Coach.

Change Vs. Transformation

You really don’t want to change in 2017.

You want TRANSFORMATION!

Transformation of your life, your body, your money, your situation, your relationships, your health, whatever it is.

Change:

the act of becoming different or to make something different

Transformation:

implies a basic change of character with little or no resemblance of the past configuration or structure

Change may initially modify behavior, however, lasting change can not happen without transformation.

Transformation is a change from within. Transformation is a modification in values and beliefs to bring about new actions that will achieve the results you want.

When you are transformed, your life looks nothing like your past.

Here’s a secret. You are not your past, so stop taking your past and throwing it into your future! Stop trying to change things that once were.

It’s a FRESH YEAR, FRESH MONTH, FRESH DAY, FRESH HOUR.

You are allowed to stop letting your past drag you down. Transformation is simple when you stop believing you are your past.

Transformation is the only way to create lasting change.

Are you ready to create lasting FINANCIAL TRANSFORMATION in 2017? 

This is YOUR year to create LASTING change!

Message me for details or email me at [email protected]

Before I say good-bye to 2016, I love to reflect on what this year taught me.

I’m READY for this year to be over! So many of you I know feel the same way. For many it was a ‘bad’ year and for many it was a ‘great’ year.

For me, it was an amazing mess of a year – mess in a good way. Could it have been better? HELL YES! In so many areas and for so many reasons of my life it really could have been better. But what it was was PERFECT. (Reflecting on that comes from a heart of gratefulness for the lessons taught from the good, bad & ugly this year.) I am so excited to see what 2017 brings, but first a reflection on 2016.

What 2016 Taught Me:

• That I have my back, and I can depend on me. Building the relationship with myself to be strong. Loving my own company. Saying I will do something and following through with it.
• That happiness is only based on my thoughts and it is not anyone else’s responsibility on this planet to make me happy – only my job.
• That I need to throw out the instruction manual for other people on how they act and behave and love them regardless how they act or what they choose for their life. It’s their life. Other people will act how they choose. I act how I choose. Taking the shoulds and expectation out of the equation and acting from love in all situations (this is going to be a life long one to work on….)
• That everything I choose to believe came true. I manifested the good, bad & ugly that my thoughts contained. Now, I need to just dream bigger and clearer and go out and reach those goals. Realizing that you are more powerful than you choose to believe is mind blowing.
• Going deeper into watching my thoughts and guarding them very carefully, and choosing what is right for me instead of following what everybody else is doing.
• Trusting my gut and my heart when it comes to making decisions that are best for my body, health, heart, mind and soul.
• Learning not to play small to fit in. Shine and SHINE BRIGHT, and not give a flying F what people thing about me – because they gonna think anyways, and what they think doesn’t matter to me anyways. What people think of me and you doesn’t matter. Learning that the only thing I think about myself is what matters. We will ALL have haters in our lives and that’s okay.
• I learned that writing a book is 10% of the work and marketing it is 90%. I learned the same is true for any product, event or service you sell.
• I learned that people just want to know that you care and they just want to be heard and acknowledged (I already knew this, however, it’s always a good thing to discover and re-learn.)

As I am writing out diligently my plans for 2017, I write with certainty that they will come true. I believe these goals will come true, and that belief shapes my thoughts about these things that I have planned. My actions will come from my thoughts and I will end up with the result I want from those actions.

It’s written in every great manuscript that has graced this earth since the beginning of time. It all starts with a belief and a thought – absolutely EVERYTHING in your life is created that way.

So here is what I offer you as you are doing your year-end review and goal setting and dreaming for 2017 and how you want your life to look:

• If there is something you don’t want in your life, change your thought about it.
• If there is a person you are having a hard time with or they challenge you, then change your thoughts about them, and see what happens.
• If there is a habit you don’t want in your life, then change your thought about that habit and see magic unfold as you create the ideal life you want.
• If there is a goal you feel is too hard and you will never reach it, then change your thoughts to reflect that it is easy to attain, or even say the statement, “I’m on my way to believing that I can accomplish X.”

Once you change your thoughts on these things, then you will be on your way to believing these things, action will follow and then you will have the result you want.

Your year will be what you make it to be – so make it everything you’ve ever dreamed. What’s the use in holding back? What does playing the role of living small do for anyone? Least of all you?

Be the best you this year, learn to have your own back, blow your own damn mind and live with fervor in 2017!

CHEERS to 2017!!

PS. Did you give your family the BEST GIFT this year? Did you spend the 1-2 hours to get your will completed, your estate planned, your finances in order?  If you still need help with this or if you want to get your financial butt organized for 2017, I have some great options available to help you do so!

Check out:

Wealth Spa

Money Makeover Online Course

December/January Money Coaching Packages

No one ever talks about what the H-E-DoubleHockeySticks happens after you reach your goals! We talk always about reaching our goals, and setting them, but what about after you actually accomplish them? Do you just roll over and die?

