Blog.

Everything you do has a consequence.

Everything.

You know, the Newton thing.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

For you, there are consequences for your actions.

Good, Bad, Beautiful & Ugly.

It’s what you intend them to be.

Intentions. Set Clearly.

Did you know that you have the power to turn around every bad situation in your life single-handedly?

Did you know you have that power?

I find it really incredible that humans in general still don’t realize that they already possess this super-secret power!

Literally billions of people walking the earth not knowing they are able to access a super secret power! It’s like living in a ZOMBIE Marvel movie – where we, the zombies, haven’t woke up to our power yet!

Some people might know they have this power but forget to use it most of the time or they literally don’t realize the power that has been bestowed on them.

What’s this magic power?

The power of taking every THING that happens to you and turning it into something good, something made with love, something awesome & amazing!

What if in this moment you could take all your worry, all your pain, all your stress and disappear it magically into something good?

You have that power within you.

YOU HAVE THAT POWER WITHIN YOU.

Do you know this? I mean REALLY know this?

Do you know that this SUPER POWER is available to you?

How do you activate it? Access it?

It’s actually simple.

• You love. (Love solves all things!)
• You do everything out of a place of love.
• You find the ways to see things differently from others.
• You trust that everything & every situation is really for your highest good – a lesson you were here to learn in this lifetime.
• You purposely look for the good in everything. (And it’s there – you have to look hard sometimes!)
• You forgive.
• You set the intentions that it’s all meant to be and serves a greater purpose.
• You see others with incredible compassion in YOUR eyes.
• You don’t expect anything in return.
• You don’t expect a “sorry”.
• You don’t expect a “change of heart” from them.
• You throw out your instruction manual for “them” and let them be “them”.
• You pour out the love.
• You STOP LIVING IN YOUR PAST.
• You remember your past has no bearing on who you are RIGHT NOW!
• You stop letting your past ROB you from all that you get to create in your future.
• You ask for help from your never ending source of love & compassion. And never-ending source it is! Tap into it! Pray, Ask, Receive!

The common word in my list above is “YOU”.

This is why this power is YOURS to use, utilize, access, activate.

It’s literally your choice, your decision to turn your world into something amazing.

I meet new people everyday.

I hear their stories.

I hear how they have been done wrong.

I know how hard this is.

I know that right now you are walking through something really awful.

I know that someone did something really awful to you.

I know that things didn’t turn out your way.

I know that things happened outside of anyone’s control, forces of nature.

I also know that you did something really awful to you – cause you are hard on yourself and don’t always treat yourself with LOVE!

It’s hard.

Life does suck and probably 50% of the time – give or take 50%.

I’ll be the first to say it.

We go through that. We have seasons in our lives that are really shitty.

There’s no sugar coating that in any way shape or form.

It’s shit.

And we all have those times in our lives.

But what still amazes me is that after all that we’ve been through and after all the wrong we’ve done to others (cause we have – no one is a pink-perfect unicorn!), we still have a hard time finding compassion for others.

We are still slinging mud at everything.

We comment on everyone’s life, especially people we don’t actually know – like people in the media, famous people – and we still feel we have the right to throw in our two cents as if our judgment will magically make another follow our instruction manual we have laid out FOR THEM.

Ludicrous.

And yet, this is why you haven’t been able to tap into that power.

Your power.

I know it.

As in, I know why at times I’m unable to access my special super powers.

There’s too much judgement going on in my brain.

There’s too much comparison going on in my brain.

There’s too much woe is me happening inside.

I know this.
You know this.

This also hinders your ability to make money!

This also hinders your growth as a business!

This also hinders your healing.

This also hinders you bringing to fruition all that you desire for you life!

Not being able to live with compassion for your world and your people will not allow you to step into FULL ABUNDANCE.

And, that sucks for you! BIG TIME!

You were created to have life to the FULL.

You were created for FULL ABUNDANCE!

And yet, YOU are the only person hindering you from reaching it.

That’s the biggest blow!

(Yes, I write this to myself!)

I am the one.

You are the one.

I am the one not allowing myself to have everything I ever wanted!

You are the one not allowing yourself to have everything you ever wanted!

The people that are very close to having everything they ever wanted are the people that realize that they are the ONLY problem in this equation and that they have the power to shift and transform their life to full abundance!

The people that are very far away from everything they desire are the people who still believe that it’s everyone else’s problem! That the world owe’s them!

And it’s just like that.

Who’s problem is it?

Your answer to that questions will let you know if you are going to find abundance, happiness, love, peace, deep joy – ALL THE GOOD THINGS!

If you don’t answer that question correctly, then you are certainly setting yourself up for a life of misery, blame, frustration, regret, anger and sadness.

When you realize you have the power to transform your world and you do just that – you……

Live Your Legacy!

xx Lisa

I had to take a nap yesterday.

Literally, my body was in pain.

I’ve been pushing it hard for over a month, by design, on purpose.

And so I allowed myself a nap.

It was great.

All this to tell you how boring my life is.

It’s not sexy.

And why I’m proud of my boring life.

I’m so laser focused in on 2 goals right now.

2 crazy impossible goals that may or may not ever happen.

But I’m willing to be boring for them to happen!

My girlfriend from Phoenix texted me yesterday.

–> How are you?

I’m at home just working and working out. <–

Literally.

That was the conversation!

I have nothing of interest to add to any conversation these days.

My head is down.

I’ve been going to work – all year actually.

Minus a few “fun” events sprinkled here and there – my life is boring.

AND here’s why that is great.

EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED will come out of some form of routine, habit, on repeat.

EVERYDAY.

And it’s boring.

Repetition is boring.

It’s not glamorous.

It sure ain’t sexy.

The highlight of my life is BUSINESS LUNCHES.

I go to bed at 8 or 9pm every night.

7:30pm if I’m lucky.

(Last night, I got lucky! LOL)

And I wake up and crush out my mornings.

I’ve done more by 8am that most people get done in a business day! #truestory

I’m ‘doing’ a lot and have set BIG EXCITING GOALS for myself.

Do you remember my talk on SMARTER goals?

How the “SMART” goals were never good enough? You needed the E and R to make that acronym work. (You can listen to that podcast here! The E is for energy, meaning bring the energy & feeling to your goals and R is for re-alignment, meaning to make sure your goals still work for you and tune into that all the time – course correct if needed.)

(You can google SMART goals if you don’t know what they are!)

Well this week I have now officially decided to remove most the letters from SMART goals.

Infact, I’m like really getting over the whole acronym thing at a rapid pace!

(There are many different versions of the acronym, but the words realistic, attainable, achievable, time-bound, timed, etc. should be out the window!)

Here’s why:

“R”ealistic is out.

How boring, uninspiring.

Why do you want to set your sights on something “realistic”.

That’s like saying, I’d like to order an “average coffee”.

Who does that?

We don’t want to be average, ordinary, and to be honest, realistic is just that.

Realistic is something that everyone will approve of.

That’s not your goal.

Your goal needs to be IMPOSSIBLE.

