Life Dreaming

Lot’s of interesting words in todays title … barter … abundance … cash.

Anyone who has read my Liz Biz personal blog over the last few years will know that I have a mountain load of certain abundance in my life … and a certain lack of abundance in one area … cash … and cash flow.

I know that money and all the stuff around it [attracting it, keeping it, sharing it etc.] is one of my huge life lessons … and darlings … have I been given some huge kick ass lessons.

3 years ago I was at the cutting edge of the recession here in Ireland … paid work just dried up and in the next few years I got to really draw on all my skills and resources to keep a roof over my head and food on the table.

I was really challenged to live my core mantra … that I have the power to choose my attitude in any given situation.

I might have been cash poor but I was a time billionaire … Life Dreaming wouldn’t be where it is now without all the time I had to explore, design and develop it.

I’m not out of my personal cash recession yet and that doesn’t bother me because I’ve seen how bloody resilient and creative I can be in living the life I love.

My life is wonderfully abundant in so many ways … health, family, friends, fun, Coco dog, books, creativity, bubbles, etc etc … and I am grateful on a conscious and daily basis.

And here’s a good question I can hear some of you asking ‘ How do you get the life dreams that cost money when you have so little cash?’

Excellent question … and one I’d expect from such intelligent and gorgeous readers.

There are a number of ways that we can receive the things we need/want in our life:

• Cash – Pay for them with cash
• Free – Be given them for free
• Barter – Create an exchange of goods or services

They are all different forms of energy exchange between people and  they are all important in their own way.

There is another way that people exchange skills and services and it’s called L.E.T.S … Local Exchange Trading Systems. It was developed in Canada as a way for cash poor/skill rich communities to create and acknowledge the value of peoples skills, goods and experiences. I was very aware of it in Australia over 20 years ago … there are whole towns that work on L.E.T.S. It’s not as well developed in Ireland. Basically, you list your skills in a database and can then draw on other peoples skills. You sell your time for an imaginary currency and that is credited in a central database … and you draw down on your balance when you draw on someone elses skills. In one town you could go to a hairdresser/butcher/grocery and if they were in the L.E.T.S scheme you could pay part real cash and part imaginary currency … and they could then draw on their balance to maybe get in a painter or carpenter. I just found out that Western Australia [where I come from and my family still lives] has the most L.E.T.S schemes than anywhere else in the world. Here’s another site with loads of L.E.T.S info.

Cash – I still need cash for a range of transactions and am working on many ways to reduce the amount of money I need to live my life. My goal is to be debt free by the end of 2011, save money to live in Bali for a year and reduce my expenses. As I work to simplify my material life there is the beginnings of a sense that I only need to earn a certain [and not high] amount of cash in a year to meet my living needs [and still buy bubbles!]. The other thing I am doing is developing a few income earning streams rather than depending on one large income source … little streams can all join to form a larger cash flow.

Free – my life is choc full of really generous people. The year I turned 50 [2009] a number of friends and family sent me cash as presents and two friends paid for me to visit them in London and play in Dublin. Other friends gave me their cottage on a mountain free for a week so I could build the Life Dreaming Expedition modules in phase one. Friends have driven me to places without charging me … fed me when baked beans stopped being my favourite food … and treated me to bottles of bubbles.

There’s been a lovely lesson for me in how to graciously ask for and accept people’s help and generosity. Love you all.

Barter – in the last few years I have bartered my skills for goods and services. The more I write and talk about it … the more people ask and offer to barter. People often feel better when they can do an exchange rather than just receive something free.

In the last few weeks I have bartered and been offered barter in the following ways:

• I’m getting 1 to 1 tai chi lessons [1 hr a week for 4 to 6 weeks] in a gorgeous park in Dublin city in exchange for my help adding value to the design of the instructors wordpress site
• I’m doing 1 to 1 Life Dreaming sessions [up to 6 hours] in exchange for the professional services of a pr/communications person. She will develop my pr strategy for the Design Your Own Blogsite workshops I’ve started running … so I can get some of the cash I need on a more regular basis. The blogsite workshops are one of my little income streams
• I’m attracting house/pet sitting gigs so Coco dog and I can live rent and bill free for periods of time this year
• I’m getting a Mac Air in exchange for a friend attending one of my blogsite design workshops and giving some 1 to 1 help in building their business site
• I’m exchanging time I spend cleaning the house I’m renting a room in [and for the first time in my life I'm loving housework ... developed a passion for vacuuming stairs!] and the owners look after Coco dog when I have to be out for a day working or playing

In some cases I asked for the barter and in others people asked me …  usually because they knew I was open to it and therefore felt comfortable asking.

Barter Abundance is the new black and I am loving thinking of new ways to make it happen.

I’m also loving the different ways I’m creating cash earning opportunities by doing things I love … and I’ll always love getting presents and the odd freebie!

