Leap Into 2021 By Creating a Life By Design.
In her book, The Financially Empowered Woman, Tracy Theemes talks about how everyone is on a different journey when it comes to money. She goes on to say that “we might all hold the same map or even be going to the same destination, but the vehicle, speed, rest stops and roads we take are determined by our own distinct set of circumstances.” As a result, in order to experience true empowerment, she believes that “we must all own our story and our life, inside and out.”
However, in order to own that story properly we need to be able to understand who we are and what truly matters to us. From there, Tracy is confident that a financial structure can be created to support those goals, which then makes implementation a fairly straightforward process.
“What is not always straightforward or easy, is figuring out who we are and what matters most to us.”
Complicating this further is that this seems to change as we age and move through various life stages and events. Acutely aware of this, Tracy Theemes and Kamal Basra from Sophia Financial Group have broadened their financial advisory firm to offer a series of Webinars, called Wise Money Talks. As a part of their educational platform Sophia Wealth Academy, these talks will provide a holistic approach to information, tools and strategies that will support women as they navigate their own personal journey towards financial empowerment.
Increasing Personal Units of Happiness
An impressive group of speakers has been carefully curated to provide insight and expertise in a wide variety of topics, all with the goal of helping women to “own their story.” Starting us off this year, with her aptly named webinar “Leap into 2021,” is Isabelle Mercier Turcotte, from LeapZone Strategies. She offers an energetic and passionate presentation focused on how we can all increase our own personal units of happiness by choosing to live by design, and not by default.
“It takes discipline to live by design and not by default.”
She believes that in order to create more joy and happiness in our lives, we need to get a handle on the things that cause us to worry. Because, according to Isabelle, “this simple five-letter word has the power to kill creativity, performance, individuality, and worst of all it can kill dreams.”
“Turns out that 40% of what we worry about actually won’t happen,” says Isabelle, “30% has already happened, 10% of what we worry about is petty and unimportant, and 12% of our worries are centered on needless worries around health.” This means that 92% of the time Isabelle believes that we are worrying about “absolute nonsense which keeps us from our absolute best, and keeps us from living.” It also keeps us in our heads and from being present. “Worrying,” according to Isabelle, “is not the root of the problem, it is the symptom.”
Fascinated by this topic, Isabelle has spent the past 25 years exploring what causes people to worry versus having peace of mind. During this time she has noticed an interesting pattern, “what you tolerate, you worry about.” That is, all the things in our lives that we tolerate, big or small, will end up being the things that cause us to feel stressed and anxious. “And what that means,” according to Isabelle, “is that what you say yes to when you really want to say no or should say no, is what you tolerate. And what you tolerate will sooner or later always drive you to worry.”
“What you tolerate, you worry about.”
Isabelle believes strongly that “tolerating is the number one light dimmer, worry creator, and performance killer of all times.” And, she knows this from personal experience. To this day, she credits her mother’s wise advice in helping her to move past the anxiety from a stressful situation that she was tolerating: “Isabelle, don’t be afraid to speak your truth. If you can’t say no to what you don’t want, how will you ever have the time or energy for what you do want?” In that moment, Isabelle’s life was forever changed.
Repurposing Worry
“So what if we take all of that time and energy we spend on worry,” wondered Isabelle, “and repurposed it to do something positive, something good?”
From this simple, yet profound question, Isabelle has created 12 performance principles to help her find ways to repurpose that “crazy 92%” and help her live her life by design, while also increasing her own personal units of happiness.
Isabelle, determined to help others also increase their own personal units of happiness, shares six of those twelve performance principles. With each principle, she also asks what she calls her Leap of the Day Question that encourages us to dig a bit deeper when working through the list.
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Don’t step in your own sandcastle.
You have to own what you stand for and be clear about what you believe. Do you know what your non-negotiables are? What is the one thing that you need to say no to, no matter what, to not step in your own sandcastle?
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Wear your lucky underwear.
What is your winning ritual? What is the one thing that you need to do on a regular basis to feel happy, healthy, and fulfilled instead of feeling worried? What are you tolerating that is keeping you from doing it?
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What you see is not what you have to get.
For every limitation, there is a successful exception. What are you tolerating that stems from other people’s standards or limitations?
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Clean your gutters.
Isabelle suggests that we also need to spring clean our personal networks. As difficult as it may be, you need to be able to close a door for a better one to open up. Who is causing you more grief and grey hair than it is worth and what difficult conversation do you need to have and with them?
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Busy does not mean profitable.
We don’t need more time, we need more discipline. What do you need to stop doing to increase your performance and satisfaction level?
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Smell the roses.
Great things take time. Spend more time creating instead of consuming. What consuming behaviour are you tolerating that is not making your heart sing? Because, what you tolerate you will end up worrying about.
It takes courage to work towards ridding ourselves of our tolerances. “We need to have those difficult conversations and to be still and tap into what we want, and don’t want,” says Isabelle. In doing so, we are then better able to own our stories and our lives, inside and out, while also increasing our own personal units of happiness.
To listen to Isabelle’s complete Wise Money Talks session, CLICK HERE.
