The Cashflow Quadrant at it’s simplest is a way of describing how different people approach the work they do. Here’s the quadrant itself:

To find out where you fit in, the best way to tell is to listen to the language used by people in the different quadrants.

An employee is likely to talk about job security, the various benefits they get from a job (holiday pay, pension, sick pay, maternity leave to name but a few), the number of hours worked in a week, or their career prospects. Even if the employee is someone at the highest level in an organization, talk about their own job will likely feature along these lines. Often the underlying emotion for employees is anxiety – fear of too little money, fear of what to do with lots of money, fear of responsibility, fear of their own capabilities, fear of lack of security, even in some cases fear of being found out.

There is nothing wrong with being an employee, or any of the quadrants in this model, by the way. Without people who want to be employees, how could we have employers? It’s a two-way relationship, so if you notice you are judging here just let go of it.

A self-employed person usually has a need to feel in charge of their own destiny as regards their work. Language used here is likely to be things like ‘It’s better if I just do it myself, that way I get the job done the way I want’; ‘I like being my own boss’; ‘Delegation is hard, because it’s only me that knows exactly how to do everything’. They may consider themselves as having a career, but are equally likely to think they have a business, although if they don’t have systems that others can work, then it is more likely they have a self-employed job. They are likely to be professionals, and are often an expert in their field, and indeed their clients or customers see them as that. They are unlikely to have money as a driving force – much more important is the quality of their work and the difference they make in the lives of their clients and customers. This is where they get their meaning in life from. A self-employed person is often simply doing a job without the benefits associated with being an employee, but with the perceived benefits of freedom, independence, able to control their own schedule and master of their working lives.

A true business owner, even if owning a small business, will be someone who uses systems that can be operated by people other than him or herself. Depending on the amount of delegation they can give successfully, a true business owner will want to hire E’s and S’s because the business owner can then be focusing on how the business systems are working, where the business is going, and what they want to do next. In an ideal world, ‘a real business owner can leave his business for a year and return to find it more profitable’ says Kiyosaki. While this might be an appealing thought to you, it takes a highly efficient system within your business plus very competent people to run it. And still the buck stops ultimately with you. No-one in an employed capacity will ever be able to care as much as you do about your business, simply because it is not theirs.

An investor focuses on making money in ways that enable them to do nothing very much, and still the money comes in. Hopefully. As in anything to do with being alive , there are always ups and downs, therefore a successful investor will always have strategies to cope when the markets fall, or there are other changes in the financial climate. At one end of the scale, you are investing if you have put some money in a bank account and receive a small amount of interest. At the other end, you are investing when you put thousands or millions into a project that may or may not make you money. As an investor you need to know what level of risk you are prepared to take, and take action accordingly.

There is no one quadrant that is ‘better’ than another. In our economic system at the moment, this is how it works, and they are all dependent on each other. Perhaps you are a chiropractor, with your own income from your own clients (S); but you also have properties which you rent out to others (I). Or maybe you have a job as a part– time nurse 2 days a week (E), but also work from home as a proof– reader (S). Or maybe you run your own small business (B) and spend one day a week working as an employee for another organization that is dear to your heart (E). However, if you want to free up your time you will have to be in the right hand side of the quadrant more than the left.

So where do you fit in this? Each quadrant requires very different skills, talents and capabilities, not to mention ways of communicating. If you are wanting to grow your business, make sure you have identified where you are on this quadrant, where you want to go to, and what are the skills you need to learn to help you get there.

To transform means ‘a marked change, usually for the better.’  In the online dictionary it suggests this usually refers to a manner or characteristic, but of course transformation can apply to any situation, in any context. The main thing is that it is a move from one place to another that is better.  Better meaning more pleasant, fulfilling, hopeful, easier – you name it.

However you can’t transform anything without being willing to admit that you want something to change. The vast majority of us may be able to get to this stage, but not be able to move from a position of remaining stuck, albeit knowing we want to change. This is because one of the most common aspects of being stuck is blaming – either yourself or, more commonly, others.

When you blame, you might as well be trying to get out of quicksand, because no amount of trying to make the other person be different will work.  This applies in all circumstances, your marriage or partnership, your children, your work colleagues, your friends.  Blame is a dead-end alleyway.  With a high wall in front and to either side of you, there is nowhere to go except backwards – back towards a place where you can see another path.  How do you do this?  By being willing to admit that you might be wrong.

So now it’s time for another old saying:

“Would you rather be right or happy?”

Think right now of a situation you have found yourself in (maybe recently), where you are convinced you are right, and the other person just needs to understand this, and then everything will be all right.  Now ask yourself:

“Would I rather be right or happy?”

Tell yourself the truth – you might rather be right, in which case you will remain stuck.  That’s just how it is.

