“True discovery consists not in finding new landscapes, but in seeing the same landscapes with new eyes.” – Marcel Proust

If you missed either of the last two blogs (#153 and #154), I recommend you read them before this one. They are archived at www.practicalprosperitycoach.com.

In this blog, I reveal the third and final Big lesson I learned from the biggest personal challenge I’ve faced in over 20 years of using the Law of Attraction to fulfill my dreams. I hope my experience will encourage you to keep believing and not ever give up if your own dream hits a wall. If you are patient and learn to look at the situation from a fresh perspective, you CAN overcome any obstacles in your way.

As you will remember, last year, just as my husband and I were beginning to rebuild our retirement savings that were lost in the Great Recession, the IRS threw up a huge obstacle by demanding that we pay our mid-five-figures back taxes NOW.

When our original “Offer in Compromise,” was rejected, I was simultaneously scared, frustrated and self-righteously angry that the IRS “idiots” were not willing to see our financial reality, no matter how many facts and figures we presented. We had the month of December to present additional information to convince them of the truth, but the nice Appeals Agent said the new information we initially sent her was probably not going to make a difference for our case.

Help comes in a strange package

Just when things looked darkest, I found the unlikely resource I needed to turn things around:  My friend Leslie Zann gave me a reading from the I Ching, a book of ancient Chinese wisdom, containing the advice that I supposedly needed to guide me that particular day. I was quite skeptical, but when she read aloud the passage that my random coin-toss had “chosen” for me, my jaw dropped.

I instantly recognized that the “Sage” was telling me just what I needed to hear to turn around our frustrating and frightening IRS situation.  I share it with you here in its entirety because I believe it provides a reliable success formula for dealing with difficult people and “insoluble” problems. I have bolded the parts that especially helped me to view our situation from the IRS’s perspective and communicate in their language:

Chung Fu/Inner Truth:   Through openness and gentleness, the correct solution is reached.

Arriving at the correct solution to a difficult situation requires a receptivity to inner truth. Unless we are willing to put aside the strong emotions of our egos and devote ourselves to discovering what is right, there can be no hope of progress at this time. Help only comes when we invite it with a sincere and innocent attitude.

The I Ching teaches a simple but effective method of influencing difficult people and arduous situations.  It advises us first to lay aside our prejudices – our feelings of being wounded, angry or in the right – and second to seek to understand the positions of others and the lesson that the Sage [God] is teaching us with the situation. 

Even when another is truly out of line, it is only by accepting this and remaining balanced that you make it possible for positive change to occur.  Gentleness and understanding create in others an unconscious willingness to be led.

The superior person therefore avoids the use of anger and force in trying times, knowing that they only prolong conflict.

It is far wiser to accept that each experience we have is necessary for us to learn something about ourselves and about the higher laws of life.  The greatest openings come when we meet difficulty with acceptance, gentleness, and a desire to understand the lesson underneath.

Lesson #3: Be Grateful for the Lesson

Leslie photocopied the page for me and I immediately began using it as a daily reminder to release ALL my preconceptions about the HOW that God/The Universe wanted me to use and to let go of my self-righteousness about being RIGHT and resentment toward the IRS. I worked to develop a “sincere and innocent” attitude and strove to“meet difficulty with acceptance, gentleness and a desire to understand the lesson underneath.” My perspective changed from “Victim” to “Student” — knowing there was an important and beneficial  lesson I must learn from this difficulty.

A week or so later, I woke up at four in the morning with clarity of exactly HOW to present our case to the IRS. We had been trying to find more business deductions, but my new inspiration was to show them the additional personal expenses we had coming up in 2014 (such as a my new “Obamacare” medical insurance premium and the hefty dental bill Rick was paying off in monthly installments). These “allowable” personal expenses greatly decreased the amount of money the IRS believed was available to pay our back taxes. I pulled together the documentation quickly and easily and sent it off to the Appeals Agent.

Two weeks later, she called to say, “Congratulations. I have approved your appeal and your original Offer in Compromise is accepted.”  It took nearly a year, with some scary setbacks along the way, but our belief and patience had finally paid off! Now our old tax debt will be cleared in  five months instead of five years and we are now 100% current on our taxes. All because of some coins “randomly” thrown on a coffee table in San Diego!

