I didn’t get a bat mitzvah. My parents said it was just an excuse for a party, not a rite of passage the way it would have been if I was a boy.  But I attended lots of them.

And now it’s started for my daughter. 13. Make-up done at Sephora, shoes purchased at Macy’s, a dress she wore recently in a friend’s wedding.  Bat mitzvah season has begun.

But it sure seems a lot different than when I was a kid.  Either that or I just have her in the right school, with the right group of friends.

Thank God, Jesus, Krishna, Vishnu and any and all other deities listening. Or maybe not.

I mean it sure makes my life easier now, but will it make her life harder later?

When I was 13, bat mitzvahs were all about sneaking alcohol, making out with boys and dressing as HOT as possible.

Kaia said there weren’t even really any boys that the bat mitzvah she went to tonight, she didn’t think there was any alcohol served (even to the adults) and she didn’t seem overly focused on the hotness aspect of her outfit.

While I’m fairly certain that kids overall are not staying innocent and inexperienced longer (this article says 10% of Texas 12 year olds have had sex and a quarter of 7th and 8th graders), I’m so glad my daughter and her friends seem to be.

I know I was definitely not ready to navigate the world of “relationship” as early as I began.  If I could have waited a few years to connect with my sex, I think I would have been able to handle it much better than I did, with a lot less judgment, shut down, and shame.  But in some ways, my early experimentation was actually really good for the rest of m life.

I had a friend in law school who had never experimented as a teenager (when he had parents present to reign him in), and when he got to law school, he went off the deep end.

Parties every night, lots of sex, lots of drugs and he ended up skewering his law school grades and most of his prospects for the future.

In contrast, I had been there, done that in jr. high and high school (with my parents trying to reign it in as much as they could) so that by the time I got to law school, I was ready to settle down and study every single night for 3 years straight. And it paid off. Big time.

So, I’m curious … when did it all start for you?  The sex, drugs (in whatever form you experimented), and rock-n-roll.  What was the impact on your life? And, if you are a parent, how are you handling it with your kids? Let’s discuss.

If you’ve been wondering what I mean when I talk about sovereignty, how you can get free of dependence on big corporations, the government or anyone else for your financial support and break free of the fear keeping you working that job (or doing that business) just to pay the bills, you will want to read this article.

But since then, I’ve moved just about every year, or two at most.

I never intended it to be this way. I had no idea I was a gypsy.

Looking back, though, I can see it’s true.

Next month, we move again. This time into a house I’d like to stay in for at least 5 years.

I say that every time.

It hasn’t happened yet.

I’m hopeful, though, that this one will stick. I just invested in a big, fancy dining room table, thinking that maybe if I have a big, fancy table, we’ll be there longer.

I’ve thought that before. But the reasons to move were always more important than the furniture.

The reasons:

After law school, we moved to Miami for a year so I could clerk for a Judge. We knew that would be temporary, so we got a condo on the beach where I could give birth and my baby’s daddy would have access to the beach and Lincoln Road.

Then, we moved to Los Angeles. Rented a place in mid-LA with the Hassidic Jews for neighbors because it was affordable and the commute downtown wouldn’t be too bad while we figured out where we wanted to live.

Baby daddy was a surfer, so he dragged me down to Manhattan Beach one weekend, just to see. I was sure it was too far from downtown, but as soon as I saw it, I was hooked.

We bought an 850 square foot little blue house on the corner of Robinson and Green in North Redondo. It turns out a mile and a half from the beach is too far. And when I got pregnant with our second, 850 square feet was going to be too small.

Using all of my best, newly acquired skills of manifestation (thanks Jan Stringer & Alan Hickman), I manifested the perfect house on the walk streets of Hermosa Beach. 3 bedrooms, wood floors, and a washer/dryer.

We rented out the house in North Redondo and moved to the actual beach. I thought I would live there forever.

A year later, we were getting divorced. He wouldn’t leave. So I did.

I rented a teeny, tiny two bedroom two streets over so we’d be close. Plus, I was hooked on the walk streets and didn’t want to leave.

I found an ad on Craiglist for bookshelves and when I got to the gal’s house to buy them, it turned out she was selling everything I needed for my new single mom’s bachelorette pad.

