You Deserve Financial Distress (?)

Please Note: This is different than my usual post. It happened because I came across a single piece of scrap paper in my file cabinet today that was written many years ago.

I was inspired to write this now, immediately after finding that piece of paper.

You will know within a few minutes if you want to continue reading. If so, you’ll discover that I want to start a conversation with those of you who resonate with this.

Here's what triggered this:

   I was looking for something in my file cabinet today and pulled out this faded scrap of paper. I instantly remembered writing this on the beach at La Jolla California, many years ago.

It was a dark period financially and emotionally too.  I needed at least $20,000 within the next month just to get caught up. Things seemed to be going wrong all around me.

I was in a rut. So I went to church on Sunday, something I hadn’t done for some time. The minister’s sermon, which I didn’t know in advance, was, “You Deserve Financial Success.”

She went on to outline all the reason’s for God’s abundance to be channeled to anyone who asked for it. She made a sensible and rational case.

Now, I’m not a very religious person within the man-made religions, but am a big time believer in God and prayer.

The latter I have treated like a forgotten relative at times. The former, an exercise that I know works but for some reason I fail to do for periods of time.

So, that Sunday I marveled at my excellent timing and maybe even prescience for showing up at this particular church in San Diego, which was over 150 miles from my home.

I had driven there on an impulse that morning because I especially liked the preacher, Terry Cole-Whittaker, and I needed some spiritual sustenance. I probably passed 500 churches on my way there. Why there?

There was a prayer box in the lobby. So I filled out my slip with a prayer that described my need for $20,000 within four weeks.

After church I drove to LaJolla, where I sat down on one of the most beautiful beaches and views in the world, and worried.

I thought about all that had gone wrong. All the mistakes I’d made. I focused on my lack of consciousness that led me to this place.

Then I heard a voice behind me that said, “You deserve financial distress.”

It was if all other sounds, the oceans, beach goers, helicopters and the breeze all stopped. Just that voice from someone right behind me.

I whipped around to see . . . nobody. At least nobody close enough to have said that so clearly to me.

I turned back quickly towards the ocean. All sounds were up full volume again, the kids, the surf, the laughing and my heart pounding.

That voice was so real, so vocal, right in my ear. And what did it mean?

Something else that was weird too. Though the voice was so absolute, yet I had no sense of it being male or female. But the words echoed through my mind and seemed to be bouncing right into my soul.

I shivered a moment in the warm air. Once I settled down, it took awhile, I began to think about it.

The minister said I deserved financial success. The voice said I deserved financial distress.

I walked for awhile, not seeing or hearing the beauty or sounds around me. How could I deserve financial distress? I wondered.

I walked back towards the village and stopped in a convenience store where I bought a writing pad. Then to a little cafe overlooking the beach.

While I don’t hear “voices,” I know that I’ve been directed in the past to do certain things. I know it was always my choice, and if my Intuitive Click was strong enough, I usually followed it.

So, I began to doodle on the pad. This process will often help me create an idea or find an AHA! I recall writing this first page, like a cover page.

“You Deserve Financial Distress (?)”

Then, on the next page I wrote the question, “Why do I deserve financial distress?” As soon as I wrote the question mark, I wrote this; “Because you had a choice. Distress or success. You chose to distress. So, you deserve what you choose. You always do. That’s the gift.”

Distress as a gift, I thought. But then, no, that’s not the message, the gift is choice. We always have a choice.

Not just in what we do but how we react before and after what we do. The gift is how we use our control mechanism. Do we act and react as a victim or do we product as a positive force for good, ours and that of others whom we touch?

In an instant the worry left me. I had a sense of completion of that “need” for $20,000 more dollars. Had I given it much critical thought I would have doubted it all.

What, no more worry? Completion? No stress about it?

Thankfully I didn’t think much about it.

Within days I got a new consulting client. The fee was $20,000 exactly. The previous events didn’t even hit me until I had the contract and check in my hands!

But all of this was not the lesson. The lesson was that I had to relearn the real lesson over and over. I have a choice. Every decision has a consequence, good or bad. Our subconscious is the driving force.We are the programmers of our subconscious. So, we can reprogram anytime, right?

I’m seeing stuff today from Joe Vitale and others in the Law of Attracton (LOA) work about “effortless success.” I’m sure they don’t mean no work needed, just effortless in mind and spirit.

It’s true. It can be very difficult to drop the “armor” of worry and distress. Somehow, those feelings almost seem protective.  That’s like saying Heroin is okay for you because it makes you feel so good.

Maybe those feelings of “negative comfort” are God’s little test for us? I don’t know.

Of course, it’s not just financial, it’s all success from relationships to how we deal with our daily lives.

We deserve what we choose. So, if you’re not happy with what you’ve been deserving lately. I have a couple of ideas.

Here’s what I know. It worked for me then. I forgot about it, went through the same cycle later. Rediscovered it. It worked for me again. I forgot about it again. Recycle time, ad-nauseam.

So, today, when I discovered that single scrap of paper. “You Deserve Financial Distress (?)”  it brought back that episode from when I first wrote it.

Now, here we are today. I relearn this lesson once again and share it here because that’s what I think I should do.

It’s so simple, I have to wonder why it was so difficult to maintain.

Now, thanks in part to you, I think I know how it will work better for me and for you. I’ll simply share this in a bigger way.

No other agendas. If this resonates with you, then I’m doing service. You can pass it on too. Let’s just keep reminding one another and pass it on.

