What if what we think are major setbacks in our lives are actually blessings in disguise? What if these personal disasters are not disasters at all? What if a setback is the only way to untangle a knot and move you forward on your path? What if problems, personal disasters, and setbacks are mechanisms used to get you off of one path and onto another?

Years ago my boyfriend broke his leg. I took him to the hospital where they x-rayed his leg and found he’d broken his ankle. Big bummer right? For a very healthy and active person, this may have appeared to be a setback. But in the x-ray, the doctors discovered a strange growth on his shin bone. It was a tumor. They removed it and told him that breaking his ankle probably saved his entire leg. Was breaking his ankle a setback or a blessing?

When I first separated from my husband in 2009 I saw it as a huge setback. I was worried about how I was going to stabilize my income, take care of two children largely on my own, and cope with the loss of what I thought was going to be my companion for life. However, it didn’t take long for me to realize what a blessing our separation was. The sense of independence, freedom, and joy I have is monumental. I ramped up my business in ways I probably never would have thought of while in the confines of my marriage. And I found myself again, and grew into the person I am today, whom I love dearly. It was a difficult process, but definitely a blessing.

But what is orchestrating these setbacks? Is it just random luck? Or is it orchestrated?

I personally believe our spirit guides and higher selves have a lot to do with it. Your higher self set an intention for you before you incarnated. Knowing you’d forget this intention, your higher self assigned you some spirit guides to help nudge you along and keep you on track. When your guides see you’re going down a road that is not aligned with your intentions, they begin looking for ways to adjust your course, to nudge you off one path and onto another. These spiritual detours sometimes appear devastating because you’re not expecting them and often they are severely uncomfortable, but sometimes they are the only way to get you on another path.

I have learned over the years to trust my guides. I may not enjoy the setbacks while they’re happening, but I trust that when something major happens to me that it is serving a purpose and that it’s in my highest good.

The way to turn a setback into a blessing is to have a paradigm shift when something “bad” happens. Instead of seeing it as devastating, begin to look at where it’s going to lead you.

Did you get fired? Maybe it’s time to start that business you’ve been thinking about for years.

Did you get into a horrible car accident and have to spend a month in the hospital? Maybe that’s where you’re going to meet your future spouse.

Did you have a miscarriage? Maybe the time and conditions are not quite right for that baby to arrive, but with some adjustments, the timing will be much better.

Is there any way to know where the guides are trying to get you to go so you don’t have to have a setback to get on track? Yes! Being in touch with your intuition and your guides can keep you on your path so you don’t have to get slammed in the face by disaster. Meditate to tune in to your guides, and determine your dominant intuitive modality so you can strengthen it. If necessary, you can get a reading with me and I’ll tell you what path your guides are trying to move you towards and how to get there without a huge setback.

When a setback happens to you, instead of getting upset and banging your head against the wall, ask yourself, “What’s good about this? What is the universe trying to get me to see? Why is the road I’ve been on now blocked by rubble, and which way am I being drawn to go next?”

When I was 10 years old, during a period of heavy rains, the hill behind our house came down in a huge mudslide. It was frightening watching tons of mud encroaching on our house, threatening its foundation. I remember my mom screaming for us to get out of the house before it collapsed onto us or buried us. After everything stopped moving, only our garage was filled with mud, but the house was intact. I remember my mom looking around the backyard at the damage and musing to herself, “You know… I always wanted a mound in the backyard. Now I don’t have to pay a landscaper to build one. It’s even in the right spot. How lucky is that?” Luck indeed.

Setbacks are opportunities to head off in a new direction that will likely make you happier. Instead of standing agape at the disaster, start to pick through the rubble and see where you might uncover a blessing. Trust me, it’s there. You may not see it right away. In fact it may take years and a lot of hindsight. But it’s there.

© 2006-2011 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. Rejection is a Blessing
2. How do you recover after an emotional setback?
3. Isn’t there a less painful way to learn spiritual lessons?
4. How To Tell the Difference Between Your Ego, Logic, Spirit Guides and Intuition
5. The Secret to Forgiving Yourself
6. Is guidance from your higher self better than guidance from your spirit guides?
7. I Can Do It Seminar Review

I’ll tell you. Meet the Ego Imp. He sits on your shoulder and whispers disempowering things in your ear. And you know what? You don’t have to listen to him. That’s right, you are under no contract, legal or otherwise, to sit there and listen to him ramble on incessantly about how horrible you are and how you’re just going to keep failing. You can shut him down.

“But, Erin, my Ego Imp has a megaphone. For a little guy he sure packs quite a wallop! How am I supposed to shut the little guy up?” Fear not! There are two steps to putting a muzzle on the Ego Imp.

First, you must become aware of when he’s talking to you. Should be obvious right? But it isn’t. The Ego Imp attacks you when your vibration is low, when you feel disconnected from love, when you’ve suffered a setback or emotional blow. And he’s insidious. He sounds like your own mind. He sounds like he’s making perfect sense. He appears to mirror exactly what you think your own self would say.

This is why it’s vital that you become aware of when the Ego Imp is whispering sweet nothings in your ear. You’ll recognize the thoughts because they are always disempowering, and they are not based in fact. The thoughts are based on conjecture alone. Are you REALLY never going to find love? Are you REALLY never going to make it in your chosen profession? No! That’s just speculation. These thoughts are just a conclusion drawn in a disempowering way designed to make you give up, feel bad, and take your ball and go home.

So the first step to stifling that Ego Imp is to become aware of when he’s talking to you. When you realize you’re having the disempowering thoughts, say, “Oh, I see you there, you little bugger. I know you’re whispering at me.” Seriously, that’s half the battle. The Ego Imp thrives on you not noticing when he’s talking to you. So shine a light on his impy ways and let him know that you know he’s there.

Now you’re ready to take him down. Get into position, bend your knees, find your center of gravity, and get ready to rumble! You’re about to do battle with your Ego Imp.

When he says, “You’re never going to find love,” you fire back with a more empowering thought; one that is just as accurate, if not more so. For example, “Oh yeah? I’m willing to wait for the right person and I’m not going to settle.” Score one for you.

Then the Ego Imp might say, “You’re nobody special.” So you counter with, “I’m unique, there’s no one else in the world like me. That right there means I’m special.” Burn! You: 2 Ego Imp: 0

Ego Imp is getting nervous, so he fires with, “You’re worthless. You can’t do anything right. You’re never going to succeed!” He’s sly, but you respond with, “I can think of at least 10 things that I CAN do right, and I will figure out how to put something together that is of value to others and run with it. I can’t be stopped unless I stop myself.”

Ego Imp is sweating now. His bullets are hitting Kevlar. He takes one final stab, “You’re not worthy of love!” Oh, ouch! Right below the belt. Ego Imp has hit a nerve, but you’re still standing and reply triumphantly with, “I was BORN worthy of love and that will never change no matter what happens!”