It needs to be so big and inspiring and push you to do the BIG CRAZY.

Next, the T.

Timed. Timely. Time-Bound.

Whatever.

Crazy as it is – don’t give God a timeline.

It will never happen on your timeline, it will only happen when the universe deems it will happen.

All you can control is all you can control.

That means, keep taking the action in your control and GIVE UP the result.

You are holding on too tightly to your goals and dreams and desires.

You have to be working on them and in the same breath be really okay if they don’t happen for you.

If you aren’t okay with the outcome, then you will be suffocating your dreams, pushing against them! Trust me.

You are the one pushing all that you want away by wanting it so badly.

Focusing on all you can control will mean setting out to do the daily work on what little steps will get you to where you want to go.

So back to me and my boring life:

• 60 minutes of cardio a day
• 100 situps, weights, blah, blah (I’m so bored of it already!)
• Everyday doing my contacting of clients, prospects, advertising
• Everyday reviewing the impossible goals until I can feel them and believe them to come true (even when I’m no where near!)
• Everyday writing, creating content, marketing – it get’s old fast.
• Going to bed early so I can do that whole list again EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

Like I said.

My life is boring.

I love it and I’m enjoying the introspective side of my life right now.

(I’m a total introvert and absolutely love being alone – which never used to be my thing. I used to be the life of the party – although, that girl will still come out to play once in a while! 🙂 )

I turn down parties. I turn down coffee dates. I turn down lots of ‘FUN’ stuff that doesn’t work with the boring list above. (I even turned down a all-expense paid golf & whitewater trip this summer! BOO!)

And it does kill me sometimes.

But what I’ve gotten so good at over the years is getting over FOMO.

I have ZERO fear of missing out on anything! Business, Fun or otherwise.

I actually want my boring life above all the “events”! That’s some serious 180 – especially from my college days – where I thought I lived for a party!

I think at some point you have to realize that you are your own party. Especially as an entrepreneur! Especially as someone who has BIG dreams and goals.

There is nothing you are going to miss out on and all the choices you make will lead to consequences.

Some good, some bad, and some mind blowing.

But you will never blow your own mind on awesomeness until you stay focused on the big goals and ya, that means doing the hard work, which sometimes means turning down the good-fun-stuff in your life for your bigger vision and to protect your energy.

I’ve talked about this lots, but you know that your ONLY job is to protect your vibe and keep it as high as possible – that’s only if you are serious about attracting into your life your desires as fast as possible.

Other people, other stuff, distractions will pull you out of your happy place so fast and then you are crawling back up a mountain to get back to that place of being in alignment and high vibration with yourself.

It’s way easier just to stay in your happy place from the get-go.

Learn what pulls you out and don’t engage.

(Such as social media!)

(Or let’s be honest here: The Calgary Stampede this week and all the cute skinny 20-year-old tub girls at Cowboys (a bar) – which will make me feel OLD & WRINKLY! #vibecrushing LOL)

I know, I know.

This is a boring post.

That’s the point.

It’s not all glamorous at the top.

It’s not exciting like winning the lottery or like watching reality TV.

Success rarely looks sexy.

For us people in the real world, hitting targets and accomplishing goals has no fanfare, no one claps, very few cheer and you have to be the one to brag about it or no one will even know you accomplished anything great! (And it’s totally okay to brag if you need to!)

And did I mention it’s a lot of grunt work?

Do you want to know why so many people don’t accomplish anything above average?

It’s because they are unwilling to stick with the boring.

They are aiming at average.

They want to sit there and be entertained.

Don’t let that be you.

You get to….

Live Your Legacy.

xx Lisa

PS. If you haven’t been getting the weekly download to your inbox, subscribe now at financialbliss.ca and get a few FINANCIAL FREEBIES for doing so!

You just can’t mess any of it up.

You can’t mess up your life.

You can’t mess up your money.

I sat with one of my gorgeous clients last week who was worried she was going to mess up investing and “do it wrong.”

I talk with friends daily who don’t want to end up with the wrong person, wrong business, wrong job, wrong plans, wrong trips, the wrong life.

This is a COMMON theme amongst us people.

We don’t want to mess up.

We want to get out of life in ONE PIECE.

All pretty and put together.

HA!

PSA: People who die in one piece and all put together were BORING! (Sorry-not-sorry!) They probably didn’t live to their potential and died with that as their biggest regret.

The reason you can’t mess up ANYTHING in your life is because every thing that happens to you – good, bad, ugly – (yes, even the ugly yuck that’s happened to you) and ever decision, choice you made, make, or will make in the future is for your highest good.

I would beg of you to take this on as one of your core beliefs as it TOTALLY helps eliminate STRESS, WORRY, FEAR, etc. in your life.

Your life is like a movie and you know that the ending is going to turn out just perfect – but it needed to have all those “mess ups” and “challenges” to overcome so you CAN get to the ending – where it’s okay.

And even if you don’t make the ending okay, it’s still perfect.

People try so hard to help other people from making mistakes.

Parents try so hard to help their kids from making mistakes.

Loving family and friends are always out and want the best for you – again, trying to help throw their 2 cents into your life in order to help you not make mistakes.

MISTAKES ARE A BEAUTIFUL THING.

Growth, increase and expansion can ONLY happen through “doing it wrong”.

For the most part, the world is not at PEACE with mistakes.

It’s definitely not a widely held belief that ALL THINGS HAPPEN FOR OUR HIGHEST GOOD.

What if all the bad in the world was supposed to be there?

That’s deep soul thing to sit with for a minute.

I’m not saying that ‘bad’ doesn’t need to go, I’m just saying that we use the ‘bad’ to help move humanity forward. Without it, we wouldn’t be where we are today.

The planet has made it this far, it was for our highest good.

We now house the most humans this planet has ever seen.

Something worked.

And there was a lot of bad.

Thousands of years of bad stuff that happened to the humans.

And we made it.

So you are having this life experience right now – right?

You are worried that you are going to make a BIG mistake that you can’t get out of?

Bankruptcy. Go out of Business. Get a disease. Marry the wrong person. Buy the wrong house. Invest in a losing stock. Trust the wrong people.

You maybe aren’t taking the risks necessary to help you achieve your goals in fear of losing it all and messing up your entire life, including those of your partner, kids, parents, etc.

I want to pour out some BIG time grace to you.

You will be okay because all this was your journey.

Yup.

But that’s the deal we humans got.

There is an expiry date at some point, but until then….

You can’t mess up the life experience that you were called to have.

Isn’t that great news.

You will learn your lesson.

Your lesson may come because:

• you overspend
• you underspend
• you are stingy with your money
• you blow every last cent you earn plus more
• you invested in bad real estate
• you hold on to long
• you hold on too short
• you stayed out of obligation
• you didn’t stay
• you ran away
• you didn’t eat right
• you did eat right and still got sick
• you didn’t exercise
• you did exercise

You MUST TRUST that your lessons will be the perfect lessons for you and TRUST that these lessons are here to serve you and help you achieve what you envision for your life!

