My wife and I just got back from a week in Cancun. We were at a five-star resort, courtesy of a company I work with in another business. They have twelve restaurants and everything is truly first class.
The thing about this resort is that everything is included in your stay. Eat all that you want, drink all that you want, and never reach for your wallet or sign for your room. We had room service every morning and ordered just about everything they had on the breakfast menu (and ate everything, too).
The menus have no prices on them. It doesn’t matter; order whatever you want.
There is no tipping. Everything, from the chartered bus ride from the airport, to baggage handling to rides in golf carts to get around the sprawling grounds, are taken care of.
I could go on about how well we were treated, the amenities and so on, but I want to make a point. Two points, actually.
First, while I was there, I thought about how relaxed we were not having to think about how much anything cost. Sure, I can afford the estimated four thousand the trip probably cost, but it’s still refreshing to not have to think twice about what anything costs or how much to tip someone. And I thought about how that applies to marketing legal services.
What our experience did was reinforce the efficacy of "flat rate" billing for legal services. When your clients can have your services without having to wonder or worry about how much you’re going to charge them for that ten minute phone call or for the photocopies or for bringing in a law clerk to take notes during your meeting, they are much happier clients. They’ll be more inclined to hire an attorney who "takes the risk out of the deal" and they are happier and easier to work with throughout the engagement, all because there aren’t any surprises and they know they won’t be nickle-and-dimed.
The second thing I thought about was how a stay at a resort like this is good for reinforcing a "wealth mindset." If you want to be wealthy, getting a taste of what wealth is like provides your subconscious mind with an example of what you are seeking. The good feelings one associates with not having to look at prices on the menu, for example, are worth experiencing. Do you still look at prices on the menu? Do you do that first? What would it be like if you didn’t have to do that anymore?
If Cancun isn’t in the cards for you right now, find something small that is, something you can treat yourself to (and pay in advance for) that will give you a taste of what it is like to have financial freedom. Or, do something that doesn’t cost anything. Go to an art show, for example, and pretend you can buy anything there without giving it a second thought. Relax and imagine how good it will feel to be able to actually purchase anything on display. If you can get to a place of feeling good about that, if you can "have" the life you seek in your mind, that is the first step towards achieving it in reality.
Unfortunately, most people have trouble doing that. It’s not that they can’t use their imagination any more. It’s that when they do, they think negative thoughts that aren’t conducive to attracting wealth. They think about how much things costs and how unlikely it is that they could buy it. They become self-conscious about the experience, thinking they must look foolish or they are wasting their time. Instead of thinking about what they want, they think about (and attract) what they don’t have and what they don’t want and thus, they wind up getting more of what they don’t have and don’t want.
How do you get to the point where you can truly relax and enjoy the experience of imagining having the life you want? How can you think about having what you you want instead of why you don’t have what you want? You start with where you are and what you are thinking and how those thoughts make you feel.
If thinking about buying a $20,000 painting makes you feel bad (because you can’t afford it now and don’t know how you’ll ever be able to), then reach for a thought that feels better when you think it. If thinking about "buying it now" doesn’t feel good, perhaps thinking about "buying it someday" will feel better. If that thought feels better than wherever you are right now, think about that, and from that vantage point, you will have a basis for continuing to think better feeling thoughts until you literally think your way into manifesting your desires. It starts in your mind and with your feelings and while you may not be able to control whether or not you can go to Cancun right now, you have 100% control over what you think and how you feel.