Game, set and match. Ego Imp slumps to the floor in defeat, waving his white flag in surrender. You’ve just shut down the Ego Imp. He’s completely depleted. He knows that no matter what he says to you, you can ALWAYS find a more empowering thought.

If you want, you can flick Ego Imp off your shoulder. Heck, stomp on him a couple of times if you’re in the mood. Then delete him and go on about your day.

The fact of the matter is that no one, not even yourself, can make you feel bad without your permission. You’re the one that lets the Ego Imp in, and you can escort him out just as easily. Once you do, you make way for more resourceful thoughts. You allow your mind to open to new possibilities. You can make new plans. It’s a good time to listen to your higher self, the one that knows your greatness already, the one that knows what you planned for yourself in this life, and wants to help you get it.

So there you have it… how to shut down the Ego Imp. Next time he clears his throat and gets ready to barrage you with disempowering thoughts you’re going to say, “Pfft, off with you, you little monster. You are not welcome on THIS shoulder!”

Winner and still champion: YOU!

© 2006-2011 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. How do you recover after an emotional setback?
2. Fear-Based Guides
3. Honoring the Tears
4. Pinpricks of Light
5. Guided Meditation as a Tool for Speaking with Spirit Guides
6. Do deceased couples stay together on the other side?
7. How to Quiet Distracting Thoughts During Meditation

So in this paradigm, anything and everything in your environment affects you, some positively and some negatively. He talked about ways to reduce the negative energies and pull in more of the positive energies.

Immediately I was struck by how important it is to surround ourselves with the people, places, and things that make us feel good, and to try to remove as much of the people, places, and things that negatively impact our energy or cause us to feel bad.

For example, if you’re going to a job you hate, every single day, you’ll likely notice your energy is drained. You may even dread going to work. On the other hand, if you’re going to a job you love with coworkers you adore, you’re going to get a lot of joy and positive energy out of going to work every day. It will be an uplifting experience.

Or if you have a stagnant relationship or you’re having difficulties in your relationship you’ll start to notice that you dread coming home to your partner. That’s a drain. But if you have a super loving relationship with a super compatible person, you’ll derive great positive energy from interacting with them.

If you make a list of all the people, places, and things that impact you and then you make a quick evaluation about their effect on you, you’ll get a good idea of what’s bringing you down and what’s raising your vibration. Then you can take conscious action to improve a negative relationship or situation, or eliminate it if it can’t be altered.

When I looked at my connections, they were 90% positive. There are very few things bringing me down in life right now. Literally the biggest “bummers” in my life right now are a malfunctioning dishwasher, carpets I can’t seem to get clean, and a housekeeper that causes me more aggravation than I’d like. In the near future, I will take the steps necessary to correct these situations so I can move throughout my day without constant aggravation.

But the other aspect of the Love principle is more proactive. Who or what would you like to connect with more? Is there anything missing from your life that you’d like to add that would uplift you or raise your vibration even higher? At the workshop, we made a list of what else we’d like to attract into our lives that we know would make us feel more loved and loving.

For me, it was two things. I’d like to attract a loving relationship with a partner. It’s been 2 years since I separated from Steve and I’ve been really enjoying being single. It’s filled me with a sense of independence and freedom I can’t ever remember having. But now I feel ready to enter into a new relationship with a loving partner. So I wrote that down as something I’m ready to attract.

The second thing I wanted to attract was more involvement in providing emergency services during disasters. If you’ve been connecting with me on Facebook or through the forums, you’ll know I have a passion for emergency preparedness and being able to assist my community or individuals in times of disaster.

And so it was, on Day 2 of CGW I could not attend because I was signed up for the Red Cross Class: Chapter Response to Disaster, which is the prerequisite course I needed to take in order to be certified to respond to a disaster on behalf of the Red Cross. When I got to the classroom there were 12 other students there ready to take the course. The instructor had us introduce ourselves, our background, and share why we were taking the class. It was at this time I completely internalized and understood the power of the principle of Love.

Every single person in that room was there because they wanted to help their fellow man. Every person in there had a day job or was retired, and simply wanted to give back to their community. They were compassionate, caring, and selfless. I had never been in a room full of people so dedicated to helping others, for free, on their own time. It literally sent a wave of love chills up my back to be surrounded by others all committed to the same thing I was.

So that’s when I realized how much I’d been missing this vital connection in my life. While I sat there chatting with everyone, I realized they just got me. They completely understood my love and desire to help others, to provide comfort and relief to those suffering. I didn’t have to explain it or justify it. We were all on the same wavelength. It felt fantastic.

I felt something similar when I attended the I Can Do It conference put on by Hay House. It was like finding my tribe. I didn’t have to explain about being intuitive. Everyone there was completely comfortable with the concept. There was no explaining or defending or shying away from discussing things like chakras, astral projection, and the paranormal.

Do you surround yourself with people who plug into the aspects of your life that you care about the most? Do you have people around you who mirror, reflect, or share the passions you also have? What does it feel like?

Or are you surrounded by people who just don’t get you? How does THAT feel?

If you love the wilderness, do you go hiking with others who share that love? If you love cooking, do you surround yourself with others who love to cook and co-create something together? If you love skiing, do you belong to a ski club or group? Do you love a certain tv show? Do you have someone you can talk to after the show airs, someone who shares your passion and can talk about the characters and plot for days without getting bored?

When you bring loving connections into your life, it just makes your life better. You’re more fulfilled, you’re understood, and you get to share your passion with others who get it.

I hope you have a ton of these passionate connections. If you don’t, I urge you to try to bring them into your life. Make a list of your passions, hobbies, desires. Then figure out where or how you could connect with others who share your hobbies. You’ll be amazed at the joy it brings you, and how much more fun your life becomes.

© 2006-2011 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. Soul Mates vs. Soul Connections
2. Can You Use Law of Attraction to Attract a Specific Person Into Your Life?
3. The Importance of Written Goals
4. 5 Steps to Greater Empathy and Oneness
5. Respecting Your Partner in Public
6. Tell Them Now
7. The Importance of Staff Meetings When Self-Employed

So I asked her if she knew how to quilt. She brightened up and said, “Oh yes, I’ve been quilting for years. Practically my whole life. I’ve made more quilts than I can count.” Interesting. So I went back to the guides and asked them what quilting had to do with her career path. Was she supposed to make and sell quilts or what?

The guides conveyed that just making quilts and selling them wouldn’t be lucrative enough for her. They downloaded an entire business plan to me. This is what they shared with me and what I then shared with her: “They’re showing me you creating an online magazine related to quilting, sewing, and other home economic tips. They’re also showing me you creating an instructional video related to quilting, and information products also. They’re showing me you selling patterns and ideas for patterns, creating an online discussion community, and also offering a ‘quilts for sale’ kind of board like an ebay. They’re telling me also that you used to do some writing and that an online magazine would actually be easy for you to operate. Is that right?”