Repeat after me:

All that is happening right now is for my highest good.

If you can believe that, to your core, without a shadow of a doubt – it will take the STING off of all the shitty things that are happening to you right now.

The money you don’t have. The business that’s sucking. The health challenge right now. The relationship that’s not healthy.

ALL OF IT.

Make peace with where you are at.

Know, with the knowing of the universe, with the PEACE-that-passes-understanding (meaning peace that no human brain should comprehend because it’s from a source greater than you), THAT THIS IS HOW IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE.

It is not easy.

It is not fair.

But it’s how it’s supposed to be.

You can’t make a mistake big enough.

You can’t mess up your life bad enough.

You can’t invest wrong.

You can’t wreck your life – even when you try.

Find peace and know that….

You can’t mess it up.

So that means, you have to….

Take action with faith knowing you can’t mess it up.

Which is essentially what I mean when I say….

Live Your Legacy!

xx L

It’s been 4 years since I launched this company officially.

6 Years since I started writing – period.

Another 12 years before that of letting this whole thing percolate.

I remember sitting in New York, Kingside, a Midtown cafe, just blocks away from Central Park.

That’s this photo.

Drinking coffee.

Pretending to be confident, but really just procrastinating by trying to make sure everything was perfect for my company launch, if you could call it that.

There were no balloons. (I think all launches deserve balloons!)

Terrified to press “publish”.

I remember the moment I published my first blog and my website went live like it was yesterday. I can actually feel that moment clearly.

Since then I’ve created…

• 208 Official Blog Posts
• over 100 Videos
• 23 Podcast Episodes (plus 12 archived)
• 5 – YES, 5 online courses completed (which I’m sure you will hear more about…)
• 10 Hosted Live Events
• 30+ Professional Speaking Gigs
• 1 Published Manuscript (aka. STRUT)
• 2 E-Books
• 597 Graphics Created (Mostly on Canva)
• 41 URLS – owned & active
• 3 WordPress Sites – it was 4, but I let one go and moved the content to Clickfunnels
• 1 Trademark – “Wealth Spa™”
• 10 Official CIPO Copyrights to Material I’ve Drummed Up
• 1 Unpublished Manuscript 66,000 words sitting on my office kitchen counter
• 6 Professional Photo Shoots of Me (which I actually dislike doing – but love the results!)
• 1 Office
• 1 Full Time AmazeWoman Director of My Life #Pam and at least 6 different contractors in various departments
• 2 more professional designations (for a total of 22 letters behind my name & more to come)
• 30 pounds (Lost, Gained, Lost, Gained, Lost – BLAH!)
• HELPED HUNDREDS OF WOMEN! Personal testimonies written to me privately from hundreds of women all across the world! #mindblown

Oh, and while ↑ ALL THAT ↑ was happening “on the side”- taking my regular “Financial Planning Business” and doubling it over the last few years – while having at least 20-50% growth every year since.

WOW!

It actually feels good to write this out and share it with you.

Maybe – just maybe – when I’m feeling like this WHOLE entrepreneur thing ISN’T working (because that’s what business “FEELS” like all the time) I’ll read this to see just how far I have come in the last 4 years.

I was sitting at church on Sunday.

I remember walking into church in my black stilettos and asking God for a message, for a download.

And in true GOD fashion, He delivered.

Sure, it had NOTHING to do with the sermon, but who cares.

God cares about you and will deliver the “sermons” you need to hear to you directly – not necessarily through your pastor, priest, Rabbi or spiritual guru.

The word. The download.

Distinguish.

Distinct.

You are here to distinguish yourself.

God created you to be different, distinguished, SET APART.

You are not the rest.

You are here and you were made to be DISTINCT!

Looking through all that I’ve created and fine tuning my DISTINCT message over the last 4 years, growing, like the most awkward of all teenagers and figuring out what works and doesn’t work, I’ve realized these key things (oh, and I’ve only written about them a hundred times, so if you follow me, you know what’s about to follow!).

Here’s my SUMMARY of the last 4 years – lessons learned from myself to myself:

• Don’t Follow The Crowd.
• Don’t Follow Too Many Gurus – it will confuse you at some point – pick a couple.
• Don’t Take Business Advice From People Who Don’t Have Businesses.
• Don’t Take Business Advice From Men in General (Men have their own unique way of doing things. Just different – not good or bad – but not good for my business. There are very few men that I would allow to speak into my professional or personal life.)
• Do share your message until people get sick of it and unfollow you. The right people will always stick around and those are the people you want.
• Do stand for what you know in your heart to be right.
• Follow your GUT – it seriously never steers you wrong.
• The “haters” are usually the people closest to you and a few random people who will email you and let you know and post it on your Facebook page.
• If you have a dream big enough, don’t let the people closest to you talk you out of it and don’t let their 2 cents penetrate your energy field.
• It’s no one’s job to have your back – it’s your job.
• It’s no one’s job to support you – it’s your job.
• It’s no one’s job to believe in your dream – it’s your job.
• It’s no one’s job to boost your self-esteem – it’s your job.
• It’s no one’s job to fulfill your needs – it’s your job.
• It’s no one’s job to love you – it’s your job. (If they love you – bonus!)
• No one else will believe in your vision, dream or business like you do – so don’t expect that of your team, staff, employees, clients, etc. They have their own dreams & goals to deal with. Be compassionate.
• Be consistent & persistent in sharing your work/message.
• You have to ALWAYS be selling.
• Selling never stops – when it stops, so does your business.
• Sales & Marketing will always be the most important department in your business that will provide jobs for other people. Without sales, other people don’t have jobs. Don’t diss the sales.
• It’s your job to sell to others. You are actually doing a disservice not to sell to others!
• Believe in what you are selling. If you can’t – don’t sell it and you are selling yourself short! #boom
• Bring the energy. It will only work if you put all your energy behind it.
• Words matter – but more importantly – the energy behind the words matter more.
• Confidence. Confidence. Confidence. Get it. Keep it.
• A closed mind is necessary most of the time – stay focused. Fewer rabbit holes to trip over.
• Only care about what you think of yourself – not what ANYONE else on the planet thinks of you. (Lisa, keep remembering that one!)
• Anoint & Appoint yourself the LEADER. If you want followers, you need to lead.
• Leadership is not waiting around to be one.
• The world needs more LEADERS and people who will hold themselves out as such. Followers are in ample supply.
• Do daily messaging. Again. Keep sharing your stuff with purpose.
• Elevate.
• Evoke not Provoke.
• Consistent Daily Sales Activities. Without Fail.
• Have absolute clarity.
• Ask for help.
• Don’t seek validation. You don’t need it.
• Survey’s are only useful for the people who are lost and aren’t doing their purpose work. Feedback is not necessary when you have a message or when you know you’ve done your best. If we all listened to the feedback, opinions, the peanut gallery – 24/7 – humanity would not be where it is today, and we probably wouldn’t even have electricity or lightbulbs. Stop asking for everyone’s opinion. Again – yours is the only one that matters. Your failures are yours to learn. In business, same thing. If the customer doesn’t like the work that you do, and you know you’ve done your best, LET THEM GO! Refund them their money and send them on their way.
• Take time to breath and tune in to your higher power and what you know is the next step for you.
• Don’t gossip. It will bite you in the ass. I learned that in high school – it’s served me well. Only speak highly of people.
• Get good at delayed gratification. I’m the queen of this and would probably attribute this to why I haven’t quit – when so many people in my life have told me so many times to get a “nice cozy job”.
• Learn that delayed gratification leads to the best feeling on the planet – feeling proud of yourself – which also leads to confidence.
• SPEND YOUR SOUL. FEEL SPENT by the end of the day and that means you gave it your best shot. There’s a difference between Spent and Tired. Tired is when you aren’t living your life with purpose and taking steps to fulfilling your dreams. Spent is when you laid it all out, let it all hang out, jumped off the cliff, and you still don’t know if you landed it or not. It’s an adrenaline high. That is spent. Tired is for people not stepping into their power. Spent is for leaders, the soul-shakers.

