The secret is aligning it with what we value.

RORY KELLY CONNOR: I was a woman on a mission. I had money in my wallet that I had personally earned. I felt very powerful. As I passed by one luxury-goods' store after another on Fifth Avenue, I wasn't even tempted to go inside to check out that sexy orange leather bag with the totally cool design displayed in a store window. Didn't pause in my stride to ogle the high-heeled black sandals with the little metal bangles adorning the front strap.

As dusk started to fall on Manhattan, I knew I could spend my power on the bag or the bangles. Yet, I would stay strong. You see, I knew what I really wanted. What I valued. And that was where I wanted to spend my time and my well-earned money. I was headed to the big sexy store containing thousands of my favorite things...books!

One of the most valuable commodities we have is time, for the simple fact that it is limited and irreplaceable. How we spend our time directly translates into money -- basically, more or less. If we use our time to generate cash flow, wealth, and abundance, we are rewarded with money (net gain, a position of strength). If we waste time, we will experience no increase in money and have lost valuable time, all while continuing to incur expenses and maintain the cost of our living (net loss, a position of weakness).

In these challenging economic times, we are increasingly focused on generating abundance, attracting more wealth, establishing prosperity. Money is a big part of the winning equation. And time is money. So, the secret to success for many of us is figuring out how to strengthen our relationship to money using our time. This becomes very clear when we align money with what we value. It's that simple.

Don't believe me? Let's play a game to determine your values and priorities. Think about your current personal values (such as freedom, security, creativity, power, purpose, safety, health, love, integrity, honesty). Make a list of the top five or six that are most important to you. Now, put them in priority order. Then ask yourself, "If I could take only three of these to a deserted island, which ones would I take? Choose three, then ask yourself, "Which of these three would I never want to be without, ever?"

If you chose freedom, money allows you the freedom to explore and do whatever you want to do or be. If you chose health, money allows you to obtain good healthcare, buy nutritional foods and join a gym. If you chose security, money allows you to put aside funds in case of emergencies and to weather retirement in ease. If you chose creativity, money allows you to buy supplies, pursue creative endeavors, or time to create. If you chose purpose, money allows you to support your goals, generate opportunities, and feed the machine. Even if you chose love, money can pay for that first romantic dinner, buy those really cool playoff tickets he's been longing for, or purchase a plane ticket to meet that sexy someone you met online and have got to meet.

Now that you are clear on what you really value, it is easy to align your time and money to those values, creating a position of strength regarding the value of money in your life. Working to generate money, being conscious of how you spend money, embracing or reformulating how you spend time in order to make money are all key factors that strengthen your ability to welcome abundance, create prosperity, and generate wealth.

When you link money to your values, spending time creating money so you can live your values feels good. Repeat after me: Money is freedom! Money is power! Money is strength! Money is delicious!

Chew on that awhile...I need to get back to my books!

Jul 6, 2011 - 12:38 PM

Andrea Connell -

I agree Rory;
time does equal money. At Grail Lady Faire last week Madeleine Marentette asked us to think about a $20.00 bill and come to a realization of how much time that particular denomination of funds represented as a unit of time in our lives. And then to further contemplate whether that was a working balanced equation as compared to our spending desires. Interesting...
Too many people are working at a substandard earning level to ever address the things they truly value - they are barely able to provide enough basic necessities, then they feel drained and exhausted, and then they feel worthless and un-valuable. Spending time doing soul sustaining valuable things will create real physical money, feelings of abundance and intrinsic wealth, which in turn only creates more money! Thanks for posting this!
~Andrea