Change Your Thinking; Change Your Life

A couple of months ago I made a decision. I decided I was sick of stressing about money. My husband doesn't stress about money, and he always has it. I stress about money, and I always feel like there isn't enough, even when there is. It was getting pretty bad around my house. I was constantly worrying about bills, about where the money was coming for things I wanted and needed, and I was irritated because I never felt like I had what I needed or the ability to get what I needed. Money (or my perception of money) was a constant source of stress and it was ruining things in my household, including my health (I've got postpartum depression. Stressing money does NOT help it). So, I finally decided, I was done. Stressing money is for the birds. I was tired of being stressed, of stressing out my Superman, and most importantly, of fighting with my Superman about it.

In order to get rid of the stress, I had to change my thinking on money. I had to change my thought processes from those that focus on lack, to those that focus on plenty. So my first step was to start saying affirmations. I began saying things like I have everything I need and want. Money flows to me. And my personal favorite (which is the one I said the most, by the way) I make good money working from home as a writer. I said what I wanted (to make good money), where I wanted to make it (from home) and how I wanted to do it (writing). I love writing. It's my passion. Choosing the how was easy for me. I didn't say these affirmations out loud unless I was experiencing a high level of stress over something money related. I simply repeated them in my mind over and over until they became easy to say and I started to believe them.

Probably around six weeks after I started the affirmations, my husband asked me if I could try to make $400.00 a month somehow to help pay for a vacation we're going on. "Yep," I said, not knowing where the money was coming from. But I knew that somehow I could make that money. I could write more. I could sell more articles. I could go garaging and resale the stuff I bought (that was how I was planning to do it). I wasn't sure of the how, but I was determined to somehow do it.

Two weeks after he asked me if I could earn $400.00 a month, I got an email. It was from one of the admins of a website I sell my writing on. He had a client who needed sixty trivia sets written per month and a few websites managed, and he thought I would be good for the job. Now, there are thousands of writers on this site, and there are plenty that sell way more work than I do, that have a constant stream of articles flowing onto the site. I would have thought they were a better option. But the admins thought I would be the best for the job. I agreed to write the trivia and manage the sites. What would I be earning? My initial calculations put the total right around $400.00, exactly what I needed. As it turns out, the total is closer to $600.00 with the site management. Boy was I excited!!!! My affirmation...I make good money working from home as a writer. Two months later, I get offered a job out of nowhere to work from home as a writer, earning more than what I need for my vacation. Talk about seeing the effects of changing your thinking! I tell you, I was giddy.

There's an interesting twist to this story that is worth noting. I asked the man that contacted me why they offered me the job. His answer: because I'd worked with a client a year ago and they'd been impressed with how I'd managed the workload he'd given me. But that's not what's interesting. The interesting part was that that same client had really liked my work, but he didn't want to pay the prices that the site required (the site takes 35% of the profits. He was paying $25.00 an article, which is a decent price for a good article, and I was getting $16 of that.) He knew I was getting $16.00 so he offered to keep paying me sixteen if I would stop going through the website and work with him, cutting out the middle man. Otherwise, he was outsourcing to India. After thinking long and hard, I told him I wasn't willing to do that. I'd agreed not to find a client through the site and then cut them out, and I intended to stick with that agreement. So he took his work to India, and I lost my client. At the time I thought the situation (for lack of a better word) sucked, but mainting my integrity was more important. But what you give out you get back. And now I'm experiencing the rewards of making choices based on principle. Because of my working relationship with that client, I now have a better opportunity in front of me. I don't believe I would have gotten it if I had chosen to cut out the middle man.

This experience has taught me two valuable lessons. One, changing your thinking really does change things in your life. Two, by making choices based on true principles I'm leaving myself open to the positive, whatever that positive may be. I'm hoping I can keep these lessons in mind and keep applying them to my life.

Oh, and for the record, the job really shouldn't take more than forty hours a month, so it's definitely decent pay, in case you were wondering.