I read a book and it changed my life.
Yeah, I know it sounds dramatic. But it's true. In fact, I can say this about a couple of books. The one I will share with you today is Jen Sincero's book "You are a Bad@** at Making Money". As an entrepreneur and small business owner, after I read this book, I knew my life was about to change.
At the time, I was working like a dog. I had bought a small salon and was juggling a busy clientele while doing some personal training AND cleaning 15 houses. I had started with one house that I was cleaning to make some extra money, and had then grown one at a time to the point that I was running myself ragged cleaning over a dozen by myself. I did this for years before finally I hired a helper to partner with me which was a game changer. This was because we could get the houses done in half the time. (And I must admit it was much more fun to clean with someone who was a good friend--we did lots of talking and laughing while scrubbing and wiping!)
I can remember that for years I talked about how I was going to quit the house cleaning. I knew that I needed to be spending more time in the salon and putting my focus and energy on other things. There were days that I would clean a house or two in the morning after taking the kids to school, then head straight to the salon (wearing my clothes I had cleaned in and hair in a pony) and work all day on my feet until 8pm, and then head home. I was exhausted. And I'll admit, I was a grump to my family much of the time. Ask Mike. He will testify to it. Haha. I was just so dang tired. And then, going to bed, knowing that in the morning I would do it all over again.
Around that time, I had listened to a Joe Rogan podcast where he interviewed Chris Kresser. I had never heard of Chris but MY MIND WAS BLOWN. They were talking about the current state of our health care system and how it wasn't serving people in the right way. People everywhere are sick with illness, auto-immune diseases, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and obesity, and most doctors are just handing out medicine instead of investigating the real cause of the sickness. His statistics were jaw dropping and I honestly had never really thought about this crisis and what needed to be done. And one of the main things Chris spoke about in this podcast were HEALTH COACHES. He is a big advocate of health and wellness coaching and getting it integrated into the medical care system.
Well, I had never heard of health coaching. But it made sense. People didn't need more information or experts in their lives. People were already being told what to do by different professionals, yet they were struggling to implement those behavioral and life changes into their own lives. They needed coaches. Someone to advocate for them, to walk side by side with them, not telling them what to do, but instead to help them identify their own strengths and abilities which they can use to meet their specific goals.
I had no doubt that this was something I could be good at and passionate about. I wanted to be a health coach. I had joined Chris Kresser's email subscriber list after listening to that podcast, and when I received an email weeks later announcing that he was creating his very own health coach training course I WAS BEYOND ELATED!! I told Mike right away, "I WANT TO DO THIS!". And of course, my husband who supports all of my crazy ideas and dreams, said GO FOR IT.
That's all fine and dandy except I was the busiest person in the world at that point!! How would I find time?? I would be going through a one year training course online that was very time consuming and also very expensive. How could I possibly make this work?
It was after reading Jen's book I mentioned earlier in this post, that I knew my answer. I had to quit cleaning houses. There was no way I could do it all. But I was terrified of taking this step. How would my home owners respond? How could I give up all of that extra income and still make ends meet AND pay for this year long course? How could I let go of a business that I had started myself and nurtured and grew?
One of the things Jen talks about in her book, is to do big things you have to take big risks. Sometimes you have to step out and take a huge leap, not knowing what will come of it. Sometimes, you have to do something that scares the crap out of you. No big successes come without some risk taking.
So I did it. I gave them all up. I put an end date to my cleaning these houses. I started my health and wellness coach training in June of 2018 and I have never looked back. My finances not only remained stable, but by some miracle, they were even BETTER. I had more money sitting in my bank after that decision than I had previously. I still don't know how. Maybe because quitting the houses allowed me to spend more time at the salon, doing what I love doing more and making more money doing it. I completed the coaching course in June of 2019, and am now certified through the Kresser Institute and will be sitting for the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching exam in February of 2020.
Now, I'm doing what I love. Helping people feel better, look better, and live better. I'm less of a grump at night to my family (right Mike??) and I am happier and healthier than I've ever been because I'm living my best life--doing what I'm passionate about. But this couldn't have happened had I not taken that very scary step that I had been talking about for years but just couldn't bring myself to do.
What is it that you have a burning desire to do? Is there something you feel called to do, or somewhere you feel like you should go, or a business you should start? Maybe there is a job you want to apply for or maybe for a long time you've felt that you should quit your current job and put all of you energy into a side hustle.....I would encourage you first to read Jen's book. And then, if it's something you just can't shake--like it has been nagging at you for a long time--then take that uncertain and scary step into the unknown and don't look back. Life is too short to wonder, "What if I had.....". Just do it.
PS- If you haven't made that big leap because you just don't feel ready yet, or because you don't have everything perfect just yet, read my blog post titled "Launch and Adjust". Sometimes you have to take action even before you feel completely ready. You can always adjust and perfect it later.