This is for anyone who has ever felt like they are in a constant state of “trying” to achieve their goals, setting new ones before finishing old ones, struggling in frustration. I have been on this hamster wheel for the last 16 years, and this year I learned the MIND-BLOWING SECRET!

Here’s the crazy part about reaching your goals. Once you have reached them, you then need to go through the whole process again and figure out what you want all over again, or push further, harder, deeper into what you really want your life to look like.

MARK MY WORDS MY LOVE BUGS!

Accomplishing goals once you have set them out for yourself is actually the easy part. The hard part is in being specific and actually figuring out WHAT THE HECK YOU WANT FROM YOUR LIFE!

Deep down we all know that we can achieve all our goals and that scares us. As my fav money guru, Napoleon Hill says, “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve!”

People say fear hold us back from going out and accomplishing our goals and dreams. But I think it’s that we just really haven’t figured out what the f*** we want! Once you do, the rest is action, mechanics, ‘the how’, the part that is left up to God. All we needed to do was decide and believe. We don’t even get that far sometimes or if we do, we play too small – we have cute baby dreams and even some of those we don’t really believe in!

I sit with clients all the time that don’t know what they want. They get swept up in the day-to-day and don’t make time to make their dreams a reality in their life.

This is not how I want to go out! No bloody way. (I’ve been listening to too many British podcasts lately!)

And I am DAMN SURE you don’t want to go out that way. Not really. You know deep down you are here for a reason, a purpose, and you may be sitting there and haven’t quite articulated it.

I think it’s time you articulated what you want from life. I’m A FIRM BELIEVER that YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL! You can have the family, romance, business, dream job, travel, experiences that you want to have without sacrificing you and your wants. If I didn’t believe this I probably would have given up LONG ago!

I think being FEARLESS is a bad thing. Bad word. Who wants to live without FEAR?! I sure don’t. People say “BE FEARLESS”, but you need fear! If you have no fear in your life then you have become complacent. You are comfortable. Comfort is not a place of growth. It’s stagnant. It’s ultimately death…. think about it. You are either growing or you are dying – which way are you headed? I think Tony Robbins always says that, sorry Lou Holtz! (Sometimes, okay most times, I have SOOOOO many gurus in my head, I’m not sure which one said what!)

Fear needs to be present. Fear needs to come along as your passenger, just don’t let it do the driving, as Elizabeth Gilbert says in my fav book, Big Magic (MUST READ!) You need to have that fear – just don’t let it stop you. I really do try to live by the motto, DO ONE THING EVERYDAY THAT SCARES YOU!

There are 2 kinds of people in the world.

The people that don’t even bothering setting goals and let life happen to them. I call them happy wanderers. These people are content with the status-quo. They seem to walk around the planet with not a care in the world. This isn’t me – if you haven’t figured that out yet! Hey, by the way, people like me are sometimes jealous of the happy wanderers – they seem so carefree and oblivious to what is going on in the world – by choice.

Then there are the people who are a cause in the world – by choice. They go make things happen. Their brains are always on. They are always looking at ways of expanding and how they can grow and help the world. They set goals, reach them, or come close to reaching them, and now they are on a new trajectory and need to re-establish new goals and keep leaning in and pushing forward.

I did reach many of the goals I set out for myself in 2016, and in 2017, and I’m back to square one it feels like. NOW WHAT?!

So I find myself sitting here as a new author, well into my blog, podcast, website and branding all done (finally 3.5 years later!) and wondering (once again) where I am going with all of this. I see the big picture at the back end, just not what’s from here to there.

FRUSTRATION.

I’m daily in tears. Usually around 4pm when I think my world is falling apart. I FEEL things may not be working out as planned or originally hoped for. That’s a feeling by the way, not what is actually going on. Feelings FEEL real to us, however, nothing that we can’t change with our thoughts.

These are the thoughts I have had. I want to pull my book off the shelf (the online shelf) and disappear it, even though it just came out. I want to quit everything and go get a 9-5 so my life will be easy. I want to simplify my life to be simple.

Then about 2 seconds into these thoughts, I laugh. I do. I will be crying and laughing at the same time. Maybe I just needed an emotional release – because let’s face it. I would last about 2 seconds at a day job before they’d fire the f*** out of me! Seriously, I’m about as employable as a squirrel.

I get into overwhelm. I feel like quitting my WHOLE life at times. I know other people feel the same way. My trick is that my moments of desperation, depression only last a few minutes, because I now have the tools to pull myself out of that funk, that I didn’t have years ago.

MINDSET IS KEY FOR ALL YOU GO-GETTERS & GOAL SETTERS! I’m writing my reality into existence. (PS my dear, this is how it starts! Daily discipline of writing out your goals and plans – if you don’t do your daily mindset work, you lost the game before you even begun! Read chapter 1 in my book. Mindset is KEY! And I can back this up with about 1000 other books and the Bible too my friends!)

