The Money Blues

At some point in your life you’ve felt down, probably more than once. Somebody you cared about may have had a misfortune, your heart was broken, a health issue stopped you cold in your tracks or you had a financial disaster. Nobody is immune to feeling blue. But the problem is when you get stuck there for longer than necessary. I once had the money blues for over a year and it wreaked havoc on my overall quality of life. I was there for waaaay too long. I’d become a victim to the circumstance and it stole my confidence. For the first time in my eighteen years as an entrepreneur, I didn’t know if I would recover. Of course, I did recover and I came back better than ever. If I had to do it again, would I? HELL, NO! However, if I had to it again, I would’ve approached it very differently. I would’ve ‘fessed up to myself, and others, how I really felt. I didn’t start out feeling blue or depressed. I began with a feeling of being out of control and a little nervous. I had been so focused on a personal issue at the time, I was paying little attention to my business. By the time I noticed, I was going broke fast. I’d always been able to quickly recover from a financially slow month or two, but this had gone out of control. I was charging my groceries and everyday needs on a credit card and it was at its limit. My emotions quickly went into panic mode and of course, that’s no good for attracting new money. The more I focused on my urgent need for money, the more helpless I felt. I let my emotions consume me, therefore I was stuck in a holding pattern. What I highly recommend if you have the money blues (or any other type of blues) is to take a step back and see what is happening from a meta-view. When I stepped outside of my emotions, what I saw was a previously successful business owner who was beating herself up, I put the whip down. Next, I created a spreadsheet of all my debt, monthly expenses and began tracking my income. I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty, but I needed to face the situation rather than running from it. When I got a grasp on the severity of my financial snapshot, I surrendered to it. I was broke, had no creativity or inspiration in sight and no idea how to make a comeback. I created a couple of new daily habits to support my finances and business. The most important thing I did was to commit to myself that I was going to pay off the debt and get back into making a profit. My plan was minimal, because I really didn’t know what actions I could take to create financial peace at that time, with my current perspective. I can say now that having that financial crisis was a blessing because I now know the power of making a solid decision. My decision to move forward served me well. In less than a year, the debt was at zero and I was back into six-figures. My advice to anybody with the blues is… 1. Allow yourself to feel the pain but not for so long that it swallows you whole and spits you back out 2. Look at the reality of the moment head on. Tell the truth. 3. Drop any judgment. You’re human so “stuff happens”. Even if you’ve had the blues longer than I did, so what?! It is what it is. You’re still a rock star under the blue costume. 4. Make the decision to move toward an outcome. Something that will empower you and that you’d feel thrilled about arriving. 5. Create a few new habits or structures that you will practice to support the journey to somewhere fresh and alive (cuz blue feels dead). 6. Give it time. You may see or feel relief in days. Or it may be weeks. But it will come. I felt better in less than a month and soon thereafter I literally began finding and attracting large sums of money…where there was none before. If I didn’t know about Law of Attraction, it might’ve freaked me out! Feeling down on your luck for any length of time truly does suck. It can impact your self-worth, health and relationships. Do yourself a favor and take back the reigns of your life. Your power is not far if you’ll just reach for it.