*** Do You Have Bad Cash Karma?

Here's a question I got in my email:

"Are some life paths predestined to have money troubles - for money to be elusive and unattainable? Karma is something many of us believe in. If so, how can this work - these tools - work?"

Let's get real for a second. I just spoke at a fundraiser for orphaned and abandoned children in Baja Mexico. Washing machines and refrigerators are new additions to the orphanage. These kids were not dealt the easiest hand.

This is exactly why we NEED tools! Learning to read made Oprah Winfrey into Oprah Winfrey, Inc. She discovered a new world through reading books as a child. Tools change "Karma."

Let's talk about Karma for a second, shall we? (I was a Religion scholar in college, specializing in Asian religion, so I KNOW Karma!) Most people talk about two kinds of Karma. Door #1 is the "I hope you rot in hell, Bernie Madoff!" Karma. Door #2 is "doomed by decree" Karma. Either you're hoping to punish or you're feeling punished. Neither option is going to get you what you really want.

At the risk of sounding professorial (I'm sure I'm tenured by now in an alternate universe), karma is really about PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. Cause and effect. Your actions bear fruit.

If, by chance of fate or divine decree, you've been struggling with money in this life time, CONGRATULATIONS! It's just that much more urgent that you break the patterns that weaken you.

Here's the punchline: our choices create our Karma. Our choices RIGHT NOW. It's like we build up a taste for something. If you don't clear off your desk, wash the car, and take out the garbage, you're going to feel worse and worse. Garbage and filth become your reality. You train yourself and the universe that this is what you deserve, that you're garbage and filth yourself. That's bad Karma.

I'm going to get REALLY PERSONAL here, because this is so close to my heart. My father doesn't collect the money owed to him. His friends are marvellously wealthy, really upper crust. They all come from the same depression-era middle class background. But Dad created a lifelong habit of not billing, not collecting, and allowing people to take advantage of him. He is such a good man and this breaks my heart.

And that's why I say to you that "Karma" is your call to action! It's your RESPONSIBILITY to change your relationship with money, to change your behavior as needed, and change your values to reflect self-respect!

Cause you better believe I inherited all my dad's disfunctionality with money issues, billing, self-sacrifice, guilt, conflict avoidance, etc. You name it. Financial Alchemy--changing my relationship with money in a very specific way, as if money were a human being-- was the only thing that freed me from repeating my father's mistakes. That's why this is what I teach.

And let me tell you: I work with some people who are fighting HUGE economic, cultural, and circumstantial disadvantages and come out ROCKIN THE CASHBAH! I don't buy none of that doom and gloom victim for life crap. If you don't like your Karma, change it.