A Cup of Caroll

June 22, 2009 – Blog 62 

“Summer is here and the time is right for dancing in the streets.”—The Grateful Dead 

As you read in my last blog, I have vowed to make the summer of 2009 my personal Summer of Time Prosperity. Last summer went by in a harried blur of prosperity tele-seminars, projects and paper work for me, and I am determined not going to let that happen again to my favorite time of year! 

This year, I am going to take much more time to stop and smell the roses (or the barbecue), spend more time with my bare toes in the grass or the pool, my nose in a book and my back on the chaise lounge.  In order to do that, I must become creative and resourceful in finding effective ways to cut down on the 14 hours I typically spend each weekend catching up on paperwork and projects – including writing my weekly blog. 

Don’t get me wrong — I LOVE writing this blog! But I am going to take a page from Johnny Carson when he was the host of the Tonight Show for many years and feature some great “guest hosts” for this blog from time to time this summer.  It will give you, my cherished reader, the opportunity to learn tips and tools for creating prosperity directly from some of my favorite Master Manifesters, while giving me the opportunity to enjoy my favorite time of year without guilt!  Tuesday is my 56^th birthday, so what better time to start than NOW? 

This week’s “guest columnist” is a delightful speaker and writer, Victoria Moran, whom I had the pleasure to hear speak a couple of weeks ago at my church. The following excerpt from her wonderful little paperback, Creating a Charmed Life, provides the perfect kick-off for our Summer of Time Prosperity.  I hope it will inspire YOU to join me in stopping to smell the roses more often, too! 

Chapter 6: Practice the Vacation Principle

From Creating A Charmed Life

By Victoria Moran 

Regard your life as an extended working vacation…Be a tourist in your hometown and your own life. 

When you’re a tourist, the place you are is the most important place there is.  It was like that when Sheree Bykofsky, a literary agent from New York, visited me in Kansas City, where she was attending a writers’ conference.  She traveled a lot, but as I drove her through my neighborhood, she was like a second-grader on her first field trip.  Everything was fascinating.  She snapped pictures of my house, my husband, my neighbor’s puppy.  I took her to the local quick mart for more film.  She took pictures of the businesses: Prospero’s Books, Muddy’s Coffee House, Revue Vintage Clothing. 

She wrote later and said, ‘I just loved Kansas City.’  I believe she did.  I also believe that someone with Sheree’s ability to live fully in the time and place at hand would be equally enamored of Cincinnati or Charlottesville or Spokane.  People like this are so full of life that they discover the liveliness around them wherever they are.  They exemplify one of the secrets of a charmed life: the vacation principle. 

Once you get it, you live as if you were always on vacation, savoring every minute and collecting memories like snapshots.  Relaxing and having fun become priorities.  You have more patience for standing in line, getting lost, and paying full price.  You can be enraptured by something that would ordinarily be of minimal interest: a museum, a cathedral, a grave site, or a guy dressed like a giant mouse.  It’s because you’ve put yourself in absorption mode: you’re on vacation and you expect to find things intriguing. 

Wake up!  You are on vacation!  You won’t be here forever.  When you comprehend that, you’ll categorize infinitely more of life’s offerings as “not to be missed.”  You may find yourself having a first-time hankering to visit the museums and cathedrals in your own city.  An adult education catalog might look like a ticket to bliss. 

When you internalize the vacation principle, you will notice increased vibrancy around you.  Colors will seem more vivid, sounds clearer, scents easier to detect and differentiate.  This happens because you’re paying close attention to all that’s going on.  Your memory is apt to improve, because you will find more images worth holding on to.  Your energy level will rise because you’re being stimulated by your interests, your passions, your fascinations. 

Regard your life as an extended working vacation.  Find nooks and crannies to explore, side streets to meander, beaches to walk along.  Stop at a scenic overlook.  Speak another language.  Ride a carousel.  Be a tourist in your hometown and your own life.  When you do this, even the lackluster aspects of living day to day can seem like an amazing journey. 

