Magic wands, Aladdin’s lamp, wishing wells, fairy godmothers, even the Law of Attraction… all symbolize our ultimate desire to turn our dreams into reality.

The fact is, most of us have big dreams, but sometimes the gap between our dreams and our reality can be overwhelming.

• We want to lose 25 pounds, but we can’t lose one. (My friend Mark Combs recommends losing one pound 25 times….)
• We want to double our incomes, but we find ourselves struggling just to maintain.
• We want to fall in love, but we haven’t been on a date in ages.

If the gap between your dreams and reality is a bit large for comfort, then take an honest look at how you are approaching your goals, intentions and resolutions.

See if you’re making any of these fatal mistakes:

You have no structure in place for creating what you want.

You set a few goals or made a few resolutions, and next January, you’ll do it all over again. It’s “make or break,” with no strategy, no accountability, no plan to correct and continue built into your calendar. Maybe you improve for awhile, but then after setbacks and failure, you throw in the towel and forget about it til next December 31st.

You’re not setting goals, you’re making wishes. Throw some change in a fountain or blow some candles out on a cake, then get serious about creating the life you want. It’s a nice idea to make decisions at the start of the year (month, project, etc.), but if you don’t have a structure and a plan for how you might move towards what you want, good luck!

You’re relying on incomplete, outdated technology.

If you’re using “S.M.A.R.T. goals” as your template, you need to update your technology bigtime. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with Specific, Measurable, Acheivable/Actionable, Realistic and Time-Sensitive, but this formula is decades old and falls short of giving you real momentum in closing the gap.

I recommend you DON’T (just) write your goals… Super-charge them with imagination and emotion! Use different learning styles (visual, audio and kinesthetic), utilize your senses:

• Visualize
• Memorize
• Role-Play
• Write poems or rhymes
• Express your intentions in movement
• Draw, paint or sketch something that represents your goals
• Collage a Vision Board
• Argue your goals with a willing antagonist
• Journal
• Write your goals with your non-dominant hand
• Speak or sing your intentions
• Write and repeat affirmations
• Practice thinking, speaking and feeling from the place of realized goals. In other words, imagine that you’ve already reached your vision. As you become comfortable with the new vision, you create tension with your current reality. You’ll also access greater creativity and momentum to attract what you want.

You haven’t changed your environment.

You created a new vision, but then you walked into your old office, got distracted by the same distractions, kept the same habits and saw all the old people who expected the old you. Not exactly a recipe for transformation.

Change can happen from both the inside out and the outside in. Clear the clutter (and better yet, paint your office a new color and redecorate). Eliminate the distractions, change up your habits and hang out with people who are working towards (or better yet, have realized) the same dreams.

You’re not accountable to anyone.

Do you think the contestants on The Biggest Loser have some motivation to lose weight? I’d say that having to report my weight on national TV each week would definitely accelerate my results! Weight Watchers has always motivated its participants with a weekly “public weigh in” because accountability changes people’s behavior. Simply put, it works.

Don’t try to achieve your goals in a vacuum. Very few people can do that. We need to be accountable for our actions to people who will help us hone our ideas, encourage us or give us a kick in the behind when we need it. We need ongoing support from people who are committed to seeing us acheive our goals. (And see above – if you don’t have a structure for that happening, it probably won’t!)

Get an accountability partner, join a committed mastermind group, hire a coach (or all three - some successful people have several coaches and accountability partners!) Just make sure that you’ve got people to keep you on track, and that if you don’t move towards your goals, somebody will notice!

You’re setting the wrong goals.

Year after year, if you’re not reaching your goals or attaining your resolutions, it’s time to examine the target, not the arrow.

Maybe your law practice has never gotten off the ground because, after all, you never really wanted to be a lawyer anyhow. (That was your father’s goal for you.)

Perhaps you have internal conflicts, such as is common with financial goals. (You want to be a multi-millionaire, but you have judgments about people with money.)

Or perhaps your conscious mind and your soul wisdom are pulling in two different directions… which might happen if your goals aren’t aligned with your passions or your highest good, or when you’re simply too attached to the outcome. (Observe how someone desperate to be in a relationship ends up repelling potential dates with their neediness.)

You want things to change, but you’re not willing to start with you.

Sometimes we try to grow our business without growing ourselves. We think our relationship will get better when our partner gets their act together. We’re still looking for the magic pill that will help us lose 20 pounds without changing what we eat. More clients and more success sound fantastic, but we think all we need is some “technique.” (Get a Twitter account and a Facebook fanpage and it’ll all be good….)

