From time to time I take a look at what "competitor" websites are offering in the so-called personal development or self-help sector. After all, we all need to know what we're up against - and we all need to put bread on the table. But how much bread should that be? Because, what I've found is that many websites promise that you'll treble your income in weeks - or that your income will "explode". Most of the websites I look at are focused on money - and making more of it. It seems to me that people are obsessed with money.



Of course, when I think a little about it, my own work, with my own clients, stretching back over thirteen years, confirms this. Recent research on both sides of the Atlantic confirms this. But, think about it. We don't need research to tell us that people have gone money mad. Isn't that what created and then fuelled the current world financial crisis? Excessive greed (when was greed not excessive?!) on the part of pretty much everybody. Only recently, one of my clients made the point to me that his PA, who is a really conservative woman, changes her car for a newer, fancier model every three years - whether she needs to or not. A small example, he said, of a much larger problem.

A French banker recently returned from the UK confirmed that people in the UK "thought they could get richer by getting it from the bank - seemingly forgetting that you've got to give it back!". And in Ireland, recently described by the Wall Street Journal as the "financial services wild west", a leading economics professor was quoted as saying that "Irish people thought they could get rich by selling their houses to each other!" Of course, as he pointed out, all pyramid schemes eventually grind to a very depressing halt.

And then, of course, there's the US, where unscrupulous brokers sold mortgages to consumers who patently couldn't afford to repay them - in this case, the brokers were trying to "treble their income"! And we all know where that has led to - people losing their homes, their jobs, their "lives" and ending up living in their 4x4s in beachfront car parks in Santa Barbara. And, yet, in the midst of all this, if you want to improve the quality of your life, you're still offered the same old crap - "treble your income", "explode your income", "generate huge income - no risk".

Are you happier if you're wealthier? I've plenty of wealthy clients who are very, very unhappy. Do you have a better life if you've "loads of money"? Does money buy you love? You know the answer to these rhetorical questions. The problem is that most people have put the "financial cart" before the "quality of life horse" - people have got it all the wrong way around.

Age-old wisdom from pretty much every spiritual tradition is very clear on this dilemma. If you put the quality of your life first, money will look after itself. I know it sounds bizarre - but check out the spiritual texts, whatever your spiritual or religious persuasion - it's there in black and white. And, it's not some kind of airy-fairy or wishful thinking. Thirteen years work with my clients and years of evidence from everyone working in my field proves that money flows if, at first, you flow yourself. If you free up your energy from thinking about or worrying about money, you start doing what you're supposed to be doing better. You're also better placed to spot the opportunities for abundant living - rather than being buried in a pit of self-imposed financial rectitude.

You're meant to have an abundant life - again, all the spiritual texts tell us this. Modern quantum physics prove that if you put your energy into what you're doing, the energy of the universe responds and you get what you deserve. The problem is, most people put very little energy into what they're doing and loads of energy into thinking about, worrying about and craving for money. It's exactly like the old computer saying "garbage in - garbage out". Forget about the garbage of "trebling your income". First of all, at present, you should be focusing on doing your very best to hold on to the income you currently have. But, more importantly, you might just find that, when you stop trying too hard to "treble your income", your income might just take off of its own accord. Why? Because you're focused on what you're doing - not on getting more money.

You might think that this is easier said than done. In fact, it's the other way around. Simply use your five senses to focus on the job in hand - whether that's what you do at work, looking for new work, doing an interview, feeding the children or playing football. Whatever it is, decades of research proves that if you focus on what you're doing now, you'll end up with more than enough money to have a wonderful life.

So, go on, take the leap - forget about money, get into the flow of what you're doing and watch the money flow.

Copyright (c) 2009 Willie Horton