If you’d like to participate in more conversations like this, including a live call I plan on putting together, let me know.

The easiest way for me to do this is make a list. So, if you'd like to participate, just click here and indicate your interest. When I set up the call you can tune it with us. That way my entire list won’t be bothered if they have no interest.

Thank you for reading this. Why not share your sense of this below in the comments field? Let’ start this conversation with two way dialogue.

Feel free to pass this along to your friends. Just direct them to:
http://budurl.com/38cp

Tom Justin

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Wizard Coaching

Life, Business, Internet, creative, and strategic coaching
assistance now available.

Who do you know and where do you go now for help?

The Wizard Sessions
Check this out now

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

The Edge
A YIW Experience

Comments

[Marilynn DeLucca]

Hi Tom,

I truly resonated with your post today. I am about to hit send with an email to my friends and family about my new program and throughout the email I talked about the little "voices" in my head! It took me way too long to really listen to them...but I'm finally on track! I also miss them if I'm too "busy" and not paying attention, and sometimes I still don't listen! I am very interested in ongoing dialogue about intuition. Count me in!

Warm regards,
Marilynn

[Rori Raye]

Tom, I usually stop reading emails I get after the first few sentences, but the authenticity and personal quality of this just grabbed me, and I read to the end. As a relationship coach for women, I believe the hugest challenge for us is to allow our "frozen defenses" to fade enough for our real selves to breathe, and then practice - moment to moment - getting to know, getting to love, speaking from, moving from , and being with men and the world from our real, lovely selves. Love to you for the real you you're about to let out. Rori

[Tom]

Hi Andy,

You might also enjoy this article, "What Power You Must Have."
http://tomjustin.typepad.com/the_justin_times/2007/08/what-power-you-.html

Thanks again for writing.

Tom

[Tom]

Hi Bev,

Thank you for the nice note. Your continued readership is appreciated.

Tom

[Tom]

Hi Jeanne,

Thank you - You're right. Guidance is available if we don't try to figure out what "costume" it's wearing.

Tom

[Don]

Thanks you so much! My wife forwarded your email on to me and I was in need of some peace today. I've been stressing out over the feeling that I might be fired today. Now, I have peace. Thank you for sharing!

[Alan Thomas]

This is truly uncanny.

For the thousand millionth time I went to the computer to do as instructed by the program to promote my latest wares and instead looked in a mail box that is always full of offers.

Thank you Tom Justin for your words of wisdom.

I had just thought the reason for being as I am is that I am asking for what I have and today is the day to alter.

Why do I want to stay as is in my brain but want to improve in my heart?

The only reason seems to be "if you cannot beat them, join them!"

Do I really Deserve Financial Distress?

For over sixty years I have been playing it forward without any thought of better for me.

Until recently I was happy with my lot, which has always been enough, and to assist was my great joy.

Now I feel that those people who tell me how to run my life have to be ignored.

I do have a good life when I live it for me. Now all that remains is to get on with it and let them get on with theirs.

SuccessAlan

[Andy Murphy]

Tom, this is a marvelous article - thank you for sharing it with us. Yes, the proof that we "deserve" something is certainly evidenced by the fact that we've attracted it into our lives. I also agree that by design or default, we've chosen our particular distress. Now I would love to have even more of your ideas on how to make wiser and better choices. Once again, thanks.
Andy

[Daphne]

I thoroughly enjoyed this, Tom. What you describe is a universal experience of living and learning. I had to laugh out loud at 'Recycle time, ad nauseam.' because I have gone through the cycle so many times, too. Slow learners? Or an ever-deepening level of consciousness, perhaps.

Thanks, Tom.

Blessings,
Daphne

[Cherrie]

Thank you. I love how the universe works.

I was sitting here today worrying and fretting about why things were going so bad for me - unable to sleep I decided to check my e-mail and what appeared but your column, I started to go past it, putting it in my to be read later pile but something (maybe a nudge from spirit) wouldn't let me. I closed it out 3 times and it kept appearing so I read it and the reminder could not have been more spot on. I am always telling my 17 year old son that he has a choice for how his day will go it's all up to him HOWEVER I had forgotten that reality also applied to me. No more now I remember and I know that by making a choice and having faith in the path things are going to turn around. Thank you once again for showing up today.

Hugz
Cherrie

[frann]

This piece remonds me very strongly of a Buddhist poem called "Story of a Life" which is about how we keep falling in the same hole, over and over, until we learn to stop doing that and move on. But there are always new holes to fall into.

Life is a process of learning.

Thanks very much for this post.

[Bev]

Hi Tom
Thank you for such a wonderful article. Just as you were led to go to the church that Sunday, I was led to opening your mail so early on a Sunday morning. The words were just what I needed to hear, and at the right time.

We can feel ourselves victims of circumstance, and ask why did this happen, why am I here in this situation now, but we have a choice - to let go of fear and worry. That is so powerful for me, and something i know I have to let go of.

Tom, You are appreciated

BB

[S K Jain]

Thanks for sharing.

Reading now The Secret & you shared how to use it.

Have a nice day

[Jeanne May]

Hi Tom

I definitely resonated with the topic of this post today... and not just about the gift of choice we have and about letting go of worry and concern... but also about finding something we have written years beforehand which serve to remind us of a hugely lesson.

The universe is always guiding us... and sometimes I have to get out of my own way to hear the messages of universe more clearly!

I always enjoy reading your thoughts Tom!

Warmly
Jeanne