It’s a catchy phrase and a core tenet of financial literacy, but what did you do really do today to put in the WORK to get you there? Not think about doing or plan to do, what did you actually in the real, physical world do?
What did you say no to? What did you sacrifice? What or who did you have to turn away from – and yes there will be SO many people that you have to learn to say no to. The distance you will create in some relationships is a necessary price for your success.
Again – If you don’t sacrifice for your dream, your dream will be what you sacrifice.
We hear this but we never take it to heart… not really. This isn’t just the happy hour, the long phone call when you should be working… this can be a lifelong friendship that you KNOW is not serving you, or them. This can be a sibling that does nothing but doubt and drain your energy like a vampire…
This could even be those Redbox movies that take not only hours and hours of your time but also precious funds that could go toward that training, that therapy session, that outstanding debt.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – you have to learn to be selfish. Then, you have to learn to completely let go of the guilt from being selfish.
Learn to be stubborn and set in your ways, learn to be absolutely NON-NEGOTIABLE when it comes to your time and what you want… Because otherwise? Otherwise you are trying to build a tower on the slopes of sand and absolutely *nothing* you are doing is gonna make that work.
Otherwise you are sitting at the same desk, feeling the unbearable weight of regret and discontentment because you made the easy choice and settled. You are in the same relationship instead of a passionate partnership that fills you with joy and love. …You are in the same endless cycle, and what you’ve sacrificed is *just* your entire life and happiness.
Be selfish so you can serve others. Be selfish so you can honor yourself. Be ruthless and be those things that we are conditioned against as women because we don’t have to play by anyone’s rules. And when you doubt that this is what you should be doing, doubting whether you are making a mistake and whether you are becoming someone you don’t intend to?
Ask yourself two questions –
1. If I were a man, would I have the same doubts? If this were my son, working tirelessly toward his dream, would I discourage him or beam with pride?
2. What example am I setting for my daughter if I don’t?
Read that ☝? again. What values are you presenting to your daughter when you settle for less, when you give up on your dreams, when you live life unhappily and void of joy? Is that the life you would create for her?
Of course not – So WHY would you create it for yourself.
Do what you have to do, make the sacrifices you have to make, and create a life that allows you to put family first, donate to the causes that are important to you, and change the world in the way you see fit. Then and only then worry about the impression you made when you had to say No.
Or better yet, never do that. I don’t apologize for my sacrifices, and anyone that would expect me to must have gotten lost – because they clearly don’t belong next to me.
So – What did you do for your dreams today? Take one tiny step, and then take another one, and let’s do this together. ❤ As always, we’re here to support you and to help create innovators, lifelong learners, and financially educated women of tomorrow. See how right here.