It’s not how much faith you have

“We don’t need to maintain perfect faith… We just need to show integrity toward the faith we do have. And then, through the Lord’s mercy, our mountains are moved.” – Daniel Blomberg

I received the following from a reader and thought it might help someone. So here it goes:

Hi Leslie,

How are you? …I still read your newsletter, and I still share your books with other people at any opportune moment. Hope things are going well for you and your family.

I just wanted to share a journal entry on the subject of rare faith – see below.

We just had a business miracle in April, and it merited a long journal entry—I want to remember this forever. Hope you enjoy it. Feel free to share if you think it could help someone.

Have a wonderful day!

Daniel

Background: We got back to Utah from the Middle East in August 2017. I tried life coaching and loved it, but it soon became clear that the Lord wanted me doing music—a very happy but scary proposition. I did my first songwriting session for a client in April 2018, and in March this year, after 19 months as an entrepreneur and 11 months in music, I was able to provide for my family exclusively through music for the first time.

It has been a grueling time, with way too many trips to the Bishop’s storehouse, lots of help from family, lots of advice to go get a job, and way too much self-doubt.

So after our March miracle, I was determined to keep this going. When the end of April came around and I still hadn’t made nearly enough to pay the bills, failure was just not an emotionally sustainable option.

What happened next is described below.

Journal, 2019-05-01

This is a precious thing that just happened. After March’s wonderful achievement, where we for the first time were able to make more money in the business than we needed to pay the bills, I really wanted to keep this going every month. Partly so we can prove that we are financially ready for the foster-to-adopt process, and partly because I need to know that I can provide for my family through music.

This month, I felt like I should take the time to build an online presence. Allie told me she wanted to build me a website for free! So I wrote some website content. And then Colleen wanted to tell people about me online. So I quickly bought a domain and put out the content, to have a place to send people while waiting for Allie….

Then, I felt like I should start running Facebook ads. So I did. It takes a few weeks to dial those in, so I haven’t seen any specific results from those yet. But I had to put together a business Facebook page to run ads from, and I didn’t want it to have 3 likes and look unprofessional, so I invited pretty much all my friends to like it. It crossed 100 page likes in the first 24 hours, and now has over 300 page likes, in less than two weeks! 🙂

Spending this much time building an online presence meant that I didn’t chase specific results a whole lot. I did read the sequel to The Go-Giver, Go-Givers Sell More, and learned to trust that as we give value to people around us, and not give sales pitches, most of our sales will come from “left field” – the 99% of the Universe that we have no idea about, but which God knows all about.

Come Sunday, which was April 28, I realized that we needed $2,485 more, plus Venmo and PayPal instant transfer fees, to cover April’s bills and buy my ticket to Sweden for Victor and Jessica’s wedding. So Monday morning, I set out to sell that much in services in two days. Technically, I realized I didn’t need $560 of those until May (the rest of the plane ticket), but I had my sights set on the whole sum.

On Saturday night at Allie and Zach’s wedding reception, I had mentioned to my client Greg that I would be going to Sweden for my brother’s wedding if we could swing it, and he had generously offered, without me asking, to prepay $700. That’s why we “only” needed $2485, or $1925 plus $560. I fasted on Sunday for help to achieve this big and worthy goal, for the sake of our family, including our future children.

A key piece of learning had also come on Saturday morning, as I went running with Vinicio. I was in a time crunch, and needed to complete 8 miles in about 90 minutes. I remembered as we ran and talked that Elder Holland teaches:

It’s not the amount of faith we have that is the issue, it’s the integrity we show toward the faith that we do have.

In this way, even partial faith, if shown integrity, is enough to move mountains. This applied to our running. I wasn’t sure the whole time that we would succeed, but I showed integrity to the faith that I did have by keeping running and not giving up. We finished on time. I felt that this principle should also apply to my big sales goal.

On Sunday afternoon, we got a text from Stephen and Emily, who asked if we wanted to come over, last minute. (We later learned Emily had felt a prompting to invite us over, kind of forgotten it, come home from some Church assignment, and her kids said, “We want the Blombergs to come!”)

We went, and had a lovely time. Partway through, Steven and Emily’s new neighbor, Amy, came over. Emily had invited her to come over that day, but not at any specific time. Amy, who had very recently felt that it’s time to pursue her music, was fasting and had just woken up from a nap. As she knelt to conclude her fast, she felt, “You’re not done yet. Go next door.” We talked about her music, and exchanged phone numbers. I had an appointment with her and her husband Tuesday morning, and she will be in Dave’s studio in July! 🙂 Wonderful news, but not any closer to the April goal.

