As I lay there in bed, staring at the ceiling, it felt just like any other workday. The problem was, it wasn’t a workday. It was the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, and it was supposed to be my day off.
Had I informed all my clients? Of course. But that didn’t stop them from calling, requesting memos and emails, asking me to hop on conference calls.
I'm not blaming them. It was my responsibility based on the way I had built my company.
There also was the issue about the client-planning meeting I was supposed to attend the following week.
In that same meeting the year before, we had been scolded like children for being “low energy.” It was an 8:30 a.m. meeting on a Monday, in frigid Washington, D.C., temperatures, for which I had to fly in the night before … a Sunday. While I sat there being scolded with the rest of my client team, I vowed never again to attend this meeting.
Time passed, however, and I settled back into my comfort zone — afraid to rock the boat and threaten my healthy retainer. But something broke in me this Tuesday morning of Thanksgiving week.
I decided then and there to shut down my seven-figure PR/ad agency at peak revenue.
"It's About Time"
As I approached my wife, Julie, to break the news, the butterflies danced in my stomach. The sweat coated my now-clammy palms. What was she going to say? Would she be upset? After all, we had four kids, a mortgage, two cars, bills, and retirement funds.
I decided to make it quick. Short, simple, and sweet.
“Jules, I can’t take it anymore. I’m done.”
Julie gazed into my eyes. No anger in hers. No panic. She reached out and touched my arm and said...
“It’s about time.”
And we hugged.
That was it. Thirteen years of building a successful agency, and now it was over.
Had I made a bunch of money? Absolutely. Had I built two profitable businesses? Yep. But it wasn’t worth the corresponding pain. I had built a prison instead of a business.
You might be wondering, "why didn't you just sell your business?"
Good question. The simple answer: I was done, and I didn't care anymore.
I had been in denial for too long and, now I was just done with the business. I didn't care about the money, and I was ready to move on.
When you know, you know.
Now, it was time to turn my coaching side hustle into my full time gig. Sink or swim. No life preserver.
Scary? Yes. But it also was exhilarating; the thought of helping others avoid the mistakes I had made while building my business.
Fast-forward to today — five years later. I’ve coached, spoken to, and/or reached through my book and social media content tens of thousands of people across the globe.
All of it done with the mission of helping people dissolve the limiting beliefs, tension, stress, and programming that keeps them from living their lives of joy, fulfillment, and freedom.
Your Birthright
“If you just earn enough money, you can buy your freedom.”
Ever thought that, read it, or heard it preached from the “prosperity” gurus on social media?
It actually sounds like servitude to me.
For example, it’s popular here on social media to post the meme…
“Money isn’t the goal. Freedom is the goal.”
Well, that’s half right.
Money shouldn’t be a goal (if you want a fulfilling life.)
But freedom isn’t a “goal”. Freedom is your natural state.
It’s your birthright. It’s not something you get. And you don’t earn money so you can get your freedom.
It’s the other way around. Cultivate your freedom so that you can generate more money.
Yes, cultivate it.
It’s already there, but it’s just been buried under years of programming and limiting beliefs and stress and clutter. When you get back to your free state, you can attract whatever you want.
Health. Relationships. Prosperity.
All of it.
These are already in flow.
We just need to tear down the dams we’ve built that block that flow.
If you want to keep grinding away in the hopes that someday you’ll have enough money to buy your freedom, don’t be surprised if you never have enough money…
Or feel like you’re truly free.
Fix the Foundation
Some will read this article and agree with it.
Of those who agree, some will decide to finally make a change.
Some might even contact me so that I can help them make the change.
Some will think, "yes, and I can do this myself."
And they will, in fact, get it done themselves.
Then there are those will say they're ready to do it themselves — but a year or two from now, they won't be any further toward the life they want to live.
The frustrating part is that many of these people will have taken action — sometimes significant action — and yet still be stuck in quicksand.
This may "prove" to them that a life of freedom is simply not in the cards.
They tried and failed. They took the action and hit the wall, so now they're resigned to frustration and a comfort zone of misery.
Except...
Action wasn't the problem.
For those of you who regularly listen to this podcast, you know the simple flow:
Beliefs = Thoughts = Actions = Results
Time and again, I receive messages from people who took the actions and didn't get the results. But what thoughts are fueling those actions, and what beliefs are fueling the thoughts?
The beliefs are the foundation. Simply focusing on the actions is like painting the shutters on your home to fix a cracked foundation.
Fixing that foundation isn't sexy, and it's certainly easier to focus on actions.
Working on your beliefs doesn't "feel" like you're dripping sweat on the way to your big, audacious goal.
This type of struggle can be addictive.
And it can also be an excuse when you don't get the results you want.
So, what are you to do?
Turn off the Power Fueling Your Excuses
Simple: Identify, clear, and clean the limiting beliefs that are self-sabotaging your thoughts, actions, and results.
To do this, you need to build a relationship — yes, a relationship — between your conscious and your subconscious.
Your subconscious is where your limiting beliefs are stored. Some of them have been there since you were an infant, and the ways in which these beliefs negatively impact your thoughts and actions are numerous.
Your subconscious can tell you how, where, and why.
Once you know, you can work with your subconscious to clear and clean the beliefs.
This allows you to empty out the energetic fuel for the sabotaging thoughts and actions. It allows you to turn off the electricity that's powering your excuses.
Then it becomes a strategic planning game — defining your outcomes and utilizing your innate behaviors to make those outcomes happen.
This is exactly what I help my clients do, and if you're interested in learning more, you can click here to schedule a call with me.
Just remember — freedom isn't something you go out and "get".
It's already within you. It's simply buried under layers of conditioning and crap that's built up over the years.
The key isn't adding more stuff, it's subtracting much of the stuff that's already there.
And the most damaging stuff is your limiting beliefs.
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