That’s why I will always remember that there is a solution to every problem and I will always remember to release the “How”and allow the Universe to show me a new perspective….As they say at Mastercard, that lesson is “PRICELESS!”

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What do you want for your life? My “job description” as a coach is simply this: I help you get what YOU want. I invite you to schedule a complimentary phone consultation where together we’ll explore your big dreams and determine if coaching can assist you in reaching them. I have programs and coaching specialties for every need. Learn more at: http://practicalprosperitycoach.com or contact me at caroll@practicalprosperitycoach.com or toll free at 888-503-8145. Contact me TODAY to schedule a complimentary phone consultation!

“A challenge only becomes an obstacle when you bow to it.” – Ray Davis

In this blog, I talk about the second of three BIG lessons that I learned from the biggest prosperity challenge I’ve faced in over 20 years of using the Law of Attraction to fulfill my dreams. I am sharing these personal lessons with you in the hope that they will stop you from giving up too soon on making your own Big Dreams come true.

As you will recall from the last blog, my Realtor husband and I lost our entire life savings in the Great Recession, went through bankruptcy and had one car and two homes repossessed in the process. We struggled for five years just to pay our monthly bills and rent with my coaching income and a few Real Estate transactions for Rick.

Finally, in 2013, the Real Estate market in California came roaring back and we began to see a light at the end of our long financial tunnel. But just as we had started making plans to rebuild our nest egg for a reasonably comfortable retirement before we were too old to enjoy it, the IRS threw up a huge roadblock.

While we had maintained our integrity by filing taxes on time each year, we had no money to pay them, so our tax debt continued to pile up.  Although we had been making small monthly installment payments, our debt (including penalties and interest) finally reached the mid-five figures and the IRS said “enough.” They filed a lien against any future assets we might acquire and demanded all of their money NOW.

As you remember, Lesson #1 for me out of this experience was “Never Give Up on Your Dreams.” Even though things looked bleak, I put my fear aside and opened my mind so I could recognize the “How” that we believed God/The Universe would surely present to us. The answer came in the form of our wonderful tax accountant, Charity, who helped us create an “Offer in Compromise” package, which we sent to the IRS last June in complete confidence that they would see the reality of our financial situation and be willing to settle our debt for less than the full amount.

Months went by with no word.  Then at the beginning of the Holidays, we got a rejection letter.  By their calculations, the IRS claimed that we should be able to pay off the FULL amount we owed in just three years!

We were stunned. This was not remotely the truth. For the first time, my belief that God/the Universe would support me through ANY crisis was shaken and my emotions quickly turned to self-righteous anger that those “idiots” apparently have no interest in dealing with reality. Our last hope was to appeal the IRS decision.  We had 30 days to present additional information to convince an independent Appeals Agent of the truth.

I finally got myself back into possibility thinking, although I have to admit it was harder the second time. Charity said not to lose hope; she was sure we would win on appeal because all the figures we had presented were 100% accurate. We just needed to re-work the Appeals package to prove that we had even LESS income and MORE business deductions by the end of 2102 than our mid-year figures had already shown.

Big Setback #2

But then we got blow #2: The very nice and helpful Appeals Agent told us that our second OIC package was full of holes, too. She patiently explained that while our business deductions were legitimate for TAXES, the IRS uses a much more stringent set of standards for Offers in Compromise. She said that many of our deductions would be disallowed, which would still make it look like we could pay the full amount in a reasonable time. Our six-year retirement plan was receding fast and I felt both self-righteously angry and helpless about how to get the IRS to see OUR truth.

In putting together the Appeals package, many of our Holiday plans were put on hold and I was tempted to bail on the annual “Girls Weekend” I had planned with three friends from my days in a network marketing company.  We met every December in San Diego at the beautiful home of Leslie Zann, my former network marketing partner, who is now a very successful independent trainer and speaker for several international direct sales companies.  I didn’t feel very festive, but I put on a happy face and went because I love these women, and because I gave my word that I would.

