Prosperity Consciousness Quiz.

     Have you ever had a 'magic day' where you did something out of the ordinary and it worked?  On those days, you got what you went after - no matter what it was.  This book is all about how to be in touch with your creative power to make your life a succession of 'magic days'.
     Prosperity is having the power to create a life of your choice - to get what you really want, not just what you're handed.  We all have this prospering power and we all have experienced those special days when we knew it.  Although no two 'magic days' are alike, some-times hearing another's story can help us remember our own 'magic' stories.
     When my editor, Mary Ann Shaffer, read the material in this book, for example, she understood the events of one such 'magic day' in her life.  I am including her story here - the first of several 'Prosperity Profiles' -with the hope that it will serve to reminnd you of times when you, too, have tuned into your own prospering energy, and made 'unbelievable' things happen.
     We will first need to become aware of our power of prosperity before we can deliberately bring it under our conscious control to create a life of abundance.

   Mary Ann sat in the living room of her small suburban home in Los Angeles, feeling her usual vague sense of discontent.  She wanted more of something in life - but she wasn't sure what it was.  She watched the hands of the clock.  The children were in school until three; with his new job her husband would not be home for another week.  Why had she agreed to move here anyway?  She knew no one in this entire city, had no special plans of her own, and there was nothing she was particularly excited about doing.
     Everything seemed to close in on her that day - almost forcing a change.  The weather had been bad all week - hot and muggy.  The house had felt intolerably small.  She wanted to get out, do something - but what?  And where?
     The negative thought patterns that usually led to nothing but resignation came up for her again.  She considered a job, but knew she wanted to be home with the children while they were still so young.  What could she do anyway?  Her interests were reading and writing, her work skills limited and rusty from being home for four years.  This morning, however, these thoughts weren't enough to appease her restlessness.
     The 'magic' feeling started when she decided she had to do something - it was time.  Her actions that followed from that moment made no particular sense to her, but somehow she felt she had to follow through.
     In the past few weeks she had frequently allowed herself to daydream about what she really wanted.  This morning it paid off.  She remembered that in college she had always wanted to write.  She couldn't ignore any longer that she still wanted to.
     A sheet of white paper lay on the desk in front of her.  She felt as if she was making a statement to the world when she declared in big, bold letters: I WANT TO WRITE.  Thinking a minute longer, she added: I WANT A JOB WRITING.  She remembered she didn't have a good typewriter, and thought as long as she was doing this, she might as well go all out.  She wrote: I WANT A NEW TYPEWRITER - FOR FREE.

     Suddenly, she got up and stretched.  This felt better.  "Why not ask for what I want - I deserve it!" What did she want to write about?  Books, of course - her other love!  At the bottom of the page she wrote, "I WANT TO WRITE ABOUT BOOKS - GOOD BOOKS." She folded the paper and put it in the desk drawer.
     With a rush of energy, she picked up her purse and walked out the door.  As she told the story later, she recalled an uncanny feeling at that moment - a feeling as if she were full of purposee.
     By five. o'clock that evening, Mary Ann had a job writing for several newspapers.  Her specific writing as-signment was to critique the latest books coming out in fields she was interested in.  And she was the proud owner of a brand new typewriter that didn't cost her a cent.  That job later developed into writing a popular, column which lasted several years, and led to a whole new career working with creative writing.  What had happened that day?
     Although she didn't know it, Mary Ann had tuned into a prosperity flow - a creative energy that we all have availlable to us at all times.  Unconsciously, she had used the laws of prosperity to bring about dynamic positive change in her life.  Like most of us caught in the excitement of that flow, she didn't understand her feelings at the time
     Walking down the street she had felt puzzled.  How could she feel so resolved when she had nowhere to go?  She had no answer for the nagging, scolding voice in-side, which demanded to know what she was doing and where she was going.  Was she planning to walk up and down the street until she found a job?  She ignored the voice, but she did feel foolish.  Another part of her was in charge now, and she couldn't rationalize or justify it.  "Why not act like a fool?" she thought.  "Being reasonable hasn't always helped me."
     When she impulsively entered her favorite local bookstore, she was greeted by Sid, the owner, asking her if she had read the new Harold Robbins book.  She answered, "Yes, wasn't it awful!" That remark started a conversation quite unlike any other she had had with this usually reserved man.  After fifteen minutes or so of laughing and telling each other their favorite book stories, another customer, who had obviously eves-dropped, approached them.  He gave Mary Ann his card, and asked if she had ever reviewed books.  She said, "No," but he continued to hold out his card.  He said he was the editor of several local newspapers and could use someone with her enthusiasm and insight into writing -if she was interested.
     Seeing the look on Mary Ann's face, the bookstore owner, caught up in the excitement of the moment, offered Mary Ann full use of all the current books to critique if she took the job.
     She thanked them both, made an appointment for the next day and jubilantly walked on air out of the store.
     "Now," she told herself, "go for the typewriter." When she took her old typewriter into the appliance shop and was offered only $20.00 for it, her heart sank.  The new ones were $120.00 and her budget couldn't be stretched.  She had no way of knowing the other woman waiting to be helped would 'just happen' to say loudly, "If I only had a few more Green Stamps, I could get this TV set for free." Mary Ann just happened' to have a box full of Green Stamps in her car - two years' worth.  She hated to paste them in, but didn't want to throw them away.  She couldn't believe her ears when the woman offered her $80.00 for them.
     The store owner, who had followed the two of them out to the car, stood fascinated.  "Look lady, with this $80. 00, and the $20. 00 from your old typewriter - well, I was gonna mark those Olympics down to $100.00 in two months anyway.  Why don't you take one of those home with you, and I'll mark down the price now."

