Am I saying not to buy any self-help books ever? Most certainly I am not. They are great sources of entertainment and certainly may be the very vehicle that opens your eyes to or awakens the solution within. However, I am of the belief that most things must be experienced to be solved.

The best example of this was given by David Neagle (known as the "The Million Dollar Income Acceleration Coach,” see www.davidneagle.com) in a recent tele-seminar in which he gave the example of learning to ride a bike. He asked if you can learn to ride a bike by reading a book. And as you well know, the answer is no. You only learn by actually experiencing it. Yes, you can most certainly learn the steps to riding a bike or even what a bike looks like (in case you have never seen one). You may learn safety ideas or even dangers of riding from a book. Yet you must actually get on the bike to learn to ride it. You must touch it, sit upon it, move the pedals, and let it roll, feel the requirement of balancing upon it.

As with anything you might want to learn or to solve, the biggest stumbling block is your own self-defeating THOUGHTS. As you read about riding a bike it may seem quite simple and you may easily visualize yourself soaring like the wind. However, what about those of us who fear it, see it as impossible, or wonder how it would be possible to stop once you get rolling! I know I have thought this very thing as I see an airplane or jet soar into the sky and wonder how it stays up there! Yet it most certainly does. And no matter what you believe as you read about riding a bike you still do not know how to ride a bike until you actually go through the process on it.

But let’s get back to learning from a book about money principles. I do believe you can gain knowledge of money principles from a book. You may even become aware of the best solution in the universe for the very thing you are worried and fretting about. Yet nothing happens until you let the energy of the solution fill you up so that you are able to actually apply the ideas and steps. You must actually believe and be fully committed to the solution before you even begin to bring it to you. I have spoken to many clients about this very thing. They come to me seeking ideas and solutions to their money problems and I have said to them, the solution will not help if you are not ready for it.

Those very same fruitless thoughts are especially problematic surrounding money and its solutions. Usually we spend a lot of time fretting on the problem, tossing solutions over and over in our minds, and deciding none of it will work. We fret over whether we will make it to the next pay check or be able to retire when we wish to retire. The entire time your thoughts are on the problem and as you may well know, your thoughts create your feelings, which creates your behaviors, which creates your actions and those actions create results. It all begins with your thoughts and if your thoughts are in opposition from the solution you are seeking it will evade you.

It does sound rather hopeless, doesn’t it? Yet, I know that each of us has the answer within. We know exactly what we need to do, have, and be. Possibly reading a book will awaken that very inner knowing. In fact, I believe that is exactly what is happening as we read. It all feels so familiar, so easy, and so simple and we ask ourselves “why didn’t I think of that?” My sense is that you did think of that. You went looking for the answer. You were wanting a solution and the book appeared for you to awaken that inner knowledge. You asked, it was given, and now your work is to be ready to receive it.