Employ the vacation principle when you’re feeling sorry for yourself because you haven’t gotten your way.  If you are figuratively in the Poconos when you were hoping for Paris, you’re still on vacation.  You can still have a terrific time, and Paris will always be there.  This attitude grows in usefulness as your life gets better.  With the vacation principle in play, you won’t have to hang on to every glistening experience as if you’ll never have another.  You can let each go in its time, knowing others are on their way.  They will be different from one another – as different as the Pyramids are from the Bahamas, or the Great Wall from the Grand Canyon.  Each one can give you glorious memories.

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 MONTHLY REMINDER

The next F.R.E.E. Create Prosperity Now 60-minute tele-class will be held on Wednesday, June 24 at 6:00pm PACIFIC.  This month’s topic is “To Get the Right Answer, You Have to Ask the Right Question!” 

Join us to learn a key tool for drawing positive people, things and resources into your life! If you can’t be there, the call REPLAY will be sent to you, but ONLY if you have pre-registered. So send your full name and email to: caroll@practicalprosperitycoach.com.

The call number and password will be emailed to you the day before the call.  Please let me know if you plan to be there live or via replay, so we’ll be sure to have plenty of lines available.  And don’t forget to invite a FRIEND – they’ll thank you for it!                        

Practical Prosperity Summer Spectacular

My Spring Special in April was so well-received, that I decided to give everyone who might have missed that deadline ONE LAST CHANCE to get a HUGE DISCOUNT on fulfilling a Big Dream in record time.

Normally, my private one-on-one clients invest $575 to learn how to create anything they want in 30 days or less. But ONLY for the month of JUNE, I will honor a very special price for all Cup of Caroll readers.

The cost of PRIVATE one-on-one Practical Prosperity Coaching is just two easy monthly payments of $149 each – but only if you call and schedule a FREE, no-obligation one-hour consultation with me BEFORE July 1!

This is a savings of $275 off the regular tuition for private Practical Prosperity coaching that is 100% GUARANTEED to help you manifest a specific intention, usually in 30 days or less, or your MONEY BACK! 

I have a limited number of slots available, so email me NOW to schedule a FREE 30-minute consultation to see if Practical Prosperity Coaching is the perfect way for you to manifest something BIG you are dreaming of – 100% GUARANTEED!  

Your questions and comments are most welcome!  To request a complimentary phone consultation, contact caroll@practicalprosperitycoach.com.

 All You’ve Really Got is Time

 “Regard your life as an extended working vacation.” – Victoria Moran

 When I was in high school, the best time of the year was definitely Summer Vacation!  Of the many things I loved about summer (including my June birthday), one of THE best parts was getting to stay up late to watch The Tonight Show.  Having the biorhythms of a typical teenager, I was naturally a night owl.  I loved to sit in my bedroom, working on a paint-by-number painting at midnight, as I enjoyed some of the most talented people of the 20^th Century chatting with Johnny Carson.   I thought Johnny had THE coolest job on the planet. 

I now also realize that Johnny had an even better job than I was aware of at the time, because he only worked three or four nights a week at most, and had entire weeks off quite regularly.  Yet, I watched the show even when he was gone, enjoying his favorite Guest Hosts of the moment bringing their own strengths to the show, while Johnny enjoyed time off from his “grueling” schedule. Boy, he really DID have it made! 

As I’ve said many times, Prosperity isn’t just about money.  It’s really about living a lifestyle you love and enjoying everything you have been blessed with, regardless of how much more money or toys the Joneses next door may seem to have.  Feeling prosperous requires only that you recognize and feel grateful that you have an abundance of MANY good things in your life, including health, energy, happiness, work you love to do, hobbies you love to pursue, people you love to be around, laughter, time for rest and relaxation, to name a few. 

Well, I think Johnny Carson had abundant prosperity, not because of his considerable salary, but because he clearly loved his job AND he was smart enough to take plenty of time off from it, too.  He lasted decades as a beloved cultural icon because he made it a continuing pleasure for himself, rather than letting it become a grind. Of course, his viewers benefited too, because we were introduced to a number of rising stars whose careers took off because of Johnny’s absence.  He didn’t feel threatened by them or fear for his job security because they might be good, too. He was even more appreciated by his audience because he allowed other talents to shine, too. 