She was speechless for a moment then said, “Yes, I took a lot of writing classes in college because at one point I wanted to be a journalist but abandoned that idea in favor of something more stable in the tech industry. I never really thought to do anything professional with it, but I’ve dabbled here and there with writing articles, and I’ve also tried blogging about my personal life but it didn’t work out for me as I had no traffic.”

Then I asked her if the quilting business idea resonated with her, and she said, “Absolutely it does. I never would have thought I could make money with a hobby. I thought the only way to make money quilting was to sell quilts and I don’t have the time and energy to do that like I used to. But teaching others and providing a learning forum, and writing about it would be so awesome. And now that you’re telling me this, it just makes so much sense. Plus I could work from home which I would really love to do!”

We spent the next 15 minutes making a solid business plan for her. She realized she could start almost immediately. She added plans to let other people contribute to the magazine so she wouldn’t have to write all the articles herself, she was going to add an expert panel to do some Q&A, and get an outline going of what departments she wanted her magazine to have. She was elated. She was stoked. She had a plan that resonated with her and would make her happy. And her guides explained how she would start this on the side while she still had her current tech job, and once it could replace her income, she would quit her tech job.

And this happens ALL THE TIME in the readings I do with clients. People don’t always realize or see that the things they do for fun – their hobbies and passions – can be turned into a new career. This woman was in her late 50′s. She’d been quilting and sewing for decades. She had no idea that her knowledge and experience would be of significant value to others who were just starting out. She didn’t realize she was an expert.

What skills, knowledge, or experience do you currently have that make you an expert to those just starting out? What’s under your belt?

When I first started my spirituality blog in 2006 I thought, “Who is going to want to hear about my paranormal, astral, and lucid dreaming experiences? Who would want to hear what I have to say about compassion and love? How do my intuitive experiences help anyone?” Five years later, my blog gets more than 100,000 visitors per month and I earn a solid living providing intuitive counseling and spiritual guidance to others. All I’m doing is sharing what I know with those who are seeking.

If you’re in a career that isn’t making you happy anymore, think about the skills, hobbies, and passions you have. Think about what you know that you could pass on to others who are just starting out. Is it of value? Could you construct a business around it that would offer something of value to others?

Think outside the box. Be creative. Don’t discount anything. Are you really good at hiking? Who might want to learn from you? Are you really good at giving advice to your friends? Who might benefit from your wisdom? Are you great at self-defense? Who could you teach? Are you awesome at attracting women? Might there be people out there who would kill or die for your knowledge? Are you extremely healthy and fit? Could you teach others how you got that way?

You’re an expert. At something. And there are people coming along the path behind you who would happily pay you to teach them what you know. It can shave years off their learning curve. Start thinking about who you are and how you got there, and see if you can find a way to help others find what you’ve already found.

© 2006-2011 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. How To Find and Ignite Your Passion
2. The Importance of Written Goals
3. The Value of Attending Conferences
4. Are You Singing Your Song?
5. How To Choose a Career That Will Make You Happy
6. How to Pick Between Two Paths
7. How To Know When To Leave Your Job

Oh don’t worry, you can still pick up your old emotion tomorrow, if you want to. But just for today, set it aside. You don’t have to be mean to it, or angry with the feeling. Honor and respect it. But send it on vacation. Just for 24 hours.

How are you supposed to do this? Speak to your emotion. Use whatever tone you want. “Hey, Anger, I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to give you a rest for a day. You’ve been working really hard for me, and you’re certainly tenacious about sticking around, and I think you deserve a vacation. So pack a little overnight bag for yourself, and go off to your favorite tropical island for a little rest and relaxation. I’ll collect you tomorrow, though if you decide you want to stay on your island, I will certainly be okay without you for a little while. Oh don’t worry about me; I’ll get along okay without you for a bit. Off you go then. Jolly good.”

Then I want you to imagine your emotion packing a bag and hightailing it to the airport. See your emotion getting on an airplane wearing a loud tropical shirt. Then imagine it flying to an island, getting off, and sitting on a beautiful beach with a book, an umbrella, and a tropical drink. And let it be.

Now come back to yourself. You will not feel that emotion today. You can feel it tomorrow, but you can’t feel it today because it’s off on a tropical island. Today, instead, you’re going to replace that lower vibrational emotion with something you like better. Think of it like shopping for a new emotion at the store. Try it on for size. Take it home with you for 24 hours, and wear it like your new favorite shirt.

You can do this. You probably owe it to yourself in fact. Any time you feel the old emotion welling up inside you, remind yourself that it’s on vacation so you must be feeling something else.

When tomorrow comes, ask yourself if that old emotion is ready to leave its beach or if it still wants to stay on vacation. Give it permission to stay there if it wants to. If you really want to take it back, you can. But recognize that sometimes you two need time apart. So send it on vacation sometimes. Don’t worry, it can take it, and you need a rest sometimes.

And if you have more than one emotion you’d like to send on vacation, send them all on the same flight (may as well get the group rate!). If they need you, they’ll send a postcard.

© 2006-2011 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. Remember To Give Thanks
2. How do you know if a spirit is at rest?
3. Ask Erin: How do I give sincere compliments?
4. Choosing Our Emotions
5. Why I Deplore the Death Penalty
6. 100 Stones in the Worry Bag
7. Can you give psychic readings to your family and friends without bias?

He was highly social, a life-of-the-party kind of guy. He was moderately good looking but not drop dead gorgeous. He carried a little extra weight around his mid-section but was also muscular. He sort of reminded me of a young Captain Kirk.

We often ended up at the same parties, and I continued to watch him move around and interact with people. I wasn’t sure if he ever felt rejected, but if he did, he didn’t show it. So one day some friends and I were over at his house just hanging out and I decided to find out if his confidence was all an act. At the time, I was suffering from social anxiety and really low self-esteem, and I wanted to improve in this area so I figured I would learn from someone who had seemingly mastered it.

Here is roughly how our conversation went:

Erin: Adam, you seem to have really good self-esteem.

Adam: What do you mean?

Erin: Well, I’ve seen you at parties and you just walk up to girls and ask them to dance or ask them out on dates, and even when they say “no” you just keep right on going to the next girl.

Adam: (shrugging) Yeah. Why would I stop just because someone said “no?”

Erin: But don’t you feel rejected? Don’t you wonder why they didn’t want to dance with you or go out with you? Don’t you worry that there’s something wrong with you?

Adam: Ah, I see your problem. Let me explain my philosophy. I approach girls I’m interested in spending time with. If they don’t want to dance or date me, I assume there’s a situation or circumstance on their end that makes my offer unwelcome. I don’t take it personally.

Erin: You mean, you don’t assume it’s because there’s something wrong with you?

