Prosperity Conscious Principles That Work!

This post is part of our MoneyLove series. In part #1, we talked about why you should love money. In this article, we’ll talk about how to get more of it. How to get Prosperity!

A Moneylove Approach to Playing Larger and Winning Bigger

Doing is being.
To have done’s not enough.
To stuff yourself with doing — that’s the game.
To name yourself each hour by what’s done,
To tabulate your time at sunset’s gun
And find yourself in acts
You could not know before the facts.

The above is just the first part of Ray Bradbury’s poem, Doing Is Being. Ray showed the poem to me before it was even published in the early 1980s, sitting under a tree among the rolling seaside hills at the Santa Barbara Writers’ Conference, where we were both members of the faculty, though he was one of the celebrity keynoters and I just taught some classes in nonfiction writing.

I loved the phrase, “To stuff yourself with doing.” As I have found true with so many creative geniuses, Ray had a grand generosity of spirit, and gave me permission to use the poem in my book, Psychological Immortality, even before his own poetry book containing it was released.

It struck such a deep chord in me because I always believed the best teaching came through developing experiential techniques. I pioneered a lot of these in workshops I led for the adventurous Association for Humanistic Psychology. I also taught them to other authors who were brilliant speakers or counselors, but didn’t think in experiential models. People like Louise Hay, Mark Victor Hansen, and Wayne Dyer.

This is why I think so many of my Moneylove ideas have stood the test of time, and new ones I am regularly creating still have impact in the world. Though I call the following list, 10 principles, they are really action-oriented strategies, all requiring that someone adopting any or all of them, do something or change something they are doing. It doesn’t even really matter if taking one of these specific action steps is the right or ideal one to explore. Just the taking action itself is shaking things up, transforming the equation, “to find yourself in acts you could not know before the facts.” To do, and therefore to be.

1. Start Immediately

Nothing dissipates a great business idea like delay. The most promising prosperity-producing business plans can scatter like smoke through too much pondering and indecision, or talking about it. I am not suggesting that you have to start big, or do it all overnight. Rather, baby steps are often a good way to build the momentum to manifest your dream results. It’s important that you begin doing something that will serve your specific idea and start putting it into a physical form. This may indeed become a false start, so don’t expend too much energy on it initially, but create some kind of movement toward what you envision that idea becoming.

This is not a brand new idea. At the very beginning of Moneylove, I quote pioneering psychologist, William James, who said that to change one’s life you must “start immediately.” And even though some scholars dispute whether the famous “begin it now” quote originated with Goethe, it certainly predates James: “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

In a similar vein, one of my mentors and friends, Bob Schwartz, founder of the School for Entrepreneurs at Tarrytown, New York, used to say that a major factor in business success is what you do “when the rubber hits the road.” Even the most luxurious, high-powered car won’t get you anywhere with a burned-out starter.

2. The Law of Subtraction

This is simply to focus on being more discerning, more selective, more aware of what really matters. In other words, being more discriminating in your choices.
There is so much stuff pouring out in this era of instant access to just about everything, so much information bombarding us, we have to make a much more intentional, concentrated effort to pick out the truly valuable and worthwhile from all the clutter.

One of the best explanations of this came over a hundred years ago from Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, when he had Holmes explain to Watson his own particular take on what information to take in and what to leave out:

“The mind is like an attic, you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out.”

What a beautiful way of expressing the problem of information overload. Essayist Lance Morrow, also did a great dissertation on this subject, in Time magazine, saying:

“The mind takes its shape from what it holds, and therefore, Zen-like, sometimes grows more graceful because of what it has kept out.”

And so it is true, that it is often what you subtract that is as important or even more so than what you attract.
And this brings me to one of my favorite affirmations, which many people have used as a guideline to help decide what to let in and what to keep out:

“If it doesn’t bring me profit, pleasure, or knowledge, it isn’t worth doing.”

If you simply make a list, with headings for Profit, Pleasure, Knowledge, and put down all the things now happening in your life, all the things you are now paying attention to, and seeing where they fit in this trio of categories, you would begin to get more of a sense of what belongs in a successful, dynamic life and what doesn’t. How many of these things actually fulfill two or three of the criteria? Obviously, your life is more dynamic and creative and has more potential when more of the things you do give you profit, pleasure, and knowledge.

3. Your Ninety Day Trial Period – Prosperity

This is a take-action strategy that many coaching clients have credited with quick and powerful results in their creative and financial lives. In this whirlwind life many of us experience, with so many choices, so many ways we can be in the world and use our various skills and talents, it is essential to set certain boundaries, and this is an easy one that seems to work well for everyone who tries it.

Very simply, whenever you have more than one important choice–and this works in your professional life as well as your personal situation–you pick one of those choices and commit to giving it your all–your total focus, energy, and time for the next ninety days. In most such activities or projects, ninety days is enough time to know whether this was the right decision for you. If it still feels right after ninety days, you keep doing it. If you can see that it is not nearly producing the results you expected, let it go and move on to your next choice. If you are applying this to a creative activity, there’s a good chance that you might have wasted a year under the normal circumstances of deciding whether or not it works for you. With this strategy, you get to check out four projects or decisions in that same year.

4. More Than Their Money’s Worth

This is such a basic marketing concept that it often amazes me why people don’t adopt it as their personal credo. When I first started marketing myself as a speaker and workshop leader, and then started producing my prosperity audio program, I always had as my main foundational tone the idea of giving my audience, “More than their money’s worth.”