FYI – I had a major breakthrough a few months back! One of my core beliefs is that I believe to be successful you need to work hard and struggle. The truth is you don’t need to. Whatever beliefs you have around making money or reaching your goals could be what is holding you back. You may need to re-program the hardwiring in your brain to think thoughts like, “It’s easy to reach my goals. It’s easy to make money. It’s easy to ….” Then slowly over time begin to BELIEVE your thoughts.

Why do we all make life such a struggle on top of the struggle? Why do we worry? Why do we let negative self-talk rule our day?

Just think that if it can be as easy as saying it will be that easy, then it will be easy. What if that was all it took? 

Thoughts produce your actions which create your reality. (PS – THAT IS THE MIND-BLOWING SECRET!)

Have a great week beautiful people!

TIME FOR YOUR FINANCIAL PAP!?!

Wha-What?!? Yup, you heard me right, this is all about your financial PAP!

Here’s the TRUTH ladies! Listen up!

YOU’D RATHER HAVE YOUR LEGS SPREAD FOR THE DOCTOR THAN TO SHARE THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR FINANCIAL SITUATION WITH ANYONE!

YUP! That’s how she rolls! And trust me, after having babies myself, most of us know that this is true. Spreading those legs for the doc is WAY easier than having to admit your debt situation, or having to share what could potentially be some ugly details of your financial life.

So TODAY, I’m giving you a FINANCIAL PAP! (And yes, I know I’m not as hot as Dr. McDreamy in the photo – deal with it!)

My diagnosis of your FINANCIAL PAP is this:

YOUR FINANCIAL PLAN SUCKS!

YUP AGAIN! You heard me right! Your financial plan sucks because YOU DON’T HAVE ONE!

And if you have one, is it outdated and something you haven’t looked at in a million years? Then you basically don’t have a financial plan either!

To cut straight through the BS,  you and I BOTH know that you should have a financial plan of some sort. Right?! (You must’ve been taught that at some point in your life. If you weren’t taught that, then I’m teaching you now –  YOU NEED A FINANCIAL PLAN.)

Here is WHY MOST PEOPLE DON’T HAVE A FINANCIAL PLAN…..

It may be because they don’t know how to go about getting one, or they don’t have a financial planner. They obviously haven’t looked hard enough or Googled it because there are financial plans and financial planners in almost every strip mall in North America! Okay, so that excuse flies about as well as pigs do.

Here is THE REAL REASON WHY I THINK MOST PEOPLE DON’T HAVE A FINANCIAL PLAN….

It’s because PEOPLE ARE TOO DARN EMBARRASSED ABOUT THEIR FINANCIAL SITUATION TO ADMIT THEIR SHAMEFUL DIRTY FINANCIAL LAUNDRY TO ANYONE OR MAYBE EVEN THEMSELVES! OR BECA– USE THEY DON’T UNDERSTAND OR KNOW WHERE THEIR MONEY IS AND ARE EMBARRASSED THAT THEY HAVEN’T BEEN KEEPING TRACK!

RIGHT?!?! Did this just resonate with most of you?! Come on… be honest with yourself! Do you really have a plan for your money? For your life?

You know how I know it’s true? Because client always tell me HALF TRUTHS! It’s amazing how many half truths I can figure out… it’s like my kids getting caught in a lie.

Do you think your financial advisor was born yesterday?? It’s like me telling my dentist that I floss everyday…. 

Watch this video for fun.. it cracks me up every time and illustrates my whole point on why your financial plan sucks!

CAUTION: There is inappropriate language right at the very end of the video.

CAUTION: There is inappropriate language right at the very end of the video.

Now you know my STRUGGLE as a financial planner first hand. This is honestly what it is like! Okay, maybe not that dramatic. 🙂

MY POINT REMAINS LADIES, I want to get you a FINANCIAL PLAN as PAINLESS AS POSSIBLE – without having to spread your legs or share all your gory financial details with your financial advisor.

(Although, if you do have a financial plan, or actually tell the truth to your financial planner, then KUDOS to YOU! This is a small percentage of people that actually work on their financial plans with their advisors! The rest of us are usually on the HOPE & A PRAYER financial strategy!)

INTRODUCING: THE MONEY MAKEOVER ONLINE COURSE!

I’ve just released an online course for YOU to help you CREATE YOUR FINANCIAL PLAN from the comfort of your LULU’s with a glass of wine in hand!

And let me tell you that this makeover is one that will not only make your wallet happy but also your mind, body & spirit! Trust me on this!

Right now, I am offering this course to my community, family & friends for an early bird special. This 6-week course will be $997 in 2017. Right now, for my BETA testers, I am offering it for the next few weeks for $297! I charge $1,500 – $3,000 for Financial Plans and Cash Flow Plans for clients and so do my peers – to put this price in perspective- you are getting way more than just a financial plan with this course! This gives you an opportunity to work through and organize and cover your ASSets in a fun way while sitting in the comfort of your home with a glass of wine! Could there be anything better? I will also offer 2 monthly payments of $150 right now to get you started! (That’s better – message me for details on the 2-month payment option at [email protected])

And the best part……

**** NO BRA NEEDED ****

Get 2017 off to a GREAT START!

