It's a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money.

—Albert Camus

Our war with money is not just waged in our conscious minds. In fact, most of it is spurred by our subconscious and unconscious minds.

Buried deep within us are the learned habits, perspectives, patterns, and judgments we've inherited. And they turn into a behemoth standing in our way: blocks, limiting beliefs, and counterintentions.

Consciously you want one thing: money.

Unconsciously you want something else: money is evil so keep it away.

Since the unconscious is bigger, bolder, stronger, and in control, what it believes will win.

The mental blocks might be our inability to even imagine ourselves standing in awakened abundance.

They may be an inability to even consider a new relationship with money or a new truth about money's neutral nature.

They may be pure disbelief in a world where we are free from the evil touch of money.

It doesn't matter if we can consciously wrap our heads around it and accept these possibilities. If our subconscious minds are blocked to the possibilities, our subconscious minds will ultimately win the battle.

Limiting beliefs might have us secretly convinced we don't have the courage, the will power, or the follow-through to bring our soulful passions to fruition.

They may take the form of instantaneous subconscious doubt when we even consider the possibility of having a flowing source of money into our lives.

They may be the perpetual guilt of having failed and failed and failed, unable to carve out our own path to success.

They may be stellar objections to a world where we can be guided by a passion, purpose, or mission, let alone having them supported by the power we channel into money.

Counterintentions might take form as persistent self-sabotage, our subconscious minds dealing damage behind our backs through procrastination, hesitation, or restraint.

Why would we want to prevent ourselves from success, or block abundance?

One simple possibility is fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of new responsibilities. Fear of success. Fear of failure. Fear of embarrassment. Fear of anything that isn't the cage we've been in all our lives, because we understand it so well, and it feels safe.

We could even have a deep, dark, secret desire to achieve money so that we can exact the same cruelty and control we've experienced at the hands of others wielding the power of money.

Whatever mental blocks, limiting beliefs, and counterintentions are lying in wait within us, we must realize that the simple saying, “I'm going to change my mind,” will not always work. In fact, it usually doesn't. Our subconscious minds resent and resist our desire for change.

When we find ourselves firing bullets ceaselessly into a thick fog, we must tap ourselves on the shoulder, tell ourselves to lay down our guns, and take some distance to see the truth of exactly what war we've been engaged in.

We must transcend these barriers in new ways.

It starts with the number one cause of our subconscious barriers. It happens to be one of the largest causes of our war with money.

1. We feel we are victims.
2. We are the victims of outside forces.
3. We are the victims of powers we can't conquer.
4. We are the victims of circumstances we can't control.

But are we? Are we really so willing to give up our power so easily?

For when we live and act the victim, we relinquish control of our own lives and our own destinies.

We can't transform our relationship with money because we are victims of money's vast network of oppression.

We can't escape financial struggle because we're the victims of our debts, our bills, and our responsibilities.

We can't rise as Awakened Millionaires because we are victims to our hard lives and tough challenges.

Or at least this is what we tell ourselves.

To remain the victim is to close up shop and go home.

We've given up our power. We've acknowledged that we are at the mercy of the puppet strings attached to our arms and legs. We have no free will because we are the victims in a cage we never designed and never agreed to enter.

What a crippling, fraudulent idea. Almost as crippling as the tattered relationship with money we must change.

A mantra of victims is “It is what it is.” It leaves little room for hope, change, or action.

People say it to shrug and give in to what they think is unchangeable reality.

What would be better than thinking or saying “It is what it is”?

It occurred to me like a flash of inspiration that this line would be more accurate and empowering: “It is what you accept.”

In other words, reality is what you accept.

“It is what you accept.”

Someone asked me about the phrase, “It is what I decide.”

“Decide” could work, except it's not entirely true.

I had two friends die within a week, one totally unexpected.

If I could decide, I would decide to have them live.

I can't do that, but I can accept their passing.

“It is what I accept.”

Instead of saying “It is what it is,” say, “It is what it is for the moment and I am doing something about it!” and then speak what you want, not what you are giving in to, and act to make your new intention a new reality.

Surrendering is a high spiritual act when you are surrendering to your highest ideals; it's a poor act of victim mentality when you surrender to circumstances you honestly don't like.

I'll repeat that: Surrendering is a high spiritual act when you are surrendering to your highest ideals; it's a poor act of victim mentality when you surrender to circumstances you honestly don't like.

So many of us deceive ourselves with statements that at first glance look innocent—like “It is what it is”—instead of looking deeper to find what hides behind the statement.

I'm not suggesting that you deny reality or the facts you are facing, but I am suggesting that accepting facts as the final verdict is a poor move.

By accepting what I can't change, I still live in agreed upon reality while acknowledging my power in the acceptance.

It's a bit like the famous advice known as The Serenity Prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

While most people associate the famous prayer with Alcoholics Anonymous, it actually came out of a struggle in politics against evil.

According to Susan Cheever, “…it may come as a surprise to learn that the prayer was originally conceived not as an antidote to addiction but in response to the barbaric evil of Nazi Germany that threatened civilization itself during World War II. Written during the darkest depths of the war by the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, a first-generation German-American, the prayer captured the dreadful ethical predicament faced by Niebuhr and his fellow German anti-Nazi émigrés in the United States, who were safe from persecution but powerless to intervene against Hitler.”

