Starting Where You are and Finding Success - Episode 9

In this episode Amanda and Sarah discuss starting where you are. With money, time, and energy you must be a good steward always and not just when you “make it”. Take some time and be sure to bring your notebook - this one digs dee and they drop some real gems!

Come in and listen with us as we break down everything that connects with getting your money right. 

Mentioned during the show: Blog “How Slowing Down Helps you Go farther” - http://forwardmotionaz-6078819.hs-sites.com/blog/how-slowing-down-helps-you-go-farther

Free courses from top universities 

https://www.edx.org/

Top Free Courses from Coursera

https://www.coursera.org/courses?query=free

Google Certificate Program

https://grow.google/certificates/project-management/#?modal_active=none

Book Recommendation:

The Compound Effect - By Darren Hardy
Small, smart choices + Consistency + Time = Radical difference.  

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Transcript

Amanda Miller: 0:00

cue it whenever you're ready. Okay

Unknown: 0:04

321

Sarah Schroeder: 0:32

Hello, welcome to get your money right Podcast. I'm Sarah Bay, Sarah. I am Amanda. And this podcast is brought to you by forward motion. Check the hat bow. We're motion.

Amanda Miller: 0:45

Our mission is creating generational prosperity, one family at a time. And we do that through financial empowerment, education and career development education. We touch on a lot of topics on this podcast, everything connects with getting your money, right. So we've got a solid episode for you today. But before we jump in, yeah, so here comes me with my fun fact information time. Yeah. All right. So

