Napolean Hill suggests in his best-selling book ‘Think and Grow Rich’ that, while desire is the starting point of achievement, faith is the most potent feeling to develop towards the attainment of our aims.

“When faith is blended with the vibration of thought,” he writes, “the subconscious mind instantly picks up the vibration, translates it to its spiritual equivalent, and transmits it to Infinite Intelligence.”

He does not, however, tell us what that Infinite Intelligence then does with that transmission. He doesn’t write about synchronicity and the precise manner in which Nature, the infinite intelligence of the Divine, speaks to us through signs and opportunities in accordance with the faithful thoughts we’ve been holding. In fact, it will be a full 130 pages before he even mentions the persistence and effort needed to induce said faith, not to mention create the outcomes which that faith is geared towards producing.

How can one have faith amidst scarcity? In what is one placing their faith when one is suffering? The Truth is that there is a sustaining force in the universe, a source from which we have all arrived, and in fact, is infinitely benevolent. Never mind that it may be destructive, too, when the time is called for. It is precisely that source and force which sustains us and which we may tap to further our own personal dream. It is the root purpose for which we have come to enjoy this embodied experience, and the truth of this statement is locked away within your child heart. That humming jewel of innocence at your core still lives, not effected even a little bit by all the impressions and experiences that have accumulated to shape our identities, belief patterns and world views. The secret to discovering faith, that very same faith that Jesus said could move mountains if we possessed but a grain, is in the recollection of that innocent heart and the recognition of who you truly are. What you truly are. You are a child of the Divine with all the rights, privileges and empowerments that go with that title.

The Scarcity Mindset is Not the Adversary

Yes, we spend a lot of time focused on what we don’t have, and yes, this focus leads to a spiraling downward into depths of despair from which it is all too often impossible to extricate ourselves unless we find the most stalwart aid. But consider the fact that your attention to scarcity is but a very much needed call to action. It is your very own self acknowledging a reality of circumstance and the fact that you desire more. Remember. Desire is the starting point of achievement! This feeling of lack should not be immediately translated into a feeling of hopelessness, but rather turned towards a definiteness of purpose.

Engaging the Infinite Intelligence is more than silent prayer and affirmations of gratitude or hope – these are only a few of the nutrients we need to produce a healthy physical manifestation of our desires. Indeed beware the so-called toxic positivity and all-too-easy inclination to spiritually bypass the greater reality of your situation! Many a seeker of the dream have lost themselves to the siren’s call of positive thinking, too. No. This is the Buddha’s stern warning not to stray to either side of the path too far for the very real danger of getting lost. Neither hopelessness nor hope, but definiteness. It is said that when we become adults we are to put away childish things; this is only true to a point. As an adult we have many more tools of creation at our disposal, and it is best not to treat them carelessly, but with the single-minded attention of a child, take up these tools for intentional implementation of a grand design.

Your destiny begins with a vision. That vision becomes a mission. Definiteness of purpose. You set goals and begin to apply the effort needed to reach those goals. These actions combined with this mindset speak the same language that the Infinite Intelligence speaks, that is, the language of creation.

A Bit of Personal Backstory

I come from a hard life like many of you reading in. It was a life marked by deep family troubles, personal confusion regarding meaning and purpose in life, so-called awakening pains – actually I was never asleep and I think that just made it harder to reconcile my environment and even my own mind. Not having any source of stability in my life was a much-needed fire under me though; it encouraged me to set out into the world early to find the answers I sought, and the secret to a life worth living. So I left my home in the U.S. immediately out of high school determined to discover my destiny.

I explored far and wide, diving into the wisdom traditions of Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Orient. I spent twenty years on one particular path alone, the path of yoga-tantra high up in the Himalayas. During what would become almost three decades of a wandering, gypsy-like life, I sustained myself with odd-jobs here and there, educating myself via correspondence with various universities and institutions, polishing skills in alignment with my interests and eventually I got into freelance coaching, taking contracts in the odd months that I wasn’t absorbed in my spiritual practices in the mountains. These contracts gave me just enough income to maintain a flat in Tokyo, pay for airfare and other life necessities, but the truth is, money was scarce. And I didn’t much care. I had other things on my mind.