And FINALLY, There’s 2 things that I would recommend to any person on the planet.

If you want to grow yourself to become the best version of yourself, start a business or publish a book.

BOTH will confront every cell in your body and make you evaluate your life in a PUBLIC way.

Vulnerability.

Publishing a book and starting a business will challenge you like nothing else will because you have to face yourself – and even more scary – you have to face your dreams and find that big enough WHY to pull you forward.

So kudos to all my people who have CHOSEN this as their life’s work (and to be fair, it probably chose you first.)

Many won’t take the challenge – because, well, it’s too hard and honestly, it sucks much of the time.

But for the people who are really here to bring a vision into reality, I am high-fiving you and hugging you at the same time, because I know it’s not easy.

But it’s worth it to put it all out there! Whatever your art.

And it’s definitely worth it when you, daily, moment-by-moment….

Live Your Legacy.

xx L

Are you exposing yourself?

The answer is no if you don’t already have everything you’ve ever wanted.

Maybe in some areas of your life you finally feel safe enough exposing yourself, but there’s this area – the BIG area of your life where you are deeply unhappy.

And it’s because you’ve ceased to pull back the curtains and EXPOSE yourself.

(Side note: the area of your life where you are deeply unhappy is always going to be the biggest frustration of your life by the simple fact that you are always focusing on it and calling it the biggest frustration/unhappy part of your life! Just by focusing on the bad you are attracting more of it into your life – so stop thinking about the bad part of your life and focusing on it. Okay, side note complete.)

You are so desperately seeking to have things change around you and claw and stress and the more you push, the more things stay the same.

If we could get everything we ever wanted without having to lay our SOUL, BODY, MIND, HEARTS EXPOSED out on the line, then of course we’d all have everything we ever wanted.

You are begging for a MIRACLE right now in some area – a shift in perception – that’s really what you are after.

After all, is life not an illusion we can bend and mold to exactly what our thoughts are?

You want the thing on the other side of where you are now.

Whatever that is for you – love, health, wealth – whatever it is – it WILL not happen until you step out in faith.

But to take that one step further – you will not have a change in perception about life, paradigm shift or that MIRACLE, until you step out in FAITH.

Taking a step out in FAITH means being

EXPOSED.

RAW.

NAKED.

That’s when you know you are doing it right.

You are emotionally, mentally, and HEY, if we are talking sex, you are physically NAKED.

You are putting yourself out there in a way that DOESN’T FEEL SAFE.

AND here’s the linchpin…

The magic won’t happen until you are EXPOSED.

(A colleague once said, “You can’t be a success and a secret at the same time!”)

Do something that makes your soul feel alive.

• Have that ‘hard’ conversation.
• Create that art.
• Heart on your sleeve.
• Go for that run, lift those weights.
• Take a stand for something you believe in with your whole heart.
• Share your message, your product, your value.

That’s how you harness your energy and then use it as fuel in your life.

That’s how you get to the next level.

I had an interesting comment from one of my coaches who told me that if I was feeling overwhelmed and stressed out that I should NOT retreat, but take on more!

WHAT?!?!

Yes, take on more.

Feel alive again.

This is not normal advice you would get from anyone, as we know – the world has gotten lazy.

When feeling tired, overwhelmed, busy and stressed, the world would tell you to baby yourself, get a massage and take time off.

It’s MORE than socially acceptable to take time off of your life.

But the message is VERY different for the leaders who are here to make a difference – you know who that is. (It’s Y-O-U!)

Well, I don’t know about you personally – and dare I say, this TAKE-ON-MORE-APPROACH is not for everyone – in fact, it’s not for 99% of people, but for us adrenaline entrepreneurial leaders, messengers and movers & shakers, it’s probably the best way out of a rut! (You are only in a rut cause you are bored with your work, the norm, the routine.)

Take on more.

Take on things that excite you.

EXPOSE YOURSELF MORE.

But, I think that’s they key – ‘things that excite you’.

Is what you are doing exciting enough?

If it’s not, then GIRL (or BOY), you aren’t dreaming big enough!

Period.

End of Sentence.

You’ve settled.

You’ve succumbed to life.

To the life everyone thinks you should have.

BUSY is not the goal.

The goal is to CREATE.

The goal is to CREATE YOUR ENERGY.

Be in charge of all that you are putting out there into the ethers.

AND THEN SHARE IT!

EXPOSE IT!

Because we all know the great truth –

that once you get your whole energy game down (aka. know how to flip your switch, know how to get into the zone & FLOW) THEN….

THE MAGIC APPEARS!

(That’s simple only because it’s law of attraction, duh?)

“What we are looking for is what is looking.”

St. Francis of Assisi

The magic CAN NOT – I repeat – The magic CAN’T appear when you are NOT in your zone of flow, your zone of TURNED ON ENERGY!

Yes, this applies to everything from healing to sex to love to weight loss to making money and of course to business.

It all requires the same energy – the energy where you have to (you must) be you – you GET to just be you. NO ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS!

But you have to be the you with your HEART, SOUL, MIND, BODY – ALL OF IT hanging out over the edge.

You can’t be ‘the you’ sitting on the couch.

You have to be the version of you that is stepping out in faith – DAILY – toward those big SCARY dreams that seem so SO far away from where you are now.

You have all that you need, so don’t fret.

You were built with all the standard operating equipment that you needed to be the AMAZING you that you are.

You have the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturing) already built in. (Okay, so I just learned what that was when I was shopping for a new windshield for my car – so I naturally had to use it!)

It’s not something you need to go out and find.

And for all those still seeking that it’s out there somewhere.

It’s not.

You are doing waaaaay to much work trying to get the world to bend to you and in turn you are pushing everything you want away when all you have to do is turn inward.

The truth is that you are connected and tapped into source that you don’t need anyone’s ideas, anyone’s direction, anyone’s beliefs or values – YOU HAVE THAT IN ABUNDANCE from the all knowing, all powerful source within you.

You need to SNAP out of it and realize you already have it all.

There’s nothing else you need.