Unknown: 1:20

did you know it was illegal to own only one guinea pig in Switzerland, you have to purchase two because they are an animal that needs companionship and Company. Oh, the country does not allow you to purchase less than two at a time. So I didn't know that. And I love it in the queue. And all of these, our American guinea pig owners, I think it's time for us to really need to make a change. Make a change and think about if you have a solo guinea pig. They're probably sad. They're probably said a wheel is not enough. Yeah, and they need a friend. Maybe Maybe this is why guinea pigs in America have such short lifespans. Oh, yeah. Don't they do though? Don't I feel like they die all the time. Oh, yeah. My guinea pig guy. Um, well, I will say that is the rule at most like feed stores. For chickens. Chicks. baby chicks can't just buy one. Usually you have to buy two or more. Oh, yeah, it says, according to BackRub five to seven is the lifespan of a guinea pig. The lifespan is longer than many other small pets such as hamsters, gerbils, mice, or rats, all of whom live up to a few years only. Okay, all right. That's me. Yeah, I just felt like a pet for me. No, not the pet for me. That's kind of sad. But yeah, if it is the pet for you, make it a pet for to. Um this is a this one I thought was kind of cool. So people are more creative in the shower. Yep. Than you are like just at work or in your car or anything else. The reason for that is one the shower provides a safe and relaxed or calming space. Um, it also relieves endorphins, the same that like exercise, or music or things like that. It makes sense. It makes sense also, because like there has there's, there's like a level of clarity and focus in the shower because like, you're not multitasking. Like, you're kind of you're, you know, you're kind of doing what you're doing. Now. I wonder, Sharon, I think of like, is there a market for? Like in shower whiteboards? Or like a mike Porter, like Yeah, like a note taker? Like if you're very creative in the shower, are you are we losing a level of creativity to non written down or recorded shower? Thoughts? I think we need to take this one offline because we may need I will try depending dollar idea. Patent Pending. Calm down what would we call that? Oh, let's come up with a quick name. Okay. So what will we call it? Ha Would you say I said shower thinking that's not good? That was bad. Shower thoughts, shower power, power, thoughts, thoughts of the shower shower. I like shower thoughts, shower thoughts. Shower us with your thoughts could be our slogan, that's what's on the box. All right, again, patent pending. So let's just hold down. This isn't taking notes yet. That's all I had for today's episode. I love it. Well, so we learned a couple of things. Everything. You know, many, many animals need companionship guinea pigs are no different. So if you are going to have a pet have a guinea pig, as Sarah said, make it a pet for two. And also write down those shower thoughts. You might be having million dollar thoughts while you're lathering your hair, and we're losing them, we're losing them to the drain. Wasted thoughts down the drain. Don't be insane. And let your thoughts go down the drain, get shower thoughts where we turn we turn your shower thoughts thoughts into a reality we're into reality. So, you know what? I think this I think this loosely kind of lends into what we're talking about today. Yeah, today we're talking about, you know, starting where you are. So our main topic today is, you know, there's there there's a thought process or a thought block, I think that we get into as, as humans, I hear it all the time I hear it with individual clients and just individuals in general, in workshops, and, and things like that, where, you know, people really have this block of all start when, right I'll start when I hit this certain level, when when I'm making six figures, I'm gonna start investing when I'm, when I buy my my own home, then I'm going to start a garden. You know, it's always like, I'll start when and, you know, I've always loved the saying of tomorrow never comes. But I found a quote in in my reading and research for this episode, where it's an Arthur Ashe quote. So Arthur Ashe is a three time Grand Slam winner. So he's in the Hall of Fame for tennis. He was born in 1943, in Richmond, Virginia. And this is potentially possibly one of his most famous quotes, but it is start where you are, use what you have. Do what you can. And, you know, I think there's something to be said I chose this quote because I think there's something to be said about, you know, someone like Arthur Ashe even if you're not a tennis fan, you know, you didn't follow his his career or your you don't, you know, kind of have a big knowledge base on him. I think it's safe to say that him being a black tennis player, born in 1943, in Richmond, Virginia, he probably experienced some challenge growing up, right that era, that time that timeframe, the sport that he chose, and but you know, one of the quotes that he's famous for, for being known for it start where you are, use what you have and do what you can. Right. And I think the idea that like tomorrow, it never comes and we lose we lose a lot of great ideas to the shower drain, right? Because we're waiting until until this happens until unready here. And so you know, I know we kind of jammed jammed on this like last week when we were just kind of talking about it in general and there are a lot of different areas where we're this is reality but you know what, like what comes to mind for you and when we talk about or when you when you first think about starting where you are and don't letting not letting the the lack of whether it's knowledge or tools or or whatever it might be stop you from from starting. Yeah, I think we we did talk a lot about this and there's a few like so many different areas in your life. I feel like this can apply to you You know, I think we talked about education, planning for retirement, you know, starting, you know, meditation meant getting your mental health together. You know, personal growth, so many things. And I think it's, you know, it's really easy for people to say, Oh, I'm going to start that one, just like you said, I'm going to start that when I have more time. But I have more money. But what