If I handed you a cheque for 10 million dollars and you could do anything with that money, what would you do? This is one of my favourite questions to ask myself and others because it’s a quick and easy way to gain clarity.
And here’s why…
When you take time to ask yourself this question, you learn a lot about what you actually want and not what you think you “should” be doing.
It is an accelerated way of honing in and gaining clarity on what truly matters to you.
This is huge because the more clarity you have, the more certainty you’ll feel, which will increase your confidence and self-worth, which are key ingredients to living a successful life.
Success isn’t about the car you drive or the career you have. Yes, those are important, but it’s not the definition of success we were fed when we were younger. “Get good grades, go to school and get a good job.”
Instead, real success is about living from the values of your heart. It’s about aligning your time and energy with that which is most important and meaningful to you.
To do this, you need to be able to admit what it is you want and to be able to get into action to give it to yourself.
One of the first steps in doing this is gaining clarity.
So let me ask you this if I gave you $10 million today, what would you do with it?
Take a minute and play with this.
What would you do with $10 million?
Would you travel?
Buy a lakefront home?
Start a business?
Retire from your current career?
Hire a personal trainer?
Invest in multiple streams of passive income?
Get a puppy (or two)?
There’s no right or wrong answer.
What is it that you would love to do with that money?
Once you admit what it is that you’d love to do. Ask yourself what you can do today to bring that dream into reality? Chunk it down into baby action steps and get into action!
If your current reality is not in alignment with what you’d love to be doing, it’s ok. The key is to start aligning your time and energy with that which is.
If you are looking to go deeper and learn more about how you can create a life you are so in love with, check out my upcoming workshop, Career Masterclass.
In my workshop, I’ll help you gain more clarity and create a plan of action to live a life you love.
Have you ever thought about leaving your day job to pursue something that is more inspiring to you and that allows you to have the freedom to live life on your terms?
Many of the people I work with are professionals, such as lawyers, psychologists, teachers, holistic doctors, etc., who entered their field because they wanted to help other people.
What they found, though, is that they are now ready to leave and shift into doing something where they feel like they have the freedom to create the impact and change that they truly desire.
Whether you are looking to become a coach, solopreneur, entrepreneur, or create a business where you can work from anywhere, one key thing many people overlook when leaving their day job to live a life of freedom is their intention behind it.
If this is you, before you leave your job, ask yourself this…
Are you leaving from love and inspiration or are you leaving because you dislike (despise, hate, etc…) your current job?
Essentially there are two ways you can leave your job. You can leave from inspiration, or you can leave from fear.
I recommend you take the time and do the work necessary to leave it from inspiration. This will save you time, money and a lot of life lessons down the road.
The truth is, anything you do not love, you just keep attracting over and over again until you learn to love it.
It’s the Universe’s way of helping you learn that lesson. If you don’t love what you are doing, and you don’t see the perfection in it, you’ll just recreate the same lessons, the same emotions and the same challenges in your next vocation.
This is why I recommend taking the time to dissolve the emotions and come from a neutral, loving perspective when you leave.
Most people know this but they don’t want to believe it.
To have a successful business, where you have people coming in steadily and have a good rhythm in your business, it takes approximately three to five years.
Knowing that it takes on average three to five years to create a sustainable and profitable business can help balance some of the fantasy that comes with leaving your career and starting your own business.
When you first decide that you want to leave your career, it can feel exciting knowing that you can create something where you have more freedom to grow your income, have a more significant impact, and live life on your terms.
The truth is having a business can and does allow for more freedom, AND it also requires a ton of work and asks you to step up and grow personally as well.
When you can see both sides and see the whole picture, it will help you be more grounded.
There are tons of advantages to going out on your own. There are also advantages to what you are currently doing.
The key is to see both sides.
Ask yourself, how is what you’re doing currently actually helping you to be able to have the life and the freedom that you want later on?
By seeing the positives in your current job, you’re able to leave with more love; you’re able to leave from a place of “I choose to” leave as opposed to “I have to” leave.
This is powerful and will save you so much time and energy down the road because you won’t have to recreate the same feelings and emotions, and situations in your new career or new endeavour.
The purpose of this is to help you have a balanced perspective of leaving.
Many people get infatuated with leaving their career and having their own business because they hate what they are currently doing and see their new vocation as the answer to their freedom and happiness.
If you are only looking at it from one side and this unbalanced perception, you’ll end up swinging in your emotions and be on a rollercoaster ride. It will also end up in you resenting your business.
Instead, try this!
Exercise A:
Ask yourself, what are the benefits of your current job/ career? Write out at least 25 benefits of working in your current role.
Ie. You have a steady paycheque. You don’t have to go out and look for clients, etc.
Keep writing until you can’t think of anything else. Check all the eight areas of your life, including spiritual, vocational, financial, social, physical, familial, mental, and environmental.
