What does 'financial independence' mean to you? Is it about money? Or success? Maybe to you financial independence is about freedom. We all define financial independence in our own way based on our unique beliefs and feelings which are grounded in conditioning, experience and childhood lessons.

So what's your money situation now? Are you happy where you are or are you struggling just to pay your bills? Do you feel frustrated like so many others because you can't get ahead and stay there? Do you feel like there are rules to the game that no one told you.

No matter how you answer these questions, whatever your situation with money is now, however you've managed your money in the past - it can all be changed and it can be changed beginning now. If you're not happy with where you are in your financial well being, now is the time to look at what's holding you back and decide you're ready to make new choices. Achieving financial independence is a process that involves more than learning how to invest wisely. Anybody can do the mechanics of earning, saving, and investing. That's the easy part. If you don't begin with what's inside - what's in your mind - mastering the mechanics of money won't make a difference. As with almost everything else in life, your attitude about money is everything when it comes to financial independence. Change your attitude - your thinking - and you can change your life.

There is a process for changing your thinking and it begins with an honest evaluation of your thoughts and behaviors about money. Take a little mental journey into your past and identify as many messages as you can about what you were told or observed about money. Was money even discussed in your home? Did your family live with a scarcity mentality or was there evidence of the abundance of the Universe? How did you manage your money when you were younger? What patterns are you continuing now?

We are creatures of habit and what you learned is probably the habit you are living now. There's no right or wrong about your habits. The question to ask yourself is, 'Am I getting the results I want?' If you're really honest with yourself in this first step, you can begin identifying some of what's holding you back from your success.

As you're identifying the lessons you learned, also notice the feelings that come up for you. Do you feel guilt or shame? Maybe you have fear associated with money? Or anger? Are there self-worth feelings that come up for you? These feelings are key to your understanding of yourself and your financial condition. Your feelings are a direct result of your thoughts. So if your feelings are in any way limiting you, you can change them by changing your thoughts.

Sounds simple enough and, yes, it is that simple to understand. It's even that simple to do, only the change won't happen overnight.

Here's something you can start doing immediately to change your thinking:

Years ago, the Shick Center used aversion therapy on people who wanted to quit smoking or lose weight. It's a very effective technique and you can use it to begin changing your thinking about money (or anything else.) Get a wide rubber band and put it on your wrist. Whenever you catch yourself having one of those negative thoughts, snap the rubber band against your wrist. (Make sure you pull the rubber band out far enough so when you snap it, it hurts.) For each negative thought, create the opposite positive, supportive thought. After you've snapped your wrist, tenderly rub it, think the positive thought and install the new thinkingt into your mind to replace the negative one. You can speed the process up by intentionally thinking the negative thoughts and snapping your wrist several time with the same statement. Always install the positive thoughts after snapping your wrist. The intention with this exercise is to re-program your mind and your thinking. Wear the rubber band for 30 days and keep snapping until your thinking changes. I guarantee your mind will stop thinking the negative thoughts.

Another action you can begin now is in learning to manage your money. The biggest difference between people who are financially successful and people who aren't is in the amount of time they spend managing their money. People who are not financially successful spend no time managing their money and most often are avoiding their whole financial situation. Rich people spend 20 to 30 minutes every day managing their money. How much do you spend?

Begin by taking a realistic look at your finances. Write it all down. How much do you earn? How much do you spend? What are you spending your money on? How much do you owe and to whom? What are your monthly payments? Avoiding it won't make it go away and if you don't know the details, you'll never be able to manage it. If you want to be rich, start doing what the rich people do.

Make sure you balance your checkbook every month. Open the mail when it comes in and schedule your bill-paying time. Begin a plan for saving on a consistent basis - start that habit now. The amount you save is not as important as the fact that you do it consistently. You are establishing another new habit with this action.

In the beginning of the process you may not have enough money to manage to spend 20 minutes a day on. So use the time for your financial education. Begin learning about money by reading or taking classes. Your intention is to begin acting like the rich and to establish a new habit for yourself.

Here's one more little bit of wisdom I find to be very powerful: The Universe doesn't know the difference in the denominations of the money we deal with in the physical world. To the Universe, a penny is the same as a thousand dollars - it's all money. And the Universe doesn't give us more of what we don't manage in our life. So if you're not managing your money, why would you expect to get more?

An extension of that: When you walk by a penny on the street, do you pick it up or walk by because it's not worth bending over to pick up a single penny? If you walk by it, the Universe interprets that to mean you don't need more money - the Universe sees a penny as money, not just one cent. From now on, when you find money, no matter the denomination, pick it up and thank the Universe for it's abundance.

There's a simplicity to creating financial independence and living in abundance that's revealed when we get out of our own way. You can begin the process anytime. If you're looking for a change in your financial situation, start the process now. Or you can stay where you are and continue struggling - the choice is yours.