Reality Check
Whose Reality Is It Anyway?

In the beginning of my Feel Free to Prosper program, I ask my students to explore and share their core feeling, their core beliefs about their relationship to money and prosperity.

Now, this is a REAL reality check — or we might call this a “prosperity” reality check.

If you think that in some way life has stacked the odds against you, if you feel that there is not a level playing field for success, if you feel “challenged” in your ability to succeed, then I strongly recommend that you not only read this article, but also review the story at the end of the article — the story of a woman who, in my opinion, is one of the greatest inspirations of all time.

Whose reality is it anyway?

So, let’s say that you have discovered your core belief (or beliefs) about money and prosperity. Now what are we going to do about it?

Well, first I am going to tell you the major truth about those negative beliefs.

The truth is…your beliefs are a LIE. A lie.

The interesting part is that as long as you keep accepting those beliefs, they remain YOUR lie and color and predict your reality, so in essence they become YOUR truth. What you believe to be true. Your life and circumstances are played out according to your (falsely) accepted truth. And your circumstances, the outer appearances serve to further perpetuate this “truth” to further “prove” that it is so. And the lie keeps feeding itself.

And then when you attempt to consider the possibility of abundance and success for yourself, it is then that you feel like you are lying to yourself.

WELL, I HAVE NEWS FOR YOU…THOSE BELIEFS THAT YOU HAVE EXPRESSED ARE NOT AT ALL RELATED TO THE REAL YOU. THEY ARE NOT WHO YOU ARE. THEY DO NOT REPRESENT THE TALENTS, THE ABILITIES, THE QUALITIES OR THE ESSENCE OF THE PERSON THAT YOU ARE — THE REAL YOU.

They represent negative false beliefs that you acquired throughout your lifetime and that were instilled in your mind by others, even when you were very young. You unconsciously made these beliefs your own.

And the nature of the subconscious mind is that it will create and produce for you according to the ideas it has accepted as reality.

THE REAL YOU HAS ACCESS TO ALL OF THE CREATIVE FORCES OF THE UNIVERSE BECAUSE YOU ARE AN INDIVIDUALIZED EXPRESSION OF UNIVERSAL MIND, INFINITE INTELLIGENCE, GOD. THAT INTELLIGENCE GAVE YOU YOUR TALENTS AND ABILITIES AND ALSO GAVE YOU THE MEANS TO FULFILL THOSE TALENTS AND ABILITIES.

So I ask you…who’s reality is it anyway?

How do you tune in and become who you really are?

The first step to victory is to recognize those false beliefs for what they really are — the lie. They are NOT the truth about you. They are the lie. The fact that you cannot attract money or clients or success in business is a great big lie.

I would like to go back in time here…

One of my early students was owed quite a bit of money from a former employer and they had refused to pay for over a year. Any effort she made to collect failed. She met me and began prosperity work and shortly after her second lesson, she was able to get a mediation date in court. She went to court and the insurance company for the employer adamantly refused to pay, although she carefully kept her cool and focused her attention on prosperity thoughts as the attorneys and judge interacted. The judge finally said he would take the ruling under submission until the following week, but by all appearances the employer’s representatives were not budging.

She had to wait this out until the following week and insecurities started to set in. Her core belief was that she was meant to struggle, that “winning” this would be too good to be true. She said she kept hearing the inner voice telling her this.

Although I endorse using only positive words in our study and don’t even like to use the word “lie”, I found myself spontaneously telling her that what she was hearing was that old subconscious “tape” playing over and over and that she must recognize it for what it was — IT WAS THE LIE! The truth was that she was a child of the Universe and entitled to all of the supply and abundance that she could have if she could keep her mind open to receive.

That did it for her. Whenever those thoughts would come, she would remind herself that that was the lie and she would again become centered.

The story in her own words (her post can be found on the Feel Free to Prosper Network in the posts from the earlier days)…

Hello fellow financial coaching groupies! I had a productive week in regards to our lesson plans and tangible results. Shall I say more ???!

When I saw Marilyn’s posting

[announcing the FFTP program], I just knew that it was the perfect pole vault to take me over the top. It was just a gut feeling. I am moving into a new phase of my career and Marilyn’s insight and solid lesson plans were just the right distraction to bring me to the next level. And thus far it’s succeeding. Without getting into too much mundane detail, I had a leftover challenge from an employer of more than one year ago. They owed me $$, refused to pay, and I was determined not to give back my income to them by walking away because there was a clear right and wrong issue here.

