Everything will be OK (Part 3)

‘Keep giving me hope for a better day
Keep giving me love to find a way
Through this heaviness I feel
I just need someone to say, everything’s okay’

– Lenka –

After Parts 1 and 2 to this series, welcome to Part 3.

. . . . So, even though I was always earning, generally, whatever I earned, I spent. So I had a break even approach. And this approach fell down for me this year, because I didn’t earn, and therefore I had nothing to spend. A perfect way (although it didn’t seem so at the time) to learn that I needed to find a better way of managing money.

And during these last 7 months I read a fantastic book that has changed my life. Secrets of the Millionnaire Mind – Think Rich to Get Rich by T.Harv Eker is a book about money with a  whole bunch of awesome spiritual messages and philosophies trojan horsed into it. And despite its title, it’s a book as much about how to get your mindset in the right place in order to become a millionnaire, as it is about changing what he refers to as you ‘Money Blueprint’, which he believes we are all born with. He helps you to become aware of limiting beliefs that you might have around money and he gives you specific and practical exercises that you can do to start to shift and change them.

However, the MOST helpful piece of advice that he gave in the book that has helped to completely and utterly change my relationship with money is this.

For every amount of money that comes into your bank account, whether it is $10, $100, $1000, $10,000, $100,000 or $1,000,000, split that amount in 6 different ways.

50% goes into a necessities pot – this is for all the essential things in your life like rent, bills, food etc.

10% goes into a fun pot – this is for doing (funnily enough) fun things in life, anything from going to a gig, out to dinner with a friend or rock climbing

10% goes into an education pot – this is for furthering your personal education and development. It could contribute to training courses you’d like to do or books you’d like to read.

10% goes into a long term savings pot – this is pretty straightforward.

10% goes into a financial freedom pot – this pot is for investing. Ultimately, the investments that you make with this money will mean that your money is working for you, rather than you working for your money. Some good sound investments here could significantly change things in your life for the better.

10% goes into a giving pot – the idea of tithing has been around for a long time, and put simply, it is the act of giving 10% of what you earn to a good cause.

I started doing this in July when I read the book. You can do it with as little as $10, but it has completely and utterly changed how I am interacting with and dealing with money. I even went to the extent of setting up separate savings accounts with my bank, so that I could separate my money into each of the pots.

To read the last instalment of this 4 part blog post series, tune in tomorrow.

Here’s a beautiful song called ‘Everything’s OK‘ to make you feel good today by the lovely Lenka.

Sending you love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Learn more

Read Everything will be OK – Part 1

Read Everything will be OK – Part 2

Buy the book Secrets of the Millionnaire Mind – T. Harv Eker

Download the book from Apple iBooks or for your Kindle.

Everything will be OK (Part 2)

‘Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.’

– Anon –

Following on from Part 1 of this four part blog series, here is Part 2 for you.

. . . I literally had no money in my account for months and months and months. Any money that Darren helped me out with went straight out to pay for training courses I had already committed to, paid for my phone bill, or contributed to ferry tickets so I could go into the city and meet with prospective clients.

This was the most dire financial situation I had been in throughout my entire life. However, I know, for certain that it happened for a reason. In fact, it had to happen. Because I needed to learn the things that I needed to learn, by going through what I went through. And no matter how rubbish it felt throughout that 7 month period, I have come out of it the other side, an even better person than I was before. I also know that I wouldn’t have the perspective I have now looking back on it.

So, you may ask, what have I learnt? And this for me is the most important thing. Life sometimes throws us curveballs. Sometimes it gives us something to deal with that, in the moment, we feel as though we just aren’t equipped to handle. But, sometimes what we don’t realise is, that the Universe only ever gives us exactly what we need, in the exact moment that we need it. And it never gives us anything greater than that which we are equipped to deal with.

So, what have I learnt?

I’ve learnt to receive help from people who love me, much more easily and willingly – I know that before this year I would feel very guilty receiving help from people. I didn’t want to feel vulnerable or weak. I didn’t want to be a burden. I didn’t want to put people out. I didn’t want to admit that I needed help from someone. It was always much easier to just deal with things by myself. And so far this year, I have definitely allowed people to help me a lot more than I ever had.

It has been in these moments of allowing myself to be vulnerable, that I have allowed someone in, who loves me, to help me. And by doing so, I have softened my heart and started to remove some of the armour I had subconsciously built up around it. The armour that existed, because I didn’t want people to think that I was weak.