are you doing in order to get to the, the ability to have that more time and have that more money like, these? This is part of getting there? Yeah. I think it's scary. You know, a lot of times it's fear. Yeah, I think it's probably mostly fear, yeah. And then fear, because of knowing and not knowing, and knowing that you're going to have to make a sacrifice, and then it's going to be hard of not knowing how long, you're gonna have to make that separate sacrifice to see the benefits, or to get to the outcome that you want. So, I think, you know, those are kind of always the things that kind of prevent us from starting, I love. I love that you just said, I'm just looking something up really quick. I love that you just said it's the fear of knowing and not knowing. There's a saying, and, you know, I can I paraphrase it typically, but I was looking it up, so I could kind of try and share it correctly. So if you say Better the devil you know, or Better the devil, you know, than the devil, you don't know, you mean that you would prefer to have contact with or do business with a person you already know, even though you don't like them, rather than a person that you don't know. So this is like a British saying, and it's also been kind of adopted in, in reality, you know, and not just doing business, I learned this, I learned this term, and I used to, I used to use it actually, when I was in sales. And because there's a fear of change, that that's inherent and someone can, you can be doing something that's not working for you, right, it's not, it's not reaping the benefit that you want, it's not giving you the return on investment, and whether that investment is time, whether that investment is energy, whether that investment is is your spirit, your soul, whatever it is, it may not be reaping you the the return that you want. But the fear of doing something different, is scarier than the comfort of continuing to do what is not for you. And so we have as humans a tendency to just continue to do the thing that's not working, and not getting us the results that we want. Because of that fear of doing something different. So I love the way you put that Sarah, of it's a fear of knowing and not knowing, right, like, I know that I'm going to have to make a change. I know it's going to be different, but I don't know exactly what it's going to look like. And so, yeah, you know, just leave it away from me. Yeah, yeah. I mean, they feel like that can be so simple. And it can be so big, you know, this can be something is simple as I want to start to exercise more, which actually can be really big for some people. So I don't want to downplay that. Or, you know, just picking up some kind of a healthy habit to like planning to get a promotion or get to a different level in your job or your career or owning a business or whatever, you know, yeah. So I think it's also just kind of, I don't know what I was reading up on a little bit and just found some things that people kind of, say are, like, good to, like, do they like steps to do while you're trying to get to those goals or make, you know, make a start in anything, whether it's a habit you're trying to change or Yeah, nap or whatever. And one of the biggest things, I think, is to just be realistic. Because Blue, make these you know, even if you're going I don't mean not to, like have a big dream, or have big goals, but just make attaining those goals realistic. We've talked about this and in other podcasts or in our other episodes as well. Yeah, a little bit just but, you know, if you have if your goal is that you want to start getting more connected, you know, with your spiritual self, whether that means or you know, mental, mental and spiritual, whether that means you want to start doing yoga, you want to start meditating or you want to start seeing a counselor. Get the get your money, right podcast is brought to you by forward motion. At forward motion, our mission is creating generational prosperity, one family at a time, you can learn more at forward motion az.org We're a nonprofit organization. So to support our cause, you can make a donation at forward motion az.org/donate. Again, forward motion az.org/donate. Now, back to the show, counselor, um, maybe not saying you're going to do this every day or every week, but finding specific time every other week that you are able to commit to this in starting there, you know, so it's kind of like small things like that. Yeah. Man, I so there's, there's a book this book has been, has been taken. And, you know, read, reread, interpreted reinterpreted. There are, you know, so many other people who have created books that are loosely or even very hardly, based on this book, the book is called the compound effect, and it's by Darren Hardy. And the compound effect is, so this is a formula, folks. So write this down, write small, smart steps. Repeated over time, equals success. Right? So small actions, plus time, small actions repeated plus time equals success, right? And I always say success is boring. You know, when it's funny, you know, like, doing the podcast doing this podcast, it's super fun, right? When we're, when you're, when you're on it, it's fun. But the effort and everything that goes into building it, though, very rewarding. It's it's kind of mundane, right? There's research, there's reading, there's writing outlines and things like that. Things that it's like, oh, man, you know, I thought when I work for myself, or when I do something, you know, different, no one's going to tell me, you know, what time I need to show up to work? And it's like, no, they're not going to tell you, but you're going to tell you, right? And so success is boring. So that's, you know, that's a an Amanda idiom, you know, write it down, put it somewhere. But so small, Smart Choices, plus consistency plus time equals success, or a radical difference. That's the compound effect. And there is an example. There's an example in the book and it goes into quite a bit of detail, but it talks about, there were two different people right there were there was two friends. And they were both going to start a, a health journey. And one friend, you know, really wanted to focus on like intensity, right? And is like, I'm going to, I'm going to change in changing my whole diet. I'm not eating any of this, I'm getting up