When I was a full-time teacher in the public schools I made about 50,000 a year. And I had lots of bills and worked 40-60 hours a week and rarely saw my friends or family.
I decided to quit and cash in my retirement and go live for a year. Then, to make some extra money, I started working as a part-time Literature teacher in a private school. I made about 22,000 a year.
But ya know what? It was a way better life-style. Instead of an hour commute a day, I had a 10 minute commute. Instead of having to be there at 8:00 a.m. I started at 10:30. Instead of having to follow a curriculum, I got to plan it all myself.
My point is that it’s not about the money. It’s about the life-style.
When I found out I was pregnant, I left teaching and focused on my business full-time. The other day, someone asked me for my business numbers and I hesitated to tell them. I’m not some 6-figure coach who can tell you right now that I’m making 10k months. No yet, at least.
And looking there, and only there, is a big mistake.
Tony Robbins says:
“Success is not about your resources. It’s about how resourceful you are with what you have.”
I may be making less money than I was as a full-time teacher. However, you have to look beyond my bank account to my life-style.
- I have a business I built from the ground up that was once only a dream.
- I regularly have clients + talk to women from all over the world.
- I contribute to people and make a difference in people’s lives.
- I’m interviewed for my expertise.
- I write regularly at my blog.
- I stay home full time with my daughter and provide for her care. She’s one year old and only ever been left with grammy or daddy.
- I work from home.
- I set my own schedule.
- I have a team of people who support me and help me!
- I live in beautiful Boulder, Colorado!
I think we’ve got it wrong to think it’s all about how much money we make, or what our numbers are.
If you knew you could have a growing business, living your purpose, doing what you love, contributing to people, being interviewed as an expert, with thousands of people reading your writing and you could stay home with your children, would you choose that?
The next time you’re faced with an invitation, a challenge, an unexpected bill, notice the thoughts that come.
I don’t have enough money.
This is going to cost so much money.
It’s too expensive.
I can’t afford that.
And then remember, it’s not JUST about the money.
It’s always about your resourcefulness and how willing you are to work with what you have.
I’m all for earning lots of money. Money is energy, and it’s a tool to bring us what we love. I want all of us to be abundant! Just don’t think that money is the only way to have what you long for. This is actually how we block ourselves from having.
You can HAVE way more than you realize, simply by ALLOWING it to show up in ways you didn’t expect.
Give up control, needing to know, and thinking that the answers are in the numbers. Don’t do it for the money, love. Do it for the joy that it brings!
Then, you’ll be rich beyond compare!
All my love,
XO
Rachel Claire
I leave you today with a quote taken from Robert F. Kennedy’s Speech on Gross National Product. It’s a good one, give it a read!
University of Kansas, March 18, 1968
Even if we act to erase material poverty, there is another greater task, it is to confront the poverty of satisfaction – purpose and dignity – that afflicts us all.
Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product – if we judge the United States of America by that – that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage.
It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl.
It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials.
It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.
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