Adam: No, there could be a lot of reasons a girl says “no” to me. Maybe she’s tired, she has a boyfriend, she’s busy chatting with her girlfriends and doesn’t want to be bothered, her feet hurt, she doesn’t want to drink, etc. I never assume it’s because there’s anything wrong with ME. In the absence of direct evidence, why would I assume there’s something wrong with ME? The way I look at it, she’s not saying no to ME, she’s saying no to my question. There’s a difference.

Erin: What if she tells you she thinks you’re a troll or ugly or disgusting?

Adam: Then I assume she has a distorted view of reality and I probably wouldn’t want to date her anyway. If she’s that critical and harsh, then I’m glad to have weeded her out before dating her.

Erin: So you never get rejected?

Adam: I get rejected all the time, it just doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I never take it personally. I take it as a sign of incompatibility and move on until I find something I can connect with. I don’t invest my entire sense of self-worth in getting one single girl to go out with me. That would be silly. There’s no way that every girl on the planet will be a match for me. So I’ll keep going until I find someone I connect with who wants to connect with me.

I remember having a huge shift in my thinking after our conversation, and I realized that rejection is about beliefs. You can adopt the belief that if someone rejects you then it means there’s something wrong with you. Or you can adopt the more empowering belief that if someone rejects you then it means they’re rejecting the situation, not you.

In the absence of direct evidence to the contrary, why not assume the rejection was based on circumstance, instead of on you?

What if you adopted the belief that rejection is a blessing? After all, rejection helps you quickly weed out people or circumstances that are not a vibrational match for you. It’s easier to move on when you are not stuck wondering what you need to change in order to get approval from someone with whom you’re not really a match. Check them off your list and move on to the next person or circumstance.

Don’t chase approval. Be who you are, be confident in yourself, and go out and find the people and circumstances that are a match for you!

© 2006-2011 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. See a Penny, Pick It Up
2. Do spirit guides arrange relationships?
3. Can You Use Law of Attraction to Attract a Specific Person Into Your Life?
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5. Some Good Weekend Reading
6. Choosing Our Emotions

Whatever you would say in those two minutes is a huge clue to your life purpose. Your life purpose is not your career or your job, but you can certainly align the two. Your life purpose is the message you would give to the world if the whole world was listening to you. Do you know what you’d say? What would you talk about?

Do this exercise: Make a list of the things you want to say to the world. Don’t censor or filter anything right now. Just make a long list of everything you’d like to say to the population of planet Earth. Here are some examples to get you thinking…

• Be excellent to each other
• You are loved
• You are never alone
• Be kind
• Treat others with respect
• Be compassionate
• Everyone deserves food, clothing, and shelter
• You are more powerful than you realize
• You come from God
• You are beautiful
• We are all connected
• You are more than enough

Now look at your list and figure out which of the items on your list is the most important one to you. Which one really burns in your belly, aches in your gut, fires up your heart? Which of the things you’ve written down do you feel would seriously have the most impact if people listened, believed, and acted upon?

The other items on your list may be important to you too, but just pick the one you would pick if some mighty supreme being told you that you could only pick one.

Now, write that down on the top of a piece of paper, and write or type up an explanation of your concept such that if you gave it as a speech it would last roughly two minutes.

For example:

We are all connected
If we could but understand that we are all cells in the Body of Humanity we would not attack the other cells. We would not hurt them, kill them, poison them, ignore them when they are in need. If we could see that we are all One, and that we are all connected, we would help each other grow, we would share food and resources, we would heal those who are suffering. We would strive together to ensure the happiness and well-being of the Whole. When one cell is suffering, we would aid it. When one cell was thriving, we would applaud it. We would not hurt others because doing so would only hurt ourselves.

You get the idea. Write your two minute speech to the world on the topic you chose above.

Your life purpose is tied in to this concept. Now it’s time to get practical. What are you supposed to do with this concept? The answer is to align your path with your concept. Now you can start determining how your life purpose and career intertwine.

Let’s say your life purpose is related to the concept of “You are more powerful than you realize.” What could you do to help people realize this while also getting paid?

Here are just a few ideas off the top of my head. You could become:

• a life coach – helping people get past blocks and fears and giving them tools to achieve success
• a healer – helping people use their own energy to heal their bodies
• a fiction writer – writing about characters who discover they are more powerful than they initially realized
• a teacher – helping young people access their talents and intellect
• a minister – helping people realize the power of prayer
• a motivational speaker – inspiring and motivating people towards personal growth
• an intuitive counselor – helping people get realigned with their life purpose
• a book publisher – publishing books that inspire and help people grow
• a career counselor – helping people enter fields that are aligned with their life purpose
• a sports coach – helping people improve their physical abilities beyond what they dreamed possible
• a software engineer – designing software that helps people grow and improve
• a personal trainer – pushing people to achieve physical fitness goals that will make them healthier
• a physical therapist – helping people adapt to life-changing injuries that threaten to keep them down
• a parent – helping your children understand themselves and go after their dreams

And the list goes on and on. You don’t have to actually stand on a stage and speak your message. You can live your message. Spend your day putting into the world what you feel is most important. That is your life purpose.

So figure out what you most want to see in the world, and align your career path towards it. You may have a huge impact or a small one, but whatever you do will send ripples of positive energy through the Body of Humanity. And that’s good for everyone, because we’re all connected.

© 2006-2011 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. Understanding Your Life Purpose
2. Can we have more than one life purpose?
3. The Path to Purpose
4. Ready For a New Career?
5. Children vs. Purpose: Do the two mix?
6. How To Choose a Career That Will Make You Happy
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The law of attraction is the belief that what you think about you bring about. Your thoughts create your reality. You attract what you think about and that which you affirm in your life. So if you’re thinking about how poor you are, you will continue to attract poverty. If you think about how lonely you are, you will continue to be alone.

If you think about being wealthy, you will attract wealth. But if you think about becoming wealthy you will attract lack. Why? Because if you are hoping to attract wealth you are affirming that you don’t currently have it. If you continue to think about not having wealth but wanting it, you will continue to not have wealth and want it. Do you understand why this is so?

Your thoughts have power. Every thought you think goes out into the universe as though you are placing an order at a restaurant. You think it or feel it, and it is so. You order it, and it will come. This is why if you constantly feel like you are in a state of poverty you will notice that you are constantly in a state of poverty. If you go back and forth between feeling abundant and feeling impoverished, notice that you will see that same pattern in your life; sometimes you are ahead and sometimes you suffer a blow to your abundance. And if you find that wealth comes easily to you, notice that money flows into your life easily and you hardly have to think about it. The same is true for relationships, health, friendships, life experiences, etc. Whatever you create in yourself will come back into your reality. This is why it is so vital to understand what it means to become a vibrational match for your desire. If you are in vibrational harmony with your desire, it will manifest.

A lot of people erroneously believe that wishing for something will make it so. When you wish for something, hope for something, or try to get something, you are affirming that you do not have it so the universe brings you more of the same. Instead you must know it, feel it, and believe it. You must have it first for it to come. So how can you have something you don’t have?

