My Online Gratitude Journal One Year Anniversary Edition # 23

Yes to Me is one year old!  So this is a special celebration edition of my gratitude report.  Thank you my readers, thank you my subscribers, and thank you my fellow bloggers.  (Photo by Mr. Greenjeans)

My Spiritual Make Money Scheme

My business is doing pretty well, and I started writing what I believe to be the secret of my success so that you can learn from it and make money yourself.  And I typed and typed and . . . realize it’s really worth to be published as another independent post.  So here, let me just quickly share my business’ January financial record to give you an idea of how my 9 month old service is doing.

I wanted to insert the screenshot of my Paypal statement, but I can’t figure out how to, so you just have to trust me.  Here is the breakdown:

Gross revenue: $6205
Paypal fee: $214
Expense paid through Paypal: $193
Revenue: $5798

This is before tax and overhead.  The expense I paid through Paypal last month includes donation and web design work.  So these are not ongoing overhead.  My ongoing overhead is very low – they are internet and phone connection, web hosting, e-junkie seller account fee – well under $100 per month.  I may have incurred some other expenses (I haven’t really worked out the numbers yet), but you get the idea.

Pretty good for a new business, huh?  (Did anyone say recession?)

And here is a preview of my next post on abundance and spirituality:
The shortcut to abundance is to develop your spirituality so that you see abundance instead of lack.

Do you see lack?  Are you afraid your needs may not be met?  Or are you enjoying abundance?

Yes to Me blog growth

Here is a quick summary of this blog’s journey of this past year:

First post on February 4, 2008:  Why I Couldn’t Become An Entrepreneur Earlier
I started Yes to Me to share my adventures as a new entrepreneur.  With me as an author, however, it couldn’t avoid the spiritual flavor . . .

First post of Interview With Successful Entrepreneurs series with Christine O’Kelly
Like likes the like.  She may not realize how spiritual she is, but her interview nonetheless emphasizing the inner working of entrepreneurship . . .

Dodging The Many Forms Of Psychological Manipulation
This is one of the most popular posts, drawing traffic from SEO even now, 10 months after its publication.  Wish all my posts performed this well!

Soul Shifting And The Light Ascension Of Maybe 2012
By far the most commented, perhaps most controversial post so far . . . There have been so many questions that I had to give up responding to each of them individually and wrote another Q&A post.  And I wasn’t even attempting to be controversial – I was trying to help some people.
The second most commented post is Living Your Life Purpose

Again, thank you, thank you, thank you!

My anniversary gift to my readers

I wrote an eBook titled Stop Craving Sugar! Despite the title that reads like a headline of a women’s magazine, this is not only about nutrition, not only about emotional eating –  it addresses the issue from all four levels of our existence, physiological, emotional, mental, and spiritual.  Yeah, spiritual, too.  Everything we do is spiritual, including eating.

I asked some of my friends to read the eBook and here is one of the reviews:

“As a registered holistic nutritionist, I can truthfully say that Akemi has done a fantastic job of putting this eBook together. It is a yummy work for the body, the mind and the spirit. You will explore the truth about what you are feeding your body, what you are feeding your mind and how these influence each other. After reading this eBook you will realize that you have the ability to stop fighting sugar cravings and start living well.”

– Davina Haisell, RHN, Vancouver, Canada

I will be building the sales website and finalizing all the sales details this coming week.  But the book is ready, and I’d be happy to give away the copy to five commenters of this post.  Please write your comment below by Monday and if there are more than five commenters, I will do the drawing and contact the winners by email. (The eBook will be selling for $29.)

And today I am grateful for the sunlight, for the trees that I sense to be waking up soon, and for my wonderful spirit guides.  Hope you have a great weekend!

10 Spiritual Money Practices To Eliminate Poverty

This post is for Blog Action Day 2008 that is about Poverty.

It’s also a supplement to my last post on how to start your own business because the issue of money is unavoidable when you quit your job and make the leap of faith. (Photo by Kaptain Krispy Kreme)

Real cause of poverty

When we think about poverty, it’s so easy to focus on the existing tragedies such as the homeless people or the starving children in Africa. I feel for them, but I’m asking you to put those issues aside for a moment and think why poverty exists. Let’s take care of the root cause first.

