In September of 2016, I was renting a room from friend of a friend I met on Facebook. I had moved in with him about 6 months prior, after the breakup of my marriage.
I was working at a job I truly hated, and adjusting to the emotional roller-coaster of splitting custody of my daughter with my ex.
One of my dearest friends and patrons gave me a book called The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles.
Originally published waaaaay back in 1910, the teaching shared in this book underlays a lot of the modern pop zeitgeist. The Secret, Law of Attraction, Christian prosperity preaching, and positive thinking are all echoing stuff in this book.
I'm not asking you to believe in any of that stuff, but I really enjoy the ideas because they echo things that are observably true, such as the transformative power of gratitude. |
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Cultivate Gratitude by Samax Amen
Ballpoint Pen, on copy paper
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I sketched this drawing on the back of a memo, over the course of my work day at a call center. Back then, I spent my evenings talking to the friends and families of prison inmates.
It was my job to be nice to these people who were having a hard time communicating with their incarcerated loved ones.
Sometimes the problem was that my company's phone system was not working properly, or had overcharged them.
Other times, they were pleading for a discount or credit to speak with their loved one just one minute more.
They cussed and cried and begged. I was threatened with physical violence, legal action, and voodoo curses just about every day.
No matter how bad it got, I tried to remember that as horrible as the job made me feel, I would not trade places with these callers.
They were living through a terrible ordeal of having the most important person in their life locked behind bars. Of having the company I worked for exploiting their situation. |
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| Did gratitude turn the gears of the universe to transform my situation? Did gratitude, as Wattles' book would suggest, cause opportunities to form from nothing and draw them magnetically in my direction? |
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I don't know.
But gratitude definitely helped. |
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For example:
- Gratitude Walks- I started walking once a day, not for the exercise per se, but as a way to focus on gratitude. These walks started as a leisurely walk around the block, and helped me lose weight and drastically improve my health.
- Maintaining Relationships- Setting aside time once a day to express gratitude to one person in my life. Each day I call, email, or otherwise contact the chosen person. Sometimes it is a close friend or relative. Other times it is an acquaintance, a current or former co-worker, or a customer or a client. I have even chosen a stranger like a mail carrier or a blogger. Setting this as a daily task that I have to take on good days and bad has been very helpful.
- Meditation- I had many people suggest meditation. Starting my meditation practice revolved around meditating on what I was grateful for. Meditation is great for managing stress, making better decisions, and differentiating between emotions and clear thoughts.
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HERE'S THE POINT:
Everyone agrees that gratitude will help you get through hard times, improve good times, and appreciate great times.
The more you cultivate gratitude, the more benefit you will experience, where ever the benefit may be coming from.
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| I just want to take a minute to show some gratitude for everyone who has bought my book #FreelancingFAIL. |
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I wrote #FreelancingFAIL: 6 Mindsets and Behaviors That Cause Freelancers to Struggle & How to Overcome Them to help aspiring and struggling freelancers to avoid making the same mistakes I did in the years I've been doing it, and hopefully they can get to a place of stability and independence faster than I did.
It's too early to say that my book has helped anybody improve their freelancing business, but I'm grateful that people are checking it out!
#FreelancingFAIL is available for Instant Download for just ten bucks.
OR... |
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| Take Your Membership to the Next Level, and get #FreelancingFAIL included FREE! |
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The paid VIP members of my fan club AMENsiders get access to all my new digital books for free, so I added #FreelancingFAIL to the files area before it even went on sale!
For more information about other benefits, and to sign up for your AMENsiders VIP Membership, CLICK HERE, and let me know if you have questions! |
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Well, I gotta get back to work, fam.
Thanks so much for reading!
I'll talk to you later!
-Samax ("some AX") Amen |
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