Richer Than I Thought

In my very first article here, I mentioned how I low-key love anything to do with pirates ... like treasure hunts.

GO ON A TREASURE HUNT!

"Do you have more than one bank account with money sitting in it? You probably have a million unused gift vouchers (which are pretty much like cash). If you have accrued leave entitlements at work, calculate the dollar value of that.

Maybe some of your assets have increased in value -- like your house, the value of your jewelry, or random collectibles.

Go and collect all the money that is scattered through your car, clothes, home, and work desk. Trust me, you'll find a lot.

You might find a whole bunch of expired gift vouchers and pamper certificates (boo!), but you'll learn for next time, gorgeous (and some places will let you redeem them anyway). Remember: this is all abundance that you let go to waste. Is it any wonder that the Universe feels slow to deliver?"

This passage is from Denise Duffield-Thomas's book, Get Rich Lucky B*tch. In this section, she talks about being in a state of gratitude: appreciating what you have, and appreciating what The Universe brings forth to you. An example she uses is, if you "only" manifested money on two out of five days, it's important to appreciate and acknowledge the TWO rather than be upset about the other THREE. There's power in gratitude when it comes to manifesting.

Denise also talks about acknowledging what you already have, in the form of unclaimed money -- hence the treasure hunt!

I haven't gone on a full-blown money treasure hunt yet, but this piece really spoke to me and I've started reflecting on some of the things I may find once I make time for my hunt:

* Unclaimed scratch cards and/or lottery tickets

* Points from loyalty programs

* A missing bond that has already matured that I can still cash in once I find it

* The anime collectibles I've never used that I got in subscription boxes 5 years ago that I could totally sell

* $50 that someone said they'd pay me back, but I never pressured them and now it's been over a year ...

* The money I've made from Vocal so far that I haven't withdrawn yet

* Money that gets direct desposited into my account from the government every three months (GST tax return thing) <-- not "unclaimed", I just always forget it exists until it pops up in my account one day

These seem like such minor and insignificant things -- "chump change" -- but all of this adds up. The collectibles alone are probably worth a couple hundred dollars.

And as you can see from some of my examples above, it's not just about money specifically; it's also about value -- like the free coaching series I won last week. To work with this particular coach 1-on-1 for 3 months, it would cost me about $2,300 Canadian ($1,895 USD) ... and I have the opportunity to now work with her FOR FREE.

My Best Recent Example

I did this 3-day training one weekend last month, that was incredible and eye-opening and I love this coach so much. (There are so many coaches I want to work with now!)

She has an offering to work with her for 7 months, a 1-on-1 spirituality coaching experience, that sounds so perfect and would be beneficial to my life in more ways than one ... but it felt out of my price range, especially since I've JUST started my business. I figured I'd have to wait until I was making money before I could treat myself to coaching experiences. (So glad I won another coaching series though -- that was beautiful!)

I set up a call to talk with this coach a few days after the training weekend, and the morning of the call I got in a fight with our bank. My partner and I set up a joint account, while there was a promotion going on for us to be able to earn $300 if we did 2 of 3 things on their list -- super easy, and I achieved this. It said the money would come by end of March, but this was now mid-April and nothing came up in our account ... so I emailed someone about it (the phone conversation I had with the 1-800 number did not help one bit), and the banker I spoke with basically told me we didn't get the money because of a technicality. One of the bill payments came out of our account AFTER the deadline, meaning we missed it by A WEEK. I was furious, I screenshotted proof that I did everything correctly, and I was so sure we weren't going to get the money anyways but I needed them to acknowledge that I was in the right. My persistence that day paid off, because she did kindly fill in the request, and within a week we had $300 added to our account.

That wasn't even the best part about the day!!!

By the time I was set to have my call with this coach, the issue still hadn't been resolved, so I was in a less-than-happy state with the bank ... and my mom, because I phoned her to rant, suggested we could go into the bank and demand the money or walk. I wouldn't have walked, at least not until later on in the year ... but this conversation reminded me of something I completely forgot about: I have money sitting in our joint account that is MINE! It's inheritance from my grandfather, and the only reason it's sitting there is because we need to have X number of dollars in the account in order to not pay monthly banking fees. That's its only purpose right now. That amount of money is ALMOST EXACTLY how much it would cost for me to work with this new coach ... and I told her all about this when I got on our call, and she did a happy dance with me.

I'm still not in a position to work with her right now -- the money is still in that account (don't need to take it out NOW), plus I have other commitments to see through for the next few months -- but I am aware of the money's existence. This gives me such a sense of security in that I don't need to use the money for coaching, I don't need to use it for anything ... I just need to know that if money gets tight, I'll be okay a little longer. And that is exactly what I needed last month: to know that I'll be okay.

Conclusion

Like I said, I haven't done an actual treasure hunt yet, but clearly this money mindset work has been helping. This shift in perspective from "I feel poor" to "I am grateful for everything The Universe provides me" and "I have a safety net, I'm alright" -- I feel happier, I feel luckier, and I feel like life is moving in a forward direction!

(Note: This is my third article relating to GET RICH LUCKY B*TCH. The first, My Money Story, will give you an idea of where I'm coming from and why I started working on money mindset, and the second, Designing My First-Class Life, is about clarity and what financial success means for me. If you enjoyed this article, please go check out the other two!)