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE & see a sneak-peek inside the members area! SAY GOOD-BYE to PAINFUL FINANCIAL PAPs!

My Money Truth

Here’s the thing… I love MONEY! And not in the gross way… (Yes, there is a gross way… similar to the nerdy boy at school having a big crush on you and fantasizing about kissing you with big duck lips … Ya, that’s just gross… boys… ewwww….yuck…)

This is the thing I’m going to DRIVE HOME TODAY!

YOU ARE IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR MONEY! BOOM! (You had no idea right?!)

And like any relationship, our money needs some TLC! It also loves being told where to go – unlike husbands and children.

This is probably what happened to you growing up: 

• You were told money is dirty and not to touch it.
• You were told money doesn’t grow on trees.
• You were told money is the root of all evil.
• You were told that having lots of money was greedy.
• You were told rich people were crooks.
• You were told there’s not enough money.
• You were or are plagued with guilt deep down for wanting more money.

These are LIMITING MONEY BELIEFS!

They don’t serve you and holding on to these beliefs will definitely not bring you the prosperity you deserve!

So, yes, I DO LOVE MONEY!

It’s not my god or something I obsess about 24-7, but understanding I have a relationship with it, and I need it to function and accomplish my goals in life, so I SEND MY MONEY LOVE. (PS. It’s not a greedy LOVE, it is truly a respecting appreciative LOVE for my money! There is a difference.)

I also PAY ATTENTION to my money. This is something I know SO MANY PEOPLE DON’T do, and it doesn’t take a financial planner to figure that out. Most people I know don’t even know how to calculate their net worth or know how much money they have in their bank accounts. I think it’s part not knowing how do this stuff, and part wanting to turn a blind eye to it and NOT FACE THE MUSIC. Hey, I get it, BLISS sometimes is looking the other way and not having to deal with the SHIT in your life. (Been there, done that! Facing shit SUCKS!)

So there my people, I’m telling it like it is today.

1. Acknowledge you have a relationship with money.
2. Learn to LOVE your money and it will LOVE you back! (This I promise!)
3. Acknowledge your limiting money beliefs.
4. Learn how to get rid of your limiting money beliefs by creating new beliefs.
5. Take control back and TELL YOUR MONEY WHERE TO GO!

I don’t think the podcast/video I did on this yesterday night was this ranty. I used an old shoe as a limiting money belief and a new shoe as the belief you want to have. Out with the old!

So listen up my friends!

IT’S OKAY TO WANT MORE MONEY!

If you want to get more on this and learn the secret (not so secret!) info, then you need to join my NEW FREE Facebook group called STRUT! In there you will get awesome free mini-trainings and resources to help you on your money journey!

If you are logged into your facebook account, CLICK HERE!

It’s time to find your MONEY TRUTHS!

Love & Abundance,

Lisa xoxo

Acres of Diamonds is a story I shared with the women at my conference last weekend. It’s one of my favourites, and when I asked if anyone heard it – no one did. So I knew I had to share this story on my blog.

Acres of Diamonds by Earl Nightingale

The Acres of Diamonds story “a true one” is told of an African farmer who heard tales about other farmers who had made millions by discovering diamond mines. These tales so excited the farmer that he could hardly wait to sell his farm and go prospecting for diamonds himself. He sold the farm and spent the rest of his life wandering the African continent searching unsuccessfully for the gleaming gems that brought such high prices on the markets of the world. Finally, worn out and in a fit of despondency, he threw himself into a river and drowned.

Meanwhile, the man who had bought his farm happened to be crossing the small stream on the property one day, when suddenly there was a bright flash of blue and red light from the stream bottom. He bent down and picked up a stone. It was a good-sized stone, and admiring it, he brought it home and put it on his fireplace mantel as an interesting curiosity.

Several weeks later a visitor picked up the stone, looked closely at it, hefted it in his hand, and nearly fainted. He asked the farmer if he knew what he’d found. When the farmer said, no, that he thought it was a piece of crystal, the visitor told him he had found one of the largest diamonds ever discovered. The farmer had trouble believing that. He told the man that his creek was full of such stones, not all as large as the one on the mantel, but sprinkled generously throughout the creek bottom.

The farm the first farmer had sold, so that he might find a diamond mine, turned out to be one of the most productive diamond mines on the entire African continent.The first farmer had owned, free and clear … acres of diamonds. But he had sold them for practically nothing, in order to look for them elsewhere. The moral is clear: If the first farmer had only taken the time to study and prepare himself to learn what diamonds looked like in their rough state, and to thoroughly explore the property he had before looking elsewhere, all of his wildest dreams would have come true.