It’s just your job to tap into that unlimited abundance that has been surging through you bring the energy through you and out into the world. (and if you are keeping it bottled up – it will cause DIS-EASE in your body!)

No one owes you anything.

Not money.

Not love.

Not time.

Not ANYTHING.

You create that.

You need to BE IT.

You need to BE IT first before it can follow in your reality.

Your energy needs to be aligned and alignment only comes through taking action with faith – and taking the big scary step.

You keep forgetting that what happens between your BIRTHDAY and your DEATHDAY are up for grabs.

It’s all up to you.

Not anyone else.

And you have to believe that you have been granted the power to do that.

So many people still think life happens to them, powerless, and that they must sit idly by and watch it.

Don’t be that person.

You know deep within that you were created to create and make it happen.

Are you making it happen for yourself?

Oooooooh….. No.

No you’re not or else you’d already have everything you ever wanted.

And when you have everything you’ve ever wanted you know you’ve been…

da, Da, DA…….

EXPOSED.

You won’t get anywhere until you’ve made the decision, taken the action of being…

EXPOSED.

It’s time to be EXPOSED!

Oh, and remember beautiful person – that’s how you….

Live Your Legacy!

xx L

PS. It’s time to check out FINANCIALBLISS.CA and make sure you get YOUR FREE COPY of The Ultimate Guide to Financial Bliss!

You are still not stepping out in faith.

If you did, you’d already be & have all the things you are longing to be!

Faith means to do something that feels scary.

It’s not faith when it doesn’t make your adrenaline pump.

That door knock.

That question you need to ask.

That conversation that’s been holding you back.

That text or email you need to send but have been holding back.

Certain “BIG” things that we are afraid to do eventually become not big deals.

Like sitting on a chair.

The first time you sit on a chair you have faith it will hold you up.

And you learn to trust the chair.

You know it will have your back 99% of the time and things will be fine.

Yes, there is still the 1% of the time when the chair doesn’t have your back.

Like when I’m sitting around outside my backyard BBQ with a group of friends over. #perfecttiming

That is the prime time for the chair to break & my friends to laugh at me – naturally! So embarrassing, but hilarious!

But I will tell you one thing.

Within minutes I was sitting on another chair and there was absolutely no fear, no worry that the chair would not hold me.

I had faith, and even when the chair let me down, I had such strong faith in chairs that it did not stop me (or even cross my mind) from sitting in more chairs.

My faith lives on.

And so it is with life.

The first time is scary doing anything.

But you have to take that first step in faith.

Besides my ‘chair faith’, I have gotten good at stepping out in faith.

Like writing.

First time publishing this blog.

Terrifying.

Second time.

More terrifying.

If that’s even possible!

Now, still terrifying with a side of calm knowing I won’t get struck by the hate police with every word I type – that’s only happened like 1% of the time!

Then there was video.

I still hate video.

Then there was all the things, love, marriage, parenthood, school, KETO diet… I mean all the things you step out in faith with.

All those things that terrified you, you eventually got over – they became your norm and you were able to do them with ease and no panic attack every time.

BUT.

BUT.

BUT.

Right now.

Right now, there is something BIG.

Something so B I G that you MUST step out and do.

IN FAITH.

It feels bigger than anything you’ve ever done.

This is something your soul is calling you to do.

It may be something short term or long term.

It may be something silly to other people, but to you it’s big and scary.

I can tell you this.

Whatever it is, it will push you – THRUST YOU – into the next level version of yourself, but you won’t get there unless you obey that voice.

OBEY YOUR SOUL.

You can keep pushing it down and it will make you fat, get you sick, manifest whatever UGLINESS that comes from not listening to your purpose work.

Okay, maybe that’s just me.

Actually, wanna know what happens to me?

I become a VERY PRODUCTIVE PROCRASTINATOR!

When I’m holding off on doing my souls purpose work in faith this is what happens!

(You may relate?!)

• my house is clean, organized and spotless
• so is my office
• my kids are happy and full of sugar
• my degrees and letters behind my name pile up
• my body becomes fitter (because working out is waaaaaay easier that actually doing my scary purpose work!)
• I’ve watched every series possible on Netflix
• I volunteer like a MAD woman

But let me be very clear.

None of that above is really my soul work.

SERIOUSLY!

It’s great to have all that as a by-product, but you will also never be truly happy until you UNLEASH YOUR SOUL into it’s dream work.

It’s true.

I know when I’m completely turned on and tuned in – that’s when I’m in flow and my whole life hums and sings like a musical.

You won’t get what you want unless you step out in faith.

Ughhhhh.

But that’s scary.

“A little adrenaline rush is good for you,” says me.

But, is it really? I like my quiet boring life.

The fire and fear and adrenaline rush tells you that it’s something you simply must do!

Your soul says ‘yes’.

Your comfy life says ‘no’.

Your belly is a mix of butterflies & bombshells & knots.

At odds.

Cognitive Dissonance.

Internal conflict.

A choice that needs to be made.

A decision.

A moment of stepping out in faith.

5,4,3,2,1.

As Mel Robbins puts it.

Just do it.

As Nike puts it.

Eat that frog.

As Brian Tracy puts it.

You will never get to live your legacy, live your dreams without that step in faith.

Knowing that it will get easier over time.

I promise.

But, today.

Today you need to swallow that MF thing and get on with it already.

Okay?!

You hear me?!

Do the damn thing that you were meant to do and do it –

N O W.

Don’t forget – that’s how you….

Live Your Legacy.

xx Lisa

There are 2 roads.

2 paths.

The first one is the one you’ve thus far created for your life.

It is where you are right now.

The family you have, the job, the hobbies, the love, the health, all of it.

In fact, if a scientist were to map out a prediction of your life, for probably 80% of humans, life would stay pretty close to the current trajectory you are on.

A pay raise here or maybe the odd career change there.

Similar house or neighborhoods.

Similar familiar people sprinkling in the odd new people your path crosses – like minded of course.

It’s actually a good life.

It’s comfy.

It’s cozy.

It’s good.

The payoff is you get to live in a safe, secure, somewhat happy life.

I say somewhat happy because the opposite of this life path you are on is this:

The unknown.

If you were to do something crazy and live with no fear, press play on your life and not give a damn what anyone thought, what would that look like?

The problem with doing that is that you potentially can rock the boat.

You all of the sudden are left in a precarious position of not knowing anything, having no security, having no idea what comes next.

The crazy thing about life is, there never was any security to begin with.

I mean, I tell clients that all the time.

Your life as you know it is not guaranteed, not even the GIC’s which by their very name spell lies that FOR SURE you will get your money back with interest.

Life has ZERO money back guarantees.

And we all walk around like it’s owed to us.

Like life owes us something.

And that we DESERVE guarantees and DESERVE to be compensated what we think is fair.

Meanwhile, totally adopting the victim-hood mentality.

I’ve felt like this.

We all have our moments.

After all, we do work so hard. Won’t something payoff in the end?

But, BUT, B U T… what if it never was about the getting, about getting your payoff that you think you want?

