A friend of mine was a financially and materialistically successful finance guy.
He worked for a top 5 investment firm and did very, very well.
It’s where he met his wife, and she also did very, very well.
Combined, they earned well over 7 figures, and their lifestyle was commensurate with their salaries.
10,000-foot brownstone in Manhattan, kids going to the best boarding schools money could buy, multiple nannies, and a staff to run the brownstone.
Theirs was a life of acquisition, status, and prestige.
It was a life of what one “should” do and is “supposed” to do when one earns that much money.
They were planning on climbing the next rung of the acquisition ladder and were looking at multi-million dollar “country” homes.
Their search led them to Vermont, and this search changed their life.
The more time they spent in Vermont, the more they realized something unique to them.
When people asked other people what they did, the replies were,
“I ski.”
“I hike.”
“I fly fish.”
No one answered with how they earned money; they answered with what they loved to do.
In fact, they noticed that it was extremely rare for anyone to discuss their career.
It was all passion and purpose, a far cry from the go-go-go of NYC.
Together, as a couple, they came to a conclusion.
The life they were living was not the life they actually wanted to live.
They were living a blueprint of shoulds, supposed tos, and expectations.
So they made what I believe is one of the hardest and bravest decisions anyone can make.
They walked away and let it all go.
Their careers, their brownstone, the lifestyle – all gone.
Life stripped down to what matters to them.
Neither of them has worked in twenty years, and they spend their time doing what they love to do.
I’ll call out the elephant in the room:
Yes, they had the financial ability to do this, which only a small percentage of the world has.
But to me, it’s so much deeper than finances.
To focus only on the financial element is to miss the core elements required to transform our lives.
Awareness: The actions I’m taking are not creating the life I want to live.
Desire: I want something new in my life.
Core Values: I’m not living in alignment with my truest self and what matters most to me.
Clarity: What’s the life I want to live? How do I want to feel every day?
Self-Trust: I’m going to make a change, and I trust that I will be ok no matter the outcome.
Courage: I’m afraid of change and the unknown, but I’m doing it anyway (because I trust myself).
Action: Creating a delicious cocktail of all the above and leaping boldly into the unknown.
You don’t need money to change your life.
You need:
Awareness
Desire
Clarity
Self-Trust
Courage
Action
And you need a plan.
None of these cost money.
If your life is not producing the feelings you desire, it’s incumbent upon you to change it.
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