And here’s an important part of that–don’t tell them that is your intention until you deliver their first order and they can confirm you are indeed delivering something more valuable than the amount they are giving you. is a great example of taking this even further. In chats with Internet entrepreneurs and bloggers, time and again, these online masters have almost awestruck regard for Michael Dunlop and what he has done by starting out giving huge amounts of valuable free information. It isn’t complicated, but it is brilliant. By building personal relationships with the best and brightest bloggers and online marketing masters and content providers, Michael has been able to give away what many other bloggers and entrepreneurs charge for. Talk about giving people more than their money’s worth!

5. Your Next Big Thing

When I met Wally Schirra in the green room of a television talk show in the mid-1980s, I think astronauts were a bigger deal than they’ve become in recent years. As one of the original 7 Mercury astronauts, Wally was as big a deal as there could be in that realm.

So I asked this American space hero a pretty obvious question: “After soaring to the heights of space, wasn’t it a big letdown to come back down to earth and eventually become a businessman?” Wally laughed and said he did get that question a lot, usually accompanied by arched eyebrows. He said he had always thought he would like to try some kind of business venture once he retired from space. He said his father, also a pilot, told him when he was very young that one should always know what they wanted to do next after achieving their primary dream. Wally also told me that he was the only one of the original 7 astronauts who had a clear idea of what he wanted to do once he retired from the space program.

So what about you? Do you have an idea of what you might want to do next if and when you reach your current major aspiration?

It’s a simple matter of saying to yourself, “When I get there, I know where my next “there” is. Knowing what you will want to do next after finishing with what  you are doing now is a tremendous source of inner peace and invigorates one’s sense of purpose.

6. Your Powerful Voice

In terms of speaking out to the world and your actual physical voice, whether you want your audience to learn something from what you are saying, or buy something you are selling, a strong, clear, tonally pleasing, well modulated, and consistent voice can make a huge difference in how your message is received by others.

Many studies have shown that in the corporate world and most other professional realms, the man or woman with a pleasing, strong voice has a big advantage.

And here’s the good news. Your voice is not a locked-in physical attribute. It is an instrument, and can be trained to be much more effective and attractive. It just takes a basic course, many of which are available online, and daily, steady practice. The results will come fast and it can be a lifelong practice that will produce many personal and professional benefits.

I put both the writing voice and speaking voice under the same heading because they do have an impact on each other. The best writing comes when the writer is able to speak directly into the keyboard as if he or she was having a conversation with the reader. I always encouraged students in my writing classes to “Speak through your fingers.” Clarity, individual style, and a pleasing rhythm are major factors in successful writing and speaking.

7. Be Open But Very Picky

This principle was actually inspired by a novelty button I once bought that said in big, bold letters, “I’M AVAILABLE,” and below in smaller letters, “BUT VERY PICKY.” At the time, I was a member of The Inside Edge, a leadership support group that met early Tuesday mornings at the Beverly Hills Hotel. My fellow board members included Jack Canfield, Louise Hay, Wayne Dyer, Stuart Wilde and the membership consisted of workshop leaders, authors, movie people, musicians, and a lot of smart, successful, beautiful women. I got the button to wear at meetings, and only a couple of weeks went by before a beautiful woman named Jessica, who was intrigued by the button and the fact I had the nerve to wear it, approached me. We started dating and ended up in a very lovely relationship. The experience got me to thinking that good things come to us in all areas of our lives when we follow that mantra, “I am available, but very picky.”

8. Compliments as a Powerful Prosperity Resource

As we go through life, we receive many compliments. These can become a powerful motivating force in your life, and tell you all you need to know about your perfect path and purpose. One of my personal favorite strategies and one that I get a lot of compliments on from readers, listeners, coaching clients, and workshop participants is my Compliment Bulletin Board. Whenever someone pays me a compliment, either professional or personal, that feels especially good, I ask them to put it in writing and sign it. I keep my board in a prominent place in my office, as well as a copy on my computer desktop.

I actually just received an email with a compliment from one of my Moneylove Club audio subscribers: “I feel my life has already taken a turn for the better.” I will print and pin it, but in the meantime it resides on my desktop. There’s something I like about that phrase, “A turn for the better.” My subscriber is a professor and writer and her simple compliment has already provided an energy boost as I am recuperating from a case of food poisoning which had dramatically slowed me down this past week.

A turn for the better. A direction we can all aspire to, wouldn’t you agree?

9. Say What You Are Going to Do and Then Do It

I got this phrase from my friend, Maria Nemeth, Ph.D., author of The Energy of Money. I find Maria’s work a perfect complement to my own and she has become a mentor and this has become a core phrase in my life. She says, “Making and keeping promises moves you along your path.

My life has definitely taken a turn for the better since I activated a decision to always say what I am going to do and then actually do it. An important piece of this is to only spend time with and do business with people who meet this same high standard. It sounds simple, but in execution, many people fall by the wayside. There is such a temptation to take on more than we can faithfully execute with so many choices and temptations out there,

I don’t like the phrase “I can’t afford it.” when applied to one’s money situation, but the one place I do use it in bolstering my own prosperity consciousness is to say to myself, “I am moving toward always saying what I will do and then doing it, and can’t afford the energy or effort to spend time with anyone who isn’t doing the same.” A life filled with broken promises in either direction is simply a broken life.

10. Leave Room for Surprises, Opportunities, New Adventures

To my way of thinking, there is a hierarchy of success. It is a high level indeed to be doing work you love doing and feel is important and rewarding. However, I reserve an even higher position for those who can always answer with a resounding “Yes!” the question, “Have you left room in your life for something or someone new and wonderful to show up?”

Warm and prosperous regards,

Jerry

Special Note:

Jerry Gillies passed away late 2015.

Jerry Gillies was a mentor to millions of people around the world. Although Jerry is no longer here in body, he will always remain in the hearts & souls of the people whose lives he’s touched over his 75 years on this earth.