I knew I wouldn’t be there long. It was on the alley and way too small, but it was perfect for the transition from married mom to single mom discovering herself as an adult woman for the first time ever.

I was there a little more than a year when my landlords decided to sell the place. I was in a new relationship, making great money and decided it was time to go big.

So we moved up the hill a 1/2 mile into a big 4 bedroom with room for a massive trampoline in the back. The rent was insanely expensive, but my boyfriend was going to split it with me.

Turns out he wasn’t really an actor, but a porn addict who would occasionally go on auditions. I ended up shouldering all the rent for that place myself. And I longed to get back to the walk street.

A year later, friends of mine down by the beach gave me a tip that the man in the house next to them had died and his son’s might be willing to rent the place to me (and I could even buy it when the time was right), so I ditched the trampoline and moved back down to the walk street.

It was my dream house. It hadn’t been touched since 1955 and the man living there for the last ten years had alzheimer’s (the bedroom smelled like urine), but it was perfect. I put $30,000 into it to fix it up, certain I’d be there forever.

Eighteen months in, I had my “third-level awakening” and knew it was time to leave LA. That, and when I went to speak at Martha Hartney’s Denver law school class, we saw a 3800 square foot house, on a lake, two houses down from her at the end of a cul-de-sac and the rent was half what I was paying in LA, I decided it was time to go.

Packed up two U-Hauls, Corey, Anna, my kids, my ex-husband, my boyfriend at the time, Dave, our two cats, dog, snake and off we went to Colorado in my fancy Mercedes.

I was the Queen of the hill.

Most expensive house and car in the neighborhood.

It never felt quite right.

Something was off.

Turns out, it was me.

I seriously considered buying that house and locking myself in to life in suburbia (because isn’t that what I was working my ass of for?), but bought the farm (New Earth Farm Project) instead, never intending to live there. It was intended to be a business for my ex-husband and then, after that didn’t pan out, a community space for new economy exploration. Spirit had other plans for me though.

Just shy of living there for two years, I gave up the house, the Mercedes and most of the stuff I had toted to Colorado in the two U-Hauls and moved to the Farm. Reluctantly. Full of fear. Through lots of tears.

But I had to sort out what it was that didn’t feel right. And something told me that I wouldn’t figure it out unless I gave up every single “trapping” of success and surrendered to that which I could never have otherwise imagined.

Truth be told, it wasn’t “something” that told me. It was Craig. He insisted it was where I would find my salvation. I hated him for it. And loved him for it.

The kids and I moved to the farm.

A 2 bedroom farmhouse on 2-acres with a partially finished basement. No housekeeper, no personal assistant, no one to cook for us, no paid support at all. And no xBox for distraction.

Just us.

For the first time ever, I learned to care for myself. I cooked dinner, did laundry, and stopped working at 5p. I entered into an investigation of what I really wanted my life to look like when money wasn’t an issue. My expenses were lower than they’d ever been before. I could no longer hide behind my work.

I found myself.

One night, Craig said to me, “Ali, make sure you really feel what it’s like to be here, and soak it in, because it’s very unlikely you’ll be back in this place again.” So I did.

And I came to love it.

I discovered myself there in that year on the farm.

I faced everything I was most afraid of — being alone, running out of money, taking care of myself and my kids without paying anyone to help me.

But I missed Boulder.

At 45-minutes to an hour away, the farm was just too far.

I wanted Kaia to go to a charter school in Boulder, Noah to make friends, and to bike to yoga, the farmers market and activities at the Integral Center.

One year was enough, it was time to bring my newly integrated self back into a new world.

So we moved to Boulder. I was scared. I had come to love the farm. I was worried I’d get sucked back into my workaholic ways.

We’ve been in our condo for a year. 3 bedrooms. My ex-husband, my two kids, Craig when he’s in town and me. It’s a lot of people for a condo without a backyard.

When I rented it, I imagined I’d be here for five years. Just me and the kids. I didn’t imagine their dad would be living here with us. Or Craig.

So quickly we’ve outgrown it. And, it’s taken us this long to grow into it.

I look around this space and my heart cries at the idea of leaving so soon. I like that it’s cozy. We just bought a bunch of plants from Cheri, who is embarking on her own gypsy journey, and I wonder why we waited so long to put plants in this space.

