Enterprise and Wealth Creation

Remembering the expansive ricefields of Bali (2017)

Enterprise and Wealth Creation Green Design and Architecture

First published on July 23, 2017. Reposting these from my old (now deleted) IG account.

Here’s a vid of my pretty friend Liudmila and I trying to overcome being camera shy and showing you 2 of the 5 intentional energy pavilions of #VisionVillas. These pavilions were built in relation to the Chinese elements of Wood, Fire, #Earth, #Metal and Water, each with its attendant energy and intention. We’re standing next to the Metal or Steel pavilion that inspires answers to the question #How?

What a brilliant idea to dedicate physical spaces in our homes with #energy #intentions.

Zen and Money: Notes from Ken Honda’s Money Trauma

Enterprise and Wealth Creation

“The Zen approach to wealth is to find satisfaction in what you have instead of seeking more.”

Ken Honda

Interesting exercise to meditate on this.

Watching Moana, for example, I resonated so much with her resistance to staying in her village. “You can find happiness right where you are” just felt so limiting.

I’m going through Ken Honda’s work on Money Trauma now and making time to digest every wisdom nugget. Will be posting a doodle series on it! #alayaph #entreplife #moneytrauma #kenhonda #zenmillionaires

Abundance is trusting this cycle of giving and receiving. It’s what life is all about, and it’s giving from that special place inside that never runs out–your unique gift. The best part? When your inner candle is lit, you can keep lighting other candles without losing your own light.🌟

What’s your gift that keeps on giving?

If you want to change your money mindset, Ken Honda says to forget about money.

When your focus is on money, and it doesn’t come, you end up frustrated and anxious. Fear becomes your life.

What are you focused on? How do you shift your focus towards giving without agenda? His pro tip: Appreciate. Come from a place of full appreciation for people, for little and big things, for life. Then see the magic happen.


In every situation, think of what you can give first, and everything else will follow.

Happiness is…waking up to Sulana feel-na-feel singing in bed. It’s homemade frozen hot chocolate just because. Montaluts on the walls of friends’ homes. Finding money in an old wallet. Watching the sunrise. Cold beer and sunsets. Sand beneath my toes. Good conversations. Silly conversations. Kayaks and calm waves.

What’s your happiness?💙

I appreciate you.

Tell someone today.

Interesting image from Ken Honda: a futon bed for one’s wallet or credit cards, meant to foster that loving, nurturing relationship with money. I heard a similar tip on being intentional with our wallet: allow for more money to come in, so don’t overstuff it. On the opposite end, don’t ever leave it empty either.

How do you keep your money, finances, receipts, bills? Is it helping you cultivate a gentle, friendly and happy relationship with money?

Arigato your money. Show respect to Money In, Money Out.

What’s your Money Language? Is Money a gentle person?

Money is energy.

Do what you love, and make sure money follows you. It has to be both.

We are born with several mediocre gifts. What is your one gift that shines the brightest? Some clues: what were your nicknames as a kid? Or what were you usually scolded for?


Joy radiates. It attracts.


Once you start appreciating X, X appreciates you back.

Day17 since I “met” Ken Honda, and going strong with the mindful exercises to have that radiance of appreciation. No lies though, pandemic gremlins are still hanging about, so each day is a dance between giving in to fear and anxiety on one hand, and bursting with hope and freedom on the other. Appreciation definitely makes the dancing much more pleasant!

How much wealth do you want? If you catch yourself saying, “I just want enough” or “I just need to pay my bills”, it may be good to revisit your feelings and beliefs about money, specifically your money container. No matter how much money comes to you, if your subconscious thinks having more than enough is evil or selfish, you’ll always find ways to just go back to “enough”.

What story do you tell yourself?

Lesson on month 3 of gardening: Pests are inevitable.🐛

Enterprise and Wealth Creation Farming and Gardening

The Alaya Mindset: “I am prepared for whatever comes.”

 
 
Last night, I found 4 bald tomato stalks on my sprouting tray, with the culprit munching on neighboring leaves 😵
 
Despite being indoors and 22 floors up, a worm managed to crawl into our garden. Quite timely too, as that morning I was musing about having zero pest problems, and perhaps needed a wake up call.
 

My takeaway:

Prepare for all possibilities, desirable and undesirable. It’s good to be reminded that things can always turn sideways, and that the effective mindset to take on is not “Everything will be okay” but “I am prepared for whatever comes.”

Morning lesson from the garden

Farming and Gardening Enterprise and Wealth Creation

The Alaya Mindset: “I tend to my own life pot, soil and environment.”

Two alugbati cuttings in the same pot, same soil, same weather conditions, and yet growing so differently in our garden. One is moving in spirals as a wild vine and the other sitting smugly in its center, sprouting in beautiful symmetry. 

What is this life force that is  so unique and asserts itself so undeniably?🌱 This life force is in all nature, including us.

Nice reminder to tend to our own pot, soil and environment–to keep them nurturing and permitting of all surprises and possibilities. To welcome both rain and sunshine, and watch out for pests.

