Can You Be Materialistic AND Spiritual?

I am pondering the idea of materialism and how it relates to spirituality. For years, I went through a phase where I said, "I'm spiritual. Materialism is nice, but it is not a focus." No more. I've determined that it is possible to be materialistic AND spiritual at the same time.

"How so?" you might ask.

Yesterday, during the AspireNow: Seriously Fun Self-Help Show with Eva Gregory, we were talking about Mastering the Law of Attraction. I was describing how I wanted to manifest convincing someone to do something, for good of course, that previously I'd not thought about. The idea was to prove to some friends that I could do this. So, I told them I was going to convince Roger to let me drive his beautiful Porsche Carrera 911 to the market to get a pie for Krista, their co-worker. My friends all said "No way. He'll never let you drive his Porsche, dude." Paula, another friend, said "Hey, if he says yes, I wanna drive it, too!"

Well, as you know, I'm a bit brazen. So, I walked up to Roger, and told him it was Krista's birthday, and I wanted to go get a cake and pie for her and for the office to celebrate from the local bakery. Roger said "Yeah, that's a good idea!" I then said I didn't have the money to pay for the pie. "Just take the money from petty cash," Roger replied. Then I said "Oh, and Paula wants us to go in your Porsche instead of my big truck or her dirty car." Roger looked at me funny and said, "Who wants to drive it?" I said, "Paula does!" He said, "Sure, no problem," then handed Paula his keys. Paula then handed me the keys and said "I'm too nervous to drive that car - you drive it!" It took me as long as getting out of the parking lot to get used to sitting in that car!

Pictured (above) - Porsche Carrera 911 Targa

And, oh, was it fun driving my pal Roger's Porsche. This car is a dream. It had all the juice when I gunned it, and it whipped around the mountain road like a thoroughbred heading around the last turn at the Kentucky Derby. As I looked over at Paula, I noticed she was laughing non-stop and grinning from ear-to-ear. "Damn, this car is a magnet!" I realized. I also realized how much fun a car can truly be... the wind flowing in your hair, feeling "as one" with a piece of machine never seemed more appropriate than when I commanded the wheel of Roger's zippy sports-car.

(How fun is it driving a Porsche 911 Carrera? See this!)



While recounting the story about manifesting driving the Porsche to Eva during the show, I jokingly made the comment, "I know we're not supposed to be materialistic, but I'm in love and it's with that car!"

As an expert, well-trained coach, Eva caught my error in manifesting the car and busted the "tape" I was playing and said "Ah! But Scott, WHO SAYS you're not supposed to be materialistic? Being materialistic and spiritual are often one in the same. IT'S ALL ENERGY. Who says you can't love that car? If you're happy driving it, then I say the car is for you."

(Yep, don't be surprised if I'm not driving that car within the year... heh heh... now to find the $80K to buy it!)

I think Eva hit the spiritual and materialism nail on the head. If a material possession is energy, such as a car, and if being spiritual is energy, such as saying a prayer, then it is possible that driving a car we love and praying a prayer for someone are similar or possibly even the same thing! Driving that car put a whole new perspective on "praying without ceasing!"

Crazy, huh?

Not really. To the metaphysical scientist, E=MC2 is the formula that says energy becomes mass which can change and become energy again. But to the spiritualist, God (or Spirit) is the underlying square root of that energy. The Christians call it "God", the Native Americans "The Great Spirit" the Easterners say "the Tao" but whatever, it's all related, if you ask me. The Law of Attraction is the spiritual law that we will attract what we focus on - good or bad - and the importance is to focus or channel our thoughts, speech, and action. In Buddhism, the expression "Right Thought, Right Action, Right Speech" is all about this principle.

I've never had more fun driving a vehicle in my life as the day I drove Roger's Porsche. So, the next time you start to stop yourself for thinking that driving that cool Porsche isn't spiritual, think again. Maybe it is exactly the thing that would fulfill your spirit the most. And manifesting things that fulfill our spirit help us realize that the Law of Attraction can be applied to anything we want from life. I'm all about having fun in life, so for me, driving that car just got added to my dream board. The world is our oyster. It is up to us to crack the shell to find the pearl.
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Copyright © 2008 AspireNow. All rights reserved. Want more? Subscribe to the A-Blog.

Life Is A Roller Coaster

Do you ever feel like your career, dating, finances, home environment, or relationship is a roller coaster?

Life can be a roller coaster at times, can't it?