What if your life best lived meant taking the chances of doing that crazy thing you are so scared to tell your parents, like joining the circus, or becoming the world’s best video gamer or moving to Bosnia to help refugees on a missions trip.

We don’t – not all the time.

Maybe here and there.

I would say fitting in with the tribe, fear of being alone and fear of people not accepting us is the biggest thing holding us back.

Not to mention that we have set out our life trajectory and we know it’s okay.

I mean it’s not becoming a billionaire, but a very well adjusted, simple life of the thousandaire sounds fine too.

And that’s still better than the option of the other path.

The path that we deep down know is the path we are supposed to be heading down but don’t because fear holds us back.

The path unknown.

The path with no trajectory.

The path of pure adventure.

The path of pure faith.

The path where we might lose some friends for speaking out our minds and stepping fully into the person we were designed to be.

The path where we don’t know for sure who, what, when, where or how our life will turn out.

It’s the path where the only thing in the world we know is our WHY.

The path we so desperately want to go down that every time we get glimpses of what that life can look like for us we get so excited, we are dancing inside and every cell in your body is like HELL YES!

And then the glimpse is over.

You settle back into the settling of your current life.

I mean, don’t get me wrong.

I know you are still grateful. I know this is the life you wanted and maybe even dreamed about when you were 10-years-old.

But somewhere throughout your life, there was a little nudge.

You were made for something more.

It’s just that something more is totally scary.

I mean, adrenaline rush, freak-you-out SCARY.

You know it will rock the boat.

You know that people close to you will judge the pants off of you.

But then there’s the alternative.

The what if.

The dying without being able to live your legacy.

The place where your soul dies long before your physical house does.

This is why there is so much depression in the world.

Mark my words.

People are not living their purpose.

And they are too scared to do anything about it.

All the fears come up.

And so, we sit and suck up the incremental pay increases at our jobs, the suburbs and our white picket fences and don’t get to share who we fully are with the world.

The world is sad.

Why is the world sad?

The world didn’t get to hear your gifts.

The world wanted you to show up and you didn’t.

You are letting down the world by not sharing your gift.

Did you know that?

This isn’t some pity-party for yourself, you are literally letting the world down by not fully doing the thing you were meant to do.

Sell it sister.

You are also letting the world down by not fully making the money you know you can make.

You are also lying to the people you love by showing them the ‘fake’ you.

You need to know that the people that don’t support and love you for who you are and the ‘real’ you (when you FINALLY decide to show up in your GLORIOUS-GOD-MADE form) aren’t your people.

Do you hear me?

The haters in your life that aren’t absolutely in love with all your crazy, wild, living-full-out- BITS of you AREN’T YOUR PEOPLE.

New people – your ‘real’ people will show up.

It’s trust.

It’s trusting that when you press play on your life that your PAYOFF will be GREATER than you ever imagined.

It’s just taking that first step.

It’s just the deep faith, the deep belief and deep trust that you get to live the life you were meant to live.

The crazy unknown adventure.

Living a life that NO ONE could ever plot a trajectory map for because it’s going to be a WILD ride.

You were made for the adventure.

You were made for the GREAT unknown.

Scary as it is, you have to…..

Live Your Legacy!

xx Lisa

PS. The blog image is of the sunset this morning while I was writing. 🙂

I need to riff on integrity for a minute.

No, not the kind that you place meaning on.

You know the one where you think integrity means you are an upstanding, non-lying, non-cheating person and can prove it to the rest of society.

Most of ya’ll think that’s what integrity really is.

Being good.

Doing the right thing.

Being Moral.

Following all the 10 commandments.

I mean, hey, if you haven’t cheated on your spouse or slept with your neighbours husband or wife or both, you must be doing pretty good on the integrity scale, right?!

You aren’t in jail. Check.

You pick your weeds and cut your lawn all tidy.

Check.

Check.

Heck, you still have all your girl scout badges to remind you how awesome you are.

(No, seriously, I do have my sash in the basement….don’t make me pull it out for you!)

You are FULL of integrity.

You are the outstanding citizen and you pat yourself on the back daily for doing all the things.

You pat yourself on the back for being the ‘good girl’ or ‘good boy’.

I mean, after all, you’ve played by societies rule book for living a good life.

You went to university, got married, had a couple kids and are a contributing member of society.

OKAY.

If I keep going on like this I’m going to regurgitate yesterday’s dinner.

I’m sure from the outside to anyone that has heard of me or knows me would think I’m all the things above – FULL of INTEGRITY (for the most part!)

Great.

Fabulous.

BUT WHO THE HECK CARES?

Who placed such high meaning on the things that don’t really mean anything at the end of the day anyways?

The problem is how you’ve defined integrity your whole life.

And, it’s not your fault.

You’ve been raised by parents, grandparents, churches and religion, school systems and government organizations that have dictated to you what “integrity” ought to be.

AND now for the bubble burst…

Integrity is NOT being a good person.

Integrity is NOT living this ‘perfect’ life that everyone thinks it is.

I know this next sentence will absolutely stir another heated debate with my father, but integrity is not about right or wrong, good or righteous or following the 10 commandments or the laws of the land.

I think what most people forget as they are stuck in their right/wrong or white/black rules for living is that they forget that there is really no such thing as right or wrong.

You get to decide.

You get to decide ALL of it for your life.

That’s one TALL ORDER to fill.

And hence, most people don’t realize it and go through life flopping around by the waves that hit them, blame the waves when all they need to do is reach out their arms and swim.

Without getting too philosophical and creating another family debate on what’s right or wrong or truth or not-truth (love you Dad!) – you need to know this.

WHERE YOU ARE IN LIFE RIGHT NOW IS A DIRECT REFLECTION OF THE CHOICES YOU MADE AND THE INTEGRITY YOU HAD WITH THOSE CHOICES.

If you love your life right now, great! No need to read on.

If you are like me and have MANY areas in your life where you are not where you want to be, it’s time for your SMACKDOWN or SMACKUP, in this case.

Somewhere along the way, you stopped listening to yourself.

Somewhere along the way, you let other people dictate your life.

Somewhere along the way, you let your choices and decisions be those of others and not your own.

Somewhere along the way, you gave up only because your soul felt dead, sucked out of you.

Giving up was inevitable because the life you let other people talk you into you never really wanted to have in the first place, but you did it to appease the people in your life.

“Oh, look at her. What a good wife, mom, sister, daughter, volunteer, lawn-mower and geez, can she ever cook up a storm.”

When all you wanted was to be known as the artist, the singer, the painter, the author, the teacher, the speaker, the athlete, the writer, the dancer, the comedian, the designer, the actress, the director, the social-expert, the leader, the best lover, the best mother.

But no one knows you as such.

You’ve been pulled to many ways.

Stretched to thin.

Your light is a dim flickering barely able to attract a flea, let alone a moth.

You let your integrity go.

INTEGRITY: KEEPING YOUR WORD TO YOURSELF.

Do you realize?

Do you still not get it?

That EVERYTHING you EVER WANTED is on the other side of INTEGRITY?

