Why I’m Letting Go of Things That Make Money

I've really just discovered your site today. I mean I've heard your name mentioned in the last couple of months but today I'm really connected with what you've got going on here and I think it's awesome. It's a rainy day here in Brisbane, Australia and I have the feeling I'm going to be living on your site today. It's awesome.

I've just created a community called Women's Wisdom Web and even though I left a business partnership in August last year and have been trying to work out exactly what I want to do and how to do it as a solo entrepreneur, something in me led me back to creating a community for free. So I'm still making $0 from my 'work' but there's something within me telling me that this is worth the wait. What I'm learning about myself and life in the meantime is invaluable.

Anyway, I'm adding you as the second person on my "I see you" page in the community where I've decided to acknowledge women who are living their truth. Nothing teaches better than real life examples and I believe you are one of them.

Great stuff!

Oh. My. God. It continues to amaze me how I seem to happen across the message I need to hear it RIGHT WHEN I need to hear it - not before, not after, right at the exact moment! It's always a holy sh*t, jaw dropping moment for me. ;)

So your video post was totally that for me today. I've been going through some changes this month (I'm signed up for Sarah's 30 Days to Change Your Game blog series, which has triggered some huge shifts for me) and have been super challenged with learning to let me be me, let go of the things that aren't me, and move forward in the direction that is right for me. HUGE stuff, as I have a hard time letting go of control and not knowing what is going to happen next!

This was super timely for me, as I've had a number of small business things going on in different niches (web design that I've done on a small scale for a number of years, a romantic website with games for couples, and various other niches that I've started on) and I had narrowed it down to just the romantic website, deciding that I needed to stop what I was doing with everything else, but feeling like I *needed* to hang on to at least ONE thing for me to do.

Your post was the call to truly let go of it all! None of it is really what I'm passionate about, and the main reason I was trying to push and do it all was just to make me some money so I can quit the job I don't really like. *sigh* Now I am realizing that even if I did make money at those things, it's still not really what I want to do, and I STILL will be "doing a job that I don't really like".

So thank you for that push that I needed to send me over the top! Now I know that I need to focus on finding me and my north star (just started reading Martha Beck's "Finding Your Own North Star") and the rest will literally fall into place from there - without me having to push it! :)

Hi! I just watched your "letting go" video. I love your candor. Although I believe your message was probably intended for business strategies, it hit home for me on a personal "hobby" level. I am a country girl who grew-up sewing her own clothes and curtains and crafts. Over the (many) years I have collected a huge plastic bin of lovely little pieces of fabric that would be perfect for fill-in-the-blank-here. A few months ago I lovingly folded nearly all of those pieces into neat piles, put them in plastic bags and drove them to the Goodwill store. I actually sleep better at night without those little pieces of fabric calling my name from the crawl space two floors below me, "Denise, we're down here. We'd be perfect for an American Girl Doll bed!"

I couldn't agree more with your wisdom. I could apply that to soo many additional areas of my life.

Thanks for naming it!

www.successinthesuburbs.blogspot.com

I feel as if you and I are on the exact same path right now. I have a psychotherapy practice and I HATE it. If I never did therapy face-to-face again, that would be just fine with me. I've just exhausted my interest in it.

I do some contract work on the side that takes way less out of me mentally and leaves me with buckets of free time to do nothing (and dream of what's next for me). Right now I am doing very, very little and that's okay. I'm finally okay with that.

I feel like I am sooooo on the same path right now. I have a psychotherapy practice and I HATE it and I don't want to do it anymore. I do contract work on the side which takes a lot less out of me and leaves me a crapload of free time to just do nothing---which is basically all I am doing right now.

But I haven't taken the huge leap of completely throttling the practice yet.....

FAB video E! However I think you dramatically underestimated how fast fairies paint :)

Howdy Elizabeth!

Great post! just reading your site here and catching up with you! I thought I saw something on FB that you were in the middle of a new launch???

Would love to have you mail me what you are up to!

Jody in Beautiful BC :)

Okay Elizabeth, when are you going to stop mind reading here?! I know this is totally about your stuff and your business, but I can totally relate.