My desk just found the perfect location in front of the fireplace.

And within 30 days, we’ll be leaving.

Moving again.

It’s happened like this every time. Within 30 days of moving day, it all feels like it finally settles in. And then, it’s time to go.

We are moving into a house. On a park. With a backyard. Walking distance to the Integral Center.

It’s not huge, but it’s big enough that we won’t all be in the same room when I’m working, Kaia’s playing her piano, Noah’s gaming, Todd’s in the kitchen and Craig’s making a smoothie or on his computer.

That actually makes me sad. I like that we are all in the same room. And I recognize that we need space too.

And Todd is ready for his own place. And Noah’s ready for his own room. And Craig and I are ready to create our life together.

So, once again, we’ll move.

I’d like to think we’ll be in that house for 5 years. Long enough to get Kaia through high school without moving again. But I know the truth now, I’m a gypsy.

If we stay, it’ll be a minor miracle. Almost certainly, if we do, it will be thanks to the grounding that only a Taurus man (Craig) can bring to my life.

With all this movement, you may be surprised to hear that transition is actually hard for me.

I am anxious. Just like I was this time last year as we prepared to move here. And I know it will all be perfect.

My prayer: this time next year we are preparing for (or have already embarked upon) our summer on the road. We are so settled into our home and not planning to move again so instead we can travel from festival to festival, spreading the message of financial liberation, sovereignty and the new economy.

I’ll very likely be anxious about that too.

But I’m a gypsy and it’s when I’m on the move that I feel most present, most alive and most free, so I’ll remind myself that the anxiety will pass as soon as movement has begun.

I’ll revel in the freedom this life has brought, relaxing into the awareness that the only true stability is within. My job only to be the calm in the midst of the chaos.

Remind me when I forget.

Here’s an interview Marie and I recorded that will help you decide whether B-School is right for your particular entrepreneurial archetype and stage of business.

And, when you use my link to join Marie Forleo’s B-School I’m giving you a great big juicy bonus that includes your choice of either private time with me or my LIFT Foundation System plus even more. (More on that below.)

Private time with me is impossible to get these days, yet I make a handful of it available for Marie’s B-Schoolers because I know if you are doing B-School, you can hugely benefit from a private integration session with me and I’ll love guiding you to that next step.

Just to be clear, if you decide my bonus is the one you want, this is the link you need to use:

http://rhhbschool.com/join-us/?orid=47082&opid=71

I’ll tell ya, the bonuses are almost as exciting as the course itself.  And, if I were in your shoes, it’d be hard to choose.  So I’ve decided to write up a “which B-School bonus is right for me” review for you to help you decide.

Note: this is not an exhaustive survey of all the bonuses being offered out there.  These are the biggest and best bonuses I’ve seen.  If you have a bonus you’d like me to add, just email me at alexis@eyeswideopenlife.com and I’ll consider adding it.

Bonus #1: Danielle LaPorte’s Very Big B-School Bonus

• The Desire Map Program (regularly $170)
• Your Big Beautiful Book Plan (regularly $150)
• The Fire Starter Sessions trinity: a copy of the hardcover book + the digital version for your iPad, Kindle or Nook + the audio edition for your iPod — that’s 7 full hours of motivation, baby. ($76)
• The Mini Fire Starter Retreat. After your B-School graduation, you’ll receive access to a private online retreat, only for people who purchased B-School through me. From philosophy to software, I’ll take you behind-the-scenes of my business like no one’s seen before.

According to Danielle, “That’s over $500 in B-School Bonus love. Boom.”  Dollar-wise that’s not a lot, BUT the Mini Fire Starter Retreat makes it very interesting. Danielle put that together as a special JUST FOR B-Schoolers and if you know me, I always love to get behind the scenes.

I’d choose this bonus package if I didn’t want or need one to one support.  If you tend to get overwhelmed by lots of information, this may not be the best package for you because it does come with a lot of info on top of all the info you’ll be getting in B-School. 

Bonus #2: Kate Northrup’s Heart Hustle B-School Bonus:

In the Spring, Kate and her honey will offer a course called Heart Hustle — Make a Profit and a Difference. It’ll sell for $400, but when you use her link, you’re getting it for free.

If you are a Kate fan and would be planning to buy her course anyway, her bonus could be a goodie for you.

