The “Happy Money” Movement
Two years ago, I was attending a gathering of my advanced coaching graduate alum with our mentor, Alan Cohen, in Hawaii. Alan often invites colleagues of his to join us via Skype as guest contributors. That year, he invited Ken Honda from Japan who had been a successful entrepreneur in Japan — and then went on to be one of the best-selling authors in Japan (selling over 7 million copies of his books worldwide.) I resonated with Ken’s style, demeanor, approach and message immediately. He told us about a book he was working on called “Happy Money” — and I couldn’t wait to read it.
The basic premise behind Happy Money is that most of us have arrested development when it comes to finances. We hold deep-seated beliefs that we adopt from a young age based on our parents’ attitudes towards money — and we’re not typically conscious that we’ve taken on those messages as we get older. As a result, the vast majority of adults struggle with money and finance-related issues. …
And now for something completely different. I’ve been noticing intriguing anagrams popping up all around me lately. An anagram is a word or phrase created by re-arranging the letters of another, such as cinema formed from iceman. Many people are familiar with these in doing the Word Jumble in their newspaper. But the ones that have been showing up for me lately are ones that have a little more significance — almost like sign posts that encourage me to slow down and ponder their meaning in my life. Here are a couple of examples that have crossed my radar recently — perfectly normal, and yet (!). …
Part of being mindful is that we are that much more attuned and receptive to seemingly chance occurrences as we go about our day. Especially if we live from a stance of “what if” and possibilities as I do. For example, recently I ran into a woman in the green room as I was in NYC getting ready to tape a segment for a business show on TV — and she asked what I did; I told her I was a super-connector. She held up a book that she’s just written called “
When you think of our most precious commodity, what would you say it is? Is it time, money, freedom, something else? All those things are definitely important, but it turns out one of the most important things to cultivate is how and where you place your attention. In a noisy, crowded world with an abundance of information and things coming at us every day, it’s never been more important to stay mindful of this. Your attention is money; are you investing it wisely and actively with determination or are you wasting it? As one of my colleagues Roberta Ross recently observed, if you want to be successful and free, mastering your attention is your greatest power. And if you want to create momentum, transform the experience of your business and earn more, you really must invest your attention and your efforts wisely. Simple as that. …
I’ve observed that of the things many of us struggle with is being present — not living with regrets from the past or fears of the future, but simply being here now (as Eckhart Tolle or Ram Dass have eloquently expressed it). It’s perhaps one of the greatest skills you can master throughout your lifetime as it allows you to fully be with those around you now, in real time and as importantly it allows you to be with yourself more fully and mindfully in the moment. When you do that you cultivate peace of mind for yourself, you can enjoy our surroundings, feel more ease, and have more joy and balance. You’re no longer carrying the weight of anguish, anxiety and fear with you at every turn — and you can really breathe. How precious is that? …
One of my business mentors is 
At this time of the year, people often come up with a list of ‘resolutions’ most of which don’t live past the first month (or even the first week!) of January. They often don’t work out because of one or a combination of several factors. Firstly, they’re often vague goals without specific actions or metrics of success fleshed out to achieve those goals. Further, they’re often about what you think you should do to appease others or be more socially acceptable vs want really matters to you at a deep level intrinsically. And finally, there’s often no commitment and no accountability — so inevitably they fizzle out pretty quickly. So what does work? …
In the past six weeks, we’ve experienced unprecedented disasters of scale — some delivered by nature in the form of the big hurricanes affecting Texas and Florida, and the major fires in Napa and Sonoma counties; and some by man as was the case with the music festival massacre in Las Vegas. While these disasters wreak havoc and change lives in untold ways, how we react to them when they’re going on makes a huge difference in how we (literally) weather the storm, and in the recovery once we’re on the other side. It makes good sense to reflect on lessons learned before, during and after these disasters. Here are a few ideas to share: …
