Tips And Guide For Debt And Loan Management

One way to change a belief is surprisingly simple. You just change your thinking. If you have been conditioned to believe that money is hard to come by, catch yourself when you think that and consciously choose a different thought. Jim used this technique. He was a struggling actor in Los Angeles, and his family was quite poor. At one point his dad was fired, and Jim’s family ended up living in a van. Jim had every reason to believe that money was a scarce item. Nevertheless, one day, Jim took out his checkbook and wrote himself a check for $20 million. In the little note section on the check, he wrote, “acting services rendered.” He dated the check for 10 years in the future.
Every night, Jim would drive up to the hills above Los Angeles, take out the check, look at it, and believe it to be true. He tried to make his entire being believe that he was worth and had $20 million. Jim says that he would not leave and go back home for the night until he truly believed that the check was real.
Ten years later, the day before the check was set to be “cashed,” Jim inked a deal to be the first actor in Hollywood history to be paid $20 million for one picture. That picture was Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. That’s right, Jim is Jim Carrey, and now you know the rest of the story.
Jim did several things right, things that you can do, too, if you want to change a limiting belief you have about money. First, he made a conscious decision to change the way he thought about money. At the time he boldly wrote his check, he had no evidence that it would ever be real. He was an unknown, broke actor. Yet he made himself believe it was real. He changed the way he thought about himself and money.
Second, it was not just his thoughts Jim worked on.
Mr. Rubberface says that it was a whole-body experience. He felt the emotions of having that much money, of believing that he was worth that much money. He says he made himself physically feel the experience and joy of being rich. He was so committed that he would not go home until he felt the feeling.
Jim also used repetition to his advantage. Think about it. Whenever you have had to learn something new in your life, wasn’t repetition a key component of the process? How else did you learn your ABCs, geometry theorems, or how to shoot a 20-footer, if not by repetition? Alrighty then; if Jim can do it, why can’t you?

Another thing that Jim Carrey did right was to use a physical object to change his belief. Holding an actual check made visualizing the check when he wasn’t on his mountain a lot easier.
Creative visualization is the technique of using your imagination to change a belief or otherwise achieve a goal. With creative visualization, you create an idea or mental picture in your mind and regularly focus on it, thereby setting in motion the event.
You use visualization every day of your life.
Whenever you create something, you create it first as an idea in your head. A thought always precedes creation. “I think I’ll make dinner” precedes the meal. “I want to write a book about getting out of debt” precedes the book. Creative visualization is using this simple concept toward purposeful ends.

Here is how the technique works: First, think of something you want or would like to change. Let’s say that you want to create a new belief regarding abundance. Go to a quiet room and get in a comfortable position, either sitting or lying down. Relax your body completely. Breathe deeply and slowly.
When you are deeply relaxed, begin to imagine the belief you want to adopt: “I have more than enough money for anything I want. I am able to pay for whatever I want in cash!” Imagine what it feels like to truly believe that. What would you own? How would you feel? What could you give to those you love? How would that make you feel? Imagine yourself in the experience of abundance.
What are people saying? What does it look like? How does it feel to be finally out of debt? Create a complete and thorough picture. Do this for a few minutes. Have fun with the experience and make it enjoyable—having complete abundance should be enjoyable! Now, make some very positive affirmative statements to yourself. “I am so fortunate to finally have abundance in my life.” “I love this new car!” If doubts arise, just let them flow on through. Don’t fight them or resist them.
End your visualization with a statement, such as “This, or something better, is now mine in satisfying and harmonious ways, for the highest good of all concerned.” This statement reaffirms that visualization works only when it is best for all concerned. This exercise can take anywhere from five minutes to half an hour. Each time you do it, it may be different. Try to do your visualization as often as you can, usually two or three times a day.
Don’t get hung up on the term visualization. It is not necessary to “see” an image. Some people do see a very clear image in their heads; others do not. The important thing is to feel the experience, to believe it is so.
Set a goal. Decide on something that you would like to have, work toward, or create. It can be a physical thing, a new belief, or even a relationship. Start with things that are achievable fairly easily in the near future until you get the hang of this technique and believe that it works.
Create a clear vision, idea, or picture. Create it in your head as if it already exists. “I love my new car!” Get a picture of the car you want. Write yourself a check for $20 million. Make your desire clear and specific.
Be positive. Think about your goal in a positive, energetic way. Make strong positive statements to yourself about it: that it exists, that it has come to you, that you appreciate it—that sort of thing. See yourself with it, feeling it and accepting your blessing. Don’t be too serious.
Rinse and repeat. Bring your mental image to your mind often, both in quiet times reserved for this exercise and in the middle of your busy day. This repetition helps integrate the image into your life. Repeat this exercise until you have achieved your desired goal, or your desire for the goal disappears (which sometimes happens in life).

There are many things that you can say to yourself as you visualize the change you want in your life. Some good money affirmations that you may want to adopt are the following:

• I have abundance in all things; my needs are met easily and effortlessly.
• I now give and receive money easily.
• The more I have, the more I have to give.
• Every day, in every way, I am becoming richer and richer.
• I now have a perfect, satisfying, well-paying job.
• I now have enough money to do whatever I want.
• The world is abundant and easily shares its bounty with me.
• Abundance is my natural state of being.
• Every day I am becoming more financially prosperous.
• The more I have, the more I give, and the more I give, the happier I am.
• I am finally out of debt.

As you say these things to yourself, your old beliefs will bubble up and tell you that you are a liar. The thing to do then is to acknowledge your past, accept these feelings, let the feeling fade away, and go on creating a new belief. Soon you will have a new belief and new feelings.