Well, if you're struggling to maintain a sense of harmony, peace, and balance, there are several thoughts I have on this subject:

First, when you walk on the beach, have you ever noticed that the sand formations are different every time you're there? At a beach near me, sometimes the sand makes a sand barge, with a creek flowing to the sea. Other times, there is no creek flowing to the sea at all. Sometimes the creek is just a trickle. Yet, other times, there are big ditches in the sand. It depends upon the time of year, whether or not there a storm passes through, and how the tide rises or falls.

I'll point out again, you may have noticed that several different factors are influencing the shape of the sand: the sea itself, the season, and the tide.

Seasons: Springs brings new seeds of life, Summer nurtures it and helps it grow, Fall ushers in a time for harvest, and Winter brings death with cold and snow. Yet, the snow melts again in Spring the very next year. Life is full of ups and downs, is it not?

Our very own heart beat is in one moment pushing new blood to our body and in the next bringing old back in for recycling. Do you see my point?

Roller coasters are part of life.

See, roller coasters are simply part of life. If we're saying "I'm sick of roller coasters" or "I'm tired of my money going up and down" or "I'm sick and frustrated with this relationship being in or out" or other things like that, at times, it may indeed be life itself that we're complaining about.

I have yet to have a relationship that is even-keel all of the time. I haven't seen too many of those amongst my friends and family, either. In addition, in work, I've seen months where I set the world on fire with sales, and other months that seemed like I was crossing the desert for water. Can you relate? Does your partner love you? That's worth a thousand winters if you have true love.

We create our own peace and harmony.

The second thought I have on this is that we often create our own situation. If we feel like our home environment is a storm, it is more than likely our own inability to create the calm we seek. Rather than look outside of ourselves for our answer to the storm, it may indeed be within us to dig deep, try something new, and/or explore new modalities of interaction.

Rather than expecting a reluctant hero to "save" us from our situation, I believe it is far more empowering to trust in God and then take action ourselves according to the wisdom given to us to correct the ghosts of Christmas past and create the current space we wish to manifest. Rather than ask "How does it feel to have peace? How does it feel to have people love and support us?" I'd rather focus on "How does it feel to be loving and supportive and offer peace to others?" then encourage those around us to embrace this new concept of peace and harmony.

We build money through better earning, spending and saving habits.

With money, increasing income combined with good habits, over time, will yield good results. So, create a good job for yourself, then instill better spending and saving habits.

With relationships, quit expecting perfection and look at how you can maximize what you have in front of you. If you've been stubborn and refusing to admit your own part in how things get messed up, then own it, break free from denial, and be the best you that you can be. Others will respond in kind, trust me.

Roller Coasters offer a mountain, but then we experience the PEAK MOMENT and the THRILL and EXUBERATION of the downhill zip!


Even though climbing up a mountain might seem laborious, consider the view when we reach the peak of the mountain top. Time stands still, in that moment. Then, when life turns and we zip downhill, the thrill of putting our hands in the air and screaming with joy at the satisfaction and exuberation that comes with success is often just around the corner. Did we quit too soon? Roller coasters create the thrills, hot make-up sex, and exciting celebrations of "making it" we so dearly yearn for as "peak" life moments. Embrace each step of the ride!

Yes, we ALL do roller coasters.

So, the next time you feel like life is a roller coaster, rather than get down in the dumps or give up on what you're trying frustrated with trying to work through, why not keep the faith, renew your energy, and know that you WILL emerge on an upswing again at some point in time.

When you reach the top of the next summit you will look back and say "yes, the roller coaster was worth the ride" when you surpass the difficulty climb, hit the peak moment, and the thrill of zipping through success. It is then you realize that your dreams do, in fact, come true. Success comes from the ride, not any particular moment. Rather than reject the roller coaster ride, embrace it: climb aboard with full gusto and joy in being part of life!
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Copyright © 2008 AspireNow. All rights reserved. Want more? Subscribe to the A-Blog.

Is It Love?

Join Scott Andrews, the founder of AspireNow.com, for a special talk on "Is It Love?" at the AspireNow: Seriously Fun Self Help Radio this week.

Show Date: Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Show Time: 5:45 PM PST / 8:45 PM EST

"Is it love - or lust - 10 Questions That Determine the Fate of YOUR NEW Relationship"

There's more:
"It is better to lose a lover than love a loser!"
"Boy + Brains + Good Looks + Cooking = Miracle"

What other insights does Scott offer about love?
Don't miss this show! You'll get more insights into love than a '56 Ford Thunderbird has fins.

It's fun and educational to join the call:
VISIT ONLINE: www.talkshoe.com/tc/37792
CALL IN!: (724) 444-7444Enter: 37792 # 1 #

It's easy, fun, and simple to join in. See you there!
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Copyright © 2008 AspireNow. All rights reserved. Want more? Subscribe to the A-Blog.