I say all this as background for sharing with you that I have a new plan for my own work this summer:  I vow to create more Prosperity in my life this summer.  Last summer, I worked six and a half days a week almost every week.  I was coaching 20-30 clients Monday through Friday, 9am to 7 pm, and then spending all day Saturday and every Sunday afternoon catching up on all the extra paperwork and projects I needed to do. (Yes, including writing this blog, which I love to do, but which generally takes about half a day every week.) As a result, the loveliest time of the year for me went by in a blur.  

For me, the greatest form of Prosperity I can dream of is having the luxury of TIME for trips, reading by the pool, going to movies regularly, having a “date night” every Friday or Saturday with my wonderful husband.  I’ll bet you can relate.  I’ve never met a productive, ambitious adult who feels that he or she has plenty of TIME for all their beloved pursuits and activities.  

We all want to create more wealth, too, of course.  But the only thing in life that we ALL have the very same amount of is TIME. And if we don’t spend some of that precious time each and every week doing things we truly love, we will never, ever get it back.  You can lose a fortune and eventually work hard enough to regain it, but you can never regain a single minute of your life. Tick Tock!  It’s going by right now, as you are reading this. 

So, I am promising you to take a page from Johnny this summer.  It is the end of school and the beginning of Summer Vacation in many places.  My stepson Matthew is graduating from high school this Thursday.  So it is the perfect time to declare this the Summer of Time Prosperity!  I am going to look for ways to lighten my workload and say “no” to anything optional that I really don’t WANT to do.  I am going to read a trashy novel or two, watch every summer blockbuster that comes to the local cineplex and spend more time walking around my favorite Southern California beach town, Laguna Beach.  I am going to sit on the patio with my husband and share an adult beverage and some chips and guacamole while we watch the sun set together.  I am going to eat more ice cream with strawberries and drink more champagne (possibly also with strawberries).  I am going to journal more, meditate regularly, and take a walk EVERY morning — not just when I think I can spare the time.  I am going to keep our lovely rosebushes looking spectacular and just sit in the chaise lounge and listen to the fountain burble while I watch the hummingbirds flit about the yard on a Sunday afternoon.  

“What difference does it make to ME,” you ask? Well, one of my strategies for creating more time freedom this summer is that I am going to take a week off from writing A Cup of Caroll once in awhile.  However, that does NOT mean there won’t be a new blog every Monday to help you learn the principles and secrets to creating unlimited prosperity in YOUR life. It just means that, like Johnny, I will be welcoming regular “guest authors” to help me share many exciting Prosperity secrets with you. There are some really wonderful Master Manifesters sitting on my bookshelves right now, just waiting to share their wisdom with you, as they have done with me for two decades. 

My first “guest host” next week will be Victoria Moran, a delightful speaker and author who’s appeared on Oprah twice and who recently autographed for me her wonderful little book of wisdom, entitled Creating a Charmed Life.  It’s a series of essays on how to create the Life of Your Dreams in big and little ways, every single day, whatever your circumstances.  Chapter Six, Practice the Vacation Principle, is a gem that will provide the perfect kick off to our Summer of Time Prosperity. 

So please join Victoria Moran and me next week.  Oh, sorry! Gotta run now… It’s Date Night! 

Practical Prosperity Summer Spectacular

I had a Spring Special in April that was very well-received, so I thought I would give everyone who might have missed that deadline ONE LAST CHANCE to get a HUGE DISCOUNT on fulfilling a Big Dream in record time. 

Normally, my private one-on-one clients invest $575 to learn how to create anything they want in 30 days or less. But ONLY for the month of JUNE, I will honor a very special price for all Cup of Caroll readers. 

The cost of PRIVATE one-on-one Practical Prosperity Coaching is just two easy monthly payments of $149 each – but only if you call and schedule a FREE, no-obligation one-hour consultation with me BEFORE July 1! 

This is a savings of $275 off the regular tuition for private Practical Prosperity coaching that is 100% GUARANTEED to help you manifest a specific intention in 30 days or less – or your MONEY BACK!  

I have a limited number of slots available, so email me NOW to schedule a FREE 30-minute consultation to see if Practical Prosperity Coaching is the perfect way for you to manifest something BIG you are dreaming of – 100% GUARANTEED! 

