Are you broke or investing in yourself? How to know the difference.

Let’s face it, heart centered business people struggle with their finances sometimes.

Both my husband and I have been following our passions for almost 6 years now. To say that I thought we would be doing better financially by now is the under statement of the universe. Basically, as a couple in our 40’s, it has been very challenging to see other couples our age going on regular vacations, fixing up their homes, and basically enjoying the fruits of the hard hours and ground work that we usually do in our 30’s.

We haven’t been on a vacation in 8 years, our house has TONS of deferred maintenance, we gave up our car and we pray daily that no major appliances give out. When I hear other entrepreneurs say that they struggled for months until they started seeing money flow in, I want to freaking scream.

But then I remember…I am not a victim.

We chose this.

We chose this path of building a life that helps others using our passions because after my husband’s brush with death in 2009, we realized that we only live this one precious life and we wanted to spend it being useful to other people.

Making that conscious choice required so much faith, and belief in ourselves. We didn’t know we had so much faith until we truly needed it.

We have walked the razors edge of financial chaos more times than I am comfortable telling you about. We knowingly made the necessary sacrifices because we knew that being of service to others was a path to a life well lived.

It is tempting to describe our finances in terms of “being broke,” or “having to go without.” But that would imply that we have not made very conscious choices about our situation.

The truth is, all of our resources are tied up in development. We are not broken. We are not poor. We are not even cash negative. We are at our edge having sunk every penny into building a better financial life for later.

There’s a difference.

Being broke implies that you don’t have a plan or maybe even haven’t considered taking full responsibility for your situation. No one made us invest our money in our education and personal transformation. We chose that. We consciously decided that we wanted to pursue careers in which we help people using our skill, talents and interests.

We chose re-invention. And following our dream of living a purposeful life required sacrifice. We gave up some very cush amenities to make it happen.

Don’t get me wrong, there are moments when we look at each other and wonder why the hell we are doing this again? My husband comes home from his job at the clinic exhausted. He helps an under-served homeless population get off the streets and quit heroin.

I coach, write, and create content that might help you use your talents to follow your path of meaning and purpose.

We scrap it together, just like everyone else because we both truly believe every single person has a something special to share with the world. And guess what? It gets easier.

Mostly what holds people back is fear of one sort or another. Helping people get insights on what is making them afraid to take the next step is what we both live for.

So what is holding you back from being everything you were ever meant to be? I believe that we only scratch the surface of our potential because it takes so much work and bravery to get there.

But I believe in you.

And it is so worth it.

Here are 5 ways to know the difference between being broke or investing in yourself.

1. If you are broke you can’t imagine anything ever changing. If you are investing in yourself you know that your risk will pay off later.

2. If you are broke you tend to complain about your situation. If you are investing in yourself you take responsibility for your choices and recognize them as laying a foundation for later.

3. If you are broke you resent the abundance of others. If you are investing in yourself you see the abundance of others as possibility and potential.

4. If you are broke you think success is luck. If you are investing in yourself you see success as the result of working your buns off.

5. If you are broke you want it now. If you are investing in yourself you can see the long game.

Knowing how these two differ, my relationship to abundance has completely transformed. We are not given, we must go get. Yes, some people get lucky. They do. But most of us have to work our buns off to get where we want to go. I learned to not put my eggs in the luck basket. Instead I put them in the recognizing abundance basket.

And my basket overfloweth.

I have a loving husband. Two adorable fur babies. The ability and opportunity to show up every day, willing to be imperfect. Try new things, fail, try again. And I have you, dear friend.

That is not to imply that I don’t want more. I do. But I don’t want anything bad enough to give up on realizing my dream of making a living doing work that I love. And I love to create useful information that is beautiful.

The other day, my husband gave his shoes to a homeless man. He is my hero. I am blessed beyond what I am certain I deserve.

I feel the same about you. I want you to feel how much I am grateful for you. I give you my proverbial shoes. Because you matter that much to me.

Thank you for every beautiful comment, twitter share, and email. It means more than you can possibly know.