The reality is, you have to grow yourself to grow your business. You’ve got to look at how you’re managing your time, your finances, your relationships, your health, your clients.

How are we living life? With focus and discipline, or without it? With a good attitude and positive expectations, or with cynicism and dread? Are we obsessing over the economy and external factors, when we should be focusing on our own productivity, environment, and mindset?

You’re focusing on what you don’t want instead of what you want.

This is probably the simplest and yet most difficult secret of making any kind of change in our lives. (Simple to explain and understand, difficult to do consistently.)

Often we get stuck in a place of “resisting what is” instead of “creating what’s next.” We make excuses and defend why we don’t have what we want. Maybe we feel resentful, or jealous that others are enjoying the love, the money, or the fitness that we desire. Worse yet, we might be stuck in fear, our energy zapped by our fixation with potential “worse case scenarios” rather than applied to forward momentum.

Sure, you may have your affirmations posted, right next to your dream board. You might start your day with intentionally visualizing your realized goals, and you even have a coach or an accountability partner. But try setting an alarm every hour for a week as a reminder to observe your thoughts. Where does your focus naturally go?

You don’t even set goals or make resolutions.

Maybe we’re not confident in our ability to create what we want, or too cynical to think we can have it. Perhaps we’re tired of making excuses for why our dreams seem so elusive, so we don’t even start. (Or maybe we’re not aware that everything we create in our life first begins with a thought, an intention, an idea. We think that things just “happen to us” passively and so we don’t even try to influence the outcome.)

It’s hard to win the game if you’re not on the court. This year, instead of watching from the sidelines, jump in and play. And if you don’t have powerful practices, rituals and support to move your intentions forward into reality, you might want to make that your #1 Resolution for 2010.

(reprinted from Biznik.com)

I’ll be exploring how we can all Jump-Start our year though the principles of “Dream Creation.” You’ll discover how to Super-charge your goals and intentions, and we’ll also have some great hands-on practices as well as resources to help you launch the New Year right.

This event is (amazingly enough) FRE*E! It’s held from 7pm -9pm (or come anytime after 6:30 to network). It happens the first Wednesday each month and is currently held on the City University Campus in Bellevue. To RSVP and get directions (or to find out about future events) go here.

I look forward to seeing you soon, tonight or some other time!
Kate

These predictions are from a number of “channels” that gathered recently in Sedona, Az (see details) the song is “Amazing” from the UK band One Eskimo.

I make no predictions myself, I just love the vibe of this video and I’d be thrilled to see even some of these predictions become reality!

Happy New Year, may 2010 see the fulfillment of your deepest desires.
Kate

Pick up your pen, your phone, knock on a door, even use your computer, and contact ten people you are grateful for.

It doesn’t matter if you see them daily or if you haven’t spoken in years. (Actually, they don’t even have to be living, you can still write them a letter).

Tell these ten people the impact they have had on your life, and thank them.

Go ahead, make their day.

(It’ll make you feel pretty good, too!)

And for “extra credit,” leave a comment below telling about your experience doing it!

Happy Thanksgiving,
Kate

(p.s. It need not be on Thanksgiving, you can take the Gratitude Challenge any day of the year!)

Stay tuned for the G.R.A.T.I.T.U.D.E Formula series!

Not only is this video HILARIOUS, but comedian Louis C.K. points out some real truths:

• Technology has made our lives are easier and given us more possibilities in many ways than for any previous generation.
• Our “automatic response” tends to be to complain about every little thing anyway.
• Younger generations can especially trend towards attitudes of entitlement or being spoiled.
• We tend to miss the opportunity to live in wonder and gratitude in spite of our many blessings.

Consider the discovery of best-selling authors Marci Shimoff (Happy for No Reason), T. Harv Eker (Secrets of the Millionaire Mind) and others:

Happiness is not a result of wealth, but a preceding condition for wealth.  Yes, studies show that the happier you are, the more likely you are to become wealthy! 

We’ve had it backwards.  Don’t wait to have more money to be happy with your life.  Be happy now, and watch how doors are more likely to open for people who are already living in joy, gratitude, and satisfaction.

So enjoy the video, and more importantly, enjoy the wonders of your fabulous day.

Kate

Even moreso than my previous post on the swine flu, it is ironic because I have felt in recent weeks that I “can’t” take a day off, that I simply “don’t have time” to do everything I “need to do,” between my father’s surgeries, my travel, multiple businesses and projects that all feel urgent for one reason or another.