I’ve also learnt to have a better relationship with money – my relationship with money had never been perfect. Before I started my business, throughout my 20s, I had earned a lot of money working in the Corporate World in Branding and Marketing. In fact, since starting working for Virgin in 2003, I can’t really remember there ever being a time where I struggled for cash. I was always earning. There was always money in my bank account. I never had to worry about whether I could afford to do something or go somewhere, I just did. I had a Carpe Diem approach to life and a Carpe Diem approach to money. However, I never saved. I never had anything in reserve. It was only when I was with my ex-boyfriend that I saved, and that was only for one year. It was an important year though, because the $7000 that I saved while we were together, contributed to the other money that I saved not long after my 30th birthday, which paid for my Round the World Trip, which ended up bringing me to Australia . . . . .

Part 3 will follow tomorrow . . . .

Sending you love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Everything will be OK (Part 1)

‘She stood in the storm and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails.’

– Elizabeth Edwards –

It’s 9am on a Sunday morning and I have just written a blog post that is nearly 2000 words long. Therefore, rather than doing what I would probably usually have done and post the entire thing, I’m going to separate it into 4 parts and drip feed it out to you over the next 4 days in bite sized chunks, so that you aren’t overwhelmed with a big ‘ol 2000 word blog post from me. Enjoy.

So, where are we, Sunday 24th November 2013? Wow, already I’m starting to get reflective about the year I’ve had and it’s not even December yet!

This year has definitely been an interesting one, and in particular the last 8 months since March.

In that time I managed to move into a beautiful 2 bedroom flat, 2 minutes from the beach in Manly, have my wonderful Dad come and visit me and take a trip to the Australian GP in Melbourne. Shortly after that, in April, my darling boyfriend moved in with me and this was also around the time that I stopped making money through my business.

The bank balance for my business then proceeded to become dryer and more arid than the Atacama Desert. For months I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t making money? Was my pricing wrong? Was it because I didn’t have a website? Was it because I had repositioned my company as a Conscious Branding company? Was it because no one wanted to work with me? The list of questions go on and on . . . .

During this time, I had to allow Darren to reach out and support me financially, and this is a position I had never been in, in my life. I had never had to allow someone else to do this. I had never had to allow myself to be so vulnerable. . . . .

And he supported me for 7 months.

This was a testing time for me. To begin with, I felt guilty allowing him to help and support me. After a while, I was OK with it. Then I got scared that because I had allowed him to help me, I would never be able to earn money again, and that I would be forever financially dependent on him. And during that time, I didn’t matter how hard I tried, or what I did, I couldn’t make money. I even started applying for other contract roles and even permanent jobs, considering completely and utterly giving up on the company I had set up to do what I love, thinking that perhaps it wasn’t meant to be . . . .

Part 2 will follow tomorrow . . .

Sending you love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Image gratitude – http://www.picstopin.com/480/everything-will-be-okay-in-the-end-if-its-not-then-/http:%7C%7Cimg*youtube*com%7Cvi%7C8ltX3Cm4nZw%7C0*jpg/

You are infinite potential

“You’re alive…That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you change the world, the world will change. Potential. Once you’re dead, it’s gone. Over. You’ve made what you’ve made, dreamed your dream, written your name.”

– Neil Gaiman –

I saw a fantastic video today on You Tube and wanted to share it with you. It demonstrates that we are all limitless beings with limitless potential.

And the only difference between those who live their lives in a limitless way and those who don’t is belief that it is possible.

I spent a lot of my life believing the lies that I was told, being comfortably numb, comfortably uncomfortable. Never asking the difficult questions. Never wondering why I was here, what life was really about. Until a few years ago.

I started to challenge convention. I started to challenge the status quo. And as I did so, my heart and mind started to open up to new and infinite possibilities.

About a year and half ago I decided that I wasn’t happy in the corporate world. I wasn’t happy being told what to do, how to think, how to live my life. And I decided that I wanted out.

18 months later I am running my own company, living in a very beautiful part of the world, and am fully in control of my own destiny.

The only limits that we experience in life, are the ones that we impose on ourselves.

Anything is possible. We are infinite beings with infinite potential.

What would you like to change in your life, so you can live in a limitless way? How can you take back your power?

Sending you lots of love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Image reference – lifeiseasybook.com