Congratulations!
You have now learned all the basics to achieving Financial Integrity!
The 9 Steps are skills and principles that can serve you for the rest of your life. They are like the steps in a recipe, or parts of a DNA spiral – the building blocks of a fulfilling life. What grows out of them is up to you. You can get out of debt, align your financial actions with your inner aspirations, and achieve financial independence – but even more subtle and profound changes are possible.
Just as all the spokes of a wheel are important to moving forward smoothly, so it is with the steps. When you give equal weight to ALL the steps, you can go to amazing places very quickly. And when you discover how well they work for you, you will continue implementing them – over and over again.
The 9 Steps are skills and principles that can serve you for the rest of your life. They are like the steps in a recipe, or parts of a DNA spiral – the building blocks of a fulfilling life. What grows out of them is up to you. You can get out of debt, align your financial actions with your inner aspirations, and achieve financial independence – but even more subtle and profound changes are possible.
Just as all the spokes of a wheel are important to moving forward smoothly, so it is with the steps. When you give equal weight to ALL the steps, you can go to amazing places very quickly. And when you discover how well they work for you, you will continue implementing them – over and over again.
Independence and Inter-Dependence
At this point, people begin to fantasize about what’s going to happen when they pass the Crossover Point and are financially independent.
Like a prisoner released after many years in jail, many people who’ve reached financial independence have found it can take a few years to transition to the reality of that freedom. Others stay in the “rat race” out of worry about unforeseen events that may bring them back below the crossover point of financial freedom.
Many people have asked if there isn’t a secret “Step 10” addressing the deeper transformations that start once they are free of financial pre-occupations! Well, there isn’t a Step 10, because what you need to know is contained within the Nine Steps, but perhaps a little more subtly than is apparent at first reading.
Remember the first part of the “Fulfillment Curve – Survival”?
When someone is struggling to create food and shelter, the work can be all-consuming. It’s hard to think about the needs of others or take a longer view when our personal needs are so urgent. Many people carry that sense of pressure much farther up the curve, and it can be hard to let it go even after reaching the peak of “enoughness”. Other people fear the freedom of financial independence will just lead to boredom or a laziness that will undermine their sense of self-worth.
Yet, there are adventures beyond the occupation of getting and spending that can be even more fulfilling. In fact, that was the whole point for program originator Joe Dominguez.
After you’ve reached ENOUGH, and you are at the peak of the curve in terms of money spent, you can still increase your fulfillment.
Like a prisoner released after many years in jail, many people who’ve reached financial independence have found it can take a few years to transition to the reality of that freedom. Others stay in the “rat race” out of worry about unforeseen events that may bring them back below the crossover point of financial freedom.
Many people have asked if there isn’t a secret “Step 10” addressing the deeper transformations that start once they are free of financial pre-occupations! Well, there isn’t a Step 10, because what you need to know is contained within the Nine Steps, but perhaps a little more subtly than is apparent at first reading.
Remember the first part of the “Fulfillment Curve – Survival”?
When someone is struggling to create food and shelter, the work can be all-consuming. It’s hard to think about the needs of others or take a longer view when our personal needs are so urgent. Many people carry that sense of pressure much farther up the curve, and it can be hard to let it go even after reaching the peak of “enoughness”. Other people fear the freedom of financial independence will just lead to boredom or a laziness that will undermine their sense of self-worth.
Yet, there are adventures beyond the occupation of getting and spending that can be even more fulfilling. In fact, that was the whole point for program originator Joe Dominguez.
After you’ve reached ENOUGH, and you are at the peak of the curve in terms of money spent, you can still increase your fulfillment.
Participation
When we have met our personal needs and wants, what is there left to do?
Well, we can expand our focus. We can go from “getting and spending” to “giving, receiving, and participating” in a larger circle of concern, expanding the mindfulness of the nine-step approach into other aspects of how we live.
We can put more energy toward contributing to the needs and comforts of family members and friends, our community, our nation, our world.
Merely by living a joyful, free life and having the time to share it, we can inspire others to live a life of financial – and personal – integrity and fulfillment!
Well, we can expand our focus. We can go from “getting and spending” to “giving, receiving, and participating” in a larger circle of concern, expanding the mindfulness of the nine-step approach into other aspects of how we live.
We can put more energy toward contributing to the needs and comforts of family members and friends, our community, our nation, our world.
Merely by living a joyful, free life and having the time to share it, we can inspire others to live a life of financial – and personal – integrity and fulfillment!
Joyful participation and service can expose us to new perspectives, expand our skill set, introduce us to new friends, strengthen our relationships, and give our life greater meaning than we ever knew before. Such personal expansion will serve us no matter what life throws our way.
Maintaining Financial Integrity
The late Joe Dominguez, upon hearing that someone attained financial independence through his method, would send them a kind letter with a real government bond in congratulations… only the bond was issued by the Czarist Russian Government of 1916 (just before the Bolshevik revolution) and was consequently worthless!
It was his way of slyly saying, “Congratulations, but don’t get complacent.” Nothing is guaranteed in this world, so stay conscious, stay creative, and stay engaged – even when you think you’ve reached “the peak.”
Continuing to follow the steps in this program will not only keep integrity in your finances, but will also help you remember the real purpose of money, and that the exchanges we create are not just monetary.
The rewards of life come whenever the flow of our life energy creates fulfillment for yourself and others.
Keeping these principles in mind will help you to live productively for the rest of your life.
It was his way of slyly saying, “Congratulations, but don’t get complacent.” Nothing is guaranteed in this world, so stay conscious, stay creative, and stay engaged – even when you think you’ve reached “the peak.”
Continuing to follow the steps in this program will not only keep integrity in your finances, but will also help you remember the real purpose of money, and that the exchanges we create are not just monetary.
The rewards of life come whenever the flow of our life energy creates fulfillment for yourself and others.
Keeping these principles in mind will help you to live productively for the rest of your life.