Is it possible to run a successful business and be committed to your spiritual practice? How can your inner wealth translate into financial achievement? How does building wealth equate with spiritual values?

Author of Funky to Fabulous: Surefire Success Strategies for the Savvy, Sassy and Swamped, Eli Davidson describes herself as a reinvention expert. She walks her talk. Eli has more than once “reinvented” herself.

On the way to her most recent success, Eli shares what she has learned on the way, the pitfalls she has learned to avoid and the strategies that have worked for her. Her forte has been defining a clear, targeted niche for her own talents, gifts and skills, and assisting others to do the same.

Getting to the heart of Eli Davidson, I wanted to know more about what makes Eli tick.

AN: What inspires you most about your calling?

ED: This calling came like a thunder clap in an elevator in Spanish Harlem. “You will speak spirit.” Crossing the street, I could not hold a positive thought together. This left me scratching my head for a decade or two. But it never went away. I literally felt a hand on my back, pushing me into the world.

Now that I have the blessing to speak, inspire and help people implement their inspiration, I am blessed beyond measure.

I am so honored in watching people that have struggled for years make the life changes they imagined. It is extraordinary for me to help people find their value and earn their living from what were once merely dreams

My calling is to serve people in value and empowerment. Empowerment can be a concept unless it is anchored in everyday reality. For women in particular, true empowerment includes the pocketbook. I am very focused on empowering women business owners to come together for a greater good.

AN: Who is the most inspiring person you have ever met?

ED: The current hero is my friend and fellow HuffPost blogger John Morton. I’ve seen John walk through the fire for what he believes in, time and time again. His example calls me to rise up to be a bigger and better person. His dedication and loving are truly inspiring

AN: What qualities do you see in them that you also recognize in yourself?

ED: I am all in, as I see in John. He goes to the end of the earth to serve. He does not hold back. He walks his talk and loves with incredible integrity. I am very human, as he is. I am 100 percent committed to what I am doing. At the same time I am a vulnerable human being.

AN: What are three key spiritual principles on which you base your life and business?

ED: First is engaging with God as my partner. God is the kind of guy I can trust. Second is finding the good in every situation and being grateful. Third is taking “unreasonable action.” That is to say, following inspiration or taking in-spirit action, beyond logic and the laws of man.

AN: How do you view the opportunities in today’s world?

ED: We are in the time of the greatest opportunity on the planet. The playing field has been leveled in a way never seen before in history. For instance, Stanford offers free courses online. I just saw a story today where a boy in Kazakhstan took a free class and got a job with Twitter. That would have been unthinkable even two years ago. I am so excited to see that business large and small can create massive impact for great good. Look at Start Up America.

This is very much a time for the female entrepreneur. A recent book, The Richer Sex: How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners Is Transforming Sex, Love and Family, speaks to the changes taking place. HH the Dalai Lama has said that the world will be saved by Western women. It is time for us to live up to that.

AN: What is the greatest hope you see for people facing the challenges now?

ED: My greatest hope for people facing challenges right now is one they understand that life doesn’t happen to you. It happens through you.

Many people get seduced into thinking they’re a victim. I use the word seduced for a reason. It’s a quick fix to blame someone else.

In my own life in February 2011, I had gotten engaged and given up my business. I took what I later called my “engagacation.” I had walked away from my business to plan and live my married life in Hawaii. My fiance woke up one morning and said, “I don’t know if I want to be in a relationship anymore. Why don’t you get on a plane to go back to L.A. today.”

He handed me a plane ticket for six hours later that day. “I guess I am acting like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” he said as he drove me to the airport. Coming back to Los Angeles, I was broke and brokenhearted. That first month back I had to scramble for $4,000. I took a diamond off my finger and had to find a diamond in my business and myself. Within six months of creating my formula I had the first of three $100,000 days. Now I have a great joy teaching that formula to business owners all over the world.

If I could jump out of this computer and hold the hand of every person with a challenge, I’d say “Current challenge is the fertilizer of you future.”

AN: If 2013 could be your best year yet, what would you have happen — in yourself, in relationship, in your career ?

ED: I would get to continue to help more and more people and gosh, if it’s my best year ever, meet my true love. I feel so blessed and would love to get to share this wonderful life with my spiritual life partner.

I see myself continuing to up level my health and happiness in remarkable ways.

AN: Where would you like to be in 10 years’ time ?

ED: I am on a mission to help create 1 million millionaires.