The thing about this story that has so profoundly affected millions of people is the idea that each of us is, at this very moment, standing in the middle of our own acres of diamonds. If we had only had the wisdom and patience to intelligently and effectively explore the work in which we’re now engaged, to explore ourselves, we would most likely find the riches we seek, whether they be financial or intangible or both.

Before you go running off to what you think are greener pastures, make sure that your own is not just as green or perhaps even greener. It has been said that if the other guy’s pasture appears to be greener than ours, it’s quite possible that it’s getting better care. Besides, while you’re looking at other pastures, other people are looking at yours.

Here’s the deal my beautiful friends!

Your desires weren’t laid on your heart randomly – they were placed there. They are your desires for a reason. Whatever it is that you desire, follow that nudge! Those nudges and desires are the diamonds you were given.

These last 2 weeks I have been living my dream life. I don’t say this lightly. It’s taken me years of hard consistent work, and also, refining and fine tuning my dreams and most importantly gaining confidence to go out and live those dreams. Taking the “diamonds” that I had all along and bring them out to shine.

Let me tell you how my last 2 weeks went in a nutshell:

• invited on a private trip & tour of Mont Tremblant, QC through work
• went to Holt Renfrew and bought my first pair of Louboutin’s, which were a gift for my Book Launch
• held my book for the first time in my hands
• spoke at a 5-star resort to an amazing group of women on finding your financial bliss
• went running in the mountains and countryside in the crisp sparkling fall air
• read, cleaned, shopped, played, cuddled with my family
• get to celebrate my book with 100 of my most favorite people on the planet at one of my fav chic restaurants
• signed and sold my book to women from all over Alberta
• inspired people to follow and take action on their dreams

By the way, none of this is a fluke. It’s all by design and all dreamed of. I’m blessed and grateful, and I made choices and decisions to make this happen.

(On a side note, not everything went perfect, and I still went through a RANGE of emotions these last 2-weeks. So even with living your dream life, there is still shit that happens. It’s never perfect, and yet it’s so perfect!)

Remember, first, you must dream.

Then second, you must envision, imagine, and paint the picture in your head of the life you want, then do that every day.

Then you gotta journal the crap outta it and be as specific as you can be. Write and re-write your life into reality. Your words will become your reality.****THIS IS THE REAL SECRET TO ACHIEVING ANYTHING YOU WANT!****

Anything you believe you can achieve. No dream is too silly. No dream is too grand.

You know why it’s your responsibility to do this?

Because by living your dream, you inspire others to live theirs. Period.  

So go buy those dream shoes, go make your art, go make a million dollars, go blow your own mind. Then share it! Share it with everyone you meet!

You will make this world a better place! You better believe it!

So it happened yesterday! I saw & held my book in my hand for the first time. (If you missed the facebook video, click here! Although, I’m sure everyone saw it!)

16 Years ago this dream was planted in my head when an old-short-fat-bald man with a small Hitler-like-mustache stood in front of the room and with all the conviction in the world said that “everyone has a great book inside of them.” It was there that the idea was born to write a book. I was 21.

2 years prior to that, at age 19, I never would have wanted to write a book. Not on my radar at all during my teens. I had to beg my English professor at Mount Royal to give me a passing grade and vowed to her that I would never write again, and told her I just needed to get out of this class because (it sucked! lol) it was mandatory to take English 101 for all degrees. I hope when I write I make complete sentences full of those adjectives and verby things. I also hated the business communications class I had to take on how to formalize a business letter, but I’m a good at faking stuff like that.

POKE MY EYES OUT!

Now, I know why I absolutely dreaded English all those years, even back in High School.

It’s so simple.

It’s because I wasn’t engaged. I wasn’t excited about the topic. Nothing was resonating with me.

A business letter rarely resonates with someone. It’s too formal. It doesn’t hit the heart, and it’s just there to sell you something. (Hmmm…  total AHA moment as I’m writing this… Pam, if you are reading this, which you are because I practically force you to read all my blogs, let’s stop our letter campaign and do something else instead! {Pam’s my amazing right-hand, if you didn’t know! She keeps me on the ball!})

Let’s be real for a moment; business letters are so 1960’s!

Here’s the other thing. You can’t sell something you don’t believe in!

You can’t write something to someone unless you believe it, unless it comes from the heart! Otherwise, your personal bull-shit detector goes off internally and you procrastinate because you really don’t want to write that letter, write that book if it’s not coming from a place of authenticity or a place of inspiration.

This is why I didn’t pass English, not because I can’t write, but because at the time I didn’t want to spend my time and energy writing about something that didn’t stir me deep inside and bring me to life.

Years went by. I figured out in 2010 that I didn’t know what I believed in. I had listened to everyone’s theories and every peanut gallery in my life and didn’t really stand for anything myself. I was a people-pleaser extraordinaire! (You can read that blog here. That was a good post on how to fly!)