What’s in your life garden? Are you getting enough nutrients: good food, quality sleep, inspiring conversation? Are you open to sunshine: things, experiences or people that warm and excite you? How about rain: those that keep you relaxed and flowing? And what are you doing to protect yourself from pests, or seasons of drought, like the COVID19 pandemic?

How about your business garden? Are you tending to your entrepreneur soil and business environment?

Today is Monday, and we’re crossing over to the second half of 2020 in 2 days. Here’s hoping for better, more nurturing days ahead. 🙏

My Wealth Creation Journey (Part 1)

Enterprise and Wealth Creation

Image by NikolayFrolochkin from Pixabay

I didn’t go to business school, so much of what I know and feel about money, I learned out there on the streets (and yes, I’m still learning everyday!). I’ve made small and big mistakes and they cost me money, but I regard every one of those stumbles as a learning opportunity.  As they say, you know you’re a true entrepreneur once you have failed…and failed…and failed in business.

Learning to Invest

Fresh out of college, I was invited to sell insurance and I got certified as an Investment Solicitor. I remember sitting in a lecture wide-eyed at the thought of mutual funds and how renting a home instead of buying one can actually be a good business move. Selling Mutual Funds didn’t bring home the bacon, but it planted a critical habit in me: investing in income-earning assets.

Join the Truly Rich ClubFast-forward to 2010 when I was hungry for a community of financially-conscious people I could relate to (i.e. non-corporate), and I came across Bro. Bo Sanchez. He was a poor missionary who had a financial awakening that aligned with his spiritual vocation.  His main mantra that I carry with me to this day:  We want you to get rich because we want money in the hands of good people.   I attended Wealth Circles with Bro. Bo and first learned of the concept of Masterminding, or hanging out with people you admire and who could be your mentors.   To this day, I am part of the Truly Rich Club, which sends monthly updates on which stocks to buy and when to sell them.   Monthly investment is less than Php500, truly a steal for the info he shares! If you want to learn more, here’s the invite page to the Truly Rich Club.

Changing my Money Mindset

In 2014, I made one significantly bad business decision, and over the course of two years it would wipe out my life savings.  I was back to square one financially, and I started thinking that I was really not built for business, even if deep down I didn’t believe it was true.  I convinced myself that I’m an artist and teacher at heart, and I’m happy to give and share what I can for free.

It was Harv Eker’s book, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth, that got me to rethink about how I think about money.

I picked it up in April 2017 and devoured it in a day, only to reread it the next day.  It came at the right time.  It still sits on my desk, reminding me of the importance of stretching and re-stretching ourselves financially.  Our financial situation is ultimately a manifestation of who we really are on the inside.

As Harv asked, I did the Wealth Declarations at the end of each chapter in the book, and started to do positive brainwashing on myself.

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I visited his website to download the Net Worth Tracking Sheet, which is a table that you fill up every month to monitor changes in your assets vs. liabilities (ideally for the next three months). It was the first time I computed my current Net Worth, and I converted it from Pesos to Dollars–a tactic I’ve adopted to start thinking in global terms.

I also found Harv on facebook and came across the Zero to Multimillionaire class, a 75-minute free webinar where he reveals 6 proven principles that make the difference between getting rich and staying middle class or broke.

It’s one thing to read his words off the page, and it’s another to watch moving, talking pictures of him showing his home, his family.  You get a clearer sense of who this man is, who built his wealth from the ground up.

Make no mistake about it, Harv is a go getter.  He insists that business is a learnable skill.  Wealth Creation is a learnable skill.   He is non-academic and shares his streetsmarts in a straightforward language.

I guess when I “met” Harv, I wasn’t just ready to learn, I was hungry for someone to teach me how to do things.

At the end of the free webinar, he pitched the Million Dollar Business Secrets course, a self-paced online program where he shares his streetsmart tactics in building his businesses (he calls them Guerilla Wealth Tactics), his secrets in Negotiations and Marketing, and the ways of thinking that let him come up with Million Dollar Ideas in a snap.

The course wasn’t cheap, but I wanted in on it, so yes, I signed up.

What did I learn over the next four weeks? A lot.  I saved his modules on my phone for me to read and listen to when I need a wealthy vibes boost.  Here are some of my major takeaways:

  • I really need to let go of my old ways of thinking.  There are still remnants of doubt, poverty mindset, hesitation.  No teacher can do that for me.  That’s all me and it’s up to me to let go.
  • Every business is a marketing business.
  • Build products of higher value.  The work is the same, might as well get paid more for your effort.

Should you sign up for his course?  If you are hungry for tried-and-tested tactics in the business arena and want to kaboom your bottomline to new heights, YES, YES, YES.  Learn from Harv.  The program isn’t cheap but it won’t break the bank either.  Learning is always an investment in yourself, and learning about business is a smart investment in your business.  Find out more about his Million Dollar Business Secrets and see for yourself.

 

 

Read Part 2 of this series: Finding my Mentor and Community.

Note: Some of the links above will give me an affiliate commission if you choose to buy in, thank you!

