Well, I decided last year I had enough of just trying to “survive.” My mantra in my massage-therapy business was “I’m not trying to be a millionaire here, I just want to provide affordable massage and have my massage therapists get paid as much as possible for their very very hard work.” I entered San Francisco with an attitude of “I’m not sure I belong here…This is a tough city to live in and I just need to survive here…I have no one here to help me and I have to do this all on my own…I don’t have another degree to fall back on so I am not as valuable to society.”

After 4 years of living those lies I had finally had enough. I was stressed to the maximum and was not enjoying the city at all – at least not the way I wanted to enjoy it: drinks/dinner out with friends, going to see shows, having days off to just relax and explore.

I decided at the end of last year that I was done playing the survival game. It wasn’t fun!! So I chose the only logical followup to the survival game…the wealth game! Thankfully, the stars have been aligning to support my new mission and I am excited to see where this one will go.

Things are already looking up. I started listening in on this telesummit called “The Spiritual Path to Money,” and it totally hit home. I was confronted with all the lies I had been telling myself the past 4 years about how I was not worthy, not ready, capable, prepared, etc. for success. I am learning that I have to go back to my 8-year-old self, who, despite her upbringing in poverty, knew FOR A FACT that she was going to have a wildly successful life and attract everything in her dreams to her. Back then I had the confidence and the dreams, and didn’t worry so much about the path.

When I became older it became all about the path…the LOGICAL ways to be “successful,” i.e. whatever society tells you is “tried-and-true”: Become an engineer, or a doctor. A teacher? “But Honey, you’re so smart!” An English major? “Don’t be naive, you’ll never make any money with that degree.”

I was more than willing to go along with this nonsense because I wanted and needed financial security so badly, I wanted it to be a shoe-in. I was not ready to take any extreme risks or chances. So I got a Chemical Engineering degree, the most highly paid degree in terms of starting salary ($58,000) of any degree in the year I graduated college: 2003. How logical.

Well, it’s time to try a different path! Having met my financial security needs with that degree in just 3.5 years, I jumped ship and started to play a new game: Build a business from scratch! Survive in one of the most expensive cities in the country! And don’t ask for a penny from anyone!

Well, this quickly became a very lonely and isolating game, and that brings me to today, and the new game. Let’s just say this one is going to be a LOT MORE FUN. The idea is, go back to my inner 8-year-old and start thinking of all the things/experiences I want in my life. Then take small steps toward them, while opening up my ability to expand and receive by purposefully indulging in myriad new experiences. So far it is working like magic!

The first day I started putting this to the test, I literally got an email right away saying: “You were just featured on Forbes.com”. That was a pretty f-cking awesome start to the experiment. Within a couple days I got 2 new clients requesting personal coaching for track & field, something I haven’t done much of any on the side for extra profit. So that is my start. Things are opening up quickly.

I decided to have my two roommates play along. I had them listen to a couple telesummit calls, they started to shift their thinking about what was possible for them, and wouldn’t you know, within 2 days they both gained $1000!! Not joking. One of them got notified that she had received a $1000 scholarship, and the other one sold 2 pieces of her art for a total of $1000 even. She has not sold a piece of art in probably 2 years?? Coincidences? I think not. All this “expansion” mindset is starting to make manifesting things very easy. For example, tonight I walked into a gas station, bought sunflower seeds, and thought to myself “Wouldn’t it be nice if I had a coffee cup to spit these seeds into on the drive?” As I was checking out, the cashier says, “Would you like a coffee cup for your sunflower seeds?” I thought this kind of shi# was limited to Burning Man. Think it, and it appears! Maybe not a totally solid example, but with everything else that has been going on I am just going to keep riding this train…