every single day, I'm gonna, you know, do pedal to the metal, right? And so that's the kind of the thought process on the on the flip side is like, Okay, well, this other person said, Well, I'm gonna get up every day, and I'm gonna go for a one mile walk, whatever it is. The intense friend ran out of steam, right, month two, and it was like, This is too much, it was too radical, there were too many changes, and it's not sustainable. And stop. Now, a year goes by, right 365 days, the friend who made a small smart choice, was able to continually repeat that one mile walk, get up in the morning walk for, you know, a few blocks around my neighborhood, come home and then go about my day. This friend ended up having a radical health change. Right? While it's like okay, well, if, if the other person would have been able to keep up that big radical change, yeah, they probably would have, you know, far surpass the other. But the reality is, is that that's not and I'm like, totally paraphrasing this story. So if if you read the book, read it. This is this is what I what I got from it. But you know, if but the one friend who who decided to do things simply, consistently and on a, arguably a smaller scale, was actually able to do it consistently. And, and therefore was able to get it done. There's another book called atomic habits, right? And it talks about getting 1% Better Every day, right, you don't have to flip your whole life on its head, you just want to be 1% better every day. And that's, that's where, you know, starting starting where you are kind of, kind of comes from. And when. So, yeah, I sorry, no, go no, go ahead. Um, part of what you were saying kind of reminds me of, you know about the book that you were talking about the compound effect. It's like, it's you don't have to have, it's not an all or nothing. What attitude when you're coming into, you know, starting somewhere, start whatever that whatever the journey is that you're trying to start with, it's not like, I'm going to do it. All right now perfectly this time, when I'm going to put 1,000% effort in it. It's okay, this is where I want to get to, what can I contribute to that goal right now? And starting there, and then it slowly compounds, as it's almost natural, like if you just slowly start being able to do more, make more progress? Because you've, you have started? Yep. Um, because once you so if you I'm sorry, I didn't mean to No, no, I have, I'm gonna look up this quote, it's a magnet I have on my fridge, but I don't want to go run in there. And I feel like it goes really good. But talk cool. So. So when you think about it, you have the person who, you know, decides to take a walk every day, what's going to happen? So you, you walk a mile every day, and then what you know, you're gonna start having more energy, right, you're gonna start feeling a little bit better, and then you're gonna, you know, probably make smaller, smarter choices with what you're eating, then you're gonna say, Man, I have all this energy, I walked a mile, you know, I'm just gonna keep going a little for today. Right? And, and little bit by little bit, that that smart, small choice that you're making, begins to turn more and more and more into into positive, positive outcomes? And I think it also, so did you find your quote? Um, no, I think it's like, it's by Eleanor Roosevelt. And I think it's something like the way to begin is to begin something very simple like that. And I don't want to misquote her. And I'm having a hard time on my own. After the show, we can put it in the show notes. And I just feel like, you know, there's, it's so true, there's no way to ever start or get somewhere if you don't take that first step. And if you always wait until the time is right, you're very rarely going to actually do anything, right. Man, that's, that's so true. And I think it also leads, you know, really well into just doing what you said you were going to do, even when you have limited funds, limited time. Because like, if you're not, if you're not doing and stewarding or conducting or handling your money, your time, your energy, your spirit, if you're not doing that, well. When you're not on the mountaintop, the chances of you be given when you get to the mountaintop are really, really low. And so I actually wrote, I wrote a blog post last month, and it's called how slowing down helps you go farther. And I want to read a little excerpt from it. And I'll put the link in the notes as well. But so it's talking about how kind of making small choices or small changes and kind of slowing down how it's been linked to, to more to better decision making more effectiveness more productiveness and so I'll give you an example. So you may have seen a meme like this and what it is, is it's like it's the million dollar morning. Right and it's like 5am Wake up 530 Exercise 6am Shower 615 Meditate 630 Read 7am Breakfast 715 set three goals 720 work. So that's a lot. It's a lot it sounds like a lot right? But if you think about it also, no matter how many of these that you that you see and how many like articles that you read and a lot of interviews with whether they're you know, real estate, moguls or, or CEOs or small business owners. One of the like, Two of the things that that that I have seen over and over and over is meditation and reading. Now the meditate, it's 615 Meditate, right? So you take, you take a shower at six in the morning, and, or whatever time, right? You take it, you take your shower, and then 1520 minutes later, you take 15 minutes to meditate. Now there is a quote There is a quote about meditation. And I'm gonna find it, but you take, like, 15 minutes to meditate. And then, and then the reading, it's 630 Read to sit to seven o'clock. So it's a half hour of reading, you know, whether it's 30 minutes, whether it's 20 minutes, whether it's 15 minutes of reading. So these are both things that are slowing you down. Right? But can you you can imagine that if you meditate for 15 minutes a day, every day, you're going to be a lot more grounded, connected with yourself a lot more clear headed, right? If you paid for 30 minutes a day, you don't need books, that is all the time you spend scrolling on social media, you know, any form any platform on Instagram, Facebook, Google, I have tried to make it and it's not actually the style, I'm