it to make a statement.  My cars are a reflection of my personality.  They go fast, turn heads and cost a lot.  Just like me!

Ok, I’m being a little cheeky.  Ok, very cheeky.

But aren’t the things we all buy an extension of us?  When you see my car, look at what I wear, or you see how my home is decorated, you have a very good idea of who I am.

That doesn’t mean I am defined by my possessions.  It means they are defined by me. I like simple elegance, not “busyness,” so I’m attracted to clean, classic lines, whether it’s suits, cars, or furniture.

I think we all feel this way.  But most people don’t practice this…

They save the good china for company, put plastic covers on the new furniture, and only break out the fine wine to impress someone else.  I buy the nice stuff for me!

Now don’t get me wrong.  I want to share it with the people that are special in my life.  But I don’t need company to justify buying the best.

You could say a car only takes you from point A to point B.  But I want an automobile that excites me every time I drive it.  I want hand made leather shoes, not plastic ones.  I want beautiful art in my home not velvet paintings of dogs playing poker. I want to eat delicious, fresh prepared foods, not what there are coupons for.  I want a stereo system that captures the nuances of Maria Callas, and rattles the fucking rafters with Guns N’ Roses.

And because these things bring joy to my life, I buy them.  Perhaps you think I’m arrogant, obnoxious, and ostentatious.  Perhaps you think the money and material things are about making a social statement.  They are.  And here is the statement:

“Poverty is a sin.  You were born to be rich.  I’ve accepted this, appreciate the finer things in life, and hope my example inspires you to do the same thing.”

What about you?

Do you think you were born to be rich or believe it’s spiritual to be poor?  Do you feel a little guilty just entertaining the thought of becoming really rich? Do you give yourself the finer things, or save them for company?  Please give that some thought and check in below.

-RG