Well, after a year, I finally got my “day in court” so to speak (more of a mediation). What was exceptional is that I had just gotten Marilyn’s second lesson and had gone over half of it when this happened. The day was long and arduous. Also exceptional was what I did with my time. I relied heavily on my affirmations, then during long periods of time when I was alone and the pressure was on, I developed a meditation that was inspired by Marilyn and our Lesson Two. I focused on an object and just really felt, thought and visualized that I was a magnet for lots of money and that the magnetic energy that I was putting out there was getting stronger and stronger. When I got nervous, I would move back into that space of just concentrating on the magnetic energy I was giving out. When negative thoughts would trickle in, I would just tell myself that they are a “lie” because they are! That was customized by Marilyn for me and was of enormous help.

Several days later, I found out that everything was settled and I got a big chunk-o’money!! Now with that chapter behind me, I can clearly focus on my career goals in terms of financial success. I can’t wait for the next lessons to unfold!

Thank you, Marilyn!

Grace
September 19, 2003

Now, here are some more TRUTHS about your negative beliefs and one or more of these may apply to you:

1. You are comfortable with them. After all, they are familiar, aren’t they — even if you weren’t aware before of what they exactly were, they have become “second nature”, haven’t they?
2. You might feel you are stuck with these beliefs — there is nothing you can do about it so that you might as well make the best of it.
3. These beliefs might provide the excuse or justification for not moving forward, even succeeding.
4. You might feel that if you just keep going along like you are with these beliefs, that things will just get better somehow and you might have some lucky breaks to get you where you want to go.

None of the above factors will produce money and success for you. You must now make a conscious choice to be aware and recognize your false beliefs for what they are — blatant false beliefs. Lies that you no longer wish to apply to your life, that in no way serve you.

You must take the upper hand and make a stand for what you want to create in your life. It is a choice. It must no longer be an unconscious choice. It must be a conscious choice and you must now become the boss. You and only you must decide…

Whose reality is it anyway?

If the following biography does not touch and inspire you in some way, then I will admit that you are beyond the scope of my abilities as a mentor. But I suspect that you will easily understand why I am posting this…

HELEN KELLER (1880-1968), is an outstanding example of a person who conquered physical disabilities. A serious illness, which her doctor called “acute congestion of the stomach and brain,” destroyed her sight and hearing at the age of about 1 1/2. Because of this, she could not speak and was entirely shut off from the world. But she rose above her disabilities to gain international fame and to help disabled people live fuller lives.

For almost five years, she grew up, as she later said, “wild and unruly, giggling and chuckling to express pleasure; kicking, scratching, uttering the choked screams of the deaf-mute to indicate the opposite.” Then Helen’s father took her to Alexander Graham Bell. He advised Keller to write to the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston (now Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts). Shortly before the child was 7, Anne Sullivan arrived from Boston to teach her. Sullivan had been nearly blind during childhood, but surgery in 1881 and 1887 partially restored her sight. She later married John A. Macy, but she remained with Helen Keller until her death. Then Mary Agnes “Polly” Thomson, who had been Keller’s secretary, took Sullivan’s place.

She Learns to Write. Sullivan was able to make contact with the girl’s mind through the sense of touch. She used a manual alphabet by which she spelled out words on Helen’s hand. Gradually, the child was able to connect words with objects. Once she understood, her progress was rapid. Within three years, she knew the alphabet and could read and write in braille.

She Learns to Speak. Until she was 10 years old, Keller could talk only with sign language. She decided she would learn to speak and took lessons from a teacher of the deaf. By the time she was 16, she could communicate well enough to go to preparatory school and to college. She chose Radcliffe, from which she graduated in 1904 with honors. Sullivan stayed with her through these years, interpreting lectures and class discussions for her.

She Helps Others. After college, Keller became concerned with the conditions of the blind and the deaf-blind. She became active on the staffs of the American Foundation for the Blind and of the American Foundation for Overseas Blind. She appeared before legislatures, gave lectures, and wrote many books and articles. She started the Helen Keller Endowment Fund and asked for funds from wealthy people.

Keller became especially interested in bettering conditions for the blind in developing and war-ravaged nations. An enthusiastic and untiring traveler, she lectured in their behalf in over 25 nations throughout the world. During World War II (1939-1945), Keller worked with soldiers who had been blinded in the war. Wherever she appeared, she brought new courage to blind people.

Keller received many awards of great distinction. They included the Chevalier’s ribbon of the French Legion of Honor, the Alumni Achievement Award of Radcliffe College, and decorations from many governments.

Keller’s books have been translated into more than 50 languages. They include The Story of My Life(1902); Optimism (1903); The World I Live In (1908); The Song of the Stone Wall (1910); Out of the Dark (1913); My Religion (1929); and Midstream: My Later Life (1930). Teacher (1955) tells of Sullivan. The motion picture Helen Keller in Her Story told the story of Keller’s life. The play The Miracle Worker (1959) and its motion-picture adaptation (1962) described how Sullivan made contact with Keller through the sense of touch. Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She died on June 1, 1968.