on still on an electronic device, but it doesn't go into like dark mode and I'm reading at so like when I lay down at night, I have started to try to not sit there and scroll and do whatever, that's my, I'm gonna read for my 10 or 15 minutes. It's not the whole 30. But you know, sometimes depending on how good the reading is, during the following Yeah, I might, you know, take a few extra minutes. But I have found that that has helped me, because I have no busy mind. Stress. Anxiety is like everybody, if you have a high stress job, you have a a very demanding you work in a very demanding field and health care, right. And so finding yourself is finding the ability, like you said, for my brain to just slow down and shut off. So I have started making that kind of something that I do least a few times a week, if not every night before I'm going to bed during the week. Yeah, but just enjoying to make those small changes. Yeah, and they're in their small habits, right? I'm reading, meditating, taking 10 minutes to offload your thoughts in a journal entry before you go to bed, right keeping, keeping a notebook on your bedside table so that when you have an idea or a thought that you're so scared, you don't want to lose it, you don't pick up your phone and get that blue light going in your face again, at night, you you can write it down real quickly. And then and now it's onto your mind, you can you can set you know, aside, sitting down and writing three goals for the day, every day. And you know, that can that can be a 45 second, a two minute exercise. But it's about stewarding your time really well. No matter what level of your life that you're in. Because these are habits that you want to, to to grow now and to nurture now. Because as you get more successful, or as you get more responsibility as you as you you know, get further in your career or further in your business or further in your, your financial journey or your personal life or whatever it is, you're not going to get less busy, at least not for a while, right? You're not going to get less busy and so you have to be really cognizant and really directed or determined the word I'm looking for is focus you have to be really yeah, let's we use focus. I can't think of the word for some reason it's escaping me but you have to be really specific with and diligent with your time and your energy and getting those those practices in early. There's there's a quote and it says it's something along the lines of You should meditate for 20 minutes every day. Unless you're too busy. Then you should sit for an hour. Right? If you're too busy to find 20 minutes a day, to be with yourself and to meditate, then you need to meditate for an hour right because because our priority knees are probably a little bit wonky, and we're probably living in, in a in a, in a high stress body at the time, right. So I've always loved that quote, because I'll try and convince myself sometimes in the morning when, you know, I get up and I'm like, Okay, I've got all these things to do, I need to sit down and meditate for a few minutes. I'm like, I don't have time for that, whoa, okay. I'm gonna make time I gotta make I gotta make time for that. Right? This podcast has been brought to you by forward motion, our mission is to create generational prosperity, one family at a time, visit us at forward motion az.org on Instagram, at forward motion AZ, or on YouTube, at moving forward, one family at a time, time for that, right. And, um, you know, one of the things that I hear a lot, especially with working with, like individual coaching clients, when you know, because when it comes to financial coaching, when it comes to kind of that journey, there's so much that goes into it besides the money piece. And one of the things that I hear quite a bit is, I can't meditate, because I can't sit still for five minutes, or I can't turn my brain off. Or I can't stop thinking or it's just not my thing. So I kind of challenged folks, you know, with, you know, information like a joint study on meditation, and how it affects areas of the brain responsible for decision making, and thought processing. So helping you think better and be more effective. Right, so I'm reading again, from from my blog post. So it found that initial results suggest that meditation may be associated with structural changes in areas of the brain that are important for sensory, cognitive, and emotional processing. And I did link the full study and analysis. And it's it's basically like science is starting to catch up with what a lot of folks who, you know, advocate for, for this type of slowing down practice, have been saying for decades, hundreds of years, whatever science is starting to catch up. And it's in, they've actually done studies where they've hooked up, you know, in looked at brainwaves brain activity, and there's a lot that that says, Yes, you know, meditation actually does benefit this. And so it's not necessarily that we're, we're here just, you know, advocating for meditation. But that's one of the things, you know, another piece that that that I hear a lot is, well, you know, I don't I don't have any money to set aside for, for savings or for investment. Now, I, there are folks who are in situations that are so dire, that that is true. Absolutely. And I do not want to negate that, especially, you know, in the work that we do at forward motion, I do see that a majority of the time. What it is, is that we should change that sentence to I don't have the amount of money that I think would be effective, to start to invest or to start to save or to start looking at my retirement. And what I tell people is, I don't care if it's $10 a week, I don't care if it's $15 a month, I don't I don't care what that number is, but you need to do it consistently. Because if if you can't save half a percent of your income for yourself, and for your future, when you're making 4030 $20,000 a year will$20,000 Maybe White might be real dire. But you know, if you're making 40,000 or $50,000 a year, and you can't save half a percent or 1% of your income for yourself. Now, do you think you're going to be able to do that when you're making 100 $200,000 a year? Probably not. Right? Those bad habits that that you're building are going to build right into the next stage. And so you have to start where you