In fact, I did entertain notions of striking it rich one day, not that I applied much effort to these notions. I also entertained ideas of a contradictory status between a spiritual life, and a life of physical abundance. My guru set me straight on that one though. “If the Divine sees fit to grant you all that,” he would tell me one day, “why to reject that grace?” He was forever encouraging me to create a business that would serve the community in some way. Perhaps a restaurant through which I could heal via the food system, or a small hotel where I could offer people rest. “God loves a man with a routine, David.” He would lovingly admonish. “A young man has got to be out in the world, doing a business, experiencing the life, raising generations in order to know the pain and sorrow of his own parents.” But I knew better, didn’t I? I knew that if I just wandered long enough, sat on isolated hilltops long enough, prayed hard enough, sacrificed to the fire enough times and chanted the right mantras, all would fall into place in good time.

And it kind of did. In 2014 I was still freelancing, albeit with somewhat more of a mindset to creating a life in alignment with my own particular vision of joy. My coaching practice had expanded and I was beginning to take my business online, and yet things were still scarce. Money was tight. My wife’s parents had moved in with us, our house was dilapidated and the business wasn’t taking off as quickly or as easily as I might’ve hoped. Truth is, I really wasn’t putting my back into it. That is until my daughter was born and I was to discover the meaning of definiteness of purpose.

Resolution is the Mother of Rectification

There is a well-known alchemical acronym which reads VITRIOL. The Latin words it represents are: Visita interiora terrae rectificando invenies occultum lapidem. Translated it means, ‘visit the interior of the earth and through rectification you will find the Philosopher’s Stone’. The final resolution.

When I learned that my wife was pregnant with our daughter, I rather immediately and effortlessly resolved. Perhaps it was effortless because I’d actually been training in, and teaching, these mindset and manifestation miracles for many years now. Or perhaps I was simply in alignment with life. But the sure knowledge of my own child heart lent the needed emotion to my determination and I resolved then and there to create a life of abundance, not for myself so much as for her. That life would begin by my finding stable employment with a guaranteed income, and a home in which the child might establish roots the likes of which I never had. I didn’t have to chant or light a candle. My resolution spoke to the Infinite Intelligence loud and clear. My determination and definiteness of purpose would make it so.

Soon thereafter, in a contract engagement with a local coaching company to deliver some leadership training for a group of managers and executives, I chanced to make the acquaintance of the CEO and executives of a major hotel franchise here in Japan called the Route Inn, pronounced in Japanese as ‘rooh-toh-een’. That sound hearkened me back to my master’s earlier guidance that ‘God loves a man with a ‘routine’; inspiration had come to play. Mother Nature was answering the call of my resolution through Her Divine Synchronicity and it was now up to me to take the next step.

We trained together for 5 days from morning to night. I did my job exactly as I was meant to do and they were able to take away the value they’d signed up for. I knew from our professional and personal interactions that their impression of me was favorable, so as that inspired next step, I wrote a letter to one of the managing directors the next day outlining my idea for them to hire me as a full-time performance coach for the fifteen-thousand employees in their organization. Eight years later I am still with them and they are an integral pillar of my life’s conscious design and a cornerstone of my coaching practice. Not only is the income steady, but I am consistently afforded the opportunity to bring my A-game, keep my skills honed and learn more about how to deliver to diverse audiences.

I took up employment with the Route Inn soon after my daughter was born. Within a few months, though I had no savings and finances were still as scarce as ever, though slowly and steadily growing now, I set my sights on a new home. It had to be a home that everybody could live in comfortably, with no mice, no rust, no mold – it had to be perfect in every way for the child. It had to be close to schools and supermarkets and hospitals. It had to have a garden with sunshine – quite the big ask in Japan, a country only fifty-percent larger that the U.K. with twice the population all converged on the city centers. And I had to be able to take out a mortgage, with no full-time employment history and no down-payment. You can probably guess the result, right? Yeah. It only took me eight months to make all that happen.

Desire. Faith. Definiteness of Purpose. Applied Intention. Right Effort.

These are the keys to overcoming the scarcity mindset which itself is nothing more than an acknowledgement of real scarcity and a much-needed flame set under your bum to get you moving. Yes, be exceedingly grateful for your life and all the resources at your disposal. Yes, by all means tweak your thought processes and get clear of your confusion in any way you can. You yourself are a product of the Infinite Intelligence, the Divine, invested with the very same powers and freedom of creation that created you! Don’t sell yourself short. The path through scarcity and into abundance is paved with right knowledge and action. Neither is sufficient by itself. Together they are the winning ticket to all your dreams.