Daydream
Decide what it is you want and start daydreaming about what your life will be like when you have it. Imagine you are stepping into an alternate reality where what you want is already in your possession. How do you act and behave? Where do you live? Who do you hang out with? How has having this desire changed your life. See your new life and your new self. See it vividly. What happens to you when you obtain the wealth or relationship or health of your dreams? Spend at least 10-30 minutes per day daydreaming about who you are and how your environment and habits change when you obtain your desire. After all, if you can’t even imagine it, how can you attract it?

Feel the Feeling
This is so vital I couldn’t put it in the daydream section. You absolutely must feel the feeling you will have when you obtain your desire. How do you feel when you long for something? Not how you feel when you have it, right? To be a vibrational match for your desire you must call up inside of you the feelings you will have when you’ve made your dream a reality. Will you feel safe and secure? Loved and cared for? Healthy and energetic? Feelings are thoughts too, so whatever you’re feeling is going out into the universe and coming back to you. Identify how you will feel when you obtain your desire and start feeling that way now. If you think you can’t feel something you don’t feel, you’re wrong. Actors can do it and so can you. You can choose your emotions any time you want. Try it and see. Experiment and practice until you are a master at it.

Remove Negative Energy
So you know what you want, you’re daydreaming about having it, and you’re feeling how you’ll feel when you get it. Then you start talking about it with friends. Some of them will be totally on board with your desire and their thoughts will even assist you in obtaining your desire. But some of the people around you will tell you that you can’t have what you want, or they’ll tell you that you’re not good enough, or capable enough or deserving enough to have it. Now you have thoughts working against you. I implore you to share your dreams and desires only with people that will support them. I can’t stress this enough. If they are not with you, they are against you. Choose carefully what energies you allow in your life. When you tell someone what you desire you are renting space in their vibrational field, so make sure they are in alignment with you achieving your desire.

Make Room in Your Life
Change your environment to support your desire. Want to be healthier? Remove the junk food from the house, or dedicate more space in your refrigerator for fresh produce. Want to be wealthier? Open a savings account so your money has a place to go when it arrives. Want to switch careers? Create a new file drawer for your new business or clear some space on the bookshelf for books related to your new career. Want a partner or companion? Make room in your bedroom (empty a drawer, get a king size bed, make room in the bathroom cabinet). You get the drift. If you send out an intention and the universe sees you have no room for it in your life, it will be delayed. Begin to make your environment ready to receive your desire.

Reframe Your Beliefs
“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford. Your beliefs create your reality. Look at how you speak to yourself and about yourself. “I don’t have what it takes to be a millionaire.” “I just can’t lose the 30 pounds.” “Who would want to be with me?” Catch yourself. Every negative thought you have affirms that reality. You don’t want to lie to yourself though, because you’ll know you’re lying. So you may need to be creative in how you think your thoughts. For example:

“I’m so fat” becomes “Good health is coming my way at breakneck speed.”

“I’ve never made much money” becomes “People go from rags to riches all the time. If they can do it, I can do it.”

“I’m never going to find the man of my dreams” becomes “I am someone who does not settle for less than she is worth.”

You get the idea. There are many ways to express a thought. Make sure you’re expressing your inner thoughts in an empowering and positive way.

Create a New Identity
Without lying, is there a way for you to create a new identity that is more in alignment with your desire? Let’s say you want to switch careers from being a programmer to a writer. The next time someone asks you what you do for a living try saying, ‘I’m a writer.” If that’s not comfortable or if you haven’t written anything yet, say, “I’m a programmer transitioning to becoming a writer.” Try your new identity on for size. Let’s say you long for a child. If someone asks you if you’re a mom simply say, “I’m a mom-in-waiting.” Find a way to identify yourself in a truthful and honest way.

Make Sure You Really Want It
I think what trips most people up is saying they want something they don’t really want. Do you really want to lose weight? “Sure I want to be thin but not if it means I can’t have ice cream.” Do you really want a relationship? “Sure I want to meet the right guy, but I am really enjoying my freedom.” Do you really want to run your own business? “Sure I’d love to run my own business, but not if I have to work 12 hour days.” If you are doing everything right and you still don’t have your desire, consider that there is something about it that you don’t really want. There could be some aspect of it that you don’t feel ready to handle so you will unconsciously block yourself from having it. I see it all the time and am guilty of it myself. This is why the daydream is so important. Really imagine what it would be like to have your desire. If there is anything about the new reality you don’t like, change it, reframe it, or alter and refine your desire.

“I want to own my own business but have the freedom to travel whenever I want.” Put that into the daydream.

“I want to be in a loving relationship but still have the freedom to go where I want whenever I want.” Put that into the desire.

“I want to be thin and healthy while still enjoying the taste of my food.” See it, feel it, so you can have it.

Jump on Opportunities
Once you’ve identified what you really want and have become a vibrational match for it, make sure you take actions that support receiving it. Let me explain this concept using some dialogue.

Jane: I want to be in a loving, committed, healthy relationship.

Mary: That’s great! I didn’t know you were out looking for a guy. Where are you going to meet guys?

Jane: Oh well, I work so many hours that I don’t really have time to go to clubs or bars or meet ups.

Mary: Oh, well are you looking for a guy at work then?

Jane: No, none of the guys at work really appeal to me.

Mary: Are you looking online then?

Jane: Oh heavens, no. Those guys are all so desperate. Why can’t they get a date in person?

Mary: Well are you having your friends set you up?

Jane: A few.

Mary: Do they know what you want?

Jane: I think so. I mean, they would know not to set me up with a guy that’s lame.

Mary: Uh, yeah I guess. Have you a clear idea of what you’re looking for?

Jane: I’ll know him when I meet him.

Mary: Good luck with that, Jane.

Jane is not a vibrational match for her desire to be in a loving relationship nor is she taking appropriate action to indicate to the universe that she is serious. Here is how the conversation would likely go if she was.

Jane: I want to be in a loving, committed, healthy relationship.

Mary: That’s great! I didn’t know you were out looking for a guy. Where are you going to meet guys?

Jane: Well you know I love hiking so I joined a meet up group that hikes on the weekends. I also love dancing so I signed up for swing dancing lessons and am meeting some interesting fellows there.

Mary: That’s great! What about guys at work?

Jane: I haven’t really met anyone at work that I’m interested in, however I’ve told all my co-workers what I want in a guy and to feel free to set me up with anyone that matches my key attributes.

Mary: That’s great.

Jane: Yeah, and sometimes I just take my laptop to Starbucks and sit there and work. The longer I’m there, the more people I run into that seem interesting to me. And I always make sure I look my best when I’m grocery shopping.

Mary: What about trying online dating?

Jane: Yes, I have a profile set up on 2 dating sites right now. I made sure my profile clearly states what I’m looking for and what I’m not interested in. I also recently bought two tickets to my favorite play. I’m imagining an interesting guy sitting next to me that night. I can practically feel our hands touching already.

