The literature on aligning oneself with the energy of money is, to a greater or lesser degree, in agreement over the basic principles of attracting and maintaining abundance. While Stephen Covey is the most conservative or traditional in his views of the Character Ethic and attaining success, all the experts in the field agree that the individual’s fundamental set of beliefs and perceptions influence their relationship to money and abundance. Even Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1990) says that, "Anytime we think the problem is ‘out there,’ that thought is the problem. We empower what’s out there to control us." He goes on to say, "What I have seen result from the outside, in paradigm, is unhappy people who feel victimized and immobilized, who focus on the weaknesses of other people and the circumstances they feel are responsible for their own stagnant situation."

How does Dr. Covey suggest we rectify the situation? His program is comprised of the 7 Steps mentioned in his title. These are:

Habit 1: Be Proactive

Change starts from within, and highly effective people make the Decision to improve their lives through the things that they can influence rather than by simply reaching to external forces.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Develop a principle-centered personal mission statement. Extend the statement into long-term goals based on personal principles.

Habit 3: Put First Things First

Spend time doing what fits into your personal mission, observing the proper balance between production and building production capacity. Identify the key roles that you take on in life, and make time for each of them.

Habit 4: Think Win/Win

Seek agreements and relationships that are mutually beneficial. In cases where a "win/win" deal cannot be achieved, accept the fact that agreeing to make "no deal" may be the best alternative. In developing an organizational culture, be sure to reward win/win behavior among employees and avoid inadvertently rewarding selfish behavior.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

First seek to understand the other person, and only then try to be understood. Stephen Covey presents this habit as the most important principle of interpersonal relations. Effective listening is not simply echoing what the other person has said through the lens of one’s own experience. Rather, it is putting oneself in the perspective of the other person, listening empathetically for both feeling and meaning.

Habit 6: Synergize

Through trustful communication, find ways to leverage individual differences to create a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. Through mutual trust and understanding, one often can solve conflict and find a better solution than would have been obtained through either person’s own solution.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Take time out from production to build production capacity through personal renewal of the physical, mental, social/emotional and spiritual dimensions. Maintain a balance among these dimensions.

Orin and DaBen, speaking through Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer in Creating Money: Keys To Abundance (1988), advise a slightly different approach. They believe the fundamental to creating money and abundance in life is the ability to define one’s life’s work. "As they got clear on what they wanted, they were able to draw it to them easily." Once you know your life’s calling, "Your spiritual growth will increase your ability to manifest abundance and your ability to manifest will assist you in getting your spiritual work out to the world."

Suze Orman concurs in The Courage to Be Rich (1999), "What’s keeping you from being rich? In most cases it is simply a lack of belief...you must believe that you can do it, and you must take the actions necessary to achieve your goal." In her opinion, it is early childhood experiences with money that shape the way we relate to it today. She says, "The only way to determine if your feelings about money are holding you back is to take a walk down memory lane to discover any unresolved money issue lurking there." Roman and Packer in Creating Money: Keys to Abundance (1988) go even further when they say, "Take a moment and look at your childhood messages. You can create a new personal history for yourself...and stop limiting what you manifest by what you believe." You can use the exercise provided later in the book to help identify any blockages in yourself and your clients. Once you define the experiences and feelings that are getting in your way of abundance and success, "The only way to get beyond the emotional obstacles standing between you and your money is to let them go."

Since money is energy it must ultimately flow freely to be effective. If you come from a mind-set of scarcity rather than a belief in abundance, you will have a tendency to clutch onto money when you have it. By doing this, you stop the flow of money out of and into your life. Orman, in The Courage to Be Rich (1999) says, "The idea, of course, is that in order to rise up, materially and spiritually, we have to free ourselves by making offerings, by allowing some of the money we’re holding to pour back into the world. An unwillingness to give stagnates the flow, obscuring richness."

If we are clinging to every last dime and feel insecure about where the next one is coming from, Suze Orman suggests we give away as much as we can every month to a charity of our choice. "We have all been taught to clutch our money as tightly as we can, as if our money is the perch of our safety and security...The more afraid we are, the tighter we hold on, and the more we have trapped ourselves." In The 9 Steps To Financial Freedom (1997), she goes on to say, "The better people felt about themselves, and the more they kept their hands open to receive by relinquishing money, the more their financial situation improved." Not only does this open the channel for us to receive more money, but it also reinforces our good feelings about ourselves and what we are accomplishing in the world. "We experience prosperity, true financial freedom, when our actions with respect to money are dharmic, or righteous actions—that is, actions of generosity, actions of offering."

Suze Orman’s 9 Steps to Financial Freedom include:

Step 1: Seeing how your past hold the keys to your financial future

Step 2: Facing your fears and creating new truths

Step 3; Being honest with yourself

Step 4: Being responsible to those you love

Step 5: Being respectful of yourself and your money

Step 6: Trusting yourself more than you trust others

Step 7: Being open to receive all that you’re meant to have

Step 8: Understanding the ebb and flow of the money cycle

Step 9: Recognizing true wealth

In Mindlessness And Money: The Buddhist Path Of Abundance (2002), Kulananda and Dominic Houlder suggest five steps to abundance:

Step 1: Cultivate loving kindness in how we create and spend money in our lives

Step 2: Develop generosity in giving and receiving

Step 3: Cultivate contentment with what you have and how you spend it

Step 4: Be honest. Do not lie, exaggerate or minimize just to get what you want

Step 5: Be more aware: Refrain from intoxication and cultivate mindfulness

You don't always have to actively work for the money you earn. Residual Income is a way to generate money without working for it. Examples of this are publishing a book or recording a CD, where the artist receives income from sales long after the work is finished. Another way to generate money without actively working is by making investments, making your money work for you. Real estate is often an excellent long term investment, if you have the initial down payment on a property. Whether you live on the property or rent it out to tenants, there is a good chance over time it will grow in value. Other people choose to invest in the stock or bond markets. While the stock market means putting your money in large corporations, there are ways to insure that your money is invested in socially and environmentally conscious corporations. Two websites that have information on these investments are http://www.sociallyresponsible.com/html and http://www.redjellyfish.com/html.

I want to mention Non-Profits here, because many of you will be working for the public good and may choose to structure your practice or business this way. A non-profit is a corporation formed to carry out a charitable, religious, educational, literary or scientific service. Non-profits are specially structured businesses that do not pay State or Federal Income Taxes because all their profits go back into the business or go into public services. The people who run a non-profit merely draw a salary from the business like any other employee and do not pocket the profits. One webpage to refer to if you are interested in learning about non-profits is http://www.NOLO.com/html, and there are many others that will tell you what you need to know to establish a non-profit organization. This is a great structure for running a corporation with integrity.

Suze Orman says in The 9 Steps To Financial Freedom (1997), "Money is a living entity, and it responds to energy exactly the same way you do. It is drawn to those who welcome it, those who respect it. Wouldn’t you rather be with people who respect you and who don’t want you to be something you’re not? Your money feels the same way." Or, as Suzan Hilton says in The Feng Shui Of Abundance: A Practical And Spiritual Guide To Attracting Wealth Into Your Life (2001), "Money is about more: more freedom, more challenges, opportunities and energy. Feng Shui is the key to using this (money) energy I the most harmonious way.