What If There Is No Secret Formula for Your Success?

“Nothing worthwhile is easy, Ellen.” National Lampoon’s Vacation

Over the course of my writing career I’ve read countless posts on how seemingly easy it is to make money blogging (or coaching, selling your ebooks, selling any product, etc.).

“You just need a sales funnel!”

“Try a reverse sales funnel!”

My favorite, “Just spend $10,000 on Facebook ads and you get back $13,000.”

The last one being for those very comfortable with risk, but ALL are neglecting a VERY important aspect of success.

If you decide to pursue a calling, if you feel compelled to go after something that is so different from what you’re currently doing, when you feel that call to do something with “meaning,” it is a HEALING JOURNEY.

It’s truly not about the funnel or the money spent on ads – those are TOOLS.

By the time you have an evergreen sales funnel, you will have to have fine-tuned your message (and learned to LOVE the word evergreen). You will have figured out who you are marketing to and where they hang out so they can see you. You will be speaking their language and really getting to the root of their problem and how to help them solve it.

Which means you’ll probably have gone through a lot to get to that point.

In most cases, that’s the messy, confusing part of Career growth that usually is left out of the trainings.

What if there is no quick fix for your obstacles?

A Career Journey, as I like to call it, is really deep down about soul growth.

It is healing your shadows.

It is healing ancestral patterns you inherited just by virtue of the family you chose to be born into.

Making a great living doing what you love is more about being aligned with your authentic self and allowing that energy to flow.

Money is an added bonus for doing what you love – like a wonderful side effect.

So when you see the promises to just buy this expensive course or that one, it’s going to depend on whether or not you’ve healed the energy holding you back as to how effective the course is.

And some courses absolutely have the tools you need to be successful, and some will leave you hanging.

The great thing is, if you are willing, if you are open to it, you can heal as you grow and you will continue to see the positive effects in your life because of it. No matter what route you take to get there.

You will find your life flows more smoothly when you embrace energy healing and energy clearing.

You will find solutions show up much more quickly.

You will find when things go wrong you really don’t feel the need to dwell and instead you might go play for a while and let it work itself out.

Stepping into a calling is a vulnerable process – but one that compels you forward like NO OTHER.

And I’m sorry to say there’s no quick fix or secret formula.

It’s an inward journey, but one worth taking. If you can accept the discomfort as temporary and important, it helps so much (see “Are you in your lobster-without-its-shell phase?”).

When hope seems lost you can say, “I feel really uncomfortable right now, I don’t see how this is going to work out, but I have hope that everything is unfolding as it should and it all leads to the next wonderful thing.”

And maybe, “Universe. I trust you, but you can you clarify where we’re headed so I don’t jump ship before we get there?”

A calling is different than working to pay your bills.

It’s often our life’s work (20 Signs You’re an Awakening Professional).

So allow it to be. Invest when you feel it will be truly helpful or healing, but don’t expect one online course, or one coach to be the answers to all your problems.

You will get where you desire to be when you have a little more clarity, then a little more, and a little more – then BAM… it’ll all make sense.

Keep going!

XOXO,

The 5 Mindset Books That Will Change Your Mind About Giving up on Your Dreams

“Mama said there’d be days like this.”

There are times when you might want to give up on your dreams. There are times when it gets hard and you feel you are getting nowhere and you just want to call it quits.

Fortunately, there are also books that are so inspiring they make you want to keep going. They give you that piece of insight you need, that hope that it can happen, and that extra incentive NOT to quit.

These are 5 books of those books. They are not only inspiring, but also show the mindset it takes to overcome obstacles.

No career journey is going to be without obstacles. But these books can help you recognize that you can shift your thinking to accomplish ANYTHING.

Because you can!

The Miracle Mindset. JJ Virgin.

What do you do when your son is fighting for his life in the hospital AND you’ve invested a million dollars to publish a book with the launch date fast approaching? Well, if you are JJ Virgin, you develop a “Miracle Mindset” approach to both. JJ Virgin is inspiring in her commitment to hope in a time in her life that would have been completely reasonable to fall apart or feel like it was hopeless. This book will leave you with a feeling of resilience and also a feeling that things will work out when they seem impossible! You can find it HERE.

Dying To Be Me. Anita Moorjani.