Bonus #3: Laura Roeder’s Creating Fame B-School Bonus:

 As you probably know, Laura is the original co-founder of B-School with Marie and she’s been a long-time friend of mine. In fact, I take a little bit of pride in catalyzing the Marie/Laura partnership that led to B-School because Laura called me up before investing in hiring Marie as a coach and asked me whether she should do it.  My advice to Laura?  Yes, go for it. Marie will support you to get to the next level with your business and you’ve got to invest to get there.

She was nervous (as we all are when we are making big investments in ourself without any guarantee of results), but she did it and boy oh boy did her business jump to the next level.

In fact, that’s what led to the Marie Forleo/Laura Roeder partnership that resulted in the first two years of B-School.

After B-School, Laura created a program called Creating Fame, showing you how to use social media to become what she calls “business famous.” She’s giving you that program + her Fame Camp bootcamp when you use her link to join Marie’s B-School.

That’s $2,500 worth of programs making Laura’s bonus a big money winner.  You should use Laura’s bonus if you want to make the most of social media.

Bonus #4: Heather Allard “the Mogul Mom” B-School Bonus:

Heather’s got some cool bonuses for you, especially if you want to reach the mom market with your product or service.   I especially like that you’ll get advertising on her site.  If you need that, this could be a good bonus for you.

• A free one year listing in The Mogul Mom Marketplace (A $250 value)
• A free one year membership in The Mogul Mom Community (A $228 value but worth so much more – this group will blow you away with its love, laughter, support + kick-ass business advice)
• A free copy of Get Famous, Get Retail Ready, and Get Started from The Mogul Mom Shop ($111 value)
• A free recording of our Choosing + Using the Right Social Media for Your Business teleseminar ($19 value)
• A free multi-site license to my soon-to-be-released premium WordPress plugin,May We Suggest ($47 value) that’ll make promoting your posts + products a breeze
• THREE months of free advertising in the “Recommended” section on the sidebar of TheMogulMom.com (A $450 value that will put your ad in front of over 35,000 visitors per month!)
• Once you complete the full B-School program, a $50 Kiva donation will be made in your name through The Mogul Mom lending team.  ($50 value…but really, priceless.)

Bonus #5: Mine. The Eyes Wide Open B-School Bonus with Alexis Neely

My bonus is your choice of either a private integration session with me to structure out the specifics of your business model post B-School (because everything is going to be different and you are going to want to uplevel big time) — read what Anasstasia Grace had to say about it here.

OR

You can receive my LIFT Foundation System so you can build your business with a solid foundation of all the legal, insurance, financial and tax stuff you know you are going to need, but don’t know how to do.  This program will save you tens of thousands of dollars in mistakes and sells for $1,997.

My private time isn’t available at any price, so we’ll call that one priceless.

Now, here’s the deal on the private integration session. I only have room for ten of those. I’ll update this space so you’ll know how many are left.  Once ten people choose it, they are gone. First-come/first-serve, baby.

Plus, I’m also going to give you 60 days of high level consulting, support, guidance and wisdom in my Eyes Wide Open coaching program.  That’s $250/mo and you’ll be with us for 2 months, gratis. That program includes every other week coaching calls with me PLUS weekly behind-the-scenes team training calls so you can actually watch us as we grow our business so you can model how we do it as you grow yours.  Our members LOVE this.

You can begin that after B-School and after your private time with me, so I can give you ongoing support after we lay out the perfect business model for you.

Plussssss, you’ll also get immediate access to our Eyes Wide Open private Facebook group with a group of entrepreneurs who are committed to living life and doing business with their Eyes Wide Open. They are the perfect networking and practice group for you that is more intimate than the huge B-School community and I show up their quite frequently to give on the spot guidance and direction.

If you want my B-School bonus, use this link to get it:

http://rhhbschool.com/join-us/?orid=47082&opid=71

So, take your pick. Which of these bonuses is the best bonus for you?  It really depends where you are in your life and business going into B-School and what will serve your experience the most.

Danielle, Kate, Laura, Heather or me? You really can’t go wrong.  Was this helpful? I’d love to hear what you decide.