     Something special had happened that day.  Mary Ann didn't have a name for it, but she knew it was special.  It wasn't just the job and the typewriter - it was some-thing beyond that.  She knew she had been witness to something she had helped to create.  She had done her part all right, but it was bigger than her efforts alone.  She felt her whole physical being had changed - lightened.  Her heart sang.  Whatever it was, she knew she wanted more of it.
     With the help of this book, you, too, will learn how to have more of 'it'.  You will see how natural it is for us to prosper - to get what we want in life.  We are naturally creative beings with far more power to bring positive change into our lives than we've ever imagined.  Becom-ing prosperous is the result of using the full potential of our minds, the attitude we take about ourselves and our interrelations with others.

     All prosperity begins in the mind and is dependent only upon the full use of our creative imagination.  Thought is energy, and this energy has the power of manifestation.  Manifestation means to produce, to cause to happen, to bring forth from the world of ideas to the physical world of reality.
     Our minds have the power to create.  This power comes from our ability to imagine.  Everything ever created by humans was first an imaginative idea in someone's mind.  We are totally surrounded by these creative ideas manifested physically - from the cup of coffee in the morning to the TV program at night.
     Prosperity, also, is a product of the creative mind.  Essentially it is a state of consciousness, an attitude.  Having the consciousness of prosperity is knowing that you have the ability to live a wondrous life through the full use of your creative imagination.  When you are totally open to your flow of creative. ideas, and are willing to act on them, you are on your path to an abundant life.
    The prosperity process involves recognizing that the world we live in is only an external form of whatever we are imagining inwardly.  We create the world around us as we imagine it to be.  We achieve and maintain the degree of well being in the external world that we conceive ourselves having internally.  The image we carry is a reflection of our belief system.
     What we believe is what we achieve - nothing more, nothing less.  The secret to success is to use the same imaginative process and belief system we've been using, to bring the positive changes we desire into our lives.

    Prosperity cannot be forced with will power.  It must be coaxed with imagination. Will power may bring momentary superficial gain, but in any contest between "ill and imagination, imagination always wins as the stronger force.
     Once we understand the power of imagination, we understand why prosperity must exist in our consciousness before it can manifest in our lives.  In practical terms, this means before you can become prosperous, you must create an image in your mind of being prosperous.