Besides visualization and affirmation, emotion and experience can also change beliefs and money values. A bad experience changed one of Robert’s money values in an instant.
Robert always used to pay his rent late. His landlord kept warning him to stop, his wife kept telling him to stop, but Robert ignored the warnings. After nine months, Robert had gotten very comfortable with this arrangement, until he came home one day and found an eviction notice tacked to his front door. The shame and embarrassment he felt having to see his wife’s tears and tell his kids that they all had to move deeply affected Robert. After moving to a new place, Robert never paid his rent late again. People want to avoid repeating negative experiences. Being mugged makes you more cautious. Getting hit by a car jaywalking probably means you will never jaywalk again. After losing World War II, Japan amended its constitution and disavowed war, searching for greatness through peace, which it achieved.
For our purposes in this book, the good thing about a negative experience is that it can change a belief in a hurry. Having a heart attack will shift your thoughts about diet and exercise in a flash, for example.
Frank Layden is the general manager of the Utah Jazz basketball franchise. An affable and funny man, Layden also happened to be very overweight for much of his adult life. That is, he was overweight until one of his best friends, umpire Norm McSherry, dropped dead of a heart attack. The very next morning, Layden woke up early, struggled, but walked around the block. He has walked more and more every day since and has now lost over 100 pounds.
You don’t have to wait to be a victim of a bad experience. You can create a negative experience in your mind and emotions and thereby create a shift in attitudes and beliefs in a hurry. We are not talking about creating an actual negative event, just feeling the experience of one, like a sense memory. If you link actual emotional pain to your negative money beliefs, you can change these beliefs. Linking death to being overweight caused Frank Layden to change his belief system overnight. The reason this technique works is that researchers have discovered what you inherently know: a highly emotional experience, usually a negative one, can have a lasting impact on what you think and feel. The following exercise uses this fact for your benefit instead of your detriment.
Go to a quiet place and answer the following questions. As you do, allow yourself to feel bad—really, really bad. Linking the pain to your outmoded money belief will create the desired change:

• What can’t you do because you do not live in abundance? How has a lack of money damaged you? What would you have done with more money? Have you not traveled somewhere? Is there something you want to own that you cannot? How does that make you feel?

• How has your limited thinking about money negatively affected those you love? What were you not able to do for your family because of your money belief system? How many times have you told family members that they can get something they want or do something they desire “later”? How much pain has that caused them?

• Do you know someone who has needed your financial help, but you were unable to help him? Does someone you know need some medical help that you cannot afford to pay for? How does this make you feel?

• Would you like to be able to buy your parents a home, or send your sister on that vacation she always dreamed of? Is there a certain school you would like to send your children to? How does it make you feel not to be able to do these things?

Make yourself feel the pain. If your brain associates negative feelings with a lack of money, it will want to change your money beliefs. To create a true change in a money belief with this system, you need to associate positive feelings with abundance as well as associating negative feelings with lack. Let’s look at the abundance side of the coin. As you answer these questions, allow yourself to feel great:

• How would you feel and what could you doif you had financial abundance? What wouldyou do if money were no object? Whatwould you buy? Where would you go?

• Who could you help if you had an abundanceof money? How would that make youfeel? What would be said about you if yougave away as much as you wanted to?

• What experiences could you have if you were financially free? What could you learn? What could you do? Is there a dream you have that you have never been able to fulfill? How would you feel about yourself if you conquered your money demons?

• How would it feel to pay off all of your debts?

• How free would you be without money worries? Feel that freedom. Would you feel more secure? Would you have peace of mind? How would your mate feel if you created financial abundance for the two of you?

Try doing this exercise every day for a week and see whether you begin to feel differently about money. After doing this exercise, many people begin to create such negative feelings about their lack of money that they automatically adopt new, more positive beliefs about money. Others vow to take all necessary actions to get out of debt and get ahead.
A pattern emerges. Jim Carrey’s trick, creative visualization, and the preceding exercise all require that you feel the feelings of abundance. Creating a physical change in your body causes an emotional change in your head.

Do you doubt that thoughts are things, that as you think so too you create? “As a man thinks, so is he” is one way of saying this. Even the Bible says (paraphrased), “As you sow, so shall you reap.”
Probably the most well-known book about creating wealth also happens to be one of the best, if not the best. Think and Grow Rich was written by Napolean Hill in 1960 at the behest of Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie, who amassed his fortune in steel, is one of the richest people to have ever lived; the book contains his secret for creating wealth. Think and Grow Rich is one of the best-selling books of all time. It is now in its twentieth printing.
According to Carnegie, there are six steps by which a desire for wealth (or any change for that matter) can be transmuted into actual wealth:

1. Decide the exact amount of money you want. Be definite and state a specific amount.
2. Decide what you intend to give for that money. You cannot get something for nothing.
3. State a definite date by which you are committed to having the money.
4. Create a specific plan for carrying out your desire and immediately put this plan into action.
5. Write out a clear, concise statement of this plan. For example, “I will have $100,000 by January 1 of next year, and I intend to give _____ through my plan of action to get it.”
6. Read your statement aloud, twice a day. Once upon waking up and once right before bed. As you read, see and feel yourself in possession of the money.

If these steps seem surprisingly similar to the other exercises in this chapter, you are correct. If you think these six steps could be used to create any change in your life, you are correct again.
What is interesting about Napolean Hill/Andrew Carnegie’s recipe is that it requires action on your part. This aspect is important to realize. Changing your beliefs is only one part of the plan. In addition, you need to take action. The confluence of positive beliefs and new actions creates different results. If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten. What you are doing with all of these exercises is messing with your own head. To the extent you have limited or negative beliefs about money, the more you begin to introduce some new ideas into your brain, the more you will begin to believe in, and thereby create, a more affluent life.