The HOW appears when I least expect it

It always amazes me how God/The Universe always sends the HOW at the exact time we need it AND it often comes from a place we would never have imagined. That’s why Step Two of the Law of Attraction manifesting process is to simply BELIEVE in your Dream and give up trying to figure out how you are going to manifest it.

The exact message I needed to hear in order to turn around my “hopeless” OIC Appeal was waiting for me right there in Leslie’s living room. It still gives me goose bumps to realize that the planning process for me to end up there during our December Appeals process was set in motion around the same time we submitted our original OIC in June.

Lesson #2: Let Go of Being “Right” and Adopt a New Perspective

I have never been much of a student of Eastern philosophy.  I am not into Feng Shui, Tai Chi, Chinese Horoscopes, etc.  But I respect that there is value in ALL spiritual paths and philosophies that teach love, peace and open-mindedness.  So when Leslie asked me if I wanted to have a morning “reading” from the I Ching, a book of ancient Chinese wisdom, I thought,“Sure, what the heck.”

She had me throw three coins onto her coffee table and the pattern in which they landed determined the specific passage that I supposedly needed to guide me that day. Inwardly, I rolled my eyes because I found the coin reading method complicated and thought the value of doing this every day to gain useful guidance seemed pretty far-fetched.

But when Leslie read aloud the ancient passage that my coins had “chosen” for me, my jaw dropped.  I instantly recognized that the I Ching “Sage” was speaking directly to me about my frustrating and frightening IRS situation!

Stay tuned next week to learn the final Big Lesson the I Ching taught me that directly helped me reach one of the most important goals of my entire life.

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What do you want for your life? My “job description” as a coach is simply this: I help you get what YOU want. I invite you to schedule a complimentary phone consultation where together we’ll explore your big dreams and determine if coaching can assist you in reaching them. I have programs and coaching specialties for every need. Learn more at: http://practicalprosperitycoach.com or contact me at caroll@practicalprosperitycoach.com or toll free at 888-503-8145. Contact me TODAY to schedule your complimentary phone consultation!

“Everything is possible for him who believes.” — Mark 9:23

Many longtime readers of the blog have asked me if I have my California Real Estate license now.  So I wanted to give you an update and share with you some of the useful lessons about manifesting Big Dreams that I’ve learned on my journey thus far. I hope these lessons will be helpful to YOU as you pursue your own dreams. It’s kind of a long story, so I’m going to cut it into bite-sized pieces over the next three blogs.

How the Big Dream Came About

Newer readers can catch up with  past blogs #128 through #134 about our “Turtle Trailer” retirement saga at www.practicalprosperitycoach.com. As a brief recap, my Realtor husband and I lost our entire life savings in the Great Recession, went through bankruptcy, and had one car and two homes repossessed in the process. Using the same  manifestation techniques I teach to my coaching clients, we managed to survive five long years of precarious finances to finally emerge last year with real hope for our financial future.  Thanks to a once-again hot Southern California Real Estate market, we began to make plans for rebuilding some of our lost retirement savings.

Last Summer, the concept of “retirement” seemed like a pretty far-fetched dream for us, since we are both in our 60s with zero savings. While my coaching practice has thrived for 10 years and continues to pay our monthly bills,  Rick’s real estate commissions between 2008 and 2013 provided just enough to cover the rent, with nothing left over at the end of each month for savings.

Part of our Grand Plan for rebuilding our finances was for me to get my Real Estate license and begin helping Rick part-time to market himself so he could increase his client base more quickly to take advantage of the upturn. Real Estate is cyclical, so we knew we needed to make hay as quickly as possible if we were going to be able to sock away a decent amount for our “golden years.”  I was confident that I could continue to coach full-time on weekdays and still have a couple of evenings and the weekends available to help Rick grow his business.

So I began studying and passed the three required California Real Estate courses last November.  I was hoping to take the California Real Estate Exam in December, but then our Big Dream took a little detour, which is why I am just this week submitting my application to take the  exam this Spring instead.

