Self Trust Fund

Happy New Year, Money Monster Masters!

How’s your new year treating you so far, my abundant Creatives?

2022 is off and running and many of you might be thinking, how in the world did that happen??

So many goals, so many intentions, so many plans…..7 days in to January…where am I at?!?

This is (of course) our old friend Money Monster coming to play tricks on you. Time is something we made up to keep us EXPECTING something to happen and more often than not, we use it to use and abuse ourselves for living life at our own pace.

Yes, I dare say it, we use TIME TO BEAT OURSELVES UP.

Chronos (a greek word meaning ‘time‘) is the human construction of deadlines, commitments, and demands.

Have this to me STAT.

(Demand)

That will be available on Monday for your review, even if I have to work through the weekend.

(Commitment)

If this isn’t in by tomorrow, I’ll miss my shot.

(Deadline)

How is your breathing now, after reading all that Chronos-speak? Are your shoulders in your ears? Do you already feel behind even if you’ve just started reading this email?

Breathe, my luminous creative spirit, breathe.

Our abundance isn’t something we can order up like pancakes.

MONEY cha-cha

One of the things that is hard to grasp in the beginning of the creative MONEY journey is that sometimes you take a step back to leap forward.

It feels funny, counter-intuitive, wrong. But it’s true.

Sometimes the numbers in your account (or on your residual checks) needs to dip a little bit so they can soar.

I call it the MONEY cha-cha, a back step to swing forward (and sway your hips for good measure).

Think about it this way: to jump far, you take a step back to coil your muscles for the spring.

MONEY can be the same way.

You might need to invest to get started in a resource for your creative business, maybe software or new tech to capture your incredible talent.
You may need to attend a high ticket price event to meet the collaborators you need for your next great project.
You may need to get some serious training to hone your skills in ways that makes you stand out in your creative marketplace.
You might need to take a survival job/day job that pays less so you can focus on your creative business more.

All of these are incredible reasons to let your bottom line shrink temporarily.

The trick is to know why you are making the choice to reduce your income and to know the timing for course correction if the MONEY takes some time to start flowing in again.

I have a great 90 minute intensive where we can talk about just that: how to know when to take the financial risk and when to know it’s time to get back on track with your MONEY. You can find out more about this special 1:1 coaching with me here: https://selftrustfund.ck.page/products/time-to-shine-90-minute-intensive

Can’t wait to chat with you about your MONEY risks ~ and rewards that are right around the corner!

When your palms are itching

It’s easy to fixate on MONEY as the answer to your problems.

Got expenses? MONEY.

Got time constraints on your creativity? MONEY.

Got insecurity knocking on your door? You guessed it. MONEY.

But often MONEY is taking the place of what we really need. It is an emotional placeholder for something deeper and less tangible that we are looking for out in the world. Something less transactional and something more enduring.

Yet we focus on MONEY as the focal point of the answers to our lives because we live in a culture where MONEY is seen as the answer to everything.

“Time is money.”

“Money solves problems.”

“You get what you pay for.”

This cultural focus makes a spiritual emptiness at the center of our pursuits because it puts a price tag on our happiness ~ which is actually free, right?

MONEY is a tool, among many tools, to help us pursue what we want. That’s it.

It’s not a silver bullet or a magic wand or even a time machine.

It’s a tool to create what we desire in the world.

And it’s only one of many tools we have to feel abundant and happy. But that’s the topic of another blog post.

Tell me in the comment below what some of your favorite tools are to live your best creative life.

Click here for your free money. mantra guide from Self Trust Fund

First, calm your mind.

It’s easy when MONEY worries swirl around you and the ticking clock of your finances chimes loudly in your ear to become focused on the issues at hand.

This is the opposite of what you need to do to get your MONEY ship pointed in the right direction.

When you are focusing on the financial storm outside of you, you are oblivious to the inner guidance within you, you are unaware of the opportunities that surround you, and you are too weighed down by fear to move in a helpful direction.

So, what can a scared creative do to turn their MONEY woes around?

Tap into your self.

Quiet your mind.

Still your heaving thoughts.

It sounds simple but it’s not often easy.

There are a number of great tools to help you get there in a pinch, however. You could try:

Meditation
Yoga
Running
Hiking
Dancing
Praying
Journaling
Drawing
Coloring
Singing
Talking it out to a loved one
Channeling the emotion into your next great creative work
Spending time in nature
Taking a bath
Quality time with your pet, especially the furry variety
Tackling a project around the house

All of those are a great start to quelling the distractions that cover the abundance that surrounds you.

But what works is totally personal.

So, tell me what’s worked for you in the past? Anything you think you might try for next time the MONEY winds kick up?

Count your blessings.

It’s easy in our bottom line culture to only count your bank account as resources available to you.

Yet when you step back and widen your gaze, you might see that you have more than you think you have.

