A big lesson I received was around arrogance and respect for money.
I was in the supermarket one day in 2002 and in the fruit and vegetable section I saw a 5-cent piece on the floor. Instead of picking it up as a gift, I thought I should leave it for someone who “needs it”. After all, it was only a small amount. 1st mistake!

As I left the cash register and was receiving my change, a 5-cent piece fell out of my hand and down into a crack in the counter never to be seen again. I didn’t think much about it again as it was only 5 cents. 2nd mistake.

As I was arriving at my home, I pulled my keys out of my pocket and with them another five cent piece came out and rolled down the driveway and into the street gutter drain. Now I was starting to think, is this too much of a coincidence?

An hour later I was meeting a client at a café and as I was crossing the road I grabbed my wallet and a five-dollar bill came out and blew onto the middle of the road. The traffic was heavy and I had to wait and watch it get blown around. At this point, I admitted my mistake for lack of respect for money and asked for forgiveness. Never would I disrespect any amount of money again.

Since that time I have not overlooked any money on the ground. Every time I have picked up coins that I have spotted and thanked the gift, I have had big breakthroughs in my business and personal life.
Most of the time this happens in very inconvenient locations and I persevere to get the coins.

The first time was in 2003 at the San Diego airport as I was unloading my bags out of my friend’s car and there were 3 pennies on the ground in the middle of the road.  I stopped and picked up the coins (without getting hit by traffic) and thanked them.
I flew to my destination and had the most successful two days of business since I started my career. At the end of the two days I was giving thanks to God for all the blessings I had received and I remembered picking up the coins. I saw this as a sign for me!

A couple of years later I was in a small village in Austria.  I was getting out of a car to catch a train to a new client and there, sitting in the snow, was a two Euro coin.
I picked up the coin and thanked the gift. The following four days with my new client were amazing.

In 2007,  I was getting out of a taxi at the airport in Tokyo (seems to be a pattern here!) and saw a bunch of coins on the ground. I dropped my bags and went to collect them. My friends thought I was crazy as we were running late for our flight. Once I explained all the great results that had occurred as a result of doing this, they understood.
I had more breakthroughs in my career as a result of this respect for money.

I continue to pick up coins that catch my eye as I go through life. I thank the gift and wonder with a smile what blessings are coming soon.

I would love to hear your stories where you have had similar experiences.
Please share them with me at: mystory@AreYouRunningOnEmpty.com

Blessings to you,
Kim

We can have many of these ego behaviors running our lives.

An example of creating an ego for ourselves:
When we do something that hurts someone close to us, we may try to cover up our embarrassment or guilt or fears by lying or deflecting the attention somewhere else. If we repeatedly do this we develop an ego habit that becomes so unconscious we don’t even know we are doing it later in life. We no longer feel the warnings that we are hurting someone else.

My spiritual teacher, Victor Barron  taught me how to let go of our ego.
First, we need to forgive ourselves and love ourselves for what we have done then tell our ego, “Thank you for serving me, I don’t need you anymore.” Then we work hard to create a new habit to replace the ego by acting in a more honest and loving way as the opportunities show up in life.

An example of an ego being projected onto us:
If a child is about to run across the street and a car is driving towards them, a mother would scream at the child to stop which causes a shock in the child. The mother’s fear for the safety of her child can be justified however this fear is projected onto the child. The ego develops when the mother tells the child off with such intensity due to her own fears for running across the road that the child can keep this ego and fear for the rest of its life. The ego doesn’t serve the child any more and as an adult it will have difficulty crossing any roads in its life because its subconscious recalls the original shock.

The way to stop the continuation of the ego and fear for the child is for the mother to lovingly explain to the child about stopping and looking both ways before crossing any roads to protect themselves from harm. If the mother doesn’t have any fears about this, the child will not carry any fear from the situation into their life and the lesson will be learned.

Arrogance to me is the behaviour people exhibit when they are acting away from their true self.
This can happen by trying to be someone else instead of being themselves or trying to live up to a perfect ideal that was taught to them by others which goes against their heart or against their common sense.

An example of this could be when you are trying to copy a behavior of someone else so you would look good in public. Even though you think you are looking cool, everyone else can see you are not being your natural self.

Another example is refusal to take action because of some rule that you must follow even though it is not sensible. Like sitting at a traffic light at 3am and the light is stuck on red and you have stopped for 10 minutes and there is no one else on the road and you refuse to go.

Arrogance can also happen when someone is trying to prove something to others or worse trying to prove something to themselves. This energy and behavior can really drain their life force and the energy of those around them. It keeps them from being their true authentic self.

A person without a solid financial foundation will buy a lottery ticket on Monday and wish and dream every day of what they are going to spend their winnings on. Then, with the draw on Saturday, they realize that they haven’t won anything. The next Monday, they buy another ticket for the next week and start the wishing and dreaming cycle all over again. They don’t realize how much time and energy they have wasted during this wishing and dreaming process all week.

A person with a solid financial foundation may buy the lottery ticket on Monday for fun and then spend the whole week creating and building new sources of income for themselves. They are so focused on creating and taking physical action that they forget about the lottery draw on Saturday and may not even realize they had purchased a ticket for many weeks. They are so busy creating their own reality and not wasting time and energy with wishful thinking about a possible reality.

When someone doesn’t have a solid financial foundation they are constantly comparing themselves to others and spend a lot of time, energy and money trying to compete with other people.
They will spend all their money buying the latest toys, clothes and gadgets or buying the bigger house or the fastest car because someone else has it or they are being criticized for not having it.
This increases the level of stress and fear in their lives and they have to spend more money and go more into debt to keep this fear and stress away which forces them into a state of denial.
They become easily manipulated by advertising and marketing and have no power to decide for themselves if they are being sold to.

When someone does have a solid financial foundation they feel good within themselves and accept themselves. They don’t need to buy anything because someone else has something they don’t have. They will check in with themselves to see if it will be good for them. They will know immediately if it is important for them to have it and will already have the money available or will structure a plan to purchase it in the future. They very rarely have credit card debt and are immune to the influences of advertising, marketing and sales people. They never buy out of their personal reality and capability as the feeling is so uncomfortable, it stops them from hurting themselves.
This gives them tremendous freedom and personal power.
They are very sure of themselves.

There are some people who only use credit or bank cards and don’t carry cash anymore and some who live in countries where you can no longer personally deposit cash at a bank.

If you are one of these people, email me at deposit@AreYouRunningOnEmpty.com and I will give you alternative processes you can use to build your Foundation Account.

Please send your question to question@AreYouRunningOnEmpty.com and I will answer it for you.