PS — you do know that we are able to put together these bonuses for you because Marie’s company will pay our companies a commission on every sale we make.  In case you aren’t hip to that yet, it’s called affiliate marketing and it’s the best business model for those of you with the Star/Connector Entrepreneurial Archetype. Don’t know your archetype? Listen to a couple of calls I hosted around the New Year about the Entrepreneurial Archetypes here.

But, a lot of things I’ve been resistant to in the past seem to be coming into focus this year, so I’m not surprised that this one has too.

Before I tell you the word, I want to share some of the shifts that are happening because they are big and somewhat surprising.

First, some backstory.

In late 2009, my life began to change course dramatically.  I was on the fast-track to the kind of success so many of us wish for – fame, fortune, etc. — but, it was empty.  I knew there was something more.  What I didn’t know is that I’d have to give up everything I held dear to find it.

Jan. 1, 2010, I left LA, moved to Colorado and thought that would be the answer.

It wasn’t.

I was still locked in my office working 12-14 hours a day, at least.  My kids would come home from school, head downstairs and play video games for hours.  I had no time for the community I longed for and I began to crack.

Piece by piece, I let it all go.

First, the teams supporting my businesses.  Then, the boyfriend I loved so much.  Finally, my reputation.

2010 was the year of letting it all go.

I began 2011 with a new name.  Ali Shanti.  A new vision.  A farm, a community, a place to give birth to the new paradigm.

Little did I know 2011 would be about facing everything I was most afraid of.

My relationship with Russell ended as quickly as it had begun.  The event we planned to host together at Eden — Eden Unplugged –  had to go on in the midst of our relationship ending and Craig stepped in to co-lead with me and take a leading role in my life and within a few months he was supporting me to let go at a deeper level than I ever could have fathomed.

My greatest fear was that I would have to move onto my farm.

You see, I didn’t buy it to live on. I bought it to make into a new paradigm business venture, a community, a gathering place, a seed of collaboration.

The Universe had other plans.

Within 6 months of its creation, it began to fall apart.  Lack of understanding about how to structure ownership and responsibility, lack of clear vision, rampant addiction among the members of the community and many other short-comings on my part resulted in a hard decision to make come August.

Would I keep trying to hold it together, falling deeper and deeper into chaos, struggle and distance from my kids or would I let go another level deeper?

With Craig’s support, I decided to dive.

I gave up the big house, the fancy car, the private clients, my credit score and faced my biggest fears — living without credit and moving out to the farm.  45 minutes from town, alone (the “community” disbanded once the financial support was gone) with my kids, and facing winter.

I was freaked the freak out!

The idea of living on a farm with my kids, alone, through the Winter, was NOT part of my life plan.

I gave up my personal assistant, my housekeeper, having my best friend two houses away to help with mealtime and my personal trainer.

It was time to learn to be self-reliant.

It turned out to be one of the best year’s of my life.

I learned so much about myself, reconnected with my kids, discovered how to receive help from people not on my payroll, and how to provide value in the world just by being me.

By August 2012, it was time to come back into the world.  We left the farm and returned to the city.

Another scary transition.  Would I be able to maintain my connection to my kids and myself while at the same time moving back into the world of money, bills and “city life?”

It’s been nearly 6 months and there have been moments of uncertainty, times of feeling caught up again in the so much to do, that feeling of lost-ness.

But, something shifted for me as 2013 dawned.

Suddenly, I’m looking outside myself far less and turning within far more.  Even more than when I was out at the farm.

Thanks again to Craig, I began working with a healer/medicine woman on getting in touch with a part of me that I’ve long avoided.  A part that holds the keys to me being able to do the work I most came here to do, my soul’s work, in an even bigger way.

So instead of going out this weekend, connecting with community and generally wanting to be anywhere but here, I stayed in.  I hung out with my daughter and I connected with myself.  It felt extraordinarily good.

And then …

I decided to take a meditation class. 90 days. 40 minutes of sitting every day with a one-hour sit each week. WTF?!?

Really? If you knew me, you’d wonder.

Today was the first class.  And in the midst of it, my word for the year came ringing through.  Discipline.  My word for the year is discipline.

I re-started CrossFit and I’m going 3 times per week even though my body is screaming about it.  I’m cooking frequently – very odd for me – and keeping my room clean.  I’m staying home when my rebellious teenager just wants to go out and party.  And, now, 40 minutes of sitting meditation everyday.