are and be a good steward or good manager of your time, your energy and your money now, because it's not it's not going to be you're not going to experience any difference later down the road if you don't. Absolutely. I think there's a couple ways to do that too. Like one thing I was doing, you know, it's like it's really good to always kind of think of something that motivates you that you You're because that's gonna help you, push you give you that drive to get you to the next step. And you got to, you know, you're gonna want to, obviously you're kind of trying to plan and you can, you can adjust your plan. So you should like maybe track your progress within anything that you're doing, you know, it's, it's always good to kind of check in with yourself so that you can see, like, Okay, I started here, it may have been small, I may have only been doing my $10 a week, but that I went from doing$0 a week to $10 a week. And now three months later, I'm gonna look back and see how much I've saved. Okay, and that's gonna probably motivate you to want to keep going and then maybe look at where you can make some adjustments to save a little bit more now. Yeah, you know. So just things like that, even just if your journey is weight loss, you know, it's really easy to get discouraged because of where you're already at. And, and you may not want us, you know, it's not always a scale number. It's a lot of times it's more about measurements and things like that what depending on what your goals are, but how you're feeling? Yeah, how you're feeling physical body feels, yeah. How do you feel? You look? How do you feel your when you look in the mirror? Yeah, what do you mean that self image. So maybe it's a journal, maybe it's tracking, you know, every month, on this day, you're checking, you know, your weight, or you're taking measurements, because you if you are being consistent with even the smallest steps, you're gonna start seeing a change and a difference. And that's only going to motivate you more to keep getting to that goal you're looking for. And you and you have to recognize and you have to appreciate those changes. Yes. Right. Because like, yeah, like, like you said it, it's, if you're being consistent, you are going to see changes. The question is, though, there are a couple of things like, are you getting caught up in the hype of someone else's journey? Yes, don't compare yourself to someone else. It's great to have a goal. Because I don't, there's I'm gonna branch off a little bit, it's great to have a goal because you want to it maybe you're basing that on the people that you're surrounding yourself with. And it's good to surround yourself with people. Amanda says this all the time, like, you're gonna surround yourself with people that are in the same boat as you all the time, and you're not going to try and you know, surround yourself with people that are doing the things that you want to do or where you want to be, you're probably not going to get to that. As far as you want to go. Yeah, right. But you, it's all about, you know, where you're at, in that potluck, taking the time and where you're at, in that progress. Yeah. And about for you, not for, like, so be motivated by other people, but then identify where you're at, and how you're going to make it to the next level, not where somebody else says that everybody has different. You know, it's, what's the word I'm looking for? Opportunities and, yeah, you know, different sources and experiences in life that yeah, that gives them different opportunities and put them in different places. You can't always compare yourself to somebody else. You just have to, you know, and what a lot of times what a lot of times we don't see is what you typically see and especially, you know, talking about, especially talking about, like social media, you know, I'm, I'm kind of in like the, the financial world and they're, they're, you know, started to be a lot of like, financial celebrities, right? You know, you've got like, earn your leisure, you've got the budget nista you've got you've got a budget mom and you know, if you follow some of these people on IG or Facebook or you know, you got Rory D something on on Twitter and stuff. What you see is the blow up, you see there blow up. But what you're not seeing is someone who did something day in and day out over the course of 510 12 years, and then got their big break. And now you see them you know, the Wall Street Trapper is a great example, right? This this man, you know, he went to prison. He was in prison for like 10 years. While he was there. He started learning about the stock market. He got out he started actually investing in and really learning the Stock market, then he started teaching it to others. And then recently over the past, like, you know, since COVID, over the past couple of years, he's he's really blown up. But it's like, Man Sky's got almost a million followers. And he's really blown up. And you know, he's, you know, I don't know if he's a millionaire or not, but he's like, he's got, you know, a lot of money. He's talking to Rick Ross and Mark Cuban and having this conversation, it's like, what you're seeing is their blow up, you're not seeing the small, smart, consistent action day in and day out over a long length of time. And what we compare ourselves to, you know, you compare your chapter one to their chapter 10. And that's not fair to you. Right? Like, that's not and that's not going to motivate you, you got to compare. There's a saying, where it's like, there's a you have the past that wanted to be where you are today. And you have to be able to look back and realize there's a there's a past me, there's a me of the past that is like, man, check out where you are, right? Like, I'm not necessarily where I want to be ultimately, right. But man, or you've come him years ago, me would look at me today and be like, man, like, all right, you know, and yeah, we were no, no, we were just talking about that the other day with even stuff as simple as how you're able to, financially and or just emotionally react in like a stressful situation or a situation that gives you a hiccup, like, your car battery going out your flat tire on the side of the road. Yeah, you know, I'm getting my car hit at the airport, either. And being in your car like that was like that, you know, like, Oh my God. Yeah. So how am I going to figure this out? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there would have been a lot of more tears, anger, and issue of fine, you know, financial issue of how it was gonna eat, how I was even going to afford to get it taken care of. And this been me 10 years ago. Yep, no, so you have to take those. And I'm definitely not where I want to be. Financially, I'm just starting this journey with forward motion and everybody else here, you know, I am just starting to get a good handle of my finances and goals on where I want to be. And I'm almost 35 So you just have to look at where you've come, but I've come a long way from there, you know, so yeah. Yeah, it's like I was I actually made a tic toc. Because I was like, I was you know, call it having a financial aha moment because I was at Costco. And my battery died. While literally while I was in the line waiting in this, you know, if you get gas at Costco, you know, that like that line can get long. And I'm like in the line, and I'm waiting for my turn. I'm like five cars back from the pump. And you know, my car has that thing where if you press on the brake, the engine shuts off, you know it to save gas and then turns back on. I guess my battery was had been low and my engine did the shut off thing and then it didn't have enough power to turn back on. So now my so my battery's dead. I'm sitting in the Costco parking lot, and I'm like, seriously? Okay. But then I sat back and I recognize that like, this is an inconvenience. This isn't a life ruining month ruining financial situation like this. It's an it Yeah, it's like it's an inconvenience, like, I really wanted to take my new shoes home and you know, like, I finally did something nice for myself, bought myself some new shoes and now I'm sitting in a Costco waiting waiting for an Uber like, you know, I was able to call an Uber to pick me up like years. I remember my Cadillac, my ran out of gas on it ran out of gas on the freeway on this where the where the 10 turns into the 60 going east. I was on the freeway right behind the Tempe Butte. So like where you have the Angel Stadium the Tempe view for the hotel is I ran out of gas right there. And I literally had to get out of my Cadillac. climb that mountain. back down the mountain and walk to the house in the colder sack on 48th Street and brochure to get help to get gas to go to get like a gallon of gas to go get driven. It was a disaster right? For a while, but like If there was no, there was no way that I could have afforded to get, you know, a taxi at the time or, you know, I didn't have to take the bus. And so really just kind of sitting back. And I also love the saying of the time will pass anyway. Right? If you say, I'm going to start this thing, okay, well, in six months, I'm not going to be at my goal. And it's like, yeah, but six months of your life will have passed and you'll be either six months closer to your goal, or you'll be right where where you were, when you decided not to start? You know, the time will pass anyway. And, man, I think that's, that's one that really, really sits with me. Yeah, because that's exactly right. It's the time is gonna go by? And what are you going to be able to say that you did or didn't do to help yourself? No, no, sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you. No, that's it. I was just gonna say I mean, if we're not going to help ourselves. Who is? Right? And so when you think about starting where you are, with what you have, and just doing what you can, you know, it really, really comes down to to that because, you know, I look personally at like, where, where my investment portfolio is today. And I always remember, and you guys who listen consistently, you'll probably hear me drop this a few times, because I always remember that one stock, one single share for $45 that I bought. And it was terrifying, right? And I still remember, you know, starting to saying, you know, what I'm going to start having, I think it was like $25 from each check, taken and put into this savings account. And I'm just going to start doing that. And okay, so that's $50 a month, no big deal. Like, that's not going to save my life. But then what ended up happening was I have that habit. And so then when I was able to I was like, oh, instead of 25 a check, I'm actually gonna raise that to 100 a check. I'm, I'm in a position that I can do that, right. This podcast has been brought to you by forward motion. Our mission is to create generational prosperity, one family at a time, visit us at forward motion az.org. Or, at forward motion AZ on Instagram. Our YouTube channel is moving forward one family at a time. Thank you for listening, not have the money to take the course. But have you gone and checked and see, are there any free courses on? What is it like Udemy? Or? I wrote Coursera? You know, I mean, even there's community centers, in your areas that are sometimes either offering free to low costs a lot of things since everything went to zoom with COVID? Yeah. A lot of those are like discounted, and you can do them right from the comfort of your own home. Yeah, there's so many different resources when it comes to not having the money to like learn a skill or do something, you know, providing scholar like forward motion offer scholarships for your move forward. We've got our move forward conference coming up on April 30. Right, the move forward conference is the first of its kind. We have experts in financial education, home buying and and real estate, executive coaching, wealth building, through through insurance. So like life insurance, right? rich folks, rich families have been using life insurance to build wealth for decades. And it's actually one of the biggest kept or best kept secrets in wealth. We have a nutrition coach coming in, from you know, fuel nutrition, we've got just a lot of great resources. It's a full day event. The reason that I started this event was because in my in my experience in my career, and in my life I've had access to through my career, I had access to a lot of coaching and and conferences, where like minded people come together and have workshops and learn things and get an opportunity to, to talk to one another and ask questions and things like that. And I recognized that these experiences and