But at least you can loosen the knot you have put around yourself by admitting you want to stay right.  It is only with this kind of honesty that movement can occur.

A client recently described the following scenario:

Mary shared an office with a colleague, Beatrix, and for the most part they had a good working relationship.

However, they had one area where they simply could not agree – how a particular important meeting should be conducted.  They each had their own (very strong) opinions on this, and neither was willing to see anything else.
However, after working with me on this situation Mary approached Beatrix and freed herself from her dead-end alley by saying “I’m willing to have the meeting happen your way, and see what I can learn from it.” Beatrix’s mouth gaped open – but she very quickly agreed to this, and the meeting happened ‘her way.’

A week later, Mary told me that as a result of this meeting, another colleague had spoken to her about the effect it had had and that she wanted to use her services as a result.

This is an example of transformation in the world of work, and it all began with a willingness to accept what the current situation is, and to do what needed to be done to move on from there. I’ll be sharing a lot more about how you can create easy, smooth and effortless transformations during my interview with Claire Hayes next Tuesday 15th May at 8pm UK time. Please do join us – and if you have anything you would particularly like me to discuss, email me direct here.  I’d love to hear from you!

I came across this yesterday when exploring the nearby woods. It struck me that this is what has happened to myself and RichThinkers in the last year. After my course How to Raise Your Prices, Charge What You’re Really Worth, and Get It! finished last August, I simply put down my tools.  Apart from continuing to see a handful of clients and writing this newsletter, I have done no work at all on the business.

So what happens when a tree is uprooted?  It looks all out of place, at first.  There is shock, especially if it is a tree you have been used to seeing every day, simply standing there, being a tree through all the seasons. Suddenly there is a gap, a missing piece in a familiar landscape. Suddenly, there may be a tree trunk to walk around or over. Suddenly, your view of life gets changed, whether you like it or not.

There is a loss of what there was before, and it takes some time to get used to this. But get used to it you do, slowly, and step by step. Regarding the tree, you begin to think it normal to step over the fallen trunk, or to see what was previously hidden by the leaves and branches. You begin to accept the new situation in the woods.

Then, slowly, out of this acceptance, you notice that animals and insects find it as a new source of food; seeds fall on it; and new life begins to grow..

I trust that is what is happening now, or about to happen, with RichThinkers.  New life, new growth, all kinds of new possibilities. Watch out for them over this summer; as the new shoots appear to me, I will be telling you about them through this newsletter, Facebook, and other social media.
So where in your life has there been an uprooting? Perhaps it is happening right now, or it’s something you can identify with in your past. It’s helpful to acknowledge uprootings, because they happen all the time, in the form of business collapses, jobs being made redundant, loss of life, divorce, serious illness, law suits, serious debt — any of the major life events, whether or not to do directly with your business, will have an impact on it.

Take a moment to acknowledge to yourself an uprooting in your own life, and notice how you dealt with it (or indeed, are dealing with it). Identify what you did to cope – what worked and what didn’t work. I know for myself that putting aside judgment has been essential – either positive or negative. An emphasis on accepting what is, whatever that is, without any form of criticism or praise, allows instead a breath of air to blow into the situation. With fresh air comes fresh ways of looking at circumstances; fresh ideas presenting themselves; and beginning to see myself in a fresh, new life. Just like the new shoots on the uprooted tree, seeds can be planted that will themselves grow into a new form of life. Uprooting becomes an opportunity, instead of a calamity, and blossoming can happen on all fronts – just like the primroses below.

Anyway, there I was walking along, completely oblivious to the lovely trees, the spring growth, the bubbling stream, when I caught myself telling a story about lack of money. I know enough to realise that I need to stop this immediately when I notice it – I’ve had plenty of years of fretting away, working out solutions, worrying some more, and not much has changed. But I’ve also had plenty of years of knowing that when I deliberately turn my thoughts away from those of lack to those of abundance, I can interrupt the worrying and find instead a more peaceful place.

In this instance, what I did to choose different thoughts was to use the Course In Miracles lesson “You could choose peace instead of this,” or a variation “You could replace these thoughts with ones of peace instead of these ones.”  That day, this sentence worked immediately.  I could feel a shift inside my body as I dropped out of the story of lack and into the truth inside, which was that in that moment, all was well. That allowed me to look around and appreciate the trees, the stream and the spring growth, which led to a connection again with the natural world and the wonder of that. My heart opened, and I felt steady and peaceful inside once again.

It doesn’t always happen as quickly as this.  In fact, more often than not, I have to state that sentence over and over as a direction to my mind to take that path; sometimes I visualise myself literally taking a different path in my mind’s eye.  And it takes commitment, because the worry story often lurks behind the scenes just waiting for an opportunity to move in again.