These are not things the old “I” ever wanted to do.  But, some new emerging “I” really wants this.  The one who is so ready for me to do the big work I’m here to do.

It takes discipline to show myself I love me.

As I was contemplating this, it occurred to me — this is the last year of my 30s.  I’ll turn 40 in November. I’m maturing.  Less looking outside myself for what’s good and more coming within to find it.

So, I’m curious about you.  How does discipline show up in your life? How do you show yourself you love yourself by doing things you don’t think you want to do?  And what are the results when you do it?

There are other parts, I’m not so excited about.

Yesterday, our local Whole Foods was out of fresh spinach.
None.  Out.

When I posted about it on the Facebook a friend mentioned that his local Whole Foods has been running out of kale.  And later, another friend mentioned her Whole Foods, across the country from mine, was out of spinach too.

This is bad news my friends.  And something I’ve been worried about for some time.

It’s why I wanted to build my farm into a consistent source of local food for my family. Little did I know that it would be so difficult to make that a reality and there was a lot I didn’t know about how to do it that ultimately crashed the venture. (More about that some time when I have lots of time to write.)

Now that I’ve moved into town and away from the farm, I quite often feel scared that it will become difficult to get access to the food I want my family eating — non-GMO, fresh, clean food.

So, here’s what I’m going to do about it.  My friend Tera Warner is hosting a 32-week program called Healthy Homesteader, and I’m joining it.  If you want to do it with me, here’s the link.

I’m committed to figuring out how to make this work while living the urban lifestyle.  My hope is that I’m not going to sign up for this and then not do it because I’ve typically been resistant to taking time out of my life to do programs that don’t have to do with business.

But, I’m really serious about making sure my family has fresh, real food to eat, no matter how expensive or difficult it becomes to get in the store.

For inspiration, I’ve been checking out the Bathroom Farmer.  I don’t have a bathroom big enough to make this a reality, but I do have a little porch off my bedroom that I’ve been dreaming about turning into a greenhouse.

Here’s the thing you have to know about me.  This is SO unlike me. Moving to the farm was an exercise in facing my biggest fears, letting go of everything and learning about who I really am.  While I learned a huge amount about myself, it didn’t turn me into the domestic diva.

I can barely even prepare breakfast for my kids in the morning.

And yet there’s some part of me that yearns for this. Self-sufficiency.  The ability to grow and prepare healthy food for myself and my family.

So I’m going for it because I know that it’s my growth edge.  Knowing how to make money is great for our now economy, but in the new economy, learning how to “live with the seasons, find your food & medicine in the forest and thrive on whole foods and a natural lifestyle” maybe a whole lot more important.

Join me? Do it here.  Use this link — it’s my affiliate link - and email me your receipt after you do at support@eyeswideopenlife.com and I’ll give you membership in my member’s only Facebook group for living an Eyes Wide Open life and having an Eyes Wide Open business so we can stay connected through our experience in the course.

What are you doing to make sure you, your family, friends and community has access to fresh, clean food no matter what happens in our grocery stores? Please share in the comments.  I asked this question on Facebook and found out about the Bathroom Farmer. What resources can you share?

The current message from the media when it comes to your personal finance decisions goes something like this:

1. Start saving money now to send your kids to college.

2. Pay off your debt as quickly as possible. (And don’t acquire any if at all possible, unless it’s to buy a  house or car, and even then, pay it off as quickly as possible.)

3. Prepare for retirement by saving as much money as you can and investing it in mutual funds or maybe put it into an insurance product that will pay you tax-free in your later years.

People, it’s time to wake up! This advice no longer serves you.

I’m probably quite a bit ahead of my time saying the things you’ll read in this post, but this advice needs to change and the only way to start doing it is to start talking about the alternative.

Saving for college is a fool’s errand for the vast majority of the people in the United States. There are SOME situations in which saving for college is appropriate, but they are the exception and certainly not the norm our mainstream media would have us believe.

Paying off your debt makes a whole lot of sense if you are a wage slave and intend to be for the rest of your life, but if you want to pursue your dreams, work for yourself and step into the new economy to create sovereignty for yourself and your family, paying off your debt may just be the last thing you want to do, not the first.