     While no one image or concept fits every Prospering Woman, she is generally one who not only wants a full life, but also has the self-awareness to know specifically what a full life is for her.  She comes to know who she is as a person, and chooses work that allows her to express herself well.  She no longer needs to wait for freedom or approval, for she has found her independence lies within her own self-acceptance.  Prosperity comes easily to her when she finds the secret of the ages: her security does not exist in any bank account, but in the full use of her creative ideas.  For this reason, her focus is to learn to tap the powers of her imagination, and put her thoughts into creative action.  She is then able to create the choices that come with financial prosperity.
     The Prospering Woman knows that to live in a prosperous condition is to feel free to do, be, and have what she wants.  The feeling of prosperity, however, does not necessarily come with any certain amount of money.
     For example, a recent poll reported in the Wall Street Journal indicated that a large majority of top executives making well over $500,000 annually did not feel prosperous.  For the most part, they felt insecure and worried about a multiplicity of problems.  It is obvious, then, that any effective plan to achieve successful material prosperity must also include consideration of what makes us feel prosperous.
     What makes you feel prosperous?
     One woman I know goes without lunch to buy flowers, and feels full all day.  Another prefers books to clothes.  Another feels coddled when she can go out to lunch spontaneously without anything special to celeb-rate.  It's important to know what makes you feel special, for feeling prosperous is a way of being in the world.  It is a statement about how you see yourself and your relationship with others.

     The attitudes you hold about yourself and others are the only obstacles keeping you from your prosperity.
     You deserve and can have all you desire in life, but just dabbling in occasional positive thinking won't do it. Our most powerful conceptual prospering patterns are operating at the unconscious level.
     We have become set in our minds about the scope and limits of our own prosperity, based on long-held concepts and decisions about ourselves.  These thoughts, though we are no longer conscious of them, constitute a preprogrammed agenda for ourselves in our subconscious mind.  We will accomplish only that which we believe deep down is possible, according to our internal picture of ourselves.  For this reason, all behavioral and mental change, to be long lasting and effective, must have the force of the imaginative mind behind it.
     Prosperity, then, is an inside job - it is a matter Of transforming your consciousness.  You must find ways to let go of your old negative concepts of yourself as being inadequate, unsure, victimized, unworthy - whatever stands in the way of seeing yourself as a creator of plenty.
 
 

     This book is about making some unconscious proces-ses conscious.  'Concentrated mind action' is a term I'm using to define the definite conscious use of a natural mind process that we are unconsciously using now to create our own world.
     Concentrated mind action is a process applying new techniques to the old ideas of the power of the mind, to create a step-by-step procedure to unfold ways of acknowledging and releasing blocks to prosperity, and to fully utilize the powers of your mind to achieve your goals.
     Humans are energy systems.  We hold energy, dam it, refine it, direct it - with thought.  By focusing thought, we channel the energy of the mind.
How you use this power of channeled energy will determine the quality of your life and the degree of your prosperity.  Both are dependent upon the nature of your thought - positive and negative.
     With concentrated mind action, you will learn to use the mind as a vehicle, a tool for your evolutionary growth.  The highest purpose of the mind is to become ever more self-aware.  In the process, you will learn to develop a consciousness necessary to attain and sustain prosperity as you deliberately choose to: (1) let go of negative thought patterns, (2) create a space for events of a more positive nature to take place in your life, and (3) use the power of your thoughts creatively.

     Only thought stands in our way of attaining what we want in life.  We can have what we think we deserve, and what we believe we can have.  Conversely, if we are convinced we shouldn't have, or are unworthy of get-ting, what we want, we will also unconsciously arrange to put whatever we need in our path to prevent our
becoming successful.
     How do you picture your prosperity?  Use the following check list as a guide for looking at your belief system about yourself.  Answer as honestly as possible, and then become an unbiased observer.  How do your answers indicate the ways you are promoting or preventing your prosperity?
     The chapters indicate where you can find information to help you develop your prosperity consciousness in each area.

Chapter 2:
Can I remain a loving, giving person and still prosper?
Have I defined my basic purpose in life?

Chapter 3:
Do I generally feel good about the way life is set up?

Chapter 4:
Am I prepared for success?
Is it ok for me to prosper?  Do I deserve it?
How much am I willing to risk?
Do I really want to succeed?
Am I afraid of succeeding?
Will my relations with men change if I'm prosperous?
What is the worst thing that can happen if I fail at what I want?

Chapter 5:
What do I intend to do with my money?
Am I comfortable with the whole idea of money?
Do I feel at ease around wealthy people?