Now imagine two individuals – two brothers, with the same educational background. Will they achieve the same level of financial status as they proceed in life? We’ve seen similar cases and know they won’t, right? So what makes one succeed, while the other fails miserably? It’s their thinking. One is focused on wealth, abundance, and success, and the other only sees lack and poverty in and around him.

In my previous bank job, I was told never to judge customers by their appearances. A stinky homeless-like guy may have tens of thousands of dollars while the guy in nice suit may be deep in debt. (As bank employees, we knew this.) I also read that Donald Trump once said, when the economy was down, that the homeless guys had more net worth than himself because they had some coins in their papercups while he was deep in debt.

So what makes Donald Trump rich? He focuses on abundance and success. While the guy on the street worries like crazy and never touches his savings.

Kiva: Empowering the have-nots

This understanding that poverty starts not from external lacks but from the internal scarcity thoughts has taken roots in our social awareness. For example, charity. Charity used to be about sending money to the needy. This only helped the needy superficially and temporarily. Now organizations like Kiva lends money to the people who currently don’t have the money but are willing to make some. They treat the people as those who have the full potential to become rich – just not there yet. This is empowering.

Do you still think there are absolute poverty? People who just can’t climb up from poverty because of their outwardly circumstances? Well, I’m not going to argue – there may be because this physical world is not perfect. For those of you who think that way, however, the real question may be: Are you using their poverty as an excuse for you to stay stuck?

I’ve seen this pattern of thought. For example, Po Bronson’s book, What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question describes people who say something like “Oh, but those poor immigrants . . . they take the worst jobs . . . I feel bad being so picky about what I want to do in my life . . .” As an immigrant myself, I say BS. Don’t use us as an excuse of your procrastination and lack of courage. For the same token, don’t use people in poverty as your excuse. Pick up after yourself and the world will be a better place.

10 principles of spiritual money practice to eliminate poverty and to become rich yourself

There are a lot you can do right here and now to decrease the world poverty, and only you can do them because they are about your own spirit. In the meantime, they will make you rich

Here are the principles of spiritual money practice (I will be explaining them into more details in my future posts):

1. Let go of your scarcity thoughts. One by one, as they surface in your mind.
2. At the same time, expand your spirit to allow higher level of abundance for yourself and others. (My Dream Money Project is a fun way to do this.)
3. Accept money as a form of natural abundance. There is nothing dirty or evil about money. We can do a lot of good things with money.
4. Learn to see the current situation, financial or not, as a vehicle to learn the valuable lessons rather than being stuck in it.
5. Learn to see the possibilities behind what meets your eye. There are a lot of opportunities to make money.
6. Take responsibility for your own life. Don’t wait until you win the lottery to do what you want to do. Use the power of your free will and free choice to create your own life.
7. See abundance in nature. Be amazed how God (or any name Divinity) has made this physical world so abundant and beautiful. Isn’t the sunrise literally priceless?
8. See everyone as your equals and treat them with respect. Money goes around and comes through people.
9. Start your day with gratitude and end your day with gratitude.
10. Enjoy giving.

If you are an aspiring entrepreneur – the startup money issue

You might want to do some math how much money reserve you need to quit your corporate job and start your own business. Alternatively, you can take a part-time job or rely on your family’s income. But still, there is a point when you cut your umbilical cord and step into the unknown. No amount of money can make this transition completely safe.

When I was starting as a new entrepreneur, I often thought about the Kiva beneficiary in another country that I was supporting. Or about Muhammad Yunus, the banker to the poor, and his story of lending money to a woman who wanted to buy a goat to eventually sell its milk. (If my memory serves me well, she expanded her business further and later became Mr. Yunus’ business partner) It gave me tremendous courage in the uncertain days of early entrepreneurship.

What is your money hangups? Write them in the comment as a way to overcome them!

Further reading: This book review is about how to become a millionaire.

If you like this article, you might enjoy my eBook on spiritual entrepreneurship. Click here for free, immediate download

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