Mary: Sounds like you have your bases covered. I have no doubt you’ll attract someone appealing.

Jane: Me too. I’m super excited and can’t wait to meet him!

The Law of Attraction doesn’t work in a vacuum. Meet it halfway. Take every opportunity the universe sends you. Be on the lookout for openings and synchronicities.

The Bottom Line
The Law of Attraction really does work, but you’ve got to understand it and put all the pieces into play. Imagine going to a grocery store with a huge list of items you want, and you hand it to the grocer. He runs off and gets everything you want and comes back and says, “I’ve got all you want, but where’s your cart? How will you hold all these items? Why don’t you run off now and get a cart and come back when you’re ready to actually take these items. In the meantime, I’ll just hang on to them for you.” Go get your cart and start shopping.

© 2006-2011 by Erin Pavlina.

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3. Can You Use Law of Attraction to Attract a Specific Person Into Your Life?
4. The Inner Workings of a Mastermind Group
5. The Value of a Vision Board
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7. Are You Sabotaging Your Success?

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© 2006-2011 by Erin Pavlina.

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I recently posted that on my facebook page and it got a lot of responses. Some people understood completely what I was referring to, while others seemed to think I was minimizing pain, loss, suffering, and tragedy and suggesting that nothing bad ever happens to us. A facebook page is a poor place to have a lengthy discussion so I decided to write an entire article explaining what I meant by that comment above.

We all have ups and downs in life. We all have experiences that scare us, challenge us, or even completely unravel us. Sometimes tragedy strikes. Sometimes something truly horrible happens to us. And we feel upset, angry, sad, alone, afraid, or bereft. No one is suggesting that you feel fantastic if you are mugged, raped, beaten, abused, or lose a loved one. What I am suggesting is that every experience you have shapes you. And you can decide how it shapes you. Yes, you can decide how you will internalize it, how you will feel about it, what you will do about it. In essence, life may trip you, and you may not have control over when and how that happens, but only you decide if you will stay down or climb back to your feet, dust yourself off, and keep going. Only you will decide if a tragedy will bury you or launch you to greater heights.

When I look back on my life, there were a lot of trips and falls. From age 17 – 21 I was raped and ended up in an abusive relationship with a young man. I had panic disorder with agoraphobia from age 21 – 24. When I was 30 I went bankrupt. When I was 34 I was told my son had cerebral palsy and might never walk. When I was 40 I separated from my husband. At the time all of these things happened, I was shoved to the ground and stepped on by Life, the wind knocked out of me, unable to catch my breath, and I didn’t know if I could keep going. But each and every time I got up and kept going, and what’s more, I realized somewhere along the way that each and every one of these experiences made me who I am today, and I love who I am today. Would I change anything if I could?

From my abusive relationship I learned that you can’t rescue someone and you can’t wait for them to change or get better. They are who they are. From having panic disorder and overcoming it, I realized that I don’t need to take life so seriously, and that nothing bad can ever really happen to me. From my bankruptcy I learned that only I am responsible for my finances and that you should never spend more than you make. From my son I learned that perseverance and love are stronger than a diagnosis. From my separation I learned that I can stand on my own two feet, take care of myself, and even thrive emotionally as a single person. How would I have learned those valuable lessons if I hadn’t had those “horrible” experiences? Life brings you the lessons you need to have. How you interpret your tragedies is up to you.

I’m not saying that if someone murders your child you should throw a party. Of course you are going to hurt. Of course you are going to be knocked down. Of course you’re going to wish it had never happened. But from that tragedy you will find the lesson, and in the process you may even help hundreds or thousands of other people.

Life is perfect. It is full of opportunities to grow, learn, and help others. By the time you reach the end, you will have scars. It just means you were playing the game with all your might.

Realize that life is not trying to beat you down. Life is trying to help you understand your self. It’s trying to help you utilize your inner strength and power. It’s trying to help you use your free will to have an amazing life.

If you’re not happy with your life, try changing your perspective. When you realize that you have the power to view life as a gift, even in the face of tragedy, your life will be good. Even when it’s bad, it will still be good. There’s tremendous power in that realization.

© 2006-2011 by Erin Pavlina.

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This week’s question comes from Diana. She asks:

“Can we have more than one life purpose?”

Here is the transcript of this episode:
Hello, and welcome to another episode of “Ask Erin Pavlina”.

Today’s question comes from Diana. Diana writes, “Can a person’s life purpose change over the course of a lifetime, or is there only one for each incarnation?”

This is an excellent question. How often do we ask ourselves, “What is my life purpose?” It’s one of the top questions people ask me during readings. After doing thousands of readings, I’ve seen a lot of life purposes, and I’ve seen a lot of the variations, and I can definitely help you with this question.

First let’s talk about what a life purpose really is. What is a life purpose? It’s the reason that you came here, it’s the reason that you incarnated, it’s the reason that you decided to come all the way back here, at a lower density, and experience life again. So hopefully, there was a purpose in it. What happens is, your higher self is who determines what kind of life you desire to have. Your higher self is the one that sets the intention for what kind of life you’re going to have. For example, does your higher self want to incarnate so that you can have an impact on the planet, or do you want to have a personal growth experience? In my experiences, I have seen that people generally fall into these two categories: Coming here to have an impact, to teach, or coming here simply to have a personal growth experience.

Both of these are very valid types of life paths, and there’s no right or wrong or good or bad about either one of them. When you come here with the specific intention to have an impact on the planet, which is generally what we see with the lightworkers, it’s usually so ingrained and coded into the spiritual DNA of your body, that you can’t help but follow that one life course throughout your life.

Now you may have different modalities and different ways of expressing that life purpose, and different ways of having an impact on the planet, but you will be pushed and have that sense of urgency and desire to make a difference in the world and to have some kind of impact. Maybe you’re trying to empower women, maybe you’re trying to help encourage other people, maybe you’re trying to bring love back to the planet. People who wanna make an impact come with some kind of design, and it’s really coded inside of them, so it really pushes their actions throughout their life. In that sense, I would say, you have one life purpose, which is to have an impact, but again, the choice of how you’re going to have that impact is up to you.

In the other case, I see people who incarnate simply to have a personal growth experience. There’s no pre-designed idea or intention about exactly what’s going to happen here. So you choose your parents, you incarnate, and you enjoy life. You’re receiving information from every experience you have. You have growth, and it’s great, and so you’re just tooling along through life, and having your personal growth experiences, and incorporating them into your wisdom.

Now what happens with these people I have seen is…sometimes, after they’ve been doing that for a long time, they can actually turn around and have an impact on the planet. So after you’ve been growing for years or decades, you may have learned so much that you’re actually ready for a new purpose in your life, which could be to have an impact, to help other people with life.

