Unfreeze Your Finances: From Fear to Fortune

3/25/24

As I write this post, I myself am experiencing a bit of doubt and financial anxiety. Here’s a little back story: in 2021, I sold my hotel spa and wellness company, which I successfully founded and operated for 21 years. I thought this would be a joyful celebration, but instead it was the beginning of some money trauma… 

I was in love with a man, and henceforth, fell asleep to my long held dream of selling what I had built for a healthy sum; it was my largest asset.  I’d planned for years to parlay that money into another life long dream of home ownership or into buying or starting another business. I love Love, and unfortunately, suffered from a belief/outdated programming that if I wasn’t married, somehow I wasn’t valid. I had always wanted to be married, to be a homemaker in my own home. I believed that this partnership would be the marriage of which I dreamt. Even better, he was going to provide for me financially. What?!? That hadn’t ever been the case for me! More often than not, I would pay for the men/women in my life. So this felt like all my dreams coming true - until it wasn’t. Sadly, our relationship crumbled and even worse, I had sold my business for a song just one month before. I had let go of the biggest asset I have ever created - for an illusion, a belief that I have come to realize, quite painfully, isn’t real. 

The next two years were my “mid-life unraveling” as Brene Brown puts it. I was suddenly without a partner, an income, without a purposeful business, without a home. I lost a dear family member and a few friends to death. So, I couchsurfed in grief and disbelief, traveled around seeking a new locale and as always, looking within for my answers. Inside, I felt zero desire to create anything! I am a visionary and a doer, so this was very unfamiliar to me.  The intensity of the losses I endured was so overwhelming, that I consciously chose to surrender to what was. I let go of my need to “do” anything. I just had to sit with it, all of it. The not knowing, the lack of something to get up and generate every day, the lack of income, all of the anger and sadness. 

To ensure my financial safety and to avoid late payments or a significant drop in my credit score, I reduced all non-essential services such as entertainment and music subscriptions. I have been living debt free for over 10 years, so thankfully, I didn’t have any credit card payments to worry about. I made sure that payments for necessities were automated so I didn’t incur late fees. Thanks to decades of practicing financial planning, I had been saving money for retirement and for my forever home, and knew I could dip into that if I needed. After two long years of searching and grieving, one day last autumn, I suddenly felt inspired to buy a small resort here in Costa Rica and to continue my commitment to well being and love of hospitality. It turns out that this business idea wasn’t right for me. When I really looked at it, I saw that I would be trading my life’s savings, as well as other people’s investments, for a brick and mortar business, which occurred like a lot of physical labor. I am on this planet to be of service, but serving people on the level of pool towels and hotel rooms, felt a bit too much like a leash around my neck. So, I turned within again and really meditated on what I would want to do, what would better fit my lifestyle and my personality, aaaannd viola! It came to me, very clearly! I chose to monetize Big Dream Coaching and turn my service to others into a business. 

Starting any business can be scary and requires a great amount of focus and dedication. It takes time, teamwork, ingenuity, research, teamwork and money. Note that I listed money last, purposefully. A lot of people don’t create businesses of their dreams because they believe “you need money to make money”. This is true to some degree, but I assert that what is needed most is a passion for what you are doing. You might have heard the adage that when the WHY is big enough, the HOW takes care of it itself. This brings me round to my initial statement of stress and fear around finances. Many people I speak to are in a state of financial paralysis. They’re totally frozen around creativity, worth, establishing income, etc. The current world situation is daunting, what with endless war, climate change, politics and the new world after the pandemic. 

It is in these times that you can invest some time into building your knowledge and financial confidence. A library card is free, thank goodness. There are free library apps such as Libby, Kanopy, and Hoopla, which can deliver a multitude of free sources of knowledge to your brain. You might even get inspired and discover your why! 

Lifelong learning has always been my jam. I believe that and knowing my WHY, is what is making the difference between some temporary self doubt and the experience of money paralysis. For 20 years, I have chosen to buy financial mindset coaching. Buying perspective and experience has been the best money I have ever spent. I can see and feel now how putting in the repetitions, with my logical mind and my subconscious mind, is making today a little easier for me than feeling totally stuck, depressed and hopeless.

You, too, can have financial confidence, a money mindset, and even massive abundance! You can start today by reading a book, signing up for a free session with me, or leaping into a package of coaching sessions (5 sessions=$200). I have never coached people for this low of a price, it has always been $75-$100 per hour. However, I know it’s rough out there, I know people are suffering under the guise of not having access to money. I want to help. I can help you how to prove to yourself that you have what it takes to get what you want.  Anything is possible, including your big dream! To free yourself from financial paralysis, you must choose financial confidence and commit to it. This reminds me of a favorite quote of mine from Goethe/William Hutchison Murray, which I will leave you with today. Thanks for stopping by and please come again.  Abundance Now!

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back — concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.

Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.