You might have:

a supportive network who can help you source what you need.
an amazing skillset that you can use to increase your income.
free time to spend on your next million dollar idea that your audiences will love.
extra materials that are left over from a past project that you can spin into something new.
space (physical or mental) that you can share with those who need it.
vision to inspire others to help you make what you imagine.

While none of this has a specific MONEY value, they are limitless in how they can help you grow the financial bottom line of your creative life.

What do you think, did I leave anything out? Comment below and let me know!

The MONEY dump

Have you ever felt that drop in the pit of your stomach after dropping some MONEY on something, say, a car repair or even a fun vacation?

You know what I mean, that gut punch deep in your belly when you watch the zeroes shrink your bank account. Maybe you flash on someday there being only one zero in your account with no other numbers to keep it company. Absolute zero.

This sensation is different than a spending hangover when you might regret the shopping spree or extra rounds of fancy drinks you ordered.

This is when something you know is a necessary and important purchase comes due.

As you build your reserves of abundance (and that definitely includes but is not limited to your bank account), you may find yourself focusing on only growing the bottom line, pulling the cash flow into a tighter and tighter net to catch all the greenbacks you can.

Yet this is what you might call a spending anorexia. An attempt to exert control over your circumstances by reducing your personal needs in increasingly stringent methods.

Discipline can be good when it comes to building up wealth.

But, like working out too hard, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

Give yourself the freedom to know how much spending is actually a healthy part of life and how much is beyond your personal limits.

And if you just aren’t sure, be sure to book a Time to Shine 90 minute Intensive with me here.

I am happy to help!

Release regrets.

MONEY mindset work requires a deep examination of the choices you make, both with your financial resources but also your energetic ones.

It can be confronting to think back on a particularly high credit card bill and not feel like the MONEY may have been spent in better ways.

It can also be humbling to realize how much life force is spent regretting those moments of folly, even in the spirit of lessons learned.

Maybe you wouldn’t have spent the time or MONEY that way now, but it was the right thing for you to do at the time.

Accept the decisions of your younger self and move on to even bigger and better ones in the now.

Your future self is waiting.

Money does not equal love.

As a creative, you may love what you do. You just maybe don’t make the MONEY you want to make at it.

You may make great MONEY but don’t love what you do.

You may love the MONEY you make but not what you create.

It can be so many forms of chasing your emotional tail when it comes to MONEY and your creative career. Each accomplishment pushing a key part of your creative vision further away.

Or so it seems.

Funding your best creative life means taking the time to get aligned with what is the best use of your sacred spark in this moment, in this season.

It requires a tapping in and knowing about what is needed in the days ahead. As you get better at knowing what your inner self is directing you towards, you can create for longer stretches into the future.

One of the challenges that sometimes creatives struggle with is that the path to abundance is unclear. Sometimes it seems to veer off road into the wilderness.

That’s the joy of it.

The path to financial success for creatives is one of in-the-moment responses and staying open to possibility. If there was a straight shot to the corner office, would you really even want it?

Creatives love adventure. Discovery. Passion. Delight.

Tap into those pursuits and learn to love the journey. That’s what ignites what some might call the ‘Law of Attraction’.

MONEY follows love.

But it isn’t love.

It’s the result of your offering of what lights you up. It draws buyers to the flame and creates the abundance you are seeking.

Trust the love and the MONEY will follow.

When in doubt, learn more.

There may come a point in your MONEY journey where the overwhelm kicks in, the path divides, and the step forward becomes uncertain.

Explore your options.

The best part of building secure financial foundations is that you grow in strength as you gain wisdom. As you learn more, you gain more. As you gain more, you learn more. These are siblings to keep you company on your path.

Perhaps you feel like there are too many options ahead. Remind yourself that this is a good problem to have and seek to learn more.

Perhaps you feel like you are facing a dead end. Breathe and begin to tap into discovery. Where are you not yet looking for choices?

Perhaps you feel like your path is looping back behind you to return to a previous version of itself. Celebrate the opportunity to explore fresh approaches to familiar challenges.

Trusting yourself with your MONEY is a lifelong journey. But knowing that you are packing smarter all the time because you are gaining the experience and wisdom to make great decisions on the fly?

That is true financial freedom.

Trust the exhale.

When MONEY feels tight, it can feel like a constriction, not unlike the feeling of waiting to inhale.

There’s this sense of emptiness and tightness that can be painful if not embraced.

Yet it is merely the moment before the refill, the inhale.

Say, you plop a big chunk of change down on something you love, that vintage album you could never find, that apartment you swore you could never afford, that dream trip that finally felt right.

The zeros that come into your bank account may feel final, like they are the new normal.

Yet they are the placeholders for a process. The process of flow, abundance.

You wait to inhale for a half moment and then you do.

You wait to receive the MONEY you spent to feel flush again. And then you do.

That is the flux of financial abundance and it’s healthy.

Just think, if the tide never went out, how could the waters come back in?

Trust yourself and trust the flow. Exhale deeply to invite in richly.