Predictably, it is at times exactly such as this that my body chooses to teach me a simple lesson (again). Welcome onto the stage of my life: The Crud. (Imagine dramatic Beethoven’s 5th Symphony opening line here.)

In marches this temporary illness, and all of the sudden… I discover I actually can clear a day or two - just for me! I can ignore emails and phone, take a nap, watch an old movie (in sections, because all at once is too tiring), and spend a couple of unhurried days with everything and everyone rescheduled to my convenience so that I can do…

Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

Sometimes I go into denial about illness, ignore the warning signs an try to do “too much” in spite of it, but not this time. I am going with the flow, loving what is, embracing the moment.

Apparently, my yard didn’t really “need” to be mowed. I didn’t “have” to mix my cd project this weekend. The “crucial” work project waiting for me can wait a few more days. I even unplugged my phone last Friday, it wasn’t “necessary” for me to answer it or even check the messages.

In a strange way, I think I almost enjoyed this flu. (Mind you, I didn’t have the stomach flu, I would have to be really enlightened or a few beans shy of a mocha to enjoy that.) The sickness allowed me to take a break, dissect and examine one of the prevailing stories of my current life: “I’m too busy.”

“Too busy” is really just a scarcity conversation around time, combined with a failure to own the choices made with my time and activities and the false assumption that I “must” DO all the things that my mind and internal expectations say I “should” do. “Too busy” a myth that I cycle in and out of, in spite of my intentions to move beyond it. Part habit and part belief system, perhaps this encounter with the crud will cure me. (This is my second this year, and it is unusual for me to be sick at all.)

As author and fundraiser Lynne Twist points out in The Soul of Money (an excellent examination of scarcity vs “sufficiency”), “there’s not enough” is one of the toxic myths of scarcity.

…for many of us, the first waking thought of the day is “I didn’t get enough sleep.”  The next one is “I don’t have enough time.”  Whether true or not, that thought of not enough occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it.  We spend most of the hours and the days of our lives hearing, explaining, complaining, or worrying about what we don’t have enough of…. 

We don’t have enough exercise.  We don’t have enough work.  We don’t have enough weekends.  Of course we don’t have enough money - ever.  Before we even sit up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we’re already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something….

We live with scarcity as an underlying assumption.

Twist goes on to argue the case for sufficiency, that in reality, we are enough.  We have enough.  Using our inner as well as our outer resources and working together, we discover the surprising truth that there is enough for everyone.

But first, we’ve got to question the myth of scarcity.  We’ve got to unplug from the mindset that our marketing-driven consumer culture promotes as matter-of-fact: that we’re lacking in some way (and if only we “try this”, “buy that,” and “consume more” can we be saved from our own inadequacy).

In my coaching practice, I’m always asking others to look at the “gift” their particular challenge has brought them, and what lesson it has for them. Taking my own medicine, I’ve had a chance to ponder the “upsides” of being sick. 

I’ve enjoyed eating less, and eating lighter food. I’ve been saying I “should” simplify my diet and detox for a bit, and here I am with lots of juice and chicken soup, doing just that. In the last week I’ve also delegated more, read more, and I’ve put my “shoulds” on hold. (Maybe I’ll leave them there.)

Right now, my body has a message to convey, and I am all ears.

Slow down. Take care of yourself. East right. Take time to rest and relax. Stay connected with what’s going on inside, not consuming yourself with activity. Question what really needs to be done, and by who.

I love what Brian Tracy (and others) have said about “time management” - that there is “no such thing,” because we cannot manage time, only activities. No matter how much or how little anyone “accompishes” in a day, we all get the same 24 hour allotment. While some people wait in boredom for the minutes to pass, others such as I would gladly apply for a world with 25, 26, or 27 hour days.

Tracy goes onto explain that we can only do one of four things with our activities:
1. Do more of something.
2. Do less of something.
3. Start doing something you weren’t previously doing.
4. Stop doing something you were previously doing.

Today, I’ll

sleep more

talk less

start a contemplation on the sufficiency of time to do the things I am committed to doing,

and stop worrying about “getting it all done.”

After noting the epidemic of swine flu fear and panic abounding in the press and public, my friend Bryan Rust recently concluded an email with the words, “Waiting for a Viral Outbreak of Common Sense.” 

The Seattle Times expects the swine flu to hit up to one-third of Washington State residents, it has already hit Washington State University hard, where 2,200 students have reported symptoms, and WHO (World Health Organization) has labelled it a “pandemic.” An expert on Fox News warned people to be sure “not to hug and kiss.”