Now, here’s the really interesting bit.  Later that very day, I had notification that the new tenant in my cottage had paid in their deposit and first months rent 3 weeks before it was due. The next day I had a message from the agent of another property I own to say that because the tenants had defaulted on their rent in their last month, they were going to pay the deposit straight into my account, and not return it to them.  And finally, I am about to move into rented accommodation again and my new landlady called to tell me she didn’t want me to pay any deposit, and would I mind just adding a small amount onto the rent every month for 18 months instead.

Well.  None of these circumstances were in my money worry story!  And each one of them combined has taken care, and more, of those particular money worries.

Before you dismiss this by thinking something like ‘oh she owns several properties, it’s all right for her’ let me tell you they are all in quite severe negative equity at the moment, and it’s me that pays the mortgages, regardless of whether they are rented or not (which two of them are proving hard to do).  And also, if you have been on my mailing list for a while, you will know that although this article is about smallish amounts of money, I’ve also had huge debt which has been resolved in a miraculous way too. So it’s not about the amount of money.

Finally, something I have learnt – you cannot direct your thoughts in this way in order to get money. It doesn’t work. Believe me, I have tried! You have to do it because you simply want to free yourself of worrying (about anything) and be in a peaceful place instead – even if the outer circumstances never change. Now that takes courage, commitment and a willingness to trust. But if you are in that peaceful state, no matter what, then everything else simply does not matter as much.

So I have a challenge for you this week – when you find yourself falling into worry about anything, deliberately direct your thoughts down another path, and notice how that makes you feel. Post your comments below if you’d like to share your experiences.

Inside, after the contents page, was a two-page spread showing 30 items, ranging from clothing to gadgets, bikes to kitchen scales, with one bag highlighted as “this week’s must-have.”  A bit ironic, these two articles sitting next to each other!

On the surface it’s really easy to think along the lines of ‘when I get more _____ then I’ll be able to do ____ (meaning “and then I’ll be happier”). But it takes a rare self-honesty to be able to include those words in the brackets, and then to take the next step and consider whether they are true or not.

It’s often more money that is wanted.  But it could just as easily be time, attention, love, friendship, confidence, to be slimmer, stronger, wiser, to have peace of mind – anything really that propels you out of where you are now and into the future, which is where these ‘things’ are.

Generally, humans find it pretty unbearable to be in the present.  In the article mentioned above, the idea of the right job, right work, right partner, right house, right clothes, right make-up, right pet (anything that is outside of you) is often thought of as the one thing that will do the trick to get you out of your present (uncomfortable) situation.

But this applies in the spiritual realm too.  You can just as easily be searching for the ‘right’ workshop, self-help book, guru, or meditation technique.  And it applies in business too – along the lines of “this next conference on marketing will give me what’s missing,” or “just one more contract and all will be well.”  Or even, “when I have another £5K in the bank, then I can breathe easy”; ie, the belief, whether conscious or subconscious, is something along the lines of “I’m not OK as I am (or my situation is not OK), and I must get/do/have something to make it better.”

But it’s not the ‘thing’ that this is about, although it looks like it is.  All of these things just trick you into taking you away from your feelings in the moment, and it’s only when those are admitted, felt, and experienced that there is movement.  OK, so maybe it’s not great feeling uncomfortable feelings, but they are the truth in that moment for you, and when they are allowed, even welcomed, often the very things you’ve been wanting then have the space to come to you.

However, you might now be thinking the answer is ‘to feel your feelings’ – but that isn’t going to help either! Because then the same dynamic is in force, and you are feeling your feelings in order to get whatever it is you say you want.  There may be a little movement doing it this way round, but ultimately it will backfire on you, because your heart and intention are still with the idea of ‘getting more’, which is a cover-up for an empty space inside.

When you are willing to be in that space, to just sit and watch what happens in your life instead of trying to get/have/do something, then there’s room for magic. And when magic enters, all manner of things becomes possible.  Now, this doesn’t mean not doing anything at all, which is just another trick by your mind.  What it does mean is being conscious of who you bring to your actions. By that I mean when you sit down at your computer to write your next promotional material, how are you in yourself?  Are you in a calm and connected state?  Are you anxious?  Are you full of energy that is coming from a connected source, or full of hyper energy, which looks the same maybe, but is really you running on empty?  If you want to buy something, how do you show up to buy it?  Have you checked into see whether you still really want/need it?  Are you buying with a sense of freedom and pleasure, or guilt and shame?

Next time you’re in this kind of situation, watch to see if you are veering towards trying to be Wonder Woman/Man and getting more, or having it all.  Watch to discover what your deeper energy source is – if indeed there is one.  Watch; notice; take some space if necessary (even a couple of minutes can be plenty) and come into a place of connection and calmness before you proceed on with your task. Then notice what happens when you are taking action from this place as opposed to the other.  You may be surprised…