170: 🌈 “Imagine a World of Abundance” ✨

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Sometimes I'm willing to ride out dips for a very, very long time just so that I stick to the ideal business that I've worked so hard to build and the freedom that I have. The choice, the autonomy, the struggle to just over the years keep aligning precisely the work that I do with the work that I feel I'm here to do and meant to do.

This is your time. How can we earn twice as much in half the with joy and ease while serving the highest good? That is our guiding question here at the Freetime Cafe, your home for heart based business. I'm your host Jenny Blake. Join me for conversations with authors, friends and fellow business owners as we explore ways to free your mind, time and team to do your best work. Now onto today's show.

Hi friends. Short and sweet today with a little mood pick me up that I know I myself often need to hear. So maybe you listen to this one on a day where you need a pick me up or you send it to a business bestie who is just going through a dip at the moment. The other day I was out for my morning walk with Ryder and I was feeling kind of down. I didn't sleep well the night before. I really haven't been sleeping well. I've had a lot of asthma triggered as I mentioned on an earlier episode episode ever since I got Covid the day after Christmas. So my year has been weird just from being knocked out the first two weeks of it and I really have been trying to prioritize health and mindset and mood, eating really well, exercising every day as my 1 job today, the most important thing I could do as I write about in free time, but nonetheless, sometimes I just wake up on the wrong side of bed or I'm actually in a bigger retreat moment. And when I hit these points there's no amount of pushing, grinding or striving that I feel I want to do or that I even can do. And sometimes I need to retreat from the world. I've often talked about feeling like a turtle and I just need to retreat back into my turtle shell I don't want to talk to anybody. I don't want to send my newsletters. I do love recording these podcasts, but that's about it. And even for these, sometimes I have to ramp myself up, find my motivation. Thank goodness for the accountability of the One Stone creative team. And whenever I do book a room in Midtown at the recording studio because that makes me show up. And this is a way, this is one of the areas of my life that I make sure I have accountability so that I show up, of course, and show up for you as well. But even on the days where I'm down or tired, my mood is low. It's hard to get excited to do anything. I don't want to record some kind of Debbie Downer post. You know, I try to be honest and tell you where I'm at, but I like to get myself in the right head space and shift my energy. Just shift my state. Speaking of feeling like a turtle, one of my friends, one of the founding BFF members, Stephanie, she said she's operating like a turtle this year. At least that's how her energy feels to start. And then I asked if I could be the snail on her turtle's back. Cause I'm just feeling even slower than that. So we've been having a good laugh about the turtle, the snail on the turtle's back. Maybe one of you wants to be, I don't know, an ant probably moves too quickly. But a piece of moss on my snail's back on Stephanie's turtle's back. You hereby have permission to go slower than the eye can see right now, or for as long as you need to. I promised myself I would relaunch the Freetime Operations Dashboard and just get the word out again in Q4 or do another big BFF launch. Have I done either one of those things in the last six months? No, I have not. But partly because it's just not aligned with my energy right now. And if you know anything about me and the Free time philosophy and heart based business, I really do believe that these moments of being kind of down or needing to recharge also have a lot of gifts. For my thoughts on how I handle this specifically around money, I encourage you to listen to one of the earliest episodes of this podcast, episode 28, when the financial Tides Recede. In that one, I share how 2021 was a major investment year for me. I gave myself permission not to run around doing activities just to earn income, to dedicate myself fully to writing Free Time, which I wrote in record speed compared to my two previous books and also to invest very heavily in going hybrid with free time and sending the books to print, funding the marketing, funding my team. It was just a big investment year and it was my first time in 10 years that I allowed myself to be in the red financially. It was my first year where I deliberately invested heavily in the business and that felt appropriate. Honestly felt like 2020 was such a wake up call. I had a lot of my in person travel and speaking client work recede and I take that as a gift and an opportunity. So I didn't want to actually just double down on doing a bunch of virtual stuff. So I didn't make a big deal out of that. Instead I thought what opportunity do I have to double down on my interests, my next direction and funnily enough a core group of my business friends are in a little mini mastermind. All treated it as an investment year as well. All of us had invested more into our business, had taken more risks in 2021 than we had up till that point previously. Why am I telling you all of this? Because I think that one of the great skills, at least one of the biggest skills that I have Learned in nearly 12 years of self employment is riding out these exact dips. Riding out dips in energy, writing out dips financially, riding out dips in mood, in motivation, in connection to the work. It's scary when you're doing this and you're self employed because there is no paycheck that's just going to drop in. Unless with rare exception, let's say you've built a business model that just consistently spits out abundant cash flow every single month. That's the dream. That's what I would consider escape velocity. Or you have a big exit and you get a life changing amount of money. You can sock that away into the bank. There again I would say you have escape velocity. You have escaped any cash flow crunches, any worries about money and then maybe the worries become more existential. Who am I? What am I meant to do? What next? Can I replicate this level of success? Will I ever have another hit like that again? I mean even people who sell their businesses or have a best selling book have crises of confidence from time to time. So I think that one of the biggest skills is knowing how to ride out these moments. And how do we do that? With grace, with intention, with intuition, integrity. For me, heart based business is not about pushing or forcing things to happen. Now I can be particularly stubborn. I'm not willing to compromise my values around time, family presence, health, in order to work on the business. So sometimes I let my dips ride for a really long time because I don't want to go backward. I don't want to cram my calendar again. I don't want to work in ways that don't resonate, that don't align. So sometimes I'm willing to ride out dips for a very, very long time just so that I stick to the ideal business that I've worked so hard to build and the freedom that I have, the choice, the autonomy, the struggle to just over the years, keep aligning precisely the work that I do with the work that I feel I'm here to do and meant to do.