I’m finding random friends asking me about the swine flu… what do I think? Do I fear my daughter will get it at school? Am I going to get a flu shot? Etc. etc. etc….

In answer to the questions, what I’m doing and what I think about the swine flu is this:

Nothing.

I’m not thinking about the swine flu.  I’m not reading about it.  I’m not watching newscasts about it.  I’m sorry that so many people are sick, and I’m taking normal precautions such as handwashing, but I hardly see how my fretting, talking about and giving energy and attention to the swine flu epidemic helps anyone “get well soon” or improves my or anybody else’s quality of life one iota.

The last time I checked, didn’t stress and worry only add to potential health problems?  Didn’t Dr. Bernie Siegal prove that laughter is the best medicine with decades of research?  Yes, Siegal’s work confirmed without a doubt that the mind-body connection is a powerful force, and that Faith, Hope and Healing and Love, Medicine and Miracles (titles of two of his books) go together like peanut butter and chocolate.

Like the old newspaper adage says, “If it bleeds it leads.”  What would we possibly think and talk about if not something negative, awful, tragic or worrysome?  Ha!  The sad truth is that the swine flu was only topping the headlines because there was nothing worse to report.  (Today the discovery of the Yale student Annie Le’s body takes precedence in the news, though on Twitter, it’s Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift.)

I’m not clear if it’s the pig-connection or the amount of people ill that make this particular flu headline news and the most-searched topic on Yahoo! today, but in case you missed the news, a lot of people have the flu. 

More accurately, a lot of people have a mild case of the flu.  As one Associate Press article observed, “Compared with other types of influenza, the swine flu or H1N1 strain is relatively mild, Garcia said. He said most students suffer three to five days of discomfort, such as fever, congestion, sore throat and fatigue.” (emphasis mine)  It’s not even as ferocious as classic influenza, which will commonly keep people in bed for up to two weeks.  (In bed or in the bathroom, as you ponder how your body can possibly have anything more to purge.)

The good news (or bad news, depending on how you look at it) is that your chances of dying in a car accident today are much worse than your chances of contracting a fatal case of swine flu. 

I am reminded of a quote attributed to Mark Twain:

“I’ve had thousands of problems in my life, most of which never actually happened.”

Remember the “bird flu” that had some people paralyzed with fear?  At least we can worry about a real problem now instead of fretting about a threat that never arrives!  But what Twain was pointing out was that most of our problems do not exist in the real world, they exist between our ears.  Worry, fear, distraction, these actually are the real problems!  A mild flu?  More of an inconvenience than a genuine “problem.”

The real problem is how many of us are conditioned to think of the “worst case scenario” first, rather than dwell on possibilities. I believe the simplest and most profound change that anyone can make in their mindset is to focus on what you want vs. what you fear or what you don’t want.

This awareness might or might not save you from a round with the flu, but I’ll bet it’ll help at least as much as a flu shot.  If you are expecting to get sick and fearing getting sick, you actually raise your chances of getting sick.  If you expect to recover and believe that you are getting better, your body will rally to support that belief. 

And I’m not just talking “positive thinking” or “Law of Attraction,” I’m talking about documented science as to the connection and integration between mind and body.  No doubt you’re familiar with something called “the Placebo Effect.”  The Skeptic’s Dictionary defines “placebo”  as “the measurable, observable or felt improvement in health and or behavior not attributable to a medication or invasive treatment….”

In a nutshell, the placebo effect demonstrates that the patient’s belief in a treatment can be more important than the efficacy of the treatment itself, to the point where an inert sugar pill has been proven to be more powerful, in many instances, than actual medication.  In 1955, placebo effect pioneer H.K. Beecher studied over 1,000 patients and discovered that a placebo was all that was needed for the patient to get well in 35% of cases!

Even more shocking has been experiments done with “fake surgery”, for instance, one small experiment found that 8 of 8 patients who believed they had knee surgery (an incision was made and stitches left behind) made complete recoveries!  In other instances, such as when dealing with pain or gastric upset, placebos have been found to be helpful in 50 -60% of cases.  (See Skeptic’s Dictionary for details.)

Perhaps more relevant and critical to the swine flu discussion is that of the “Nocebo Effect.”  While placebo can be translated, “I will please,” nocebo means “I will harm.”  From deadly voodoo “bone-pointing ceremonies” to those who go into shock and die from bites from non-poisonous snakes (believing them poisonous), the belief system about what might is harmful as well as helpful is likewise a powerful predictor of experience.  The ultimate in self-fulfilling prophecies, a Washington Post article called the nocebo the “evil twin” of the placebo, citing research that women who believed they were high risk for heart disease were four times more likely to die than women with comparable risk factors who lacked fatalistic expectations.

