Now that you're reviving your dreams and pursuing your path to happiness, I bet you're wondering how in the world will you pay for it all! Some dreams require you up the ante on your drive, passion, and grit. Other dreams necessitate additional education, investments, or huge financial commitments. Your relationship with money in many ways reflect your beliefs about life and your own self-worth. If you believe money is scarce and hard to come by you'll experience months where money exits your world leaving you feeling empty and deprived. You tell yourself "I'll never have enough money to take a vacation, buy a home, or go back to school." You can't imagine saving for your future or investing in your dreams. When you believe money enters your world and wealth runs abundantly in your life you leverage your income and allocate your budget from a place of growth and expansion. You'll hear yourself saying "I deserve this bonus, this opportunity and I have the money to fund my goals." Which do you choose, to stay financially fatigued always grieving the loss of money or financial empowerment giving and receiving money in a way that lifts your spirits and ignites your desires. Like taking a daily vitamin to build your immunity it's time to evaluate and to strengthen your financial fitness too! The Sun-day Design for this week is to fortify your finances. You have to decide whether your income, debts, assets and spending habits help or harm the dreams, goals, and aspirations you hold for you and your family. I'm not here to tell you what the "right number". That's really a personal decision. I do want to remind you how to figure out your vision for financial success. There are tons of apps and tracking tools that help you run a financial analysis of your lifestyle. Just as important is to use your internal gauge, your intuition to know exactly where you stand, why, and what to do about it. Over the next few days notice the physical, mental, and emotional reactions you have when you spend money. Do you experience joy or some sense of anxiety when you pay your bills, buy a pair of shoes, or withdraw cash from the ATM? Examine your monthly budget - and if you don't have one, use one of the many apps available to quickly create one. Building your sense of confidence and pride in your finances means making sound financial decisions, and there's no way you can do that if you aren't sure what you're spending your money on, why you spend it, and how often. Consider working with a financial planner or at least subscribe to the top financial planning resources. I'm not a financial advisor nor do I pretend to be one. I'm sharing best practices my clients use that help them shift from a place of financial worry to financial warrior. The best news of all is that power is accessible for everyone at all income levels. You may think you know all this information and steps to build your finances, just remember knowing better won't translate into doing better until you honestly account for your feelings about money and your financial decisions. If you found this blog helpful, be sure to share with friends or share your thoughts below. Today marks the first day of Sun-day Designs, the new format for this blog designed to help you declare and draw in light, love, and leadership into your coming week. Each Sunday I'll share a bit of coaching that will feel like the sunshine in your life - bringing warmth, a smile, and serving as a source of energy while shining a light on areas in your life where you can use some encouragement and support. This day is also Easter Sunday, a day a great celebration for Christians and really people all around the world. Regardless of your religious beliefs and background this day of resurrection is a lesson we can all consider within our own lives. What areas of your life can use some attention? What areas have you ignored or lost track of because you were so focused on other things. For me, I've been so focused on my work life, building my coaching practice, and raising my son that my self-care practices had pretty much dissipated. Worst of all, I know better. I know the impact of NOT meditating, not exercising, not getting enough sleep. I become physically fatigued, mentally exhausted, and emotionally unavailable to the people I love most. Yet I still chose to prioritize other activities as more important. And maybe for some time those things were in fact a higher priority but there come a time to reevaluate that list. What dream of yours feels like it's fading away? Is it your financial savings plan? Because of course there are too many bills to pay right now. While that may in fact be true, you can always stash away even a dollar a day. Maybe it's calling a friend you haven't connected with in years because you feel bad about your last conversation. Again that may be true. Ultimately if you choose to be a leader in your life that sometimes means taking a risk, and what better step to take than reaching out to convey your desire for connection. The effort is always worth it even to release yourself from feeing bad. The Sun-day Design for this week is to revive the dream you want to give more time and attention to. Go back to your vision board, your resolutions, or goals of the year and take a hard look at what yo've intended for your year. What pictures or words feel like a kick in the gut or an ache in the heart because its feels neglected. Identify the elements of those dreams you want to change or areas for which you'd like to shift your energy. Simply choose one thing you will do to revitalize that dream this week. For one day, one hour, one moment, breathe life into that space. Love and Life Lessons, Design You Coaching Imagine you're on stage giving a speech, live performance, or playing a team sport. All eyes are on you and the pressure is ON. Just your luck the voices of self-doubt and depreciation are screaming loud in your head. You know you have to silence them but have no idea how. It's so hard to turn the volume down when some part of you believes those voices are right. It's at this very moment you must remember the voices come from place of fear and not necessarily truth. The voices of fear blazingly tell you you're not good enough, smart-enough, you're not special or talented. They convince you this spotlight will expose you and the gig will be up, everyone will know you're a fraud. The pressure to perform creates an amphitheater with the voices of fear echoing around your head causing anxiety and tension throughout your body. The worst part is more you listen to those voices the more you experience the very thing you truly fear - failure. This weekend I watched my own son through his own moment self-doubt, anxiety, and pressure. The more he disbelieved and discounted his light and power the more he struggled through his basketball tournaments. Sadly there was nothing I nor his basketball coaches could say to pull him out of the vortex he had created in his mind. Ultimately, he has to choose to believe what the rest of us experience to be true - that he is good. As long as he listens to that voice of fear and doubt he will continue to get in his own way, make mistakes on the court, and ultimately create the very thing he feared in his basketball game- making a bad play. Watching him work through his self-doubt and subsequent anxiety during his basketball game made me think of ways this one-two punch cripples us in our careers too. When the pressure is on at work and this time the naysaysers aren't only the voices of doubt in our head, they have real names and faces too! I reminded my self and my son is that fear is bound to creep up - whether someone else opens the trapdoor or you do it yourself. The key is to learn how to turn down the volume and turn up your focus. Quiet the noise by focusing on one thing at a time. Like an antennae tune your attention in to what matters most in that moment. It could be your lines in a play, the passes and shots you make in a game, or the positive contributions you make at our job, Focusing on the key elements of success will move you forward without you even realizing it. What's you performance focus for the week that will help you stay on top of your game? If you find this reminder to turn down the volume and focus on what matters most useful be sure to share with a friend. As part of my own coaching and personal b-school development, I asked some friends and clients to share three words that best describe me. This posting is a compilation of the words they shared to describe me. I am proud of these words and feel they accurately reflect the best parts of who I am. These words remind me of the impact I've had and the gifts I can truly offer the world. These word inspire and center me as I begin the start of the new week.
It's so important that each of us do something that centers us. Reflecting on an assignment or even a piece of art quiets our minds and the noise in our lives. Mediation, journaling or sitting quietly for just 5 minutes creates the space for love, joy, and inspiration.. What's the ONE thing you'll commit to that will enlighten your mind and lighten your heart as you begin the week ahead? |
Details
Lessons LearnedThe life we experience is designed to help us grow. My wish is that you learn from me as much as I learn from you. Share your life lessons and let's build together. Archives
January 2016
Categories
All
|