I finally said enough is enough. I’m a smart girl, grew up, took responsibility for everything, and decided to share my message, no matter how many people disagreed with my view or my ideas.

Then I wrote this book. I totally believe in what I wrote, and sure there are probably a million things I’d change (it’s never perfect!), but overall, my message still stands.

And I realized that even the people that disagree with me (by the way that’s everyone in the world that has different opinions than me!) are still inspired by the fact I wrote a book. I’ve had wonderful old men come up to me and with all the love in the world congratulate me on writing a book, and saying that they wish they did. I tell them that they still have time and that everyone should write a book.

I love that I inspired another human being to find their voice and spark their possibility in the world.

The old men are not my target market at all, because my book is for women for starters, but to have these moments to share and inspire another soul you cross paths with in this world is worth it all! And no one even cares if my book is total shit or not. (It’s not by the way, MY BOOK FREAKIN’ ROCKS!)

So that’s my story for today.

Here I am. Finally meeting my book for the first time and sending it out into the world with massive amounts of LOVE and praying it reaches the shining women in the world that it needs to reach to take one step or one strut closer to a better world. That’s what it’s all about.

Keep writing. Keep on going trekking through the daily shit. Keep inspiring others to be their best. Keep serving with your heart. Keep loving on all the people in your life. And it will be one HELL OF A GOOD LIFE!!

PS!!  You can totally buy my book now!!  YAY!!

Best Price Hardcover at:  http://www.friesenpress.com/bookstore/title/119734000027514059/Lisa-Elle-Strut

Buy Paperback at Amazon or Friesen Press Book Store

Buy E-Book at Amazon, Google Play, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo, Nook, etc.  Just search STRUT or LISA ELLE!

Also, if you LOVE my book, please leave a review!

Or if you want a signed copy and you are in Calgary, Alberta on October 27, then come to my book launch! Details at ellementsgroup.com/strut!

This face. This girl. This woman. This is the face of fear.

You don’t believe me right?

I look confident. I may even look like I have it all together. But I have a dark crazy passenger (not Dexter style – thankfully!)

I have been driving around with this mean crazy chick sitting in the back seat of my car.

She comes and goes sometimes. Once, she even took me for a ride. But that was years ago. I’ve learned my lesson – you never let that crazy B anywhere near the steering wheel of your car, especially if you want it back in one piece.

You’ve driven with her too.

Her name is: FEAR. I call her Aunt F. (She’s that obnoxious aunt you just can’t get rid of that boisterously comments on EVERYTHING you’ve ever done, are doing or plan to do!)

I got this analogy from Big Magic (best book ever!) by Elizabeth Gilbert – if you haven’t read it, read it.

Aunt F has been riding around with me and yesterday she even jumped over the seat and tried to take control of the car while I was driving. She’s bat sh*t crazy!

Let me tell you why Aunt F has made her appearance.

I have 2 major fears in my life right now.

Fear #1

I’m having my first surgery EVER next week. (OK – to be totally truthful, I did once have a mishap while cooking dinner with chicken and knife, which resulted in a minor hand surgery of a bunch of stitches.)

To be honest, I’m totally scared of being “put under” and afraid I’m not going to wake up from the anesthesia. Plus, I’m having an organ removed. Well, kinda. I’m having 2 cysts on my ovaries removed and an ovary removed, which is fine – I don’t need it anymore anyways (been there, done that, & still paying for them!)

Here’s the thing. I totally pride myself on my health. I take no medications. I’m super healthy for the most part. This is the unknown for me. Yes, logic says that I will be okay. But things like what if the paperwork gets messed up and they take out the wrong organ? These are the kinds of things going through my head.

Total Fear.

Fear #2

My book is coming out in a few weeks. I’ve been working towards this for years. And yes, there are moments of extreme excitement, but then Aunt F comes flying in and wrecks my party.

I’m having a book launch, which I am now likening to a wedding. My wedding. It’s all my family, friends, but worse. It will include the media and my business mentors and peers. Terrifying.

Then here’s the kicker. There’s a good chance these people may read my book!

That’s even more terrifying. Here’s why:

I think when you write you are putting yourself out there, even if you write fiction. You are allowing another human being into your mind, your deep thoughts, your convictions, your world. And that’s intimate. It can feel more intimate than SEX! Bearing your soul, connecting with another on a soul level is the most intimate of things, and my book is that. After all, it’s me. I’m putting myself out there in a big way for the world to see (if they so desire for $15.99!)

So now you know I’m a big scaredy cat. I’m scared. I’m terrified. 

However, I’ve learned never to let FEAR take over the wheel.

I take her for a ride with me every time. I drag her a$$ around with me. That’s how I know I’m on the right track, that I’m headed in the right direction.

If what I’m doing is VANILLA and BORING then I’m not doing my job right. I’m coasting.