Your questions and comments are most welcome, too! Contact me at: caroll@practicalprosperitycoach.com.

June 8, 2009 – Blog 60     

“To achieve emotional freedom and financial abundance, it’s important to be generous.” — Judith Orlaff, M.D.         

Last week, I began this blog with the first two steps to using the emotional power of gratitude to bring more good into your life on a daily basis: 1) Be grateful for everything you have in your life right NOW. 2) Be grateful in advance for what you are trying to create, even before it appears in physical form. 

Now, let’s discuss how you can demonstrate gratitude through circular giving — by paying it back to your Source AND paying it forward to others. 

STEP THREE: The third aspect of Gratitude that will enable you to manifest everything you want more efficiently and reliably is to DEMONSTRATE your belief in abundance by paying it back. 

The most powerful form of “paying it back” is tithing. It is a spiritual law in every major religion on earth that we are to give one-tenth of everything that we receive to the Source from which we receive our spiritual food. 

PLEASE NOTE, however, that this does NOT mean that you have to give 10% (tithe literally means “one-tenth”) of everything you receive to a church or spiritual institution.  My number one Prosperity mentor, Edwene Gaines, explains it this way: “When you tithe, you return back to the person, place or organization where you received your spiritual food” the seed for continuous future prosperity.  She defines spiritual food as “that which causes you to remember who you really are and your true purpose on earth.”  

Most importantly, tithing puts your money where your mouth is because it proves that you truly believe that the originating Source that delivers everything you ask for – however you personally view that Source (God, the Universe, Divine Intelligence, The Life Force – whatever) – is limitless, bottomless, and will never cease sending you the people, ideas and resources to fulfill EVERY desire you can possibly think up. 

There must be something “out there” in the Universe sending you the HOW, or where does it come from? But that creative source does NOT have to be tied to a particular religious dogma or institution.  In fact, you can tithe to a different entity every time more money comes to you. The spiritual Law of Tithing simply states that you must give back to the Source of your “spiritual food” on a regular, disciplined basis. When you tithe, you are really acknowledging that YOU have limitless power to co-create with that Source whatever you want, whenever you want. 

The only caveat is that your tithe must be given freely and without attachment.  That means you do not tell the recipient how they must put the funds to use, or else it’s not a true tithe. You simply gift your one tenth share to them, explaining that it is your tithe, in grateful acknowledgment of the spiritual food they have given to YOU. Or, if you prefer, you could even give it to the recipient anonymously. 

I can say personally that since I began tithing on a regular basis about five years ago, the prosperity in my life has grown so exponentially, and my lifelong fear of “where will my next dollar come from?” has diminished so greatly, that now I would never dream of keeping 100% of everything that comes to me.  

The way I look at it, I now gratefully ACCEPT 90% of everything that has come to me each week, while LEAVING 10% with the Source of my prosperity, as “seed money” to create an even more abundant harvest the NEXT week. And I can tell you that money has been showing up unexpectedly and regularly in my mailbox ever since I started tithing. 

I have even been tithed to myself, a couple of times, which is the highest compliment I could possible receive as a coach – to know that my coaching served as the spiritual food that helped someone remember who they really are.  The most memorable example was a tithe that actually fulfilled the HOW for one of my personal intentions.  

I had created the intention before my youngest niece’s wedding last June that I wanted to give her $500 as a wedding present, to help her have a fabulous honeymoon.  I couldn’t comfortably afford that much at the time, so I just kept giving up the “How” on a daily basis, turning it over to the Universe to show me what to do to create that money.  I wasn’t the least bit worried, although I didn’t have a clue how Source was going to pull that off!

Two weeks before the wedding, I went out to the mailbox and found an unexpected “Thank You” card from a coaching client whom I had introduced to Edwene Gaines and who had then decided to begin tithing on a regular basis.  Enclosed was his tithe to me, for teaching him this spiritual law of prosperity.  It represented 10% of his tax return, or $492!  I was thrilled to immediately write my niece a check for $500 and send it on its way, and to tithe $49.20 the following Sunday at my church. 