So basically, the answer to your question: The people who come here to have an impact from the get-go usually just have the one life purpose. The people who come here to have a personal growth experience will either continue to have that throughout their lives, or at some point, they will have grown so much, that they are now able to have an impact on the planet, based on the experiences they’ve had.

So, which category are you in? You’ll know-eh, you might know *laughs*. You might know, you may not know. Sometimes when I do readings for people, they can feel that sense of, “I came here to make a difference! I came here to have an impact!” and they’re usually right, I’ve really never read for somebody who thought they were here to have an impact, and they were wrong. I have read for people who thought they were here to have a personal growth experience, but had not realized that what they’ve already learned is enough to begin to have an impact on the planet. And that’s not something you wanna waste, because you’ve been here for decades. Why not make the best use of your time and kill two birds with one stone?

So, you can have more than one purpose, or you might just have one purpose, but the bottom line is to follow your heart, follow your heart’s desire, and do what you feel called to do. Good question.

© 2006-2011 by Erin Pavlina.

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Are you living congruently with your purpose, or are you going out every day to a job that just pays the bills but isn’t aligned with your purpose or passion?

Do you even remember your song?

When we are children, we are often asked what we want to be when we grow up. Think back to all of the times in your life you were asked that question or even thought about it yourself. Did you follow your dream? Did you get derailed? What happened?

The number one question clients ask me during readings is about making a career transition to something more aligned with their purpose, passion, and path. Sometimes they know exactly what they want to do and sometimes they don’t. When I tune in to their guides, I hear their “song” and I know where the intersection of their purpose, path and passion lies.

For example, I recall a reading for a client who was a computer engineer. I knew he was not a vibrational match for that career, so when I tuned in I was shown an image of my client leading adventure tours in strange, exotic locations. It was a far cry from his current job, but when I told him what I saw he gasped and told me that’s what he’d always wanted to do. So I asked him why he hadn’t followed that path and instead became a computer engineer. He told me that his parents pushed him in that direction so he’d have stability and a good salary. His song died in college when he gave up his passion and chose the path his parents suggested for him.

Is this similar to your story? Did you give up your passion for security? When did you stop singing your song?

I spent the rest of the reading helping him map out a path that would lead to his passion. By the time we were done, he had an action plan he was comfortable with that wouldn’t cause him financial hardship, but would eventually lead to the career of his dreams in a relatively short while.

Tune in to your song. What are the words? What does your heart sing about? Personal power? Compassion? Leadership? Communication? Teaching? Helping? Experiencing? Exploring? Don’t tune out your song. Listen to the words. They contain clues to your passion.

It’s never too late to sing your song. It’s never too late to follow your passion. It’s never too late to take a leap of faith and go after a dream. What is the song in your heart? Sing it!

Or as Dr. Wayne Dyer says, “Don’t die with your music still in you.”

© 2006-2011 by Erin Pavlina.

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To create a vision board, first think of what you want. Do you want money? A car? Travel? Romance? A baby? Jewelry? Or something less tangible like love, respect, compassion, justice, etc? Make a list of what you want to attract into your life. It can be material or emotional. Whatever you want.

The next step is to get a board of some kind. A poster board, a bulletin board, or something fancier. Most people then find photos of the things they want, cut them out, and paste them on their boards in collage fashion. If you can’t find a photo or magazine picture, you can draw what you want, or type out a phrase, or get crafty and use glitter, glue and feathers. Just get it all on the board.

Once your board is finished, hang it up somewhere where you can see it every day, so it can remind you of your desires. If you ever decide there is something on the board you no longer desire, take that piece off and replace it with something else.

Will your desires manifest just by putting them on a vision board? Not likely. It’s not enough to just cut out pictures and put them on a board. You must be a vibrational match for your desires. You must really want it, believe you can get it, and be ready for all the consequences that go with it. For example, do you really want a child or do you just think you’re supposed to have one now that you’re married? Do you really want a Porsche or would you rather spend that money on a down payment on a house? Do you really want a diamond ring or do you just want to feel loved or special? Make sure that everything you put on the board is something you truly desire and are vibrationally ready to hold in your life. If it’s not, make adjustments.

Creating a vision board tells the universe you are serious. It’s like placing your order with the universe. Then all you have to do is allow the universe to bring it to you. That doesn’t mean you don’t take action. You should always be ready to pounce on opportunities that the universe brings you. You should always be moving in a direction that will lead to your desires. You can’t just sit back and wait for a car to drop in your lap.

When I was a teenager my brother was a little overweight. I remember one day he put a bunch of photos of thin people up around the house. There was one on our refrigerator, on his bedroom door, inside his room, on the pantry door, etc. They just popped up overnight. He also put signs around the kitchen that said “think thin.” There were photos of marathon runners and other athletes all around the house too. He started exercising and eating better. In fact, he not only trained for a marathon, he became a triathlete. When he put those signs and photos up, he was ready. He even surrounded himself with triathletes and started hanging out with them more and more. By putting up those signs and photos, he was reinforcing his desires. And he succeeded in spades.

Steve and I created a vision board years ago when we were sinking into debt and about to declare bankruptcy. It felt so good to be putting energy into positive things instead of negative. A vision board can get you excited and hopeful again! Eventually we obtained everything on our vision board, right down to new luggage!

What could a vision board do for you? What could reminding yourself of your desires every single day accomplish? Could it bring you to your goals faster? Try it and see. Make it a project to do with your partner or kids. Or do it with friends. Reinforce and remind each other of your desires and goals, and bring them to fruition that much faster! Here are some samples of vision boards from some of my readers. To see more, just do a Google image search on “vision boards” and you will see a lot of great examples!

© 2006-2011 by Erin Pavlina.

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We are all pieces in a larger puzzle. I may master my piece, and I can express my piece, but my piece is not the puzzle. Are you familiar with the parable of the elephant and the blind men? Each blind man was asked to touch a part of the elephant and describe what they experience. The first was touching the trunk, the second was touching the small tail, and the third was touching the leg. Then they argued about what an elephant was because each believed he knew the entirety of that elephant. If all you touch of the truth is just one part then that is all you can know. Since there is no way to touch all parts of Truth, all parts of Reality, we must do the best we can to gather as many pieces to the puzzle as we can find.

I suggest you become your own personal guru. And the best way to do that is to seek out teachers with whom you resonate. Listen to their piece of the puzzle, see where it makes sense to you, then put that piece in your bag. Seek another teacher, listen to their wisdom and experience, try it on for size, and put what resonates with you into your bag.

You must also trust in your own experiences. No one is having the exact same experiences you are having, so you too are a valuable piece to the puzzle of humanity. Respect that your piece is important and is of value to the whole. Share your experiences with others so that they may learn what you have to teach.

Use teachers as guides. Just as we look up to our parents to explain the world when we are young, we can look to teachers who have “been there, done that” to help us avoid pitfalls on the road of life, or to explain things we haven’t gotten much experience with yet. For example, I am happy to teach what I know about lucid dreaming because I am a master at it. I am happy to teach others how to use their intuition to assist others with their lives because I have a great deal of successful experience with it. I would not deign to teach someone how to cook or sew or decorate a home. I am no expert. Trust me on that.