Are you waiting to be your best self? Once you have things in order, or if you do everything a certain way, then you can be who you are meant to be? Well, for Anita Moorjani she thinks NOT being her true self and living in fear led to her near death experience. This book is a beautiful, unapologetic look at how to make decisions from a place of love rather than fear. You will come away remembering how important it is to allow yourself to live your life fully and embrace who you are. You can find it HERE.

The Big Leap. Gay Hendricks.

You work on something and it doesn’t turn out the way you’d hope and you think, “I guess it wasn’t meant to be.” Or you think you messed up. Could there be some self-sabotage at play instead? The Big Leap explores this idea of hitting your “upper limit.” It’s that really uncomfortable place when we reach for our best life, our best health, or our big goals. I refer to it as “the lobster-without-its-shell phase,” but however you want to label it, once you recognize this pattern in yourself and others it will change your life forever! I write more about the impact this book had on me personally in THIS post. You can find the book HERE.

Becoming. Michelle Obama.

I have to say I knew very little about the Obama’s before this book, but there is a reason it hit the best seller list so quickly. Michelle Obama writes about the humanness of coming from meager beginnings (her whole family living on the top floor of her aunt’s house) to become the First Lady. What is also very inspiring is the telling of Barack’s rise to Presidency which all changed with one 17-minute speech! This book is a reminder of preparation meets opportunity which will leave you inspired to keep going and keep pursuing your dreams. It is also a black woman’s journey, a mom’s journey, a driven career woman’s journey who’s role shifted to a support of her husband role – so many goodies to unpack! Plus, how to remain committed and sane once you get what you asked for. You can find it HERE.

The Untethered Soul. Michael A. Singer.

What is that voice in your head? Do you have to listen to it? Is it negative and would you allow anyone else to talk that way around you all day every day??? The Untethered Soul is not only good the first time you read it, but even better the second (and third). It’s helpful for anyone who has negative mind chatter to free themselves up to allow for the good to replace it – or just the quiet! You can find it HERE.

Let me know what you think when you read any of these 5 books in the comments. I’d love to know how they inspire you!

20 Signs You’re an Awakening Professional

I don’t think work is merely a way to pay your bills.

I personally think work is often “your life’s work.”

It is how we leave our mark in the world. It’s how we spend the majority of our time in our adult lives. It is the thing we do (and think about) most of the hours in a given week and it should not be discounted or viewed as separate from the rest of our lives.

And for many, it’s the way in which we awaken to our true authentic selves.

Knowing what you don’t want to do and discovering what really fulfills you is what I call an “Awakening Professional.”

You can find meaning in all work, of course, as long as it still lines up with your personality, your values and your gifts. But many of you are looking for something more than just “work.”

So how can you tell if you are an Awakening Professional?

Here are 20 signs you are an Awakening Professional:

1. You would do the work for free if somehow your bills were magically paid.

2. You want your work to feel meaningful.

3. You want to reach people. You may not know how, but you know it’s about more than just you.

4. You are feeling a connection to the planet and suspect that even small decisions affect the whole.

5. You take a step and feel like things are falling apart, you fall apart, only to discover a day later the problem is fixed and you fell apart for nothing.

6. Something small, a really small step, feels HUGE and scary and you don’t know why.

7. You have the feeling you should being doing something else. You don’t seem able to ignore it, no matter how hard you try.

8. You’re not entirely sure where this voice or new drive is coming from. It’s you but it’s so calm and firm about it.

9. There are many times when you think “It would be so much easier if I just did something else.”

10. You feel you are being asked to leave something you know how to do for something you have no idea how to do.

11. You have this feeling that you just have to trust it will work out, even when you don’t know HOW it will work out.

12. You often hit the “snooze” button on this career dream but it comes back again and again.

13. You may think “A saner person would’ve given up by now!” at many points in the journey.

14. You begin to feel that unless you are using your gifts, you will not be fulfilled.

15. It becomes increasingly important to understand your gifts and embrace them.

16. You feel the desire to clean up your life by skipping conversations with gossip, embracing a clean way of eating (perhaps conscious eating), and surrounding yourself with positive people.

17. You want to share your knowledge in some way with the world.

18. You REALLY want to help people.

19. Your drive won’t let up. You pursue it wholeheartedly in every spare moment you can.

20. You seek quiet and begin to respect your own inner guidance over the input of everyone else.

Does this sound like you? Are you an Awakening/Awakened Professional? If so, Welcome Aboard! It can be a bumpy ride but well worth it.

XOXO,