things that I'm having access to are missing from the community and unless you have you know, whether it's a lot of money or a an organ As a nation that is willing to spend $1,000 or $5,000, or you know, $500 to send you to these things, you miss out on them. And, and it's a, it's an opportunity that, that people who really need it aren't getting, but rich folks are getting a lot of and people who are in really, you know, high, high jobs in, in their careers are getting a lot of. And so that's what the move forward conference is all will will tag all the information for the conference, in in the notes here. But, you know, I made the cost $57, right. And we have scholarships available for for those who need it. But we have a lot of high brow experts coming in to share their experience and knowledge in their fields. And they're doing this because they believe in, in in the mission and they believe in what is needed in society. And so that's a way to start where you are and really gain really gain the, you know, information and knowledge in order to take things to the next step. And, yeah, yeah, it's gonna be it's gonna be a really, really great experience. So, you know, one thing I So, in the end, what we're basically talking about right now is setting up the good habits. When when you think about, like, setting up good habits now. Because if you procrastinate until the time you think you're going to be in a better position to do the thing. When you are in that better position, you're probably not going to do the thing, because it's not a habit that you have already. Yeah, it takes I'm, I read on average on BackRub that it takes 66 days to make a new habit. So that might sound like a long time. It's not that long, but also know that you have to give yourself time. You can't like that's that's the other thing here. Like, don't rush it don't expect it to happen overnight. That's that's part of the whole, you know, starting where you're at. And give yourself yeah, that's such a such an important note that you just means there like it's not going to happen overnight. Nothing happens overnight. And in the in the world that we live in, we live in a we live in, like in an informational, a huge Information Society, right? Everything's at our fingertips, what like three or four times in the show, Sara said something that sparked my mind. And I just, you know, went and searched it like, and I think Sarah, you did the same thing a couple of times, right? So like it, we live in this in this world where there's so much information at our fingertips, and we're constantly seeing everyone else's best moments. Because that's what's being shared. People share their best moments, they share the most exciting things, they share the come ups, they share, you know, the blow up the glow up, that's what they share. They share the happy times. No one's gonna post about the fight they just had with their spouse or their family. You know, no one's gonna post about how they just didn't get the promotion. They weren't going to, you know, people aren't posting about the, the contract that they lost, or posting about that. They're, you know, it's happening. It's happening. No one's posting about the 10 contracts, they didn't get right on the path. They're posting about the one that they did, right? Um, it's like, upon each other, yes, comparing yourself or feeling jealous. And use that as motivation if that's what motivates you, you know, but, like, that's one of the biggest things, and I'm guilty of it at times myself. We all are. Yeah, comparing yourself to others. It's not gonna get you any further in your journey. It's not going to help you mentally emotionally. No, yeah. Yeah. It's so true. I think, you know, we're all we're all guilty of it. I'm guilty of it. Right. You know, I I see things where it's like, Man, I wish you know, I wish I had, you know, this huge in like real estate portfolio and it's like, okay, well, you have to start somewhere. And then you have to do things over and over and over in order to get there. No one starts with 100 doors. And folks who do start with 100 doors, probably had a really big leg up from a generational wealth standpoint where they didn't, they weren't starting from from the bottom or starting from scratch, right. And so that's the other piece that you have to think of, you know, one of the things that we say it forward motion is the best time to move forward is right now. And when when you're creating generational wealth, when you're creating generational prosperity, and you're the starting point, you're that catalyst, you have to remember that you don't have you know, generations of, of decisions behind you that have that, that have you in a position where you can just snap your fingers and make, you know, the next great move. Like if you're the catalyst, if you're the starting point, it's going to be hard, right? It's going to be it's going to be tough, there are going to be times when it's not going to be fun, exciting, you're going to like I don't know about you, but like, I'm going to cry, right? Like, you're, you're going to, you're going to be sad, you're gonna you're gonna miss out on going on trips, or doing certain things that you want, buying something that you want, yeah, you know, you're gonna be eating at home a lot more than going out to eat, maybe you know, things like that. I'm using your strengths. So like, yeah, you maybe you don't have money behind you, maybe that's not what, you know, what you have as a resource. But you've got drive, and you've got motivation. And you You know, sometimes we just credit our life skills from you know, navigating just through hard times, and where we've come and looking at those and seeing how you can utilize that or how you can take any marketing advantage. Yeah, you know, it's yeah, it's not always going to be money, but you might be a really, really good at talking, you might be very motivation, you might be really good at saving already, you might be really good at grinding, you know, just having working really hard, you know, for people who don't know what grinding means. vocabulary word of the day, grinding. We might just showed our age. If you didn't get that you're probably a Gen Z or Gen. X or are we in Gen Z? No. X, Z. and Y, Z. Z Z's at the end, right. He's at the end. I think that's