Your Threshold of Deservingness
Joe Vitale

  
Most people complain that they don't have enough money.

They look at their bills, they look at their wants and needs, they look at their checkbook, and then they look terrified.

How will they pay their bills?

How will they feed their family?

How will they attract more money?

I'm sure you know the feeling. We've all been there. You may be there right now. But what's really curious to me is this:

The movie The Secret and many of the teachers in it offer proven ways to attract money and other material things. This obviously works, given the thousands of testimonials from people who now have money when previously they couldn't find it in a bank with the vault door open.

But some people are complaining that the focus of the movie is only on money or material things. They say it's self-serving. They say it's egotistic.

Do you hear the cultural programming at work?

"Money is bad."

"Taking care of yourself is bad."

"Material things are not spiritual."

Please note the discrepancy:  When you want money and at the same time say focusing on it is bad or selfish, you are pushing it away.

Even the fans of the movie are doing this.  Some of the very people who use the Law of Attraction to get out of debt or attract a new car, at a later point only attract so much money before they begin to think they are being selfish.  At that point they unconsciously turn off the flow and wonder what happened.  They then begin to criticize the movie, too.

It's a strange thing to see.

First, people scramble to find money and worry and fret about it.

Then, they actually learn how to attract it, get some, and begin to complain that money isn't spiritual.

Wait a minute.  Weren't these the same people who wanted money in the first place?  Why was money good when they didn't have it and bad when they finally got it?

All of this is because of people's beliefs.  They hit what I call their threshold of deservingness.

My father plays the lottery.  But when the lotto gets to a hundred million dollars, he quits playing.  He says that amount is "too much" and "that much money will ruin you."

Winning ninety-nine million is OK but one hundred million isn't?

Again, we're dealing with beliefs.  We're dealing with thresholds of deservingness.

I was at an event once when a fellow called his wife and handed me the phone.  He wanted a star of The Secret to surprise her.  I took the call, said my name, and heard her scream.  She was talking to a celebrity.  She was giddy with excitement.  But then she started asking me what I was doing to save the world.

This woman had gone from being a fan of The Secret and using what she learned to manifest a few things, to hitting her comfort zone and now not wanting anything else.

What happened?

I write a blog at http://www.mrfireblog.com.  I sometimes write about one of my favorite cars, named Francine.  She’s a 2005 Panoz Esperante GTLM, a hand-assembled exotic luxury sports car.  I love Francine.  But not everyone loves me writing about her.  One person who reads my blog regularly wrote the following:

“I used to get upset when you wrote about all your cars, but now I see you were simply pushing my button.  The button is inside me.  It had nothing to do with you or your cars.  I wasn’t OK with wealth, and so I didn’t like to see it flaunted by others.  Now I enjoy hearing you talk about Francine.  Thank you for helping to dissolve my inner limits.”

That reader recognized his threshold of deservingness.  Once he was aware of it, he was able to easily raise it to a new level.

Another example is this:  Many of the teachers in the movie The Secret create products and services to help you achieve your goals.  I just created an audioprogram called The Missing Secret to do this.  When your mindset is open, you thank them for their services.  When your mindset is closed, you say they are just "selling."

Well, are they selling or serving?

It's both and it's neither.  It depends on your beliefs.  It depends on your threshold of deservingness.  If you think they are taking advantage of you, you call it selling (because you think selling is bad).  If you think they are helping you, you call it serving (because you know serving is good).

Again, it's all about beliefs, and particularly your belief about what you feel you deserveThat belief creates a threshold that you won't get past without some work using clearing methods.  Getting clear is the missing secret to your success.  Until you get clear of the limiting beliefs within you, almost nothing you try will work.  Until you raise your level of deservingness, you will stop short of your goals.

It reminds me of a question a therapist used to ask patients:

"How good can you stand it?"

Most of us can't stand it really good.

"What will the neighbors think?"

"What will my family think?"

"If it's too good, surely something bad will happen."

"I don't deserve it too good."

"If it's too good, it won't last and I'll be miserable again."

"If I'm happy, I won't do anything to save the planet."

Those are all limiting beliefs.  You need to get clear of them.  The missing secret is that once you remove those counter-intentions, you can have, do, or be anything you can imagine.

Your life can be fantastic.  Truly amazing.  But very often we hit a comfort level and won't go past it.  Why?  Because of our self-imposed limits. Because of our threshold of deservingness.

