A Money Story with Monsters, Magic, and Mindset
Sit back and relax. I’m going to share a little story with you.
A “once upon a time” kind of fable - full of mindset trolls and ego vampires.
But don’t worry, the heroine prevails! With a sprinkling of magical dust that contains clarity and awareness! I’ll share the lesson learned (like every good fable, the lesson is the key) and even give you a peek into the origin of this not-really-a-fairy-tale.
The Story
A business coach was working with a business owner on pulling together the black and white of their accounting data to project the cash flow needs for the upcoming month. The numbers were far from black and white. Indeed, the numbers were well and truly red; to the business owner, it seemed as if there was no purpose or use to continue.
Seriously, it looked bleak.
Like the Wicked Witch of the West, the business owner was slowly melting down. Anxiety and panic had set in. The only mindset available was the singular focus on the lack of funds, while the rational side of their brain had already shut down and threw away the key. The only light shining through the sea of lack and despair was a small beacon of hope and clarity that the coach was holding for the business owner.
Would the business owner see the silver lining?
Would the business owner take a breath and make a choice to find clarity in the situation?
What did the business coach see or understand that the client didn’t?
Why did it seem like the business owner had blinders on, only seeing the problem, the lack, the darkness of the hole they found themselves in?
We are rarely able to see the solution when we are neck deep in the problem. That is where the hope and clarity of a coach or mentor kicks in. They aren’t emotionally attached to the negative pull from the “Land of Lack”. The coach will not only see the clarity through the swamp full of monsters the business owner is swimming in, they also have magical powers.
That magic is the ability to hold, secure and safe, the business owner’s original goals, dreams, and aspirations. That magic shines the light of clarity on the UNtruths the business owner’s vampiric ego and mindset trolls create. They hold space for the truth of the situation to live until the business owner is able to slay their mindset dragons and stake the egoism right through the heart of things.
That is the key here - our ego and limited mindset create a story. There may be some truth to the story, and yet, it is still a story of a future that isn’t cast in stone. The truth is that when there is awareness in our story, and when we can spot it and learn from it, we can then decide to take action on it.
When that happens, a new possibility is created and that old story was simply our inner ego’s attempt at keeping us stuck - comfortable, safe, playing small. While I would have loved to say we permanently slay our ego’s limited thoughts, we actually want to be grateful for our ego throwing these vampire attacks at us, leading us to their lair. For those of us willing to find awareness in the scary moments - we will be the ones that will grow and prosper, to create real lasting change in our worlds.
As you have guessed by now, this is actually a true story. In fact, it’s my story. I share this with you to say - hey $h!t happens and we all can find ourselves in this quicksand of thoughts when it comes to lack.
It is what we do next that will either keep us stuck or will catapult us towards our goal.
My Story - The Results
During that moment, the panic I felt became physically overwhelming. It had kicked in a fear I had been holding back for a long time. Actually, I was doing a great job at ignoring it on many levels for a long time, but this day the dam broke.
That’s what happens with an action item that is required to move us to the next level. The more we ignore it, the bigger it grows, until one day we are flat on our backs looking up at the massive hole above us wondering what the hell just happened. So there I was with my coach. She let me vent about the situation and as she sat in the clarity chair; emotionally removed from my situation.
She picked up a few key things - words and phrases I repeated - which were the keys in finding my way out of that emotional hole. She held the space and helped me out of the hole to see and acknowledge the reality of the situation which was dramatically different than the UNtruths and story my ego was focusing on just a few hours earlier.
As I mentioned above, the panic was more than just negative talk in my head, it was deeply physical. I think many times in my past, I didn’t connect the two and would address the physical part of the stress with options that only forced it down even more into my body. Awareness around my prior choices became super clear and I realized this was another way of ignoring the action items needed to create the change.
This time I did not ignore them and took action steps mentally (with pen and paper I journaled, created some affirmations and stickies as reminders) and physically (I cried - one of those total body release sobbing, thank-goodness-I-work-from-home-cry’s, and then I moved my body to release any other tensions still present). This was the first time I had a full body change to the awareness around that UNtruth and I felt empowered in creating a new reality.
As a side note about dealing with angry and frightening energy, like the one in this story, I was listening to Kate Northrup on a call in her Money Love course, and she pointed out that once we feel the emotion it needs to move through our body, either through movement, sound (like screaming your favorite song in the car), or tears. When that energy is not expressed outwards it turns inward and can create depression. If your goal is to create a new reality, then pull out your bravery talisman and do the inner work - all of it.
Why share this today?
My experience is that many business owners do the same thing - ignore the trolls and vampires, and even move into the “Land of Lack” - when they deal with their budgets and cash flow planning. They ignore the action items needed that are outlined in the plan until one day they look back and wonder why they aren’t achieving their goals. They move forward sometimes blindly without a plan, without a guide, without support. I did that when I first started my business in 2001 through the early stages of my initial growth and I watched my customers and other business owners do the exact same thing.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Business does not have to be hard. Making money and being profitable doesn’t have to be in conflict with our internal mindset and beliefs we learned as children or young adults. I’m not offering a magical unicorn experience here - I am telling you, and will show you, that by making a demand and choosing a different option you can change your story and experience with numbers, accounting, profit, and ultimately how you see and feel about money in general.
In fact, I will support you in tapping into the empowerment that accounting, profit, and money can provide.
One thing that came from my living this story was the creation of a free resource called “Three Steps to Increase the Profit in Your Business.” In this workbook, I show you how to love your numbers (yes, really!) and walk you through 3 steps to increase your profitability. Most people see an improvement within 2 or 3 weeks of completing all the steps.
Head on over to my Resources page to get your free copy now.