A lot of business owners I've spoken with lately have commented on how their business is slow because of "the recession." If you are one of these people, you might want to reconsider your position. Before blindly saying a condition is being caused by a recession, you might want to ask yourself, "What will it cost me to buy into this?" Consider if you will that your thoughts create your reality. If you doubt that, study any spiritual, religious, philosophical, writing over the last 5,000 years and you will see this lesson over and over. For example, "The destiny of man is in his own soul," Herodotes (5th century B.C.). "Our life is what our thoughts make of it," Marcus Aurelius (121Ñ180) and on and on throughout history, people have been carrying this message.

Once more, if your thoughts are a result of your beliefs, paraphrasing Henry Ford, whether you believe in the recession or you don't, your right.

I learned this quite expensive lesson many years ago. At the time I had a small graphic design and advertising agency, providing services for the business community. According to the New York Times we were in a recession. I knew that for a fact because I read about it each day in the newspaper and heard about it on TV. The problem was that my clients who had outstanding invoices, also believed it. I would go out and visit with the client, expecting to be paid for a job, only to spend my time drinking coffee and commiserating with them about how bad things were. I would end up leaving, with no money. You can image the toll this was taking on my financial health. My finances were a disaster.

Fortunately, things began to change. The change however was not because the recession ended; it was because I stop believing in its power over my life. I began doing a lot of personal growth work, writing and reciting affirmations. I did mirror work, visualization, I prayed, I meditated, and I did everything I could think of to shift my beliefs away from depending on outside forces for my prosperity and shift them toward pending on God and my own inner power. I canceled my subscription to The New York Time (sorry, Times!) and stopped watching the news. I stopped believing in the recession.

Amazing things began to happen. First, my back went out of alignment from the strain of the situation. This was not expected. I spent five days flat on my back getting up only to go to the chiropractor. I was actually working from the floor of my office with my telephone next to me. As my back began to feel better and I began to feel better, more things happened. Fortunately, these were better things. One of my clients called with a huge job that changed my financial situation immediately. Following that, several people I had been calling on "all of a sudden" were ready to proceed. My situation changed within a week or two.

When my beliefs changed, my focus changed, and what I was attracting into my life changed accordingly.

Are we in a recession? Try to get a reservation at a four star restaurant on a Saturday night, or go to an expensive department store and see if you still feel this way. Visit a luxury car dealer and ask them how their sales have been. You'll probably find out everything is fine.

It all depends upon your beliefs, thoughts and what you focus on from minute to minute. If you're concerned or worried, shift your attention, and begin writing a list of what's working. Invest some time each day for writing and visualizing what you want. Shift your focus away from the problem or lack of business. This is crucial! What you focus on expands, so if you're focusing on a lack of business, you will, by your very thought processes, be creating more of this lack. You don't have to wait for the government or media to give you permission to succeed. Take charge now and reclaim your power. This time has come for you to reclaim your business and your life and to become the person you are capable of becoming.