That EVERYTHING you EVER WANTED is on the other side of keeping your WORD to YOURSELF.

Not your mom or dad.

Not your church.

Not your peers.

Not your boss.

Not your kids.

TO YOURSELF.

FIRST.

Isn’t that just crazy.

Think about it for a minute.

What if you ate everything you ever said you were or weren’t going to eat?

Made every sales call and follow up for your business you said you were going to make?

Said “I Love You” even if you knew it wasn’t going to be returned?

Do all the things you ever said you were going to do?

Stepped out in faith in all the areas of your life and followed through?

Where would you be right now?

(Side Step: My biggest regret, if I ever had to name one – not following through with my promises to myself, my own personal integrity. This is what I would say to my younger self.)

Let me paint the picture.

You’d be a HEALTHY-FIT-SKINNY-HOT-SEXY-RICH-SUCCESSFUL-LOVING-GENEROUS-POWERHOUSE!

But before you can be that, you need to have integrity with yourself.

Then you can step into being an amazing human in all the other areas – BUT ONLY IF you first honour your word to yourself.

It doesn’t work any other way.

All the other ways will leave you stressed, tired and drained.

All the other ways will kill your spirit and suck the life right out of you and cause DIS-EASE in your body. (Yes, your body will suffer dis-ease when you are not in integrity with your soul #truthbomb What’s your body trying to tell you??)

Why?

Because you aren’t holding yourself to your higher self.

You are placing ALL THE THINGS OF LIFE before honouring your higher self.

You can call this whatever you like, but I call it the stuff God put in you (and it’s there by design on purpose).

You aren’t honouring yourself first, therefore you sure as heck aren’t honouring GOD by doing these non-soul-filling duties placed on you by man, not by GOD.

You know if you aren’t.

You know how you know?

Your soul becomes pickled.

Sour.

You scream inside.

You’ve gotten so damn good at the whole ‘smile and nod’ thing every time you are asked for something that isn’t in alignment with your true purpose.

Physically, you may just want to sleep, or eat, or drink yourself to death (or any other form of shoving down your purpose work, like too much sex or drugs…)

When you are doing your soul’s purpose work, you are excited to do the things, take on the challenges and relish what is coming your way.

The rest?

The rest can disappear or literally go to hell. (Hell being the opposite of God’s will for your life.)

It’s not for you.

It may be for someone else.

But it’s not for you.

So STOP doing the stuff that isn’t in your wheel house, isn’t your calling, isn’t your soul’s desire.

Just STOP.

You can’t live out your purpose work when you are stuck in saying ‘yes’ to all the things that cause your soul to cringe.

Start saying ‘YES’ to you.

This goes for your relationships, your health and of course, your wealth!

Every time you say you are going to do something, DO IT.

Keeping your word to yourself needs to be placed ABOVE ALL.

If you keep letting yourself down you will never….

Live Your Legacy!

xx Lisa

PS. If you want to get access to my weekly blog plus tons of other money goodies, make sure to go to financialbliss.ca and join the fun!

When should you quit?

When do you know it’s time to give up?

I’m going to be BRUTALLY honest with you right now.

I’m not liking life right now.

AT ALL.

I’ve thought about quitting EVERYTHING everyday this year almost! That’s how bad it’s been. That’s how much I’ve been knocked down this year, and to be fair, for the last few years!

My life coach, who I’ve been working with for 7 years, had me FINALLY just scream. (Yes, I probably paid her for an hour of screaming and yelling and no doubt a few grunts!)

Let it all out.

(And I’m still very grateful and thankful for where I’m at, I’m just not liking the moment I’m in because I’m struggling to see if the direction I’m going is where I want to go to accomplish the BIG VISION I have.)

It’s been months, if not years of seeing VERY FEW results!

I mean in almost ALL AREAS OF MY LIFE.

For my iWatch fans, I’m on day 155 of closing all my rings – meaning I’ve worked out for the last 155 days.

STRAIGHT.

I’ve journaled almost everything that’s gone in my mouth.

And barely shifted the scale – on most days, it’s even gone up!

AND

THEN

BUSINESS.

Having on PAPER the best year ever has been MY WORST YEAR EVER.

Too many things going on – and I’m stressed 24/7.

BUT here’s the question.

When do you know it’s time to quit?

When do you feel like burnout is taking over?

Maybe it’s not the right question to be asking.

Maybe it’s more about the quality of the questions we ask ourselves that get us to the results we want.

I’m really in the midst of the mess of these GRANDEUR goals I’ve set for myself.

I have 2 choices.

Give Up.

Claim burnout and say it was too hard.

OR

Press On.

Press Forward.

SUCK UP THE crappy days.

Here’s what I want to leave you with.

Going after BIG DREAMS is NOT all glorious.

It down right sucks.

But I’ll tell you what’s worse….

Staying Average.

Staying Normal.

Staying “The STATUS QUO” will never get you GREAT.

You can have a good life.

But as we know, good is the opposite of GREAT.

I live a good life.

I have a beautiful home in a stunning neighbourhood, 2 beautiful SMART kids, some AMAZING people to help me with my life, a BIG EXTENDED family – that’s almost too big (although I love each and every one of my cousins and aunts & uncles from all 4 sides of the family), a growing business and I’m SUPER healthy.

My life on the outside to viewers is probably pretty great.

I should probably just sit back and enjoy life.

But that was never the goal.

In fact, for those of us stuck here in Middle America with cushy Netflix-&-Wine lives that we live, do you really think this is what ALL THOSE who went before us wanted for us? To sit back and work some job, watch Netflix and sports and then maybe travel a bit and retire till the clock runs out?

I just am saying to you, to me, and to all who know they were built for something greater – to my soul sisters & my soul brothers who want to build empires and change lives and make this world a better place – it’s going to suck way more than 50% of the time.

Plus, time will go on anyway.

You may as well do something great with that time, even if it takes you 25 years to accomplish something GREAT.

(Okay, this is my kick-in-the-butt today as I’m not happy with my results thus far, but I’m building something GREAT – so I’ll keep going.)

Going after something greater when you already have a good life pushes you right out of your good comfy life and into unknown territory.

This unknown territory is not socially acceptable by the bulk of the people.

Going after something great means you start to turn down more dinner parties, girls-nights-out, trips and family events.

People start labeling you.

It’s funny how people always want what you have but don’t want to do the work for it.

Hence LOTTO sales.

That’s why there’s average.

That’s why there’s normal.

That’s why there’s an average salary of $85,000 a year.

That’s what most people strive for or better yet SUCCUMB to AVERAGE.

I dare you to deal with the blows, the garbage, the business-dealings-gone-bad, the investments-gone-bad, for the greater goal, your BIG VISION.

I dare you to be GREAT.

I double dare you to not quit.

To go all in.

To have your own back – because the world WILL NOT HAVE YOUR BACK.

(Side note: I think my optimism in life sometimes doesn’t serve me well because I still believe people are amazing and will always have my back – not that I believe we don’t support each other, it’s just more of a fact that I’ve learned you have to have your back a million times more than you think anyone will have it for you – you get my drift.)

