Living Large When Your Pocketbook Isn’t

Tumbling stocks, world economic crisis – not exactly the words a person wants to hear. These words don’t exactly drum up feelings of living large – on the contrary they often spark the ‘lack’ feelings deep inside many of us.

So what’s a person to do when they’re inundated by negative news, experiencing major economic challenges and they still want to live large and enjoy life?

First, we need to start with a major mind shift from negative to positive. Sounds easy but when you try to do this, you’ll probably be met by the negative beliefs in your mind. After all, it’s hard to think really positive when people around you may be losing their homes or jobs.

It’s important to realize that life ebbs and flows, money ebbs and flows, the tides ebb and flow – everything in nature has an upside and downside. What does this mean to you? If you’re experiencing challenging times, it won’t last forever. Things will improve – especially if you take charge instead of feeling helpless.

Sometimes in order to get positive in your mind, you need to start with something really simple – be thankful for what you currently have right now in your life. This could be the fact that you can feed your family, you have a place to live or your health is relatively fine. Take baby steps if you’re feeling overwhelmed and not really in a thankful place.

Once you work on this way of thinking, you’ll want to practice it every morning when you first get out of bed. You might think: ‘I’m so grateful that my family is safe and healthy, I’m grateful that I’m still working, I’m grateful that I have good friends and support people in my life.

By now, most of you have heard of The Law of Attraction. Without getting into too much detail, the basic law is that: ‘Whatever you focus on, you attract.’ Therefore, focusing on debt will attract more debt because your mind isn’t looking for ways to get out of this situation – it’s focusing on what you have now.

If you want to live a large life, you need to add some beliefs to your current life to put you in alignment with what you want. How do you do this? Start with a few key rules listed below:

1. Treat Yourself: I can’t emphasize just how important this rule is. When you’re going through difficult times, often you ignore your needs and deal with the world around you. The result – you feel empty, stressed out and uninspired. You also don’t see the possibilities of positive change because you’re buried by present problems.

When you treat yourself to something you love, you feel empowered, believe you’re worth it and attract more opportunities.

If your pocketbook hasn’t caught up to your plans and you want to visit Hawaii but are unable to, don’t give up on treating yourself. Plan a 3 day excursion and make it fun. You can treat yourself without breaking the bank – buy a specialty coffee, see a movie, visit friends, take a spa day…

Here are some activities you can do if you can't afford a five star hotel and fancy champagne? Think rich but do it affordably. Here are some ways:

1. Book a spa treatment: once a month book a fancy treatment to show you deserve it.
2. Buy the best of a food: top quality champagne, fine steaks, lobster, and have one really great meal.
3. Take a day off: take a day and do something fun and frivolous just for you.
4. Book a vacation: escape the doldrums and have some fun. (you can book a budget holiday or a three-day weekend excursion)
5. Test drive a new car: Take a spin in a car you'd love, take a picture of yourself in it and imagine what it would take to make your dream car be in your life.
6. Magazines: subscribe or buy magazines that focus on things you desire. ex. a racecar, a horse, etc.
7. A Vision Board: get pictures, words and images that reflect what you want in your life. Cut and paste them to a board and study it every day.
8. People: Hang out with people who live large or focus on the positive aspects of life. There will always be challenges for everyone on the planet – the trick is to rise above these.

Remember: living large is about attitude, not the current financial situation. Don’t discount your thoughts to a better life – introduce small pieces into your current life so you’re thinking of abundance instead of lack. Get that bottle of Dom Perignon and split it with three friends – catch the spirit of growth and change.