You can deceive yourself with rationalizations and criticisms about The Secret, me, others, the world, etc., but the end result is, you limit your own good.

I keep reminding people that once you get clear using The Missing Secret, there's not much you can't have, do, or be.  In fact, I doubt there are any limits at all.  The only limits we have are based on our current understanding of reality, and that keeps changing as we keep raising the bar on what’s possible.  Your goal should always be happiness, what I call spiritual awakening, but the only limits along the way are your own.

How good can you stand it, anyway?

  


 
quotations - contents - welcome page - obstacles
our current e-zine - the people behind the words - articles and excerpts
Daily Meditations, Year One - Year Two - Year Three - Year Four
     

Sign up for your free daily spiritual or general quotation
~ ~ Sign up for your free daily meditation

   

  
tm

All contents © Living Life Fully, all rights reserved.

   

HOME - contents - Daily Meditations - abundance - acceptance - achievement - action - adversity - advertising - aging - ambition
anger - anticipation - anxiety - apathy - appreciation - arrogance - art - attitude - authenticity - awakening - awareness - awe
balance - beauty - being yourself - beliefs - body - brooding - busyness - caring - celebration - challenges -
change - character
charity - children - choices - Christianity - coincidence - commitment - common sense - community - comparison - compassion
competition - complaining - compliments - compromise - confidence - conformity - conscience - contentment - control - cooperation
courage - covetousness - creativity - crisis - criticism - cruelty -  death - decisions - desire - determination - disappointment
discipline - discouragement - diversity - doubt - dreams - earth - education - ego - emotions - encouragement - enlightenment
enthusiasm - envy - eternity - ethics - example - exercise - experience - failure - faith - fame - family - fate - fathers - fault-finding
fear - feelings - finances - flowers - forgiveness - freedom - friendship - frustration - fun - the future - garden of life - gardening
generosity - gentleness - giving - goals - God - goodness - grace - gratitude - greatness - greed - grief - growing up - guilt - habit
happiness - hatred - healing - health - heart - helpfulness - home - honesty - hope - hospitality - humility - hurry - ideals - identity
idleness  - idolatry - ignorance - illusion - imagination - impatience - individuality - the inner child - inspiration - integrity - intimacy
introspection - intuition - jealousy - journey of life - joy - judgment - karma - kindness - knowledge - language - laughter - laziness
leadership - learning - letting go - life - listening - loneliness - love - lying - magic - marriage - materialism - meanness - meditation
mindfulness - miracles - mistakes - mistrust - moderation - money - mothers - motivation - music - mystery - nature - negative attitude
now - oneness - open-mindedness - opportunity - optimism - pain - parenting - passion - the past - patience - peace - perfectionism
perseverance - perspective - pessimism - play - poetry - positive thoughts - possessions - potential - poverty - power - praise
prayer
- prejudice - pride - principle - problems - progress - prosperity - purpose - reading -recreation - reflection - relationships
religion - reputation - resentment - respect - responsibility - rest - revenge - risk - role models - running - ruts - sadness - safety
seasons of life - self - self-love - self-pity - self-reliance - self-respect selfishness - serving others - shame - silence - simplicity
slowing down - smiles -solitude - sorrow - spirit - stories - strength - stress - stupidity - success - suffering - talent
the tapestry of life - teachers - thoughts - time - today - tolerance - traditions - trees - trust - truth - unfulfilled dreams - values
vanity - virtue - vulnerability - walking - war - wealth - weight issues - wisdom - women - wonder - work - worry - worship
youth - spring - summer - fall - winter - Christmas - Thanksgiving - New Year - America - Zen sayings - articles & excerpts
Native American wisdom - The Law of Attraction - obstacles to living life fully - e-zine archives - quotations contents
our most recent e-zine - Great Thinkers - the people behind the words

  

We have some inspiring and motivational books that may interest you.  Our main way of supporting this site is through the sale of books, either physical copies or digital copies for your Amazon Kindle (including the online reader).  All of the money that we earn through them comes back to the site in one way or another.  Just click on the picture to the left to visit our page of books, both fiction and non-fiction!

   

     
    

Yes, life can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's actually rather dependable and reliable.  Some principles apply to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning.  I use it a lot when I teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.  What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or generous, compassionate or arrogant?  In this book, I've done my best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life, writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.  Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too!
Universal Principles of Living Life Fully.  Awareness of these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration out of the lives we lead.