The wisdom to know the difference is the key. Too many of us give in without checking in. We don't use our wisdom.

Much better advice is from a Mother Goose rhyme from 1695:

For every ailment under the sun

There is a remedy, or there is none;

If there be one, try to find it;

If there be none, never mind it.

At least with this new slogan, you can sense that you have choice. If you are backed into a corner, you can choose to see options or you can choose to surrender. Either way, you get to choose what you accept.

Notice that the new line gives you more power; you may or may not use it, of course. Creating your own reality is all about choice and awareness. I am sure you will make the right decision to be the most empowered.

Whether you use it will depend on what you accept—but notice that it's entirely up to you. “It is what you accept.”

Why do we remain the victim? Why are we so persistent and adamant about accepting these supposed chains and doing nothing?

Because we've grown comfortable. Too comfortable.

No, struggle is not comfortable and we don't like it. In theory, of course we want to evolve past these struggles. But we are resilient and adaptive creatures. We may complain, but we have adapted to this victim's life. We know our boundaries. We are sheltered from the outside world.

We have to understand that stretching for anything new will feel uncomfortable, because it's new.

Whenever you leave your comfort zone, you will feel uncomfortable. That's obvious, isn't it? But being uncomfortable isn't a sign not to proceed. It simply means you are leaving the known for the unknown. You are leaving your comfortable seen and unseen boundaries to move into unlimited power, wealth, and happiness.

The only way to get there is to allow the discomfort. After all, it's not a threat to your survival. It's only a step out of your comfort zone. It doesn't mean anything more than that. It is nothing to fear at all. In fact, feeling uncomfortable should be and can be a sign that you are progressing.

But there's another insight here: We are sheltered from the need to take responsibility. And that, right there, is the cure: Taking responsibility.

There are few conscious decisions that can work magic on the subconscious and unconscious mind. Few conscious actions that can make a dent on a realm of our minds that largely remains out of touch. It often requires subconscious reprogramming, like hypnosis, to dissolve these subconscious hurdles. Or deep mental-clearing exercises to slowly chip away.

Yet simply taking responsibility can have a powerful healing touch.

When we take responsibility…when we stand in the silence of our lives and quietly and humbly accept responsibility for everything we are, this decision permeates our being, soul and all. This is because taking responsibility is taking back control. It is acknowledging that even when outside forces bear down on us, we are not required to suffer soulfully or emotionally. That is our choice.

Here's another true story: A man started playing piano when he was four years old. He was a natural, yet his left hand never compared to his right. His right hand was twice as fast, twice as dexterous, twice as sensitive. He went on to study jazz at The New School, and graduate with a whole new perspective on music and improvisation.

A couple of years later, at 24, he was eating dinner with his parents in New York City. He shared with them some recent reflections he'd had on his old, unspoken difficulty with his left hand, particularly when playing the piano.

His parents finally told him that he was born with a mild case of cerebral palsy, which had rendered his entire left side weaker than his right.

This was an enormous revelation. Why hadn't they told him long before? They did not want him to perceive himself as having a handicap, or even a slight disadvantage. Indeed, he spent his life tirelessly working on his left hand's piano work, and discovering ways to compensate for it.

Now he sees it as a gift. His left hand will never be his right. It will never have the grace, the touch, or the breadth of movement. But the right hand will never have the personality, the odd swagger, and the clunky swing that his left hand radiates.

In fact, no one else around will have a left hand like his and no one will play music with the same twist. He sees it as a gift, not a handicap. His name is Mitch Van Dusen, a friend of mine who lives with inspiration and is helping me with the mission to transform people into Awakened Millionaires.

There are those born with far more challenging birth defects than he. Yet so many make the choice to live as fully as anyone else. Calling them miraculous is an insult to their incredible will to defy the expectations of their bodies and minds.

Another man had an accident when he was under five years old. He lost 80 percent of his hearing. Despite the difficulty of growing up while being taunted by other kids, and being considered slow or retarded by adults, he went on to great fame and fortune. He became a movie star, an inspiring bodybuilder, and a public speaker. Today we know Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk.

They didn't succumb to the victim mentality that many of us, with much less serious conditions in life, do so with such willing ease.

You may have a perceived limitation of body or mind, too. But it doesn't have to stop you or even slow you. It can be leveraged, appreciated, respected, and even loved.

Consider people born with every advantage you can imagine. Health, beauty, money. There are those who feel trapped by these wonderful circumstances. Fearful that their parents will consider their passions lowly, they feel they must fulfill expectations by taking on family business. They, too, miss out on all the potential they have, and blame everyone else.

Let us take responsibility.

Let us drown victimhood in the thunderous rapids of our own convictions.

Let us forever acknowledge that any complaint, any justification are excuses, and nothing more.

Let us never again succumb to this ridiculous idea that we have no power.

We have all the power we could need. We have the power to take responsibility. We have the power to reject the victimhood we're taught to accept.

We are not the victims of money; we are the commanders of our soulful cause with money by our side.

We are not the victims of debts and bills; we are the recipients of the services, the goods, and the opportunities that have enriched our lives.

We are not the victims of the here and now; even if it takes time and patience, we have the power to overcome any odds, any challenge, and any block that seeks to deter us.

We are not the victims; we are the authors of the stories of our own lives.

We are the champions of soulful money.

We are the Awakened Millionaires to be.