I live in the country. The closest town — and it’s one stoplight town at that — is about 5 miles away. The main street has a New England feel and after decades of depression, seems just about ready for a comeback.

We buy lots of organic products so we were thrilled when one of the vacant storefronts morphed into a lovely health food store. The new owners obviously invested many thousands of dollars remodeling the space. They have lots of great products including meats and produce.

As much as we like having the store nearby, we were not surprised when we started to hear whispers that the store isn’t doing so well and might be in danger of closing. While the health food store invested lots of money making the store look great, I noticed they overlooked one of the most important aspects of a retail business. The checkout.

The owners installed a state of the art computer/scanner system. Well done. However, the entire check out area is smaller than the desk I type this on. There’s no surface area for shoppers to place lots of groceries. In fact, if I were to shop at this health food store and buy hundreds of dollars worth of food and products (which happens everytime we visit to the traditional grocery store), there would be no easy way to check out.

In other words, with their tiny check out area, the health food store is telling the universe (and their customers): Hey, don’t buy much stuff here! Nothing more than you can carry, please. We cannot handle it. We’re not ready for it. We don’t want that much business.

Even though we like their prodcut, we don’t end up shopping there very much even though we’re their target market. They are not ready to recieve our business. As a result, I would be suprised if the business remains viable.

My point is this… Think about what you desire to attract in your life. Is it more money? A significant other? A second home? Whatever it is, are you ready for it? Are you acting "as if?" Or are you waiting for your desire to show up before you make the appropriate changes in your life?

For example, if you desire more money, do you have a place to put it already? Or are you waiting until it shows up before you create that environment, like a separate bank account? (By the way, my book Piles of Money is all about creating the proper environments to attract money into your life. It’s here.) Can you visualize what you want your vacation home to be like? And if you wish to attract someone special in your life, do you feel special to yourself?

When you create the environment that is aligned with your desires, you are putting out a clear signal to the universe instead of a conflicting intention. That’s your responsibility in the attraction process.

DO NOT OVERLOOK THIS STEP.

So whatever your desires, make sure your checkout space is big enough to handle the Tom’s toothpaste, the organic apples, the bean dip, and lots of buffalo meat, okay?

Create the space to let it in!

The Law of Attraction for Very Cool Living

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I was just doing some morning reading to start my day and I came across an old Abraham quote that said,

"Those who speak the most of prosperity, have it. Those who speak most of health have it. Those who speak most of sickness, have it. Those who speak most of poverty, have it."

While the ramifications of what we speak and what we attract applies to everything, I began to think about this quote specifically in terms of  the first example — prosperity.

Everyone desires more money in their life. After all, money represents freedom and who does’t want more freedom? When I look back at my own prosperity path, I see a winding road with lots of bumps, potholes, and the occasional patch of black ice.

My financial life began to turn around when I began to talk about money.

Reflecting on my own life, I can’t say the subject of money was taboo in my family. It wasn’t. But then again, it never really came up all that much, and when the issue of money did come up, the context was not positive. It was more "How in-the-hell are we going to get the money for that?" rather than, "Isn’t it so wonderful that all this money came into our experience?" (Come to think of it, I do not recall the latter example ever happening.)

So there was not much conversation regarding the joy of creating money going on in my formative years. As I grew into an adult, most of the people around me shared my struggle with money, so when we talked about money, it was to commiserate over the fact that we had none.

As I became an adult and eventually started my own business, I attracted some friends who were several steps ahead of me in the money game. My greatest influence in this department has been my friend Warren. Warren has an MBA and had owned several successful businesses. He just loves the whole game of making money and he was particularly intrigued by my coaching business (it is a very cool job).

During our conversations Warren would pepper me with questions. How was much I was charging? What was my net income for the year? Did I have a good accountant? How much was I saving? Was I investing?

These were all questions I had not thought of before. I had little awareness of anything to do with money. Most important, when Warren spoke of these things, it was with a tone of excitement — the absolute joy of money. There was no fear, no pressure, no "shoulds" around money.

In my first conversations with Warren, even though I didn’t have a nickel in my savings account (or a saving account), I began to feel the possibilities around money. I would speak about having more money and the freedom it would afford me and I would immediately feel excited about having more money come into my experience. For the first time, I was having regular conversations about money in a positive manner. I was speaking of my desires around money.

Warren is still my wonderful friend. We still talk about money all the time. Warren will call me and tell me how great his sales are and how large sums of unexpected money fell into his lap. He knows I am genuinely happy for him. Likewise, I am equally excited to share my successes with Warren and he always amplifies my energy.

I have lots of friends and a great family. But I realize that talking about money is still somewhat of an off-limits subject in many of those relationships. Like religion or politics, it’s just not "polite" or proper fodder for conversation. Money issues are so pervasive, I find that many people are not comfortable talking about money because they do not experience abundance and their money issues have roots at the core of their being.

I am a huge believer in power of environments to pull us forward in attracting our desires. In this case, my friend with a wonderfully healthy attitude towards money became a powerful environment for me. I realize that most people do not have an environment where they consistently talk about money in a positive manner. Referring back to the quote at the top of this post, speaking about prosperty is crucial to attracting prosperity.

On the flip side, become conscious how you speak about money. Is the "not enough"? Are some things "too expensive?" Do you resent people who "have it too easy?"

I always say that your relationship with money  is no different than any other relationship. If you speak poorly of people and if your actions show that you do not trust them, why would these people want to hang out with you? Likewise, if you speak poorly of money and your actions show you do not trust money, why would money want to hang out with you?

So create an environment where you can talk about money. You’ll need to be open, honest, positive. Create a relationship with someone whose relationship with money you admire. Hire a great coach. Join a community. Or simply create the intention that you regularly speak about money in a manner that makes you feel great and then see what unfolds.

But my favorite? Have a least one great friend with a wonderful and contagious attitude toward money.