As Deepak Chopra has asserted in interviews and books, the nocebo effect’s power lies not simply in the negativity of the suggestion, but the perceived authority of the person making the negative pronouncment (or placing the voodoo hex.)  He believes that physicians (the perceived “authority”) actually perpetuate low recovery rates when they, for instance, tell a patient that they only have a 10% chance of recovery from their cancer or illness.  It’s a case of chicken and the egg - which came first, the negative prognosis or the lowered chance of recovery?

I suggest that, if the mind is as powerful as it’s been proven to be (and I believe this is but the tip of the iceberg), that we’d be better off with supportive beliefs of our impending health and wealth than listening to the media’s monotonous, hypnotizing predictions of illness, povery and doom.

No matter what you choose to call it - the Law of Attraction, the Placebo Effect, Positive Thinking… the fact remains that the way we think has a real and measurable effect on the events of our lives and how we experience those events. We don’t just “experience” life like a passive bystander, we also get to co-create our lives and participate in the moment-to-moment birthing process known as “life.”

That all being said, a lot of people have the flu right now.  Sometimes, in spite of the best attitudes, good habits and supportive beliefs, stuff happens.  If you have the swine flu, you probably already know what to do.  Stay home, rest, and drink lots of fluids.  Don’t go kissing and hugging everyone.  And imagine that any moment now, you’re going to start feeling better.  Before you know it, you will.

Oh, and one more critical piece of advice - if you have influenza, swine flu, food poisoning or anything of that nature, remember that you should have access at all times to a toilet plus a large bowl or sick-bag.  If fluids need to exit your body from more than one opening at the same time, it’s a bitch to have to choose which end gets the toilet.

What do they do and why do they do it?

What inspires them to work long hours with little support and no guarantee of success?

Excerpts of the resulting interviews and other footage are being edited into a documentary called SHINE (a big film about small business).

Karrie Kohlhaas interviewed me. Hear why I’m NOT a financial planner, how I spent much of my life prejudiced against people with money, what forgiveness has to do with wealth and what’s so great about being an entrepreneur:

To see trailers of the film, click here.

Stay tuned for a link to SHINE: the song! (I wrote a song inspired by the project, it will be on my MySpace page soon. www.myspace.com/katephillipsmusic

Scarcely has anyone been so popularly loved as Michael Jackson, his popularity even surviving controversy, accusations, and questions brought on by molestation charges.  When many people look at Michael Jackson, they see a huge success, a tremendous talent, and a man loved by millions.  Many who knew him saw a true friend.  His daughter, Paris, saw “the best dad ever.”

But what did Michael Jackson see when he looked in the mirror?

I was struck by the obvious in the photos, videos and parade of internet slideshows - the immense changes made to the structure of Michael’s face, skin and hair over the decades, as he became almost unrecognizable from the boy we once knew.  (One comedian remarked, “Only in America can a black boy grow up to be a white woman.”) 

The contrast has been made even more profound by comparing Michael’s photos with recent pictures and video of his family members, the people to whom he once bore such a resemblance to.

I can only conclude that, on some level, Michael saw a man unacceptable to himself.  Someone who needed to be fixed, changed, even destroyed or made to disappear.

Interestingly, I found that although Michael Jackson wrote 17 of his mega-hits, he didn’t write “Man in the Mirror” (one of my favorite Jackson songs, it was penned by Glen Ballard and Siedah Garrett). The video to “Man in the Mirror” was also a departure, featuring only one brief “where’s waldo” image of Michael Jackson himself, donning a red jacket in a crowd.

Perhaps Michael could not have written the song, and perhaps the irony was too great to see Jackson’s face-in-flux proclaiming “take a look at yourself and make a change.”  Still, the song proclaims a simple yet profound truth:

Change begins with us.

Do we long for an end to war?  It would be invevitable in a world filled with people of inner peace. 

Do we wish for abundance?  It would happen naturally in a world of people who understood the value of each and every person. 

Are we committed to “let love rule” on earth as it is in heaven?  It would be unavoidable in a world of people who loved themselves.

Do we want to transform the economy?  One person can hardly make a dent.  But millions of individuals?  Together we can and do make a difference.  As Biznik co-founder Dan McComb is fond of saying to independent entrepreneurs, “What the economy needs now is for you to succeed.”