We'll be right back, just after this.

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Back to my morning walk with Ryder. I was feeling down. I was feeling tired, hadn't really gotten sleep. I'm actually taking care of him full time right now while Michael is out of the country for almost three and a half weeks visiting his family back home. And I was just feeling stuck. And when I'm stuck, especially when I'm tired, my morale goes through the floor. I just start feeling unsure about what I'm doing, unsure about my business model, unsure if any of the bets that I've made recently are the right ones or will they pay off. Feeling like my energy is not a match for doing the things that maybe I should do in terms of those launches I mentioned or generating additional income. And on this particular day, I was also just feeling cranky about money because I got a message from the accountant saying I owe New York City money for the privilege of living here while running my business at the same time as I was working on a trademark infringement issue, which racked up some surprising legal fees that I wasn't quite ready for. Now these are my responsibility. This is the adulting of running a business. At the end of the day, money is just money and the goal is to build up enough savings again after having such a big investment year. To not have to worry about these things and to have extra money lying around in a tax account or a legal account or an emergency fund doesn't matter. So it's not these two things in particular. They just sparked a sense of crankiness on a day where I was already cranky. And then in the morning light of New York City streets, as I'm thinking about why do I pay extra to live here? And I know why. Because I love the city. It's one of my sole cities. I pass this street art in free time. You heard me talk about serendipity signage that sometimes when you have a big question or you feel stuck or you're not sure what next steps to take, you can play serendipity signage, ask a question to the universe, and see what you notice in your environment. Or as my friend Penny would recommend, you could even listen for song lyrics that jump out or a certain particular song that plays. I love her book the Intuitive Way. If you want more strategies for building the intuition muscle. But I pass this street art that has bright colors, there's a rainbow and it says imagine a world of abundance. I'll link to it in the show notes just in case you're curious and you want to see. It's not the most gorgeous street art that has ever been created, but it actually had me. After passing it, I couldn't stop thinking about it for the next few small blocks. And so I took Ryder, we made a U turn, doubled back and I took this photo and it made me smile because here you have a blue and purple sky, clouds, a rainbow, and then a grassy field of flowers, all done in spray paint. Imagine a world of abundance. And in that moment shifted me from feeling down and focusing on these annoyances large and small. Or as I say not to do and pivot. How stuck I was, what I didn't know the unknowns, wondering when I would get my energy back, wondering where things are going just at this moment in time. What am I meant to be doing? Should I shift my strategy or remain patient? Seeing this street art had me just take a deep breath and really shift into gratitude instead. So much of abundance. As I talked about in one of the early episodes with Ksenia Brief, I'll put that in the show notes as well. It's not about manifesting material things. Tosha Silver calls that the grocery list for God. For me, abundance is about gratitude and I thought Ksenia put this to words so beautifully in our conversation. It was being thankful for that fresh morning air, the pinks in the sky at sunrise, being able to walk with my little champ rider, you know, and the excuse, the need to have to get out and walk for a morning because of him, or to go play in the dirt at the park for an hour or two every afternoon because of him. And with him, the privilege of running a business, the excitement of not knowing what comes next, the privilege of creating freedom in my business and spending the time how I'd like and aligning my activities with my energy and my strengths first, even before I achieve escape velocity financially. So speaking of Tosha Silver, I want to leave you with one of my favorite pieces from her that when I was part of her private community, there was a time a year where she read this every week and encouraged us to read this every day. You can learn more about Tosha Silver in her book Outrageous Openness. But she also then wrote a book called Change Me Prayers and one after that called it's not yout Money. So if you're in a particular dip around money, I highly recommend it's not your money or if you're feeling stuck in any problems in your life. The second book around Change Me Prayers, it's not around changing yourself to be a different person, it's just shifting your energy. Change me into someone who knows how to handle this or can move through this with grace and ease. This is her, I would say the main, the flagship Change Me Prayer and it's about abundance. Here it is, Divine Beloved, Change me into someone who can give with complete ease and abundance. Knowing you are the unlimited source of all. Let me be an easy, open conduit for your prosperity. Let me trust that all of my needs are always met in amazing ways and it is safe to give freely as my heart guides me and equally, please change me into someone who can feel wildly open to receiving. Let me know my own value, beauty and worthiness without question. Let me allow others the supreme pleasure of giving to me. Let me feel worthy to receive in every possible way and let me extend kindness to all who need feeling, compassion and understanding, even in the hardest situations. Change me into one who can fully love, forgive and accept myself so I may carry your light without restriction. Let everything that needs to go go. Let everything that needs to come come. I am utterly your own. You are me, I am you. We are one. All is well.

You hereby have permission to sit in the unknown, not to solve everything right away and to surrender to the higher purpose and picture that is unfolding for you. I'll leave you with a line from Julian of Norwich, a mystic from the middle ages, the 1300s, who said, all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. Thank you so much for listening and I'm wishing you an abundant and beautiful day in time, energy, money, and far beyond.

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