As you may remember I had the billionairewoman.com web site, and when I went all out on my raw foods witch business I decided to put it on hiatus. I haven't touched it in at least 6 months! And like you said, it keeps mentally "pinging me". Like hm, should I start writing again there? Etc. When clearly these are not the people who would be a good match, and yes some of that writing was good... but it's not where I'm going or who I am today.

Brilliant!

And just the nudge I needed to make my decision about billionairewoman.com. :)

great video and i wish you success with your business, I have my own petsitting business

Love it! As a teacher of private music lessons, took the risky step of giving away most of my students last year because I *hate* working nights and it was killing me.

After six lean months, I now have matched my previous income by taking only students who can come during the day, which for the previous seven years I had not thought possible. These students are also more dedicated and passionate, because they are getting my best stuff.

You just never know what's going to come your way, once you free up the time and energy.

Good for you Elizabeth, that's great that you were able to do something like this. I've had many times where I was faced with this same predicament. This year I had to put my writing services behind me because it's not what I'm all about. I'm really all about social media and where I've been transitioning a lot of my focus. So this year, instead of doing both writing and social media consulting, I'm focusing just on consulting.

It's where I wanna go and where I'm most passionate.

Great post! Will you still do a post on your feelings on Suze Orman?
I really want to know in which ways you agree/disagree with her and stuff.
Thanks.

OMG, I have been WONDERING how long it would take to paint a lady bug if I were a fairy. I am sooo glad I know it is 45 min. And you looked straight in your daughters eyes and told her:))).

Already did it, Elizabeth~about 7 months ago, I contacted the presentation design clients I had been working with for the past 15 years and said, "I'm no longer offering presentation design services because I am now focusing my time on AffirmingSpirit.com because that's where my heart is (and has been for years). I'll still do some custom illustration and Photoshop projects, but the majority of my time will be spent helping other creative small business owners connect with their own power."

I didn't tell them that the presentation work had begun sucking the life out of me about 12 years before, and that it was HIGH time I make the same commitment to myself that I ask my AffirmingSpirit clients to make.

Phew! So *glad* I made that decision, even though I was passing up a lucrative niche. I needed to make that change to keep my sanity!

Many blessings,
Nancy

BTW, I'm in the SF South Bay and only just learned about you a week ago. Best of luck in your move to SF!

Great video! And so appropriate for what's going on in my business too. I have your money tree system and it's the best! But I understand the reason why you're closing it down because it's doesn't seem to be your passion any more.

For my business I decided to stop doing web site updates and work for clients who aren't on my Websites 2 Grow site. This was a very hard decision for me and sometimes I still say yes to doing this work. But it's been the best decision, because now I can focus on things that I am passionate about like web site and online marketing consulting. I tried having a team do the work for me and found it didn't help, because I was then just a glorified project manager.

Anyway I'm so much happier now and have more time to spend with my family and really enjoy my business as well.

Sometimes these decisions don't make sense to others but they are what's right for us.

So before I clicked "play", it looked like you were weaing a life-preserver. Too funny.

I own all yer stuff, and it freakin' rocks. i can't wait to see what you do next. I'm one of your 1,000 true fans, and I think you know that.

I was telling a client last night that thinking about where you want to be, but framing it in the "where I am now" will oly hold you back. There comes a time when you have to let go of pieces of the old you to usher in the new you. A time to say no to the stuff that's "just okay" or even "pretty good" so that you can step into the greatness that you rightfully deserve.

Not to get all woo-woo on you. :-) Because even from a focus perspective, you can't keep spinning 50 plates, when all you really want to do is grab a plate to dine at the feast.

I think I need some kind of shorthand or code to tell you that this was - again, as usual, a great post.

I'll work on that.

lol re life-preserver ... that's my first *real* coat in 13 years!! :)

Thank you so much Lisa.

And I think it's such a huge thing to let go of stuff that is "pretty good" ... that's *so hard* to get out of mediocrity since that's where most people live & think is "fine."

(hum, maybe you need a "great post" hashtag?) :)

I will be stealing from myself & taking content from all of these programs and inserting them into my new programs. It's not that I'm abandoning the great content. It's that I have to keep moving forward. :)