Exercise B:
Ask yourself the drawbacks of being self-employed (insert business idea, coaching, stay-at-home business, etc.).
Write at least 25 drawbacks to you going out on your own. What are some of the disadvantages of being self-employed? Think in terms of all the eight areas of your life. Aim to have the same number of drawbacks as you did benefits.
The truth is being self-employed, and having a job that gives you a steady paycheck every week, are two different ballgames.
By neutralizing some of those charges and seeing the reality of what is, it will help you have more love for the process and move forward much faster.
As you navigate this, just know that pursuing your dream and taking the next step in living a life of freedom can be scary! It is common to experience both conscious and subconscious fears when you play bigger.
What if I make a mistake? What if I’m not safe? What if I lose my security? What if I fail? Etc. Etc.
When playing bigger, it’s essential to have tools and resources to help you navigate the limiting beliefs.
It fires me up when well-meaning people say you have to forgive yourself or someone else to move on.
This fires me up because this advice keeps you stuck in this perpetual loop of an unbalanced perception. It’s missing the bigger picture and keeps you stuck in judgment, blame and victimhood.
The truth is forgiveness is just an illusion.
The need to forgive somebody implies that there is only one side of the equation and that something only “bad” happened. Where in reality, there is always equal support and challenge.
For every challenge, there is equal and opposite blessings.
By only looking at one side, you miss out on seeing the true perfection in the situation. This balanced approach sets you free—knowing that what happened has served you and there are benefits to the situation.
The next time you go to “forgive” someone else or yourself, try this instead…
Look at both sides of the situation. Ask what the benefits of that situation, etc. are. How did this help guide you? How were you equally supported?
Perhaps it helped you speak your truth more. Stand up for yourself. Lead you to a new relationship. Maybe it allowed you to gain more clarity on what you truly want.
When you can see both sides, there is no need to ‘forgive’ someone or something because the situation in itself was perfect (both support and challenge). You can move forward from this place and no longer remain stuck in the illusion that there was more pain than pleasure.
From this place of love and gratitude, you are able to move forward and set yourself free.
That being said, seeing the perfection in the situation, especially with significant events and charges, can be extremely difficult to navigate on your own and takes some time to master.
This is one of my specialties. Through my 1:1 coaching and workshops, I help driven, inspiring and fun individuals do just that.
If you are looking for guidance and support on navigating your way through this so you can move forward much faster, reach out to me. We can schedule a clarity call.
On our call, I’ll help you create clarity on what your heart wants, identify what’s holding you back, and help you develop strategies to reach your goals much faster successfully.
Even if I’m not a fit to guide you, I will point you in the direction of some resources to help you get to the next level.
Are you looking to free up your mind and energy so that you can be more efficient and productive?
Let’s talk brain dump.
I started using this tool because I found that my mind would often become overwhelmed and bogged down with all the thoughts of my to-do list for the day, week, month, etc.
Instead of taking meaningful action, I found that I was losing energy and becoming distracted by how much I felt like I had to do and all the thoughts swirling around in my head.
In pursuit of freeing up energy and increasing my inspiration, motivation, and productivity, I started doing Brain Dumps, which I initially learned from Dr. John DeMartini’s work.
Here’s how it works…
Pull out a piece of paper.
Dump out ALL your thoughts onto the paper. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Jot down, list or write out everything you have been thinking about or that needs to be done, essentially anything that is taking up space in your mind.
Once you’ve emptied your thoughts onto the paper, next, review the list and see what on the list you can cross off and allow yourself to let go of.
Perhaps it’s thoughts or worries that you have no control over. Since there’s no sense in worrying about something that you can’t do anything about, you might as well cross that off your list and free it from your mind.
Next, after you eliminate the unnecessary stuff, see what on the list you can delegate.
Then, ask yourself what on the list is of the highest priority and urgency? And what on the list can wait?
I like to write a date beside these and schedule them into my calendar. That way, I know when I’ll get to them, and I don’t have to waste my time trying to remember them.
Lastly, focus on the highest priority action steps as they come up in your schedule. Then get into action!
I have been doing this exercise for a few months now, and I have recommended it to several clients.
The truth is when you are a business owner or looking to transition into being an entrepreneur; a million things are going on all at once.
This simple exercise allows you to free up your mind and energy so that you can be more efficient and effective.
I have found that not only are you able to cut down on the amount of time spinning your wheels in an endless loop of thoughts, it also allows you to stop wasting time on the wrong actions, which is priceless!
You can do it once a week. You can do it once a day. You can do it whenever you feel overwhelmed.
If this resonates, try it out and keep me posted on how it goes:)
By only looking at one side, you miss out on seeing the true perfection in the situation. This balanced approach sets you free—knowing that what happened has served you and there are benefits to the situation.