Chapter 6:
Do I feel I have a choice about being prosperous?
Am I willing to be responsible for myself
Am I willing to be powerful?

Chapter 7:
Can I provide for my own security and approval needs?
Do I know how to love myself?

Chapter 8:
Am I willing to develop the power of concentration - to focus on success instead of failure?
Am I willing to let go of negative thought patterns?
Do I know what I want?

Chapter 9:
Do I feel I have the power to create my own life?

Chapter 10:
Do I know my strengths and abilities?
Do I know myself and what I want?
Can I relinquish my need to control and still go after what I want?
Am I thinking big enough?
Does MY goal fit my personality, physical strength, psychological make-up, and values?

Chapter 11:
Am I flexible?  Am I willing to change my direction if it seems appropriate?
Do I have conflicting desires?
What would make me 'successful'?
Do I really want what I'm pursuing?

Chapter 12:
Can I spend, receive, save, and invest knowledgeably?
Do I have specific plans for prosperity?

Chapter 13:
Am I willing to forgive others?
Have I let go of all I have 'outgrown'?

Chapter 14:
Have I considered the price of becoming prosperous?
Am I willing to pay it?

Chapter 15:
Am I attracting to me the kind of person I want to be?

Chapter 16:
Can I see myself having what I want?

Chapter 17:
Am I aware of the power of my words?

Chapter 18:
Would getting my goal be good for everyone concerned?

     There are no right or wrong answers, so never make yourself wrong for not meeting your own expectations.  We are all becoming the person we want to be.  If we are overly judgmental about ourselves when we receive insights, the insights stop coming.

     Throughout the book you will find a series of 'Prosperity Profiles' - personal interviews with a variety of prospering women.  Most qualify their situation as being in the process of becoming Prospering Women.  No one is ever 'there' or stays 'there' all the time.  Nevertheless, they have that consciousness of prosperity which allows them to feel fulfilled with a sense of who they are and what they want, and they are presently living out their dreams.  My hope is that you can find yourself in these pages, and can benefit from their experience.

     Everyone will benefit in different ways from the ideas expressed in this book.  A young client of mine named Mary was able to use the prospering concepts to over-come seemingly desperate circumstances.  At twenty-nine, she was deeply depressed.  Her husband had died the year before.  Her sense of loss was compounded by the fear of poverty looming endlessly before her.  She had two small children to support, few marketable skills, and no recent work experience.  Her health was declining as a result of her depression and lack of self-care.
     Using the 'concentrated mind action' process, she learned to relax, accept what had to be accepted - the finality of the death - and to work with the possibilities that life offered.  As she learned to let go of the old (memories in this case), she actually created space in her life for the new to exist.  She learned to take her mind off her negative image of herself, and look at who she really was.  With a new consciousness, she was able to acknowledge her strengths and weaknesses, and recognize all the possibilities around her.  With new-found confidence, she was able to take advantage of them, finally accepting a job which she had previously been fearful of accepting.  Her health improved as her depression lifted, and she has since gone on to establish her own successful business in the same field.

     As you develop a consciousness of prosperity, you will experience results from your own efforts almost immediately.  We are meant to be prosperous, but like everything else, the process is as important as the end result.  At first, for example, when you learn to clear your mind and focus with intent, you can experience im-proved mental ability with greater concentration, recall of detail, or a heightened sensory awareness.
     When you are learning to 'picture' your own success, you may find yourself increasingly effective at current tasks.  This will produce a more positive self-image and greater self-confidence.
     Relationships improve.  Learning to listen and respond to opposing inner wishes often reduces internal conflict and produces greater peace of mind.  When you project a more positive inner attitude, conflict with others is reduced.
     As your sensory awareness increases, you are more keenly alert to early warning signals of impending ill health.  Good eating and exercise programs are more easily maintained using your mental energies in a positive way.

     This book is the beginning of a new adventure.  Choosing prosperity as a way of life will mean you are opening creative channels in ever-greater proportions.  Financial reward is a start, but true prosperity is finding a context within which you can best express your total self.  You will continually see higher and bigger challenges as you increase awareness of your uniqueness and what you truly value.  By using the Keys and Laws of Prosperity, you are actually programming your mind to produce prosperous conditions in all areas of your life.