And retirement? It starts now.

Imagining that you are going to be able to save enough for your retirement by working hard now, socking money away in the stock market and hoping it will be there when you are ready to stop working and move into the old folks home is a pipe dream for the vast majority of us.

So, what’s a new economy gal or guy to do?

Start thinking in terms of the real economy.

Instead of saving for your kids’ college education, invest in your own growth, now.

Learn how to start a business or expand the one you have, so you can create an income stream (a sovereign revenue stream) your family can count on for life, no matter what’s happening in the “global economic system.”

Learn how to do something or create something that provides value to the people around you and how to trade that value for the things you need now and you’ll need in the future.

Take the majority of your money out of the stock market and instead put it into assets that have real value, no matter what. And I’m not talkin’ Silver here people.

I’m talking about real value, things that you will need, no matter what.  Like what?

• Clean food (non-GMO), clean water, renewable energy and ways to store all of it;
• Land, community, learning how to live with people, resolve conflict and get along with the people in your life and those you don’t even know yet;
• Shelter.  And I’m not talking big ass fancy houses, unless you are turning it into a community house where you are re-learning to live multi-generationally’
• Strong, healthy relationship with your children or others in the younger generations.

These are the things that have real value, no matter what.  After you’ve secured all of this, then you can gamble with the stock market.

And forget about paying off your debt.  Yes, really. (Important note: I am NOT saying not to pay off your debt if you have a surplus of income coming in from a sovereign revenue stream you can count on to support you for life. Not at all.  Once you’ve got that, pay back your debt, by all means! But, under no circumstance should you put paying off debt before creating that for yourself and your family.)

Start thinking instead about how you can leverage the credit system to support the real reason you are here now.  And invest your credit in building yourself a sovereign revenue stream.  

You aren’t here to go to work at a job you don’t even really like, so you can just scrape by paying your bills, sacrifice for your kids who won’t be grateful for it anyway and fill in the empty spaces of your life watching TV, biding your time until you can move into a retirement home and die.

You really did come here for a reason. If you don’t already know what that reason is, I imagine you can feel it tugging at you.

The lack of resources or the debt you must pay off before you go do that thing is simply the excuse keeping you from going for it. Because going for it is scary.

But, I can promise you this — not going for it will be scarier, down the road, when it feels like it’s too late (maybe it already does, but if you are reading this, it’s really not) or you are forced into going for it because the structures you’ve come to depend upon have shifted irrevocably.

This is the real economy.  I know some of this sounds far out right now, but the lucky ones are the ones who can not only see ahead, but who can trust in themselves or what they see enough to do something about it.

There are people who knew before it happened that the housing bubble would burst, that the stock market would crash, that the tides would turn.  I was one of those people (we sold our 2 bed/1ba house at the very height of the bubble for $650,000 — today the people who own it would be lucky to get $400,000 for it in the condition it was in) and now instead of keeping it to myself, I’m sharing it with you.

If you have questions about the real economy or anything I shared here, please post them in the comments.  I intend to share a lot more about this in the future and your questions will influence where I take things from here.

Like Y2K and other events that turned out to be much ado about nothing, December 21, 2012, the end of the Mayan calendar, could appear the same on the surface.  But, below the surface, I can feel that something else is happening.

I’d like to share that with you. To bring it to your consciousness, so you can feel it too.  I welcome you to share in the comments, what you can feel beneath the surface during this time of transformation, evolution, growth and shifting.

Let’s begin here.

A little more than a year ago, I met a woman who shared the essay below with me. Her name is Amber. I’m not clear if she wrote it or if it was something shared with her. When I asked her for more details, she didn’t respond.  And now she’s disappeared.  So, I’m sharing it with you here because I feel certain it came into my possession so it could be spread.

It’s called the Great Flower Radiation and it illustrates clearly how rapidly things can change, when it is time, as so many believe it is now.  Read it and imagine how it might apply to us, to you, to our transformation … now.

It seems impossible now to imagine a world without flowers. 130 million years ago it would have taken an extraordinary feat of imagination to dream of even one – there were none. The planet existed in monochromatic hues of green, brown and blue.

In the blink of a Universal eye, flowers exploded into being with such speed and impact we now call it the Great Radiation. Suddenly, all the building blocks of the lifeblood of modern ecosystems and the font of untold inspiration appeared and prospered.