Because I have a purpose, and passion that surrounds that purpose, I refuse to coast.

Tell Aunt F to take a back seat. She’s here for life.

Just do what I do to any loud obnoxious back-seat passengers – I shut them up with a drive-thru happy meal and a kids toy. That should keep her quiet for a few minutes so you can drive and get to your destination in one piece.

Your backseat passengers should never have a say in where your car is going. So don’t let her tell you where to go or worse, let her stop your car!

THIS IS WHAT GETS YOU PAST FEAR:

REF– USE TO LET YOUR BULLSHIT* BE BIGGER THAN YOUR DREAMS!

*Bullshit is Aunt F.  It’s the fear. It’s the voice in your head that says you aren’t worthy, you aren’t good enough, you suck, you can’t do this, you will never be able to do that.

THIS is what I do.

Dream.

Set the goal.

One foot in front of the other.

Arrive at destination.

Repeat. 

So I raise my coffee this morning to Aunt F: here’s to rocking out my surgery next week, super fast recovery, and the best book launch ever! CHEERS!

Giving and receiving. Seems simple right?!

Do you feel like you’re a fabulous giver? You could give the shirt off your back (as long as you were wearing your good bra that day), you always sign up for volunteering and you are ready to help any charity that comes along. Then you are a graceful giver.

Have you given much thought to how you receive? Are you a graceful receiver, or does the act of receiving strike a funny chord deep-down with you and make you feel kinda unworthy or uncomfortable inside?

Receiving of gifts, compliments and money are 3 areas that women struggle with.

Recently, I was given a compliment by 2 women I really admire and respect. They had given me a compliment on my gift as a speaker, and how I was great in front of the camera. THIS MADE ME CRAZY! I hate myself in video. Still photography – no problem – they can touch that crap up! But video: sees all, hears all, and NO MAGIC TOUCHUPS (well, there’s no iPhone app for that yet!). I gave an awkward laugh, and turned around immediately, walked physically away from these women, and changed the subject completely. They both stopped me and made me come back and acknowledge the compliment. Seriously, they called me out on my receiving crap! I’m so grateful they did! I felt completely unworthy of that compliment at the time.

I also feel unworthy when people compliment my writing. I feel I have no special gift in this area, and probably because I got a D in College English (and struggled in English all through elementary and high school!) and begged the professor to pass me so I could get on with life, vowing I would never write. She agreed and so did I. It seemed like a fair deal. I feel because I never took a writing class that I’m not worthy of being called a writer. Now, I know that’s bull – but it’s also taken a good few years to grow into those shoes! I’m finally starting to receive compliments on my writing.

When I compliment other women on their gifts and strengths, I now notice them shy away – be it through body language or words – too many times to count. Why is it so hard for us as women to really acknowledge our strengths and gifts when they are pointed out to us?

Our Canadian roots have trained us to be GIVERS! Look around, do you think it’s a fluke we live in a such a wonderful country? We give. We help. We share. We’ve been taught, and we’ve been taught well from our ancestors. We have this whole giving thing down pat for the most part (yes, I know we can always give more, but giving isn’t a foreign concept to most of us!)

Receiving is part of the giving/receiving equation. As far equations go, it is required both sides of the equal sign are, well, equal. 

The natural laws of the universe, and the Bible for that matter, do say that you reap what you sow. The compliments you give you will get in return. Maybe not right away, but you will. The loving gifts you sow you do reap at different points in time. Law of attraction isn’t just for material things. All things fit into the ebb and flow of giving and receiving.

What you put out into the universe does come back to you like a boomerang.

Why are we as women such martyrs when it comes to receiving? Why do we always have to be the givers?

I know it feels good to give.

I know it is good to give.

I know you are a pro-giver.

I’m not saying don’t give.

Here’s the thing – when you don’t receive or you don’t know how to receive gifts well: You take the joy away from the giver!

Have you ever given a physical gift and then had someone reject it for whatever reason? Doesn’t that feel crappy? You feel like a failure in so many ways!

Same goes with compliments and money. Receive it!

When you receive you are giving the gift of JOY to the giver!

I know I have a HARD time receiving money. FYI – This is not good for business – like it took a brain surgeon to figure that out! I want to do everything for FREE! SO RIDICULOUS, right! Deep down I do want to help everyone, and that’s good, however, I also know, I can help more people once I can nail down this whole receiving thing! 😉

Massive MONEY BLOCK for me. Maybe you know what I mean. You always want to make sure you’re the giver, not the taker. That you are giving more value than you are receiving back. That people will speak of you as such an amazing giver, and not as some business or person that “ripped” you off. (There comes my old friend “people-pleaser” again – I thought he went on a permanent vacation in Tahiti….guess not….) I would HATE to be a person that only takes or that people think is greedy or that “ripped” someone off! However, I take it to the extreme. It’s okay to still make money and not “rip” people off, or get money in exchange for the value you are providing.  (That last sentence is for all my fellow women entrepreneurs – cause I know I ain’t alone on this one!)