Top Money Management Issues

I'm working on a series of articles about Money Management Issues. This will be a 10-part series, where I'm going to drill down into each one of these issues with separate articles (posts) to help with insights into each:

Ten Money Management Issues to master in order to grow financial abundance:

1. Be careful with credit. Credit is the #1 problem in America for people in managing their money. The most important advice regarding credit is to pay it off monthly, when the bill comes in. If you cannot pay it off in the first month, make sure you pay off the bill before you buy anything else on credit.

2. The most important lesson to learn about making money is not that hard work will make you money. It is that you want to build systems that serve as investments where your investment pays you. This is the lesson taught quite well in the book, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad," by Robert Kiyosaki.

3. Working harder will often result in making more money, but not always. For example, if you get paid $20 an hour to dig a ditch, and you work 8 hours a day, you'll make $160 a day for digging ditches. The logic would have it that if you worked 10 hours a day, you'd make $200. What this logic fails to consider is you'll be so exhausted from digging ditches that you might not be able to work 10 hours the next day. Not only that, but your incidence of injury increases with the higher hours. Rather than teaching people to work harder, sometimes we need to be taught to work smarter. The person who gives talks for free could start improving their talk and getting paid to do the talks (maybe even $1,200 per talk!). Another person who sells for a company might offer their knowledge in a program about how to improve selling (I do this, myself!).

4. Own our choices. It is hard to face the fact that the stock we bought at the all-time high in March of 2000 might not be worth more than 1/20 of the purchase price. But, we knew what we were buying. My point is that we need to own our choices. Taking responsibility for those choices helps us learn faster, so next time we won't make the same mistake.

One of our choices is about how we spend. The other choice is about our perspective about money. I really like the contrast as demonstrated by this quote from Rich Dad, Poor Dad:

One dad would say, "The love of money is the root of all evil." The other, "The lack of money is the root of all evil." Having two dads - and loving them both - forced me to think about, and ultimately choose, a way of thinking for myself."

Perspective is useful. Making sure we own our perspective about money is as important as owning the choices about how we spend our money.

5. Instant gratification and earning more money are not good partners. Most people who make a lot of money do not do it through winning the lottery. Most people who make a lot of money do it slowly, through time, good earning, spending, and saving habits, and making wise choices regarding usage of their money. It is easy to go out and blow a wad of money for things that depreciate: cars, furniture, clothes, etc., but the wiser thing to do is to put that money in an investment (real estate, stock, bond, business, 401K) that eventually earn us more interest or appreciation to be worth far more than the original investment.

6. Giving money or giving something often leads to others sending money back to you. Like the link exchange strategy in growing a website, if you offer a link to a site with high traffic volume, and they offer a link back to you, it only makes sense that you will both gain in traffic (and potential income) through sharing traffic. The Biblical principle of tithing money to a church or charity is a valuable discipline in money management.

7. When asked "What is more important, love - or money?" most people will respond "love". Yet, it is easier to pay for things in life when you have more money. Nevertheless, money does not buy you happiness. Most people forget that they are happiest when their life is most simple and their social networks are empowering to them.

8. Use a system to pay your self first. Most people have a hard time saving because they don't have a system to manage their money. When you have a system to manage your money, money will get appropriated more easily. For example, when I first chose to invest in an IRA account, I funded it at the end of the tax year, by writing a check to an account, rather than investing in it monthly. The following year I funded my 401K, but rather than investing at the end of the year, I withdrew money from my paycheck on a monthly basis. I noticed my pay seemed lower the first month of this deduction, but I adjusted to the change in net money shortly therafter. Over time, the 401K account filled until maximized the $10,000 to fund it each year. This is one of the best ways to create a fund like this. Pay your investments to yourself and your retirement first, before you pay your bills.

9. Self-employed people have to put an extra measure of effort into making sure they pay themselves first, by first sending money to their account, then to the 401K, then to the charity, then to their business, then to their bank account. I've started creating bank accounts for various things I am funding, so that I can track each separately.

10. Regarding buying anything new, I like to ask myself the following four questions:

(1) Do I need it?
(2) Can I afford it right now?
(3) Do I love it?
(4) Is this the best time to buy it?

When I follow these sets of rules, my money management is much better.
I'll be digging into this list further, and eventually offering the full series as a little money management e-book here at AspireNow and ARRiiVE.com. If you have suggestions or personal stories that might be fun to include in the e-book, please share in my comments!
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This article is written by Scott Andrews, Founder of AspireNow. Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.

This article is provided as entertainment, only. I always suggest talking to a financial advisor before making any change in financial investments. To receive more tips on money like this, subscribe to the A-Blog.