as I prosper . com

Tooo many things to accomplish today in one post. Bear with me. I intend to complete the following by the end of this post:

1. Put $25k toward real estate (new total = $250,000)
2. Post two pictures of kids having fun at iFly because I said I would yesterday (and they really are cute)
3. Prove that I am a snob, and;
4. State for the record, “I believe transformation happens in the open.”

Let’s start with the kids!

Look at that smile!

This is what it feels like to be totally and completely free! No concerns, no cares. Just floating in the sky. At this iFly place they give you a video to watch and it is inspiring to see it again and again.

It’s a great reminder of how it feels in the moment and how to bring that into every day life. Its especially great to watch again with the kids because they get so amped up and playful and remind one even more of the importance of readily having a good time.

In between each of the people in our party was a frequent flyer named Chris (I think) and he was able to do the most amazing mid-air gymnastics and contortions.

We’d watch him hover and circle and flip. He’d smile and stretch his limbs, letting the wind push him up 100 feet in the air. Then he’d ball up and plummet toward the net below, unraveling at the last second and coming to a standstill just above the floor, looking like a floating magnet, held up unexplainably, defying gravity. Trust me, Indoor Skydiving immediately looks and feels like the kind of healthy addiction you might want to consider taking up.

Up, Up and Away!

Okay, so w/ $47,000 total today, and $25k going toward property, I’m left with $22k to play with. No problem. Right?

I like watches and have told myself, when I grow up, I’ll start a watch collection. So far, I have a $500 watch that collectors say is nice and I rarely wear it. Below is a picture of a $22,000 watch. There are lots of reviews out there about it. I figure the best way to appreciate it is to pick one up for myself.

Here’s where I realize I’m a snob. Or, I have what some people term as Emotional Debt. The way to tell if you have emotional debt is if you feel guilty when you spend large amounts of money on yourself.

Another friend who is playing this game said she noticed she’d spend the money on herself when she was feeling down, and donate it to friends when they were feeling down. Interesting pattern to notice.

For me, what I see, is that when I want to spend money on myself, I automatically think, “There are better uses for that money than me.” Odd, don’t you think? Perhaps that’s what drew me to this game. Perhaps my soul knew if I had to go through the motion of spending multiple thousands on myself everyday, I’d overcome the reluctance to do it.

Hublot’s Big Bang

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve blown thousands on myself before, but more as a binge activity than as a reward or healthy practice. So, why would I be willing to put this out in the open here? That’s where my best change takes place.

I can realize something about me and hang on to it. I can even use it to tune myself in the future. But when I declare it as a feature I’d like to change publicly, suddenly I have an accountability team, even if it only lives in my mind, who are aware of what changes I’m taking on for myself.

How does my tendency to feel guilty about treating myself well make me a snob?

I automatically assume that anyone who’d treat themselves to a $22,000 watch is too stupid to know where a more beneficial use for that money could take place. I’m an idiot. Anyone who is treating themselves to a $22,000 watch undoubtedly not only knows, but is making efforts of that kind already. A coach years ago told me to energetically approve of successes in other people that I want to emulate.

“When you see someone driving the car of your dreams, thank them for being a good example and proving it is possible,” she said. “Resenting them only puts the energy of resentment toward the thing you want.”

It goes bigger than that. I realize, I want to approve of all of their activities. That way, I’m not cutting myself off of the entire experience available to me. Fourty-seven days in and I still feel like I’m just beginning.

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Today I’m setting aside $45,000 toward real estate which takes me to a total of $225,000.

I’m past feeling disconnected from buying land. At least for today. Now I feel like I’m in a race. Not sure exactly what shifted, but I think it has to do with the intentions of the game, to shift our magnetic center and to expand our ability to imagine.

Those things are definitely happening for me.

Look, Up in the Sky

Why not contribute the total amount? It’s easier for me to remember $225k for some reason. Plus, I want to do something fun today with the remaining $1,000.

I talked about going skydiving toward the beginning of doing this game. Today, I’m taking a step in that direction. Not sure if you’ve seen these, but they are phenomenal!

