Your passion is the work you love and feel called to do.
It burns in your belly, and you want to light the world on fire with it.
You’d love to spend your whole day making your passion a reality, but you hesitate because you have bills to pay.
In your hesitation, have you stopped to consider your relationship to money?
If you’re not sure, then consider the question bestselling author Martha Beck once asked me while I was complaining to her about how financial fears were preventing me from pursuing my passion full-time: If money were a person, place, or thing, what would it be?
The answer I gave her was “a very fickle cat.”
You see, I had a day job that gave me ample amounts of money, but that also sucked the life force out of me.
Because I feared the financial loss of quitting, I pursued my passion on the side in my spare time. When it came to attracting money from my day job, I felt as if the fickle cat would rub up against my legs, motor running, meowing with glee. But when it came to attracting money from my passion, the same bloody cat would climb a tree as I swatted the air, reaching for it.
So either way I looked at it, my relationship to money was an unhealthy one.
For my day job, I showed up every day to a place I resented just to earn a paycheck. For my passion, I feared never earning enough to pay my bills.
When I decided to take a leap and pursue my passion of life and career coaching fulltime, my fickle cat would watch me struggle with my finances as she lounged on a branch high in the air.
I was clocking in countless hours building my business, and the results weren’t coming in monetarily. At times, I wanted to quit because my fickle cat was so far up the tree I couldn’t even see her.
Then one day, a complete stranger signed up for one of my programs. It was the first time someone I had never met before decided to hire me.
When she paid her invoice, I realized I loved that money… every last penny. I loved it a thousand times more than any paycheck I had ever earned, even though those paychecks were much higher.
The money represented my hard work, my desire to help others, my freedom, and my gratitude for this stranger who had somehow found me.
So, thereafter, while I continued to bust my tail building my business, I also tuned into that feeling of money love as often as I could – while I worked, meditated, and exercised. And in time, more clients started to show up in my life, often coming from unexpected places.
That’s when I decided to consciously change my relationship to money. I said good-bye to the fickle cat and hello to the consistent cat (as in consistently loving and abundant).
Good ole’ consistent cat always showers me with feline love no matter how much I’m earning.
Like all things in life, money is energy. If you feel a lack of it, it will show up in your life that way. But if you love it (no matter the current status of your bank account), then more abundance will eventually appear.
It doesn’t mean you can stop taking action. It means fears of lack won’t cloud the true you, so you can always present the best of yourself to others.
I challenge you to explore your relationship to money. You can do it in 3 easy steps.
1. Identify your money metaphor.
Ask yourself the following question: “If money were a person, place, or thing, what would it be?” Usually the first thing that comes to you is your answer (and animals often tell a good story).
2. Change your metaphor into something that spawns feelings of love and abundance.
Ask yourself: “How can I change my money metaphor into something loving?” Start by considering your money metaphor’s exact opposite (i.e. going from fickle cat to consistent cat). Then, consider a time when you were truly proud of the money you earned. How did that feel? What person, place or thing represents that good feeling?
3. Use your new metaphor to forge a new relationship to money.
When feelings of lack creep in (which is normal), then use your new loving money metaphor to remind you of the love, gratitude and abundance you feel for money, the amazing work you’re doing to earn it, and the commitment you have to serve others who need what you have to offer.
I’d love to know. What’s your money metaphor? Post a comment below.