To create something AMAZING.

To renew your vision everyday with FRESH EYES.

You must.

The average won’t do this.

But you were called to do this.

You were called NOT TO QUIT on the BIG VISION.

It’s pushing at you and causing you anxiety when you don’t go all in on your dream.

You can let the little things go and make course corrections along your journey, but you don’t quit on the BIG GOAL (This includes your MONEY goals!)

So, you may have to let out a few screams, cry and make other people unhappy (again, not your problem) because you are now choosing something that is uncomfortable for them and for you – something new.

Well, so be it.

When should you quit on those big dreams, the purpose work?

Never!

Why?

Because your soul knows when you are giving up and giving in and quitting on your purpose work.

The hardest thing to do is honour your soul above all else.

Above all else.

ABOVE ALL ELSE.

You were made for more.

You were made to…

Live Your Legacy!

xx Lisa

PS. Have you checked out my FREE 30-day shift into true abundance? TrueAbundance.ca

I was teaching a Grade 8 Economics Class for Junior Achievement last Friday.

Our first activity of the morning was a goal setting exercise.

Goal Setting.

Simple Goal Setting.

You put your goal in the top of the pyramid broken into 4 sections and reverse engineer your goal back to daily habits that you must take to reach your goal.

Simple.

Right?

It’s much harder than it looks.

First of all you have to know what exactly it is that you want.

So, here is where ummmmm 80-90% of us fail.

We fail to even know what it is we really want.

(It makes financial planning or any planning extremely difficult!)

We would stare at a blank piece of paper all day.

It would probably be easier to fill the “goal” section with what we don’t want, copy someone else’s or some half-assed goal we really don’t care about but think we “should” do.

We have that figured out what we DON’T WANT in spades, but to actually pinpoint the thing we WANT is incredibly difficult.

We end up borrowing other people’s goals all the time.

• run a marathon
• make a million
• save a million
• pay off your mortgage/debt
• lose weight
• get married
• have kids
• have a white picket fence
• a dog?
• etc.etc.etc.

I mean, really, is this what we want?

Fake it till you make it doesn’t work with Other People’s Goals.

The easy part of this goal setting is the reverse engineering and figuring out all the steps we need to take to make our goal a reality – but again, most people don’t know what they want – they don’t know what to put in the top section of their triangle.

And I’m not talking the vague goals – like hitting a beach in retirement.

I’m talking about that picture goal where they could describe the taste, sights, smells, feels of their goal.

Okay, so we get that most people don’t actually know what they want and don’t really have goals.

By the way, I fall into this category often.

It’s realizing once you’ve climbed one mountain you are now at the foot of another mountain and then you need to decide which mountain you are going to climb now.

Sometimes you are just tired of climbing.

Tired of reaching goals.

There’s nothing sexy about goal setting.

GOAL SETTING IS THE HARDEST WORK YOU WILL DO – EVER!

Figuring out how you want to design your life – YOUR LIFE (not the life your parents wanted you to have) is hard work.

It’s definitely something that takes longer than 5-minutes.

Sometimes, for excitement, you keep on the goal hamster wheel, never quite accomplishing the ‘real’ goals because what is on the other side of that goal is change and fear and better to stay in the comfort zone of predictability.

And then when your life goes from not having anything figured out to having your goals totally laid out, figured out and you’ve boarded the train – no turning back – then what?

I had K (not her real name obvi) crying in my grade 8 class.

8:35am.

Friday morning.

Bawling.

I asked her what was wrong and she began to tell me how people will make fun of her if she goes after her goal.

Now, keep in mind that we just started the goal exercise which is supposed to take 5-minutes out of a 4-hour teaching program that I was facilitating.

I haven’t had enough coffee at this point yet….

So, I approached her and saw she had indeed filled out the top of the pyramid (you know, the one goal that most of us haven’t even figured out yet!)

She wanted to be a cartoonist.

My heart crumbled listening to a 14-year-old share with me her passion for wanting to create a cartoon and how she decided not to go after her dream because she cared too much about what other people would think of her, from her family to her peers and friends and how they might make fun of her and think her idea for a cartoon was dumb.

I was at a loss for words.

These are conversations I have daily with my entrepreneur circle of friends at age 40, not a conversation I would expect to have with a 14-year-old.

My heart wasn’t at a loss for words.

My heart just wanted to pour into her 39-years of encouragement.

I rubbed her back and just listened to her cry and share with me all the reasons she couldn’t become a cartoonist.

I tried my best, but what I really want to say to her I can’t say in a 20-second span of time.

So, I encouraged her as best I could to go for it and said a silent prayer for her under my breath – something along the lines of, “Dear God, Bless this dear girl’s dreams. Give her strength and throw me some too while you’re at it!”

Don’t worry, I didn’t tell her that life sucked and that she WOULD in fact be rejected by the world MANY times if she really did go after it!

It’s the horrible secret that successful people never want to tell you about.

Then I wrote this to her.

Maybe it’s not for her, maybe it’s for me today.

Maybe it’s for you.

Maybe one day she’ll read this or maybe my daughters will.

Dear K,

You have had a big dream placed inside of you.

It’s there on purpose. It’s what you are meant to do in this world, in this life.

You have to listen to that dream.

I want to warn you that it won’t be easy.

In fact… it down right sucks like 99% of the time.

You will have sleepless nights on your journey.

You will suffer bouts of depression and anger.

You will swear and curse and yell in frustration.

It’s not happy, it’s not glorious, it’s hard unrewarding work for most of the time.

You can’t give up because your only job is to share your gifts.

Your job is to make your art, create what you are here to create and share it with the world – even when it feels the whole world is laughing, even when it feels the whole world is against you.

When this happens, focus on ‘the one’.

The one person whose life you are going to change, transform and make better because you followed your soul, your dream, your passion.

That one person needs you.

(Even if that one person might be you.)

They need to hear you, see you – they are seeking the encouragement you will give them by living your dream out loud for the world to see.

And yes, there will be haters.

The more you share your gifts, the more people will disagree with it, mock you BUT the glorious side of that is that the more you share your gifts the more you will find your people, your community – more love.

Don’t live your life for someone else. It’s the biggest regret most people have.

Don’t live your life with out letting your dream out into the world – otherwise it festers like a cancer in your body when you do that.

You are rare and special and have a dream that makes you uniquely you.

Your only job is to follow that seed and see where it grows to.

It’s not your dream’s job to make you happy.

It’s not your dream’s job to make you rich.

It’s not the world’s job to cheer you on.

Those things will be by-products at some point.

For right now, it’s your job to tune out the nay-sayers who tell you to quit and get a “real” job, or stop pursuing your silly dreams (side note: WTH is that? A ‘real’ job?! People still say that to me!)

Your job is to stay focused on your art, that big goal ahead of you.

That’s it.

The rest can fall away.

There is no better feeling than feeling proud of the work you do and doing the work you were called to do.

You were called to this.

This is your LEGACY.

Live it.

Love,

xx Lisa