You have $100 in your bank account, your rent is past due, your creditors are calling, your business is dwindling and to top it all off, someone sideswiped your car and now it won't start.

And some self-help guru out there is telling you to look beyond appearances and KNOW that you have unlimited riches available to you RIGHT NOW.

Sure, it's easy for them to say. They have thousands, even millions, of dollars in their accounts. They're not screening their calls to avoid creditors, their businesses aren't coming in red every month and their BMW's are working fine. It's easy to remain positive and feel wealthy when things are going well. But when life is pushing and pulling you from every direction, it seems utterly impossible.

If you really are infinitely wealthy and have an abundant source yearning to give you all the riches that is rightfully yours, why doesn't it just deposit some into your bank account?

Are you ready to hear the answer? Let me warn you that my answer is the same one that you've heard over and over by those self-help gurus out there. So if you didn't like hearing it from them, chances are you won't like hearing it from me, either. Are you ready? Here goes.

The answer is because you are not letting it. Continuous focus on your lack of funds is creating further lack of funds to come to you.

There, now that wasn't so bad, was it? With that said, allow me to offer you an alternative way to start letting it so you can receive all the riches that truly is yours.

If you want to be rich, it is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL that you think only rich thoughts. Now, I'm not saying it's easy. But neither is being broke every month, is it?

Maintaining consistent and focused thought is THE hardest work in life. To make matters worse, when all you see around you is contrary to the thought you are working to maintain, it seems ridiculously impossible.

It is at this point that most of us give up. We want so badly to believe in abundance but we feel broke, helpless and hopeless. No matter how hard we struggle to remain positive and think rich thoughts, the apparent reality of lack continues to haunt us. Our bank accounts continue to dwindle, bills continue to pile up and things keep happening that require additional money to be spent ? money that we simply don't have, no matter how hard we try to will it into our account.

So what do we do? How do we think rich thoughts when all around us we see lack?

Here is my simple Three Step Plan To Prosperity:

PAYING ATTENTION TO YOUR THOUGHTS

Our patterns of thinking are nothing more than conditioned responses; they are reactions based on repeated actions and have become habits. Many of us were taught lack in childhood, perhaps from our parents, our teachers, even our friends. Our thinking patterns often are leftover habits inherited from our parents and from their parents and on and on.

Have you ever noticed similar fears and phobias carried down generation after generation? If you see a mother deathly afraid of dogs, more often than not, you'll see her child shrinking away when a dog is near. Have you ever told yourself you were not going to raise your children the way your parents raised you, only to wake up one day with the realization, "Oh my God, I've become my father?"

As children, we take on the thought patterns of our parents. We carry them into our adult lives and add to them by taking on the thought patterns of society.

What most of us fail to realize is that at any given moment, we have the power to shed the thought patterns which no longer serve us and create new ones.

In order to break a habit, you must pay attention to yourself. If you're trying to quit smoking, for example, you have to notice each time you're about to put a cigarette in your mouth. Once you become aware of the action you are about to take, you can make a different choice. If you don't realize it, of course, there is nothing to stop you from lighting that cigarette.

Thought patterns can be broken the same way. Pay attention to your thoughts. Each time you realize you're having thoughts of lack (Step 1), choose an abundant thought (Step 2).

CHOOSING ABUNDANT THOUGHTS, WHETHER YOU BELIEVE THEM OR NOT

If appearances contradict the abundant thoughts you want to choose and you don't see how you could possibly believe them, choose them anyway. There is great power in repetition. Repeat something often enough to someone and they will start to believe it, no matter how adamant they were against it to begin with.

Remember, you are creating a new habit of abundance thinking. Habits are created by repetition, not by belief. I don't know a single smoker who truly enjoyed their first puff of a cigarette. Most started in their teens to be cool, to fit in with their friends, and most absolutely hated the taste initially. But they kept at it, and a few gags and coughs later, it became enjoyable, a way to relax and de-stress. And more importantly, it became a habit.

Whether you believe the new thoughts of abundance or not is irrelevant. Whether what you see, hear and experience is contrary to the new thoughts is also irrelevant.

Step Two depends only on the continuous repetition of choosing abundant thoughts. Nothing else, including your doubt and disbelief, matters. You may disbelieve all you want, you may scoff with skepticism and ridicule, but you must continue to consciously choose abundant thoughts.

REPEATING STEPS ONE AND TWO AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN

The power of repetition. Need I say more?

Most people give up after a day or so of trying Steps One and Two. Some even make it to an entire week before they get swept back into their old patterns of thinking and forget about the process entirely. Yet others will do it randomly as they are reminded of it, off and on for months, with little consistency and discipline.

Make no mistake about it, this is extremely hard work and only the most determined and committed will stick with it long enough for it to become a habit, to become engrained in their being where they no longer have to consciously work on it. That's why Step Three is a crucial part of the process.

It is not enough to pay attention to one thought, choose a different one, and then go about the rest of your day (or your life!) on the old autopilot. If you feel your old autopilot has steered you well, if you are happy, rich and fulfilled, by all means, there is no need to do anything differently.

However, if you are sick and tired of being sick and tired and broke, I invite you to The Three Step Plan to Prosperity. Stick to it, keep at it and I promise you, your riches are just a thought pattern away. I'll be waiting for you on the other side.

Teresa Franklyn is author and publisher of The Daily Dose, a popular inspirational online publication. Visit her at http://www.followyoursoul.com for more inspiring articles.