Tithing is an important subject to understand, and I realize that it may be completely new to you.  I highly recommend Edwene Gaines’ best-selling book, The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity, available in major bookstores or online at sites like amazon.com, if you want to understand it completely.  The other three laws she writes about are also critical to understand in order to create effortless, ongoing prosperity in your life. It’s a very entertaining little book, full of amazing stories from Edwene’s own life. (It’s also available as an unabridged audio CD, read by the author, on her website at www.prosperityproducts.com.) 

STEP FOUR: The final way of concretely demonstrating your gratitude to the Source that delivers your GOOD to you is by paying it forward.  That means giving a helping hand to others. It can take forms other than money, of course. Paying it forward simply means using your treasure, time, and talents to help your fellow man or woman – just as the Universe has helped YOU.  In fact, from time to time, you might be surprised to find that YOU are being used as the HOW for fulfilling someone else’s intention! 

The way I pay it forward, as part of my morning prayer and meditation is that I ask the Universe to put in my path today whomever needs helping at this moment, and I promise to serve them to the best of my ability.  In return, I affirm that the Universe will arrange to send ME whatever I need today.  It may not be returned to me by the same person I helped – but I know that giving is circular, so the more I give freely, the more I will receive.  It also makes me feel GREAT to know that I have made a difference in some small or big way for someone on planet earth today. 

Psychiatrist Judith Orloff, M.D., writes in her new book, Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself from Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life, about the power of generosity to create more abundance in your life: “To achieve emotional freedom and financial abundance, it’s important to be generous.  This accelerates the free flow of money and everything positive in your life.” 

She continues, “Generosity is an expansive energy.  Stinginess is constipated. If you’re on the cheap side, don’t worry.  But wake up!  Realize it’s a HUGE drawback; take contrary action.  How? If someone gives you a nickel, give them a dime.  Gradually resolve to let go of the tit-for-tat mentality, a small-minded approach antithetical to abundance.  Be the bigger person; that’s generosity.   Also, help people out.  Charities, tithing, donations.  Give what you can; it doesn’t have to be a lot.  Feel the growing sense of abundance it produces, an energy which circulates far and wide.  It’ll find its way back to you.  Maybe you’ll win a jackpot, or perhaps you’ll just feel better about yourself.  However generosity plays out, you can’t lose.” 

So there you have it! The four steps to creating Prosperity through gratitude are: 

STEP ONE: Be grateful for everything you have in your life right NOW.

STEP TWO: Learn to create the feeling of gratitude IN ADVANCE for what it is you want to create, even before it appears in the material world.

STEP THREE: Pay it BACK through tithing to the person, place or organization where you receive your spiritual food and

STEP FOUR: Pay it FORWARD on a regular basis to anyone you can help with your time, treasure or talents, knowing that giving in circular, which means the more you give, the more you will receive. 

Each one will pay you huge dividends by harnessing one of the most powerful positive emotions that exists to put the Law of Attraction into action in your life immediately and permanently. And I can promise you that each step will also make you feel happier and more fulfilled, as well. 

Practical Prosperity Summer Spectacular  

I had a Spring Special in April that was very well-received, so I thought I would give everyone who might have missed that deadline ONE LAST CHANCE to get a HUGE DISCOUNT on fulfilling a Big Dream in record time. 

Normally, my private one-on-one clients invest $575 to learn how to create anything they want in 30 days or less. But ONLY for the month of JUNE, I will honor a very special price for all Cup of Caroll readers.

The cost of PRIVATE one-on-one Practical Prosperity Coaching is just two easy monthly payments of $149 each – but only if you call and schedule a FREE, no-obligation one-hour consultation with me BEFORE July 1! 

This is a savings of $275 off the regular tuition for private Practical Prosperity coaching that is 100% GUARANTEED to help you manifest a specific intention in 30 days or less – or your MONEY BACK!  

I have a limited number of slots available, so email me NOW to schedule a FREE 30-minute consultation to see if Practical Prosperity Coaching is the perfect way for you to manifest something BIG you are dreaming of – 100% GUARANTEED! 

Your questions and comments are most welcome, too! Contact me at: caroll@practicalprosperitycoach.com.