Likewise, when you are immersed in the teachings of a particular person, if you do not agree with something they are expressing it doesn’t mean that the rest of their teachings are invaluable. Everything they teach must be tried on for size and compatibility (as time and interest warrant). I have had some people write to me that they love my articles on career and relationships but because I also write about “hokey” psychic phenomenon they simply cannot trust anything I write about careers and relationships. Do not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

As you go along in life, put your trust in what you experience and what works for you, not just in what other people have experienced. Do not blindly trust, but do listen and explore what others are positing. You will find gems, and you will find coal. What resonates with you today may not resonate with you tomorrow. It’s perfectly okay to change your beliefs about reality.

Always keep an open mind. I love this quote:
“When you decide what is you close your mind to the possibilities of what may be.”

Constantly and consistently question, explore, and experience reality. Do not force your view on anyone. We are all working on different parts of the puzzle. Do not judge those who are touching a different part of the elephant. Let people have their truth as you want to be respected for having yours.

Follow no one but yourself. Be your own personal guru. Gather knowledge and wisdom from others, but do not give your power or freedom to the guru only interested in your loyalty. And for heaven’s sake, if someone offers you Kool-Aid don’t drink it.

© 2006-2011 by Erin Pavlina.

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7. Solid Evidence for Existence of the Afterlife

Are you ready for something new? Are you ready for a change? What actions can you take today that will yield results by the end of the year? They don’t have to be drastic changes, just changes. Changes to your schedule, changes to your social circle, changes in your eating habits, etc. Pick an area of your life that didn’t go quite as well last year as you’d like it to go this year and commit to making a habit change that will yield great results by the end of the year.

I’ll tell you about a big change that I’m making, one that’s long overdue. For years I’ve been wanting to change my business model so I could create some passive income for myself. In 2007, 2008, and 2009 about 98% of my income came from doing intuitive readings for my clients. I love doing the readings, but they require me to be present for every single one. If you’ve read the E-Myth by Michael Gerber you’ll know that I basically gave myself a job and instead of owning my business I was simply running it. Doing it, doing it, doing it. Trading time for money is not sustainable in the long run, plus I wanted to branch out and try different methods of expressing my content and serving my readers.

In 2010 I made the commitment to trying a new way of running my business. I created my first audio program, Raising Your Vibration, and released it last January as an mp3 and a CD. That felt awesome, to finally have a product for sale that didn’t depend on me being there. I really wanted to make another audio program but I never got around to it. Why? The readings continued to take up the bulk of my time. Since so much of my income was dependent on the readings, I had to keep that going, but I still wanted to try new ways of expressing myself.

So next I did a teleseminar for the Meditation Mind. More than 300 people signed up for the free teleseminar and I received 100 submitted questions to answer. It was a kick! I’ll be releasing the mp3 version of that teleseminar soon so if you missed it, fear not.

Then I decided to put on a workshop with the women of my mastermind group. That was something we’d talked about for over a year, and finally we were all ready to take action on that. So in April 2010, I did my first joint workshop and spoke for 90 minutes on the subject of intuition and how to tune in to your spirit guides. Professional speaking was something I’d been training for since 2006 and I finally got a chance to do it in front of a live, paying audience. It was thrilling. I wanted to do more, but again, so many readings were taking up so much of my time.

I also dearly wanted to train other people to become professional intuitives, so thanks to the encouragement from people who really wanted to train with me, I made a space to start offering a Professional Intuitive Training program. My first program was a week long and happened in March of 2010. And I finished 2010 having done 4 separate trainings.

I also managed to squeak in one 2-hour workshop in August. I held a gathering in Los Angeles and did Q&A and readings for a small intimate group of 27 people. My fans in Las Vegas begged me to hold a gathering here but again with all the readings I just couldn’t fit it into the schedule.

Well all of this is changing in 2011. I sat down and really looked at all the ways I want to serve, and all the modalities I want to use, and all the products I want to create, and realized that if I continue to do what I’ve always done, I’ll continue to get what I’ve always gotten. 2010 gave me a taste of what was possible and I am bound and determined to run my business the way I want to run it, instead of letting it run me. So here are the changes I’m making and committing to so that I can achieve the results I want by the end of the year.

First, I had to figure out what to do with the readings. In 2010, the readings comprised 78% of my income, and the rest of my income came from the workshops, audio program, and trainings. I’ve been doing readings every week for the last four and a half years. I decided to try a different strategy. Instead of doing readings every week, I am now doing readings just one week per month. This may mean longer wait times for my clients, but if I don’t make room in my life for other ways to express myself, it will never happen on its own.

Secondly, I am now doing an intuitive training roughly one week out of every month. February and March are already sold out, so if you want to get into a training, the next one is April 4-8. Contact me soon if you are interested.

That leaves me with approximately 2 weeks each month to create passive income. I love working on projects that have a beginning, middle, and an end. I hate repetitive work. So in those two weeks I will be taking one day to write all my blog entries for the month and another day to record my Ask Erin YouTube series that I’ll be starting soon. Submit questions, see them answered on YouTube, and subscribe to my YouTube channel now so you don’t miss an update.

With the rest of my days, I’ll be creating ebooks, planning workshops, doing teleseminars, and working on a website upgrade (long overdue I know!). I’ll also spend some time doing administrative tasks like handling correspondence, paying bills, shopping for office supplies, networking, toastmasters, returning phone calls, etc.

I’m also scheduling in personal days. As a single working mother I don’t really have evenings and weekends off since I am actively parenting then, so I decided that to fill my own gas tank I need to actually set aside days during the month where I can take off to see a movie, get a massage, go out with friends, or just sit home, relax, and read a book. Guilt-free! So a couple of days per month I will be taking off on a weekday in order to restore myself.

I’m looking forward to an extremely productive year, doing things a little differently than I’ve been doing them so I can see the results. There may need to be adjustments but if I don’t try this I’ll never know what I’ve been missing.

Is there anything you could change in your schedule that would take you further towards your goals and enrich your life more? What habits could you adopt today, what commitments could you make, that if you just kept doing them would leave you better off at the end of this year than you were last year? Really think about it. Then make the change. New year, new way! That’s my motto.

P.S. If you want to stay abreast of all the new things going on in ErinPavlina.com land, just sign up for my newsletter. Oh, speaking of that, I’ll also be sending that out monthly instead of sporadically so jump on board now so you don’t miss anything exciting.

© 2006-2011 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. ErinPavlina.com Two Year Anniversary
2. Psychic Readings: 1 year later
3. Health and Wellness: My Primary Personal Goal This Year
4. Professional Intuitive Training Now Available
5. One-Year Anniversary
6. Our Separation: One Year Later
7. Winter Break Announcement