Indoor sky diving. Near me the spot to go is at Universal City Walk. It’s called iFly and you can see all about it at their site. I was able to find a location in the Bay Area and one in Utah by doing a google search. The premise is simple.

Suit up. Train for a few minutes. Hop in a tube with 80 mile an hour wind blowing straight up. Fly. I highly recommend it. You have to try really hard to spend $1000 on it. I’m bringing a group and then paying for the one behind us. That’s one of my favorite surprises for other people.

So, what’s the benefit of doing this over actual sky diving? Not having jumped out of a real airplane yet, I can’t tell you firsthand, but the folks at iFly mentioned a few things that I remembered. You get much more freefall time. Out of an airplane you can’t get the minutes in a row, its more like seconds. Here, a guide takes you up the 100 foot tube and then guides you into a controlled spiral down. The butterflies you get are amazing! The guide coaches you through your first few sessions, so you’re never on your own. It’s virtually impossible to get hurt and you don’t have to worry about a chute not opening.

Its a shorter drive for me than out to the California desert and its totally safe for kids. In fact, tomorrow I’ll post the pictures of the kids so you can see how much fun they can have doing this too.

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I did not know my full invitation when I began to play this game, especially online like this.

Stacking Up

I had no idea I was inviting a complete re-education on money and my relationship to it. That may not be the same for you, it may never be. That’s cool, just saying, for me, I’ve been completely relearning my money thing from the beginning of starting this game.

I’ve been talking to my Dad a lot this week. Mostly about business and money. He’s been in business for himself for a long time. All my life.

For years I’ve wanted to be in his business circle. I’ve wanted to share ideas with him, stock tips, learn about building wealth. I discovered a couple days ago, those aren’t things he can teach me. He never learned them. His father never taught him. The most important part of what I got from that is: the longer I wait for those lessons to come from him, the longer I put off learning them for myself. I’m not appreciating who he isn’t, and I’m blaming him for me not finding a way. I feel like I’m trying to teach those things to my son without having a full body of knowledge and experience to draw from.

There’s a big piece about baggage in that. I’ve scheduled time to sort that out.

He did agree to share with me what he has learned in the last few years. Its called Creative Cash Control. Earlier this week I flew to Sonoma to learn it from inventor Joanne Nagel. Its essentially a fun way of managing cash that allows goals to be met and surpassed. She begins the meeting by inviting the Money Molecules to understand that they can now take the client seriously when it comes to being part of their wealth.

I’m remembering an old teacher who quoted someone else when he’d repeatedly say, “Watch the pennies, and the dollars take care of themselves.”

Part of the opening interview Joanne asks, what is your first memory of money. And its sort of fun, so I’ll share it here:

First Big Purchase

I was five. Or maybe still four. We lived in a small house on a large apple orchard about half a mile from the train outside of a small town. I convinced my Mom to give me an allowance. I’d seen a Teddy Bear I fell in love with at a nearby country store. It was the kind of store that sold rusty wagon wheels and antique lamps. It smelled like a barn and the owners had been there forever. I saved up for weeks and used the old “lay away” plan. I’d bring payments to the store, sometimes a quarter, sometimes a nickle, until it was paid for and I could bring the Teddy Bear home. I remember watching the owner’s hand, holding the pen, and writing my lay away payments onto my card, crossing out totals and writing in new ones.

The day it reached zero and the Teddy Bear came home with me, I was so proud.

That is still one of my fondest money memories. Better than $20,000 checks from record deal commissions. Better than my first $2 bill.

So, for the sake of creating more positive money memories, I’m setting up a $45,000 scholarship fund with Creative Cash Control to meet people who are having trouble paying for the system half-way.  This fund puts up half of the fee (never more than $549 for the initial consult and set-up), to be paid back from the first three to five months of using the system.

This way, the scholarship fund never depletes and doesn’t encourage people into entitlement of any kind.

I am learning a lot by playing this game and can’t fit it all into one post. Good thing I gave myself a year.

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