Life Dreaming Activity

1. Have you explored ways to reduce your expenses and increase multiple earning opportunities?

2. List all the skills, knowledge and experience that you could barter in exchange for goods and services.

3. Now start exploring who you could contact to start bartering … let people know you’re open to it.

4. List all the areas of abundance that you have in your life … now sit still and just feel happy to have all that in your life.

Please share you ideas on barter and abundance and earning streams … I’d love some new ideas and I’m sure other readers would love to hear as well. Write to me below.

If you liked this article then please Like it and Share with your friends.

Happy Monday dear reader.

Each morning when I wake up I know that a pile of things will happen that I didn’t plan … and some of my plans may get done … and some will get thrown out the window.

I had a totally different post planned for today … and it’s gone out the window because things have happened that I didn’t plan … and it’s only 9am!

My big laptop has caught a very very nasty monster something so I can’t access files or go online … boo.

That was definitely unplanned.

I started to explore solutions and saw an old and dusty laptop in the corner of the lounge that my friends Pam and Paul forgot to take with them yesterday.

Yahoo … I have a computer to work on.

Then I realised I couldn’t access my photos for this blog … boo.

And then I found a pile of photos on this little old laptop that I took over the years I’ve lived in Ballinamore … so I decided to share a few with you.

Anyone that has been reading my posts know how much I believe in our power to choose our attitudes in any given situation.

When I opened my computer this morning and it died I had a range of choices about how to respond:

1. scream and get really pissed off for the rest of the day because something had happened that I wasn’t expecting
2. scream and just give up for the day … read a book and eat chocolate because it’s all too hard
3. feel a little pissed off and then just get on with it and find a solution while staying fairly calm

I’d never do 1 because I just don’t see the point in holding a feeling like that all day … only hurts yourself and filtering bad thoughts and actions is quite hard.

I was very tempted to do 2 and the lolling side of me lobbied pretty hard for the eat and read book option. When I get this post done then I will reward myself with an hour of reading and a cuppa.

Yup … number 3 was my choice. I’m not happy about the laptop melt down and I’ll get it sorted somehow.

I feel nice and calm as I type this.

You know what surprises me?

What puzzles me is why people get so upset and surprised about unexpected things happening in their lives … they seem really put out when it happens and then they choose to get angry, sad, vengeful, frustrated.

I’m more surprised when things I plan to do actually happen in any kind of sequence.

The unexpected is the norm … and that’s why I tend to stay fairly calm when shit happens. I’m expecting every day to be filled with unexpected and random events … so I choose to be calm and resilient and solution focused.

That doesn’t mean I don’t get pissed off when my lovely plans get disrupted. I raise my eyes to the heavens and sigh … and just get on with it … dealing with the disruption and adjusting my plans.

I’ve decided to move from Ballinamore to Dublin on December 12 and live there until I move to Bali near the end of 2011.

I have some lovely lists and even fabber people I’ve asked to help and support me.

Will unexpected and frustrating things happen to piss me off during this transition … oh yeh baby.

Bar being kidnapped by monkeys … I’m expecting all sorts of unexpected things to happen … and … I also expect some fab and delightful unexpected things to happen along the way.

The one thing I have power over is the attitude I choose to take to all the expected and unexpected events that will happen on the way to this new adventure.

I’m choosing a kind of wry approach … delighted when things go well and calm when the monkey poo hits the fan … with a dollop of eye rolling and sighing and the odd scream in a quiet room.

And there will be bubbles and chocolate and lolling along the way.

It’s not even 9.30 and the adventure begins.

I send you big wishes that some of your plans become real this week … and that the unexpected surprises are relatively delightful.

And if an unexpected crappy things happens … deep breath … deep sigh … and know that you have the courage, resilience and capacity to deal with it.

Your mantra for this week is ‘It’s all part of the adventure’.

Let me know how it all goes.

Liz

p.s I’m off to have that hour long reward of a cuppa, log fire and read of my book.

I know … strange title … or is there a method in my madness?

All my life I’ve been interested in the power we all have inside us and how that can be harnessed for individuals and communities and organisations.

In my work over 25 years I have  concentrated on the skills, strengths and experiences that people can bring to their lives and communities.

Some of my first work with communities in the 80′s [yeh ... really bad hair decade and let's not talk about the padded shoulders] involved imagining their future … dreaming about what kind of community and lives they wanted. I went into school rooms and football fields and shops and offices and talked with people about their dreams for their community.

I also started conversations about what they already had … all the strengths and skills and experience and enthusiasm and passion for their community. I worked with them to see how that could all be harnessed to work towards the vision they had of their community.

At the same time I was fascinated by the power of language to help and hinder our dreams [and there's a whole post being written on this topic] and started consciously turning ‘Buts’ into ‘Ands’ … ‘We’d love to have a youth centre but …’  became ‘ We’d love to have a youth centre and …’.

Change one word and you begin to open horizens.

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