My Learning Journey: Books and Podcasts on Productivity

Enterprise and Wealth Creation Education

I was introduced to the world of audiobooks and podcasts very late in the game (February 2017), and I’ve been doing a lot of catch up since then.

I set out this year with very focused goals on increasing productivity and wealth creation.  All these materials are helping me with these goals, and if you’re journeying on a similar path, I hope they help you too.

Here’s a rundown of what I’ve been reading and listening to for productivity and focus: 

On Clarity

I credit 100% of my momentum in 2017 to Lynn Jericho, who guided me with Inner Christmas meditations throughout the 12 Holy Nights of 2016.   During these 12 nights after Christmas, the spiritual world and the physical world are closest to each other, giving anyone who puts in the inner work a powerful window to connect with his or her higher self.   These nightly invitations to sit in silence gave me the clarity to make space within myself to listen to what needed to come out and come in.

Lynn has ongoing programs throughout the year, which you can find on Imagine Self.

Benjamin Hardy and his Morning Routines gave me simple and doable action steps to do every single day.  Ben is a PhD student on Organizational Psychology and he writes essays on productivity and self-improvement.  When he sent out an invitation to a year-long course called Life By Design: How to Live Life According to Your Values Every Single Day, I didn’t even hesitate to join.  Maybe I’m an easy sell; maybe it was right timing.  I have been happy with the weekly videos and readings Ben sends out, and they’ve been a great help in sustaining the momentum I started the year with.   He keeps them short and on point, so they’re very manageable time-wise.  He also loves quotes and is generous with his sources. Most of the books listed below are from his recommendation list.   Read Ben’s works here.

Audiobooks on Productivity

I’ve finished more books in the past two months than I have in the past year thanks to audiobooks.  They’re easy companions while I do menial tasks like prepare breakfast and drive through traffic, and they help sharpen my listening and concentration skills (especially useful if you’re easily distracted like me!).

Essentialism was the first audiobook I got on Audible, which meant I got to listen to it for free.  It literally jumpstarted me on editing my life by saying no to what mattered less so I could say yes to what mattered more.

I’ve gone through it in full twice and still listen to it from time to time.  Greg McKeown reads it himself and his smooth voice helps to keep calm in Manila traffic.

My favorite takeway from the book?  If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no.

Napoleon Hill’s Outwitting the Devil feels like a primer on morality, but it is packed with simple, hard-hitting jabs.  I grew up Catholic and was bombarded with literature on sin and heaven and hell, but Hill presents the Devil without the religious weight.

Written in 1938 but released to the public only in 2011, it is literally a conversation between Hill and the Devil.  Perfect as an audiobook.

A great complement to Essentialism, because what do you do once you achieve clarity of mind? You don’t leave it drifting.


Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People is a classic book on good manners and just over-all niceness.  I’ve been in sales for nearly two decades, and I still learned something new from listening to this.

Why is good behavior a critical component of productivity?  We perform at our highest level when we are in perfect alignment in thoughts, feelings, actions.   How we treat people around us is a reflection of our highest ideals, and this book reminds us ever so gently of the basics of being a good person.

Excellent narration by Andrew McMillan too.  Very soothing to the ears and true to its premise: it will win you over.

To be honest when I first opened the audiobook for The Power of Habit, I got put off by how long it was: 10 friggin’ hours!

I went through them 30 minutes at a time, and finally finished the book last week, yay.

Charles Duhigg breaks down a habit into its basic parts: cue, routine, and reward, and gives many examples of figuring out which is which and how to make deliberate changes in the habit loop.

Very important skill if we want to be more productive and focused everyday.

Podcasts for the In Between

Whenever I finished an audiobook, I’d look for something to listen to that didn’t demand so much commitment (leaving a book hanging felt wrong to me), so I turned to podcasts.

  • How I Built This is a great podcast for inspiration on companies that went from good to great.  Always makes me smile to listen to stories of innovators, entrepreneurs, artists.
  • On Being with Krista Tippet is one of my go to podcasts when I need to soften up and relax.  It’s a show that asks the “big questions of meaning with scientists and theologians, artists and teachers” and Krista is the only female voice on this list.  Good balancing energy to the go-go-go of the male gesture.
  • Dan Sullivan is a business coach, and I like his straightforward insights on entrepreneurship and personal development.  He has five podcast series with his team at Strategic Coach.  I’ve only started listening to Multiplier Mindset and 10X Talk.
  • Tim Ferris is the popular choice, and I included him here only because he is recommended by so many.  He covers a wide range of topics from personal development to lifestyle to sports to tech trends, and he has a strong fanbase.  I tried reading The 4-Hour Workweek, the book that shot him to stardom, but something about it didn’t sit well with me.  Just the same, his podcast series are worth looking into.  One episode that I particularly liked was on Accelerated Learning.

I hope my list of audiobooks and podcasts helps you start your own listening habits!  Also check out my wealth creation journey where I list the books and courses that are helping me get to where I want to go financially.

Do you have other books or shows to recommend?  Share them in the comments below!

Note: Some of the links above will give me an affiliate commission if you choose buy those books, at no extra cost to you.