The Money Mirror: A reflection of our self-worth?

We like to think of money as this thing outside of us, this thing that can save us or victimize us, bless us or curse us, deliver our dreams or keep us from them.  We give power to it (while imagining ourselves helpless), we love it, we resent it, we woo it, blame it, covet it, rail against it.

What we might not see is how money is a reflection of our relationship with ourselves.

Look in the money mirror - what reflection do you see?

Do you self-sabotage?  You’ll sabotage yourself with money.

Are you good at self-care?  You’ll use money in a caring way, taking care of your needs and providing for your future.

Do you have trouble looking out for yourself and setting boundaries?  You’ll give money away even when you can’t afford to.

Do you lack the confidence to pursue your dreams?  You might make sure you can never quite “afford” to pursue them.

You see, money is never “just” about money.  It’s an external indication of what is going on “underneath the surface.” 

Just as the relationships around us can be used to fulfill our biggest dreams and worst fears (are we loved or alone?  Admired or abused?), so we can manipulate money to create self-fulfilling prophecies.  (Are we thrivers or strivers?  Do we soar or struggle?) 

And as interested as I am in the results people get with their money, I know that we won’t be very successful in changing our finances without first changing ourselves.

The best news?  As we change the underlying factors, learning to

shift our self-talk,
grow our confidence,
develop our boundaries,
give in the spirit of true contribution,
and treat ourselves with kindness and respect, truly loving ourselves,

we’ll change a lot more than just our money.  Everything else will change, too.  Everything! 

Sometimes we try to change our money without changing ourselves.  Without a change in our beliefs or motivation, budgets are about as effective as diets.  Perhaps you’ll see some short-term improvements, but typically all ground gained will soon be lost.  It’s a bit like tearing the apples off of an apple tree and stapling on oranges… not very effective. 

Without changing the roots, you can’t change the fruit permanently, only temporarily.

Like my friend George Huang says, one of the reasons he left plastic surgery to become a conscious business coach was that he was weary of transforming people on the outside while they often remained unhealed on the inside. For some patients, no amount of reconstructive or cosmetic surgery could make them acceptable to themselves.

Interestingly enough, addicts of Diprivan or Propofol (the drug Jackson had administered so that he could sleep) say they seek this drug to “disappear,” “escape,” or “not exist” even moreso than to help them sleep.

Perhaps Jackson could never make peace with the man in the mirror for the same reason he couldn’t sleep at night: he did not have peace within himself. Unhealed and unreconciled within himself, both the image in the mirror and his own conscious existence remained burdens for him.

Two Kinds of Wealth

I have come to believe there are two kinds of wealth:
1) true wealth that is an expression of a person’s worth, the worth that they feel and “own,” which is also a reflection of the contribution they make to others, and
2) the wealth that is used to compensate for a missing sense of “worth.”  This second kind of “wealth” may look the same on the outside, but is actually a substitute, a cover-up for a lack of worth felt on the inside.

Perhaps this explains why someone with Jackson’s phenomenal success and savvy (he had the wisdom to buy some of the rights to The Beatles song catalog) only narrowly escaped foreclosure and died with debts of hundreds of millions of dollars.  (I repeat, hundreds of millions in debt!) 

Michael Jackson gave and received so much through his contribution of entertainment, but he also spent lavishly and beyond what he could afford.  Though ultimately solvent due to his tremendous assets, even the King of Pop, with all his royalties and some of the Beatles’ as well, couldn’t live within his means.

If you wanna make the world a better place… Start with your mirror.

The next time you look at yourself over the bathroom vanity or see your reflection in a window, check it out.  You… perfect, whole and complete, just the way you are.  Be sure to connect with the eyes looking back at you.  Smile and say hi.  Gaze at yourself with kindness.  Remember to say how much you love yourself.  You don’t need to be fixed or changed.  From a place of self-acceptance and self-love, you are in the perfect starting place to build true wealth.

Michael sang in “Childhood,” “Before you judge me, try hard to love me.”  I don’t know if Michael was able to take his own advice.  Yes, many in the world gave him a hard time, but rarely were they mocking Michael himself.  They were only mirroring his own lack of acceptance, mocking the ways he kept “fixing and changing” himself.  From a beloved and talented public figure to a National Enquirer oddity, the boy from Gary, Indiana never gave himself the love and acceptance that his family, friends, and millions of fans did.

Love starts in the mirror.  Love begins with us.

Michael, may you finally rest in peace.  You were always beautiful.