“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become.” Steve Jobs
So, there we have it. We have an inner calling to become a…
but how do we achieve success despite the reality of our bank accounts or the prospect that we will have to leave our now secure job in order to run our own business.
Despite our greatest financial fears, we take the leap of faith.
A leap that is sure to be full of high and low roads ahead… but we are happy. For the first time in our lives we are truly fulfilled in what we are doing, because we believe in it. We are no longer working laboriously towards someone else’s dream, because we are now the dictator of our own, and that feels so right.
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I, like you, was at this crossroads 5 years ago. I was working full time to support my college education and living expenses. All of that work was fine except when the question of, “Well, what do you want to do with your college degree,” came up, I would say, “I wish I could get a masters in teaching yoga (I understand that is possible these days, but at that point, it was not.) Plus, that is not all I envisioned. I wanted to travel, teaching yoga and other eastern healing modalities like Ayurveda, while writing about it. This was the only thing I felt excited about it. So, you guessed it. After a 3 month trip to India, where I took a break from the rat race lifestyle, I decided to take the plunge.
Yes, I was scared. Terrified. I have taken a ride on the emotional roller coaster while
making the detailed decisions to cut the strings of my old path, to make way for the new.
I do not come from money. The family I was raised in was taught that money was always lacking, and this is just how things were for us. I understand why my family felt this way, but I chose to re-write that s tory. It has taken a lot of inner re-wiring on my behalf. I am talking years of continual (Still working on this) inner work. It has also taken making the, “Abundance Lifestyle Mentality,” a spiritual practice. If you really want to make it in the field of your choice, especially if you are a pioneer in this field, you have to be smart and do your research on what works. I could write a book on this paragraph alone.
So how do we overcome the hindrance of money to live our dreams?
- What stories are you telling yourself?
I don’t have what it takes.
I am not good enough.
I am not where I want to be.
These are all examples of the lack mentality. We have all had moments where we feel less than, afraid, and stuck. When we feel this way, we can get stuck in the endless loop of the negative script. A script that we are writing. If we are constantly walking around saying things like, “I am sorry,” we are affirming that we are in a sorry vibration.
The good news is, is that we have the ability to change our vibratory state by simply catching these thoughts in action, and choosing something else. Something up-lifting. This is simple, but not easy! It takes discipline. It takes doing it when you may not feel like it. It takes courage to shake things up within our patterns. This is where what distinguishes successful, happy, and wealth people from the rest. You can do it.
Repeat after me.
I have what it takes.
I am enough.
I have enough.
I am blessed to be where I am.
I attract what I desire with ease.
I am abundant.
I am happy.
I am… _____
2. Feel fulfilled in the here and now.
This is a bit of an off shoot of #1. It is important. We can get so wrapped up in what we do not have, that it creates a negative loop in the mind that says, “I don’t have enough,” “I need to stock up now, because I may not have the means to in the future,” “I have over spent my paycheck and I can’t pay my bills.” Do you see how this can keep a lack mentality fed?
You have the ability to budget wisely. You can catch yourself before spending that money on something that is not a necessity, and save it for passive income. Budgeting is an essential tool for living your dreams. While building our businesses and creating our empire, we need to make our money work hard for us. For most of us, that tends to be a smaller amount of money in the beginning, but over time, this financial discipline reaps many rewards. The biggest reward being financial freedom.
A lot of us can feel like restrictive spending is punishment. This is an old tape that a lot of us subconsciously play. If we say to ourselves, I have all that I need in the here and now, we will spend money on things that we really do need, instead of things that we do not.
3. Be grateful for what you have.
This simple exercise changed my life the moment I implemented it. This was something that made HUGE shifts in my thinking processes and drew in the rights people, places, and things at just the right time. I know you have heard it before, but this can not be stressed enough.
Be Grateful For What You Have.
Commit to a 28 day practice of writing down at least 10 things you are grateful for and why you are grateful for them. Take a moment to review your list, pausing after each one to close your eyes and breath deeply to really feel this gratitude. To drum up the sensations of gratitude on days where you feel that your tank is empty, bring to mind a person, place, or thing that instantly makes you all warm and fuzzy inside. Use this energy to bring into your field of gratitude and say, Thank you, thank you, thank you.
4. Stop comparing yourself to others.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Marianne Williamson
There is no one else in the world exactly like you. You are a unique fractal of this Universe. Whatever your belief system, the awareness around the specialness of you must stay at the forefront of your mission of walking, living, breathing, and fulfilling your dreams.
Be patient with yourself and have a clear vision of where you want to be in 1 month, 6 months, a year, 5 years, and beyond.
Trust that you have a unique expression and that it matters to the world that you fulfill your destiny of pursuing your dreams.
Trust that we all have this unique capacity to live our heart’s song.
There should be no competition in this.
“A flower does not think of competing to the flower next to it. It just blooms.”
― Zen Shin
5. Do not quit before the miracle happens.
If we have big dreams, we need to take big action. This doesn’t all have to happen in one day, and in fact, that is where I see a lot of people make mistakes. I see it all the time. Clients I work with become inspired. They go full steam ahead for a few days, maybe a week, or a few months, but then they burn out. Instead of taking a few small steps every day, they take huge leaps without building a firm foundation. They then get impatient with the progress, and become discouraged. They stop all progress all together an give up.
Never give up.
Yes, follow your dreams without hesitation, but do grow your roots deeply into the earth while blossoming your beautiful array of vibrant and blossoming branches.
I promise you that any small action on a daily basis matters immensely to your cause, and the harvest is coming, and in this moment the harvest is the fact that you are taking steps to do what YOU were born to do. Wow.
I am so inspired by you.
Thank you for having the courage to read this and to continue on the path to an abundant lifestyle of your dreams.
BIO : Alana Roach is a International Yogi currently based out of Annapolis, MD. Formerly adorned by the city lights and the busy streets of America, she was then whisked away by the illustrious path of yoga and took to traveling the world to share it with others. A few years back she started to write about the transformation she undertook by practicing conscious meditation. Her passions became her career and she now holds RYS Teacher Trainings & International Retreats, Health Coaches, and writes every opportunity she gets. In her spare time she loves cuddling with her daughter, surfing, being in nature, and living amongst her ever growing and global loving and conscious community. She is on Facebook , Instagram, Twitter, and can be reached by email explorationsofself@gmail.com
ds a Hatha based yoga retreat in La Fortuna, Costa Rica. Near by to the most active volcano on these lands, Arenal, La Fortuna is bountiful in hot springs and waterfalls. This grounding excursion will allow you to chose from many different day excursions while getting your fill of yoga twice daily.
Alana’s love for yoga came from firsthand experience with just how powerful the practice is. “In 2009, Yoga found me. Inside the studio, she experienced a deep sense of belonging, but the most profound part was what happened after. “I felt as though I was at true peace. I finally knew what the word meant. Until that moment, I had just understood it cerebrally. There is something profound to be said about Peace dropping into the heart.”