How were flowers able to so radically change the world they lived in so quickly and completely?

Flowers did not compete directly – but worked around the established environment; their unique design and attraction stood out in a uniform world; the incentives they offered were perfect for attracting collaborators in rapid expansion; and they experimented wildly, evolving in hyper drive. (Sound like anyone you know?)

The ecosystems of 100 million years ago were filled with giant plants that dominated their surroundings and monopolised the resources needed for others to grow and create new frontiers.  Flowers did not compete head on with these titans, instead they exploited the gaps and the margins, growing faster, seeding at their peak and evolving more rapidly. They exploited the small resources in a way that the giants could not – by being agile and concentrating in the spaces between what existed to establish an entry.

Though they had a good start, flowers remained restricted in scale. They were at first hindered by existing rules of propagation, relying on the same vectors as their giant neighbors- local reproduction or wind-blown chance.

Flowers could never have succeeded if they had tried to rely on what had always worked in the past; instead they would have to allow for something new. They would need to enlist the help of billions who would dedicate themselves to mutual success.

Enter the pollinators who could go from one flower to hundreds. Within the jungle of green, the first brightly collared petals exploded like fireworks. Petals, crazy colored beacons of possibility, served as irresistible beacons to participate in accelerating life-enhancing variety. The Great Radiation then truly began.

In addition to the promise of new possibilities, flowers offered their co-conspirators in expansion a reward: sweet, nourishing and seemingly limitless energy – nectar. Flowers gave, they got and the whole system flourished.

Now the flowers had the agility to move anywhere, between and beyond existing growth; they and their pollinating partners experimented wildly, expanding and transforming rapidly in rush of accelerated evolution. The age of flowers changed relationships, brought new fuel and a new source of power into our world.

Today, nineteen of every twenty plant species on our planet are flowering plants. This state change happened in what was, geologically speaking, a blink of any eye. Perhaps, just maybe, we are living in the midst of that blink ourselves right now.  And you, my friend, are the wild, crazy, never before seen petal that is exactly what’s needed right now.

Ψ    Ψ     Ψ

The first Great Radiation took millions of years.  The agricultural revolution took thousands of years. The industrial revolution took under two hundred years. The information and knowledge revolution transformed civilization in a few decades. Our next leap could take just a few years. Consider that we may now be entering – Humanity’s Great Radiation, where accelerated experimentation in knowledge and sustainable design flourishes across every area of civilization.

What is your role? How can you inspire the pollinators? Can you feel it?  If so, shine your light and share with us here, in the comments, on Facebook, from the rooftops, tell everyone you know.  More soon… 

While you wait RSVP to join me on New Year’s Eve day …

Along the way, I am discovering so many ways we are conditioned to believe things that simply are not true.

I’ll continue to share some of those things with you here.

Post bankruptcy, we are required to take a course.  In the course, there is a test question as follows:

Q: Money represents freedom. The less you spend, the more freedom you have.

True or False.

Of course, the “right” answer here according to the test is “True.”

But, is it really?

My experience has been that the people who circulate money the most (keep it flowing by investing it in experiences, people and other resources) have the most freedom.

The people I’ve met who are constantly focused on spending less are not the free ones.

To me, they seem trapped in a limited paradigm of not enough resources.

I used to be like that.  I was the biggest penny pincher around.  Always looking to save a buck. Often stepping over a dollar to get to the dime.

Sure, I had 10,000 bucks in the bank, no debt and a great credit score, but was I free? Hell, no.  I was trapped in my quest for freedom.

Contrast: the person who freely circulates the resources she has access to, investing in creating more. Taking risks. Trying, failing, and trying again.  Unconcerned with enough. Knowing there will always be enough so long as she keeps saying yes to what’s real and true for her.  Trusting all needs are met, always and all ways.

Sure, she seems a bit crazy.  Outside the norm. Off the wall even.  Definitely living at the edge.  And creating more.  Hiring people to support her dreams.  Building businesses.  Increasing her overhead.  Not. Spending. Less. Instead, investing more.

Who is more free?

Have you bought into a paradigm that has you convinced that spending less equals more freedom? If so, how is that serving you to more freedom today?