(finished writing on May 10)

Since April 23 had been my one-year anniversary of returning to the music business, I had a 10% discount for all songwriting and production services until the end of April. As Shawna had 9 hours scheduled for May, I asked if she wanted the discount. She sent $688.50 on Tuesday, April 30.

With $1,853 left to reach my goal, and only a few hours left, I decided that the responsible thing to do for the business and my family was to swallow my pride and tell a couple of clients exactly why I needed the money. The foster-to-adopt process requires that families have “a little extra” money, and I felt we could claim that if we paid all our current bills and saved 4% in the business profit account. We did in March—time to achieve that goal again.

So I asked Art, who had scheduled a songwriting coaching session for his stepson for early May, if he would be offended if I asked for a prepayment so I could get it on the books for April. He prepaid $500.

I re-crunched the numbers, reducing for example our food and gas budget posts to actual money spent, not what I thought we needed for a month, and moving the plane ticket purchase to May. All of a sudden, there were only $39 missing. Or $44, if you consider that I had felt prompted to cut the car payment short by $5, even though I really wanted to pay in full.

So, while Kathryn and I were waiting to meet with a member of the stake presidency to renew our Temple recommends, I sent a message to Colleen, who is on a mission with her husband in Côte d’Ivoire, told her we are really close to our revenue goal to qualify for adoption, and offered to do her next song (a $170 value) for $60 if she wanted to prepay.

5 hours before midnight.

No reply, as she would likely be asleep until 11:30pm our time, or so I thought. (I was actually an hour off – Côte d’Ivoire was only 6 hours ahead of us, not 7.)

All things considered, a very successful two days of sales, even though we were still falling short. Kat and I went to bed at 9:30pm, and in our night prayer I thanked Heavenly Father for all the amazing success, and then poured out my heart and asked Him why:

How come we were so close to the goal, but couldn’t just have made $39 or $44 more? What was I supposed to feel and think about this?

After our couple prayer, I said my own prayer and laid down. But I felt like I should call my mother instead of sleeping. (This is significant, as I have felt for years that the Lord wants me to go to bed by 9:30pm.)

So I got up and talked to my mother in Sweden for almost an hour and a half – not much about the business goal, but about anything and everything. Towards the end, I got my answer—gratitude.

I was supposed to feel gratitude about what had just happened.

So after the phone call, I went to bed again, and laid there for a minute just feeling grateful. Then I considered some options. Would Heavenly Father want me to contact Colleen again? I decided to, and sent her a PayPal request for $60 in case she was interested, and then a note in Messenger to please ignore it otherwise. Pretty bold, I guess. By now, it was 11:35pm.

As I wrote the note, I saw that she had just read the previous message. She replied “For sure.” “It’s 5:36 here.” “We’ll get it done in the next 10 min”.

Turns out, she never gets up at 5:30am, but had decided to start the new month with an extra 30 minutes of scripture study – it was already May in Africa, but still April in the U.S. And so, with 8 minutes to spare, $60 arrived in our PayPal account, and the goal was met.

I cried with joy, told my sleepy Kathryn the great news, and went to sleep a very happy man.

We don’t need to maintain perfect faith the whole time. We just need to show integrity toward the faith we do have. And then, through the Lord’s mercy, our mountains are moved.

Daniel Blomberg is a Mindset Mastery Program Participant.

Learn more at www.ProsperTheFamily.com.

Do you have a story to share? Big or small, I want to hear it! Click here to tell your story.

By small and simple means

“…By small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.”(Alma 37:6)

What is your goal? 

I’ve been helping people achieve goals using principles of Rare Faith since before 2002, and one thing I have seen over and over again is the concern that the goal feels to big. The person thinks that they couldn’t possibly do enough to make that big thing happen. But…

What if you didn’t have to do anything big, to make something big happen?

The truth is, big things happen as a result of small actions, and when a person grasps that concept, they stop fretting, and they start doing little things with the confidence that it will be enough, no matter how small the effort.

Take a look at this:

Now, think again:

What is one small thing you can do right now to get yourself closer to achieving your goal?

Do that small thing, even if you can’t see how it will conquer the big problem. You don’t have to know how it will.

Your job is to take a small step in the right direction, and what happens after that may not even be within your view. Movement, progress, and ripples all issue forth out of your one little effort. The more you believe this, the bigger the impact of those little efforts can be.