Where do you struggle with receiving? Do you feel unworthy to receive over and above your basic necessities of life? Do you feel you have to work hard and earn everything yourself? Is receiving of gifts, money or compliments hard for you?

You are WORTHY OF ABUNDANCE! I’m speaking that into your life my friend! Say it again, say it out loud, shout it out:

I AM WORTHY OF ABUNDANCE, COMPLIMENTS & GIFTS!

BOTTOM LINE: Next time you receive, say “Thank-you, I receive that.” and pause a moment to really let that gift or compliment sink in. Remember that by receiving you give the gift of JOY to the giver of your gift!

I was privileged and honoured to attend my parents 40th Wedding Anniversary Celebration on the weekend. Congrats Mom & Dad!

As I’m sure my mom would tell you, passion goes many more times than it comes in a 40-year marriage.

It seems nowadays everyone is so worried & consumed with finding their passion, or losing their passion for something. I really think our society has passion fear.

I think that fear can be overcome by purpose.

Here’s the truth about passion.

It’s not a 24-7 feeling. Maybe when you are first in love, start a new project, or the first day of school.

But then……

It fades.

I don’t care who you are. Where you’re from. How many jumping jacks you can do in a row. You will inevitably lose your passion for your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, your kids, your job, your money, your house, your car, and even your favorite houndstooth handbag with matching shoes! (GASP!)

I’d rather have purpose.

With purpose, passion can float into and out of your life freely. However, I don’t think it works the other way around. I’m not sure you can really have passion without purpose. I think purpose is the catalyst, platform or stage that passion requires to come in, do its dance and then exit stage left.

“Purpose is the platform that passion requires before it can showcase its dance to the world.” ~ Lisa Elle (You can quote that – I just made it up!)

Passion needs to know it has a stage to dance on.  It needs your purpose stage to showcase its awesomeness, because, let’s face it – passion is super awesome and contagious! Purpose can be dry and boring and all that “save the world” stuff that can get overwhelming at times.

Passion floats along dancing with other emotions as well. I would say passion is an emotion (like happiness or sadness), and like other emotions very much dependent on our circumstances, thoughts and feelings.

Here’s the thing about purpose.

When you have purpose, a mission, a vision, something bigger than yourself, tenacity will show up. You will be determined, persistent, and persevering in your actions. (PS. This is kinda the boring stuff I was talking about. Being consistent, persistent, and persevering is NOT exciting stuff!)

When you have purpose, you have something so much bigger going on in your life that you begin to throw emotion aside, put on your big girl panties, because you know work needs to get done.

When you have purpose, although resistance shows up in her mysterious forms wanting your attention, you don’t give it to her, because you know the work is great and needs to be done.

I woke up at 4:54 today. I want to be in bed. I went to pour cream in my coffee and it was rotten. If you know me, this makes me a miserable cranky person. I want to quit this day already 30 minutes into it! I feel my inner monologue this morning needs a bitch slap! (Maybe a bit harsh, but I’m telling you I’m down right Negative Nelly!)

So, I have no PASSION at the moment for this crap. Today, I already know I have 3 client fires to put out. I have a mound of emails I can’t wait to return. I have payroll to do and back-to-school stuff to figure out. I am in the final week of publishing my book and fine-tooth-comb edits. And blah, blah…..  You get my point. Life is happening. I have no passion for it at the moment.

However, I do have a purpose.

This purpose reminds me that what I’m doing matters in the world. Launching my book, my online course and Wealth Spa™  (yes, I trademarked Wealth Spa™!) in the next few months gets me excited and full of passion, but when the going gets hard, the passion dissipates faster than the inside icing of an Oreo. This purpose reminds me that I have people who depend on me, a message within me and a great responsibility to that message to share with the world.

With purpose, you can have a successful marriage if you are both aligned in that purpose. You can have a company that weathers the ups and downs of any market. Purpose as a parent means you can stand another day in the trenches. Purpose in your relationships, your community, in what you bring to the world. Purpose with your money and being a steward over the things you are blessed with. Purpose does all of this and more.

Purpose is our lifeline.

With purpose, you create a space and in that space hold what is bigger than yourself out there. You create something that others want to stand by and champion and cheer on. With purpose, I believe you create your passion.

So, if you aren’t “feeling” passionate about anything at the moment it’s okay! I repeat. It’s okay to feel you have no passion for something. Focus on your purpose in those moments.

When I think about my purpose a feeling of pride breaks out and I sing and dance and I want to share my overflow with the world. Passion is the freakin’-lick-all-the-icing-off JOY of life.

BOTTOM LINE: Passion will come when you have your purpose in life clearly defined. Passion needs purpose. Purpose doesn’t need passion. Purpose can get along just fine without passion, but passion is the icing of life! Find your purpose and your passion will ooze right out of you!