Although our consumer debts had, thankfully, been wiped out by our 2010 bankruptcy, there is no “forgiving” tax debt. Being self-employed, and were both supposed to make quarterly estimated tax payments. But we needed every penny we made each month just to survive, so our tax debt steadily grew over the past four years.  We stayed in integrity by filing our taxes and making monthly payments to the IRS, but the debt (including penalties and interest) just kept growing larger until it finally reached the mid-five figures and the IRS said “enough.” They notified us that they wanted their money NOW and they placed a lien against any future property we might acquire (which nixed us ever buying a second car again).

Lesson #1: Never Give Up on Your Dreams

OK, so in circumstances that look hopeless, this is where possibility thinking comes in handy!  Even when things look bleak, rule number one for making what you want a reality is: Never give up! I decided that if were ever going to rebuild our financial future, we had to face the situation head on with as much BELIEF as we could muster.

When you COMMIT 100% to a goal, you are really taking the first of the three steps for using the Law of Attraction to manifest what you want: First, you  must ASK for what you want, no matter how far-fetched it appears that you can get it.  So I asked God/The Universe: “Please show us HOW to pay off our taxes so we can live in integrity and create the  future we want.” 

Shortly thereafter, I came across a notice that in January 2013, the government had created a streamlined program to help underwater taxpayers make an Offer in Compromise to settle their tax debt for less than the full amount owed.  The odds weren’t particularly good (just 20% of all OICs got accepted). Still, I knew that if it was humanly POSSIBLE to do something, no matter how long the odds, we must never give up trying. In manifesting, YOUR job is not to know the “How”; your job is simply to ASK for what you want and then do whatever you know how to do right NOW to show your commitment to your goal. Then you must BELIEVE that the “How” will be shown to you at the perfect time.

So I asked God/The Universe to be shown exactly HOW to create an Offer In Compromise for the IRS. (The simplified paperwork is still pretty complicated, with lots of documentation required to prove income and expenses — especially for the self-employed). Within a very short time, I realized I had a great resource right under my nose: One of my wonderful coaching clients is a tax accountant!

The How Appears!

I called Charity (yes, that’s her name) and she said she would be delighted to help us. She had done several OICs, all of which had been accepted.  She is a possibility thinker, and her confidence helped us to believe we could triumph too. Step by step, she guided us for a couple of months to assemble all the necessary paperwork into a beautifully-organized package that we mailed to the IRS in June, 2013, with a sense of peaceful confidence that our offer would quickly be accepted.

Months went by with no word.  Then at the beginning of the Holidays, just as I was about to dive into preparations to take my California Real Estate Exam, we got a rejection letter.  By their calculations, the IRS claimed that we should be able to pay off the FULL amount we owed in just three years!

This was NOT remotely the truth.  But as we soon learned, unlike federal tax laws, for Offers in Compromise, the IRS uses a different set of “standards” for business deductions and cost-of-living expenses that apply broadly to different regions of the country.  So even though Orange County, California has one of the highest rental rates in the country, the IRS “standard” says that a family of three is allowed to deduct about HALF of what we are actually paying to rent a modest middle class home. The IRS’s position is that we could always move to someplace cheaper to live so we could pay our tax debt. That was our problem, not theirs.

I was crestfallen and self-righteously angry that “the idiots” at the IRS apparently have no interest in dealing with reality. However, they did offer us one remaining sliver of hope: Enclosed with the rejection letter was another form for filing an “Appeal” if we chose to. We had 30 days from the date of the letter to put together additional information to convince an independent auditor that the IRS was wrong and we were right.  Our Holiday plans and my Real Estate exam would just have to wait. We were fighting for our financial survival once again.

Next week, I will share with you the miraculous assistance that came from a most improbable source, which taught me a lesson that changed our future. Stay tuned!

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What do you want for your life? My “job description” as a coach is simply this: I help you get what YOU want. I invite you to schedule a complimentary phone consultation where together we’ll explore your big dreams and determine if coaching can assist you in reaching them. I have programs and coaching specialties for every need. Learn more at: http://practicalprosperitycoach.com or contact me at caroll@practicalprosperitycoach.com or toll free at 888-503-8145. Contact me TODAY to schedule a complimentary phone consultation!