And one other thing… did you notice how that first domino didn’t even do anything super important?

It FELL! That’s what it did. And it was enough.

So don’t be afraid to fall. Give it your best effort, and it doesn’t even matter if you’re successful. Just take a step forward, and if you fall, make sure you fall forward. Even that can make an impact that is bigger than you may ever know.

What happens out of your fall depends on the image of what you originally intended.

See the end that you intend, imagine how it will feel to accomplish it, and then JUST DO SOMETHING in that direction!

If you struggle to believe that there is unseen help ready to come to your aid when you need it most, learn more at www.ProsperTheFamily.com.

Quotes from Recent Event

Here are the quotes I promised to share with those who attended the recent event. Enjoy!

M. Catherine Thomas:

“If you wish to feel the most penetrating power of the Spirit, try the experiment of giving thanks in the moment of disappointment, of tragedy, of the specter of ruin. When you are able to do it consistently, you will feel as though you have discovered and united with the mystery of life.”

William Hutchison Murray:

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.

“All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:

‘Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!’”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox:

“There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.”

Wallace Wattles:

“There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought. A person can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created.”

Leslie Householder:

“Expecting Success: It’s not a feeling of entitlement, but it IS a knowing. It’s not demanding, but it is allowing. Not needing, but anticipating. Not boastful, but grateful.”

Boyd K. Packer:

“There are two kinds of faith. One of them functions ordinarily in the life of every soul. It is the kind of faith born by experience; it gives us certainty that a new day will dawn, that spring will come, that growth will take place. It is the kind of faith that relates us with confidence to that which is scheduled to happen. …

“There is another kind of faith, rare indeed. This is the kind of faith that causes things to happen. It is the kind of faith that is worthy and prepared and unyielding, and it calls forth things that otherwise would not be. It is the kind of faith that moves people. It is the kind of faith that sometimes moves things. …

“It comes by gradual growth. It is a marvelous, even a transcendent, power, a power as real and as invisible as electricity. Directed and channeled, it has great effect.” (Quote by Boyd K. Packer © By Intellectual Reserve, Inc., used with permission).

To learn more about the Mindset Mastery program, visit www.ProsperTheFamily.com

 

Thinking Counter-Intuitively in Hard Times

When times are tough, sometimes you have to think outside the box if you want to come out on top. For every conscious, principles-based response you give to each challenge, you dodge another bullet.

Here’s an example of one man who did just that, during the Great Depression:

My friend Glenn was visiting, and shared a story about his grandfather that is worth repeating. His grandfather was a banker in 1933, and in order to keep depositors from bankrupting the system by withdrawing all their money, Franklin D. Roosevelt declared a United States Bank Holiday from March 6 to March 10.

Banks were allowed to reopen when they could prove that the money in their reserves was greater than or equal to the money that had been deposited in. If the banks were unsound they would stay closed or could apply for a government loan in order to keep from declaring bankruptcy. (Wikipedia)

Glenn told me, according to his grandfather, that one out of three banks never re-opened.

Upon hearing the announcement that he was required to close his bank, and knowing the fallout that would probably happen from it, he chose to think outside of the box, and be a resourceful problem-solver, instead of shrinking into fear and victimhood. He knew that the declaration itself would create panic for many of his customers, and that when he reopened, there would likely be a run on the money.

The problem became his opportunity. He recognized a need: the people needed peace of mind, even more than they needed their money. So he contacted the top four leaders of women’s church organizations in the community, and asked them to organize a community barbecue to celebrate the holiday.

They were to get everything they needed to put on a feast, and that he would pay for the food if they would prepare and serve it.

It went off without a hitch, and when he opened his doors, nobody asked for their money back, and his bank thrived through the Great Depression.

No matter how bleak things appear to be, you can be resourceful. Look for a need in someone else’s life, and see what you can do to fill the need. Leave everyone you meet with an “impression of increase”. Leave them better than when you found them.

Fear will cause you to do things to perpetuate the problem. Thinking prosperously in the face of fear can inspire you to do things that solve the problem.

Read Portal to Genius (free!) to find out how.

Let me help you activate the Rare kind of Faith that causes things to happen in your life. Join us in the GUIDED Mindset Mastery class, starting soon! You’ll be guided through two experiments over fourteen weeks, so you can discover for yourself the power of your thoughts. For more information, visit: https://rarefaith.org/the-guided-mindset-mastery-program/