I’d like to be halfway to that goal. Above all, I want to be living in greater loving every day in every way.

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How do you measure career success? What does spiritual value mean for you? I would love to know. Please leave a comment below or contact me at clearresults@me.com.

Click Eli Davidson for more on Eli.

For more tips and hints on living a healthier, wealthier, happier life, click The Wealth Book — Winning With Spirit

For more on celebrating your life, click Anne Naylor Celebrant.

Do you ever feel you are being deluged by fear? The news is full of it. The world looks and sounds like a very scary place. Financial collapse, devastating climatic conditions, mad gunmen – to name but a few.

As powerful are these fears – fear of failure or success in a new venture, fear of rejection or losing the approval of one who is important to you,  fear of not having enough money, fear of being found out – as not being perfect or good enough. And yet, these are the fears we can do something about. They are within us. They block our experience of wealth, no matter our material assets.

I was not aware of fear until my experience of being in the January 1994  Californian earthquake. It happened at 4.30 am. I was staying in Carpinteria at a home purpose-built to withstand earthquakes. I was woken by the gentle shaking and rolling of the house. I enjoyed the sensation – until it stopped.

Then my imagination went to work. What if the house had fallen around me? What if I had been cut by broken glass? I was alone. What if I had been buried in broken rubble – and never found? I am blessed with a great imagination. On this occasion, it served to frighten me.

Before the earthquake, I had been protected and sheltered from some of life’s toughest challenges by my loving and supportive partner and husband. After our separation later in 1994, I came to discover more fears that related to living on my own.

Fear can make us do strange things. Our addictions are often based on fear. You may smoke cigarettes to overcome shyness. You may overeat to comfort yourself from the feelings of hurt. You might over-exercise to deaden emotional pain. You could be addicted to social media to avoid the challenges of face-to-face relationships.

Fear left unchecked can make the world around us appear very frightening and scary. Where is the hope in fear?

Fear is energy. If you dwell in fear, your energy will drop. Energy directed to positive purpose has value for you.  It has been said that fear is the energy for a new situation.  How is that?

Fear often shows up when we face the unknown. The heightened energy of fear can serve to put you on alert, to find the information or resources you might need for the future, to stimulate your creativity and imagination to fulfil your goals and objectives.

The first time I stood to address a large audience, I was very frightened. My knees felt like jelly. My face was bright red – or felt like it. This was in fact good “preparation energy”. As I started to speak, I began to feel the excitement of what I was doing – talking about a topic that was important for me. I found that excitement and fear are two sides of the same coin. That which I feared doing I really loved, and still do to this day.

Fear is the door to love. The closer you get to fear, facing it, the closer you are to opening into your greater resources of love. The door is paper thin. Truly, fear is an illusion.

Practically speaking, how does this work? How do you retrieve yourself from the grip of fear?

You can develop a relationship with fear to help you to direct that precious energy to achieve what you really want. Here are some tips:

1.  Accept the feelings of fear when they show up. Self-awareness gives you choices.

2.  Locate the place of fear in your body.  This might be your stomach, shoulders or any other place of tension and tightness.

3.  Breathe deeply into the place of fear. Take a few deep breaths and envisage your breath going into the place of tension, relaxing and releasing it. When you breathe out, let go of fearful thoughts and feelings and begin to imagine peace within you.

4.  Drink water regularly throughout the day. Water helps to flush out negative emotions and helps to calm you.

5.  Comfort and nurture yourself with kind words of encouragement and support. Be a best friend to yourself and give to you what you would give to your closest friend.

6.  Burn off the energy of fear with physical exercise. Go out for a run, brisk walk or swim.

7.  Complete unfinished tasks. Do the laundry, change the light bulb, sweep the yard. Accomplish that which you have been meaning to do for ages. Put the energy of fear to good use. You will get things done and feelings of fear will lessen in the process.

8.  Be willing to ask for support from others. Do not cut yourself off and feel lonely. Fear is a very human emotion. Most of us have felt it at some time.

9.  Listen to the wisdom of your fear. Fear can be seen as a messenger. Give your fear a voice and listen to the information it has to help you.

10. Love yourself through the fear.  Your love will outlast your scariest feelings. Fear withers in the face of love, or loving attention. You are and you have love. You can transform the energy of fear into valuable and productive energy.

Take courage, get free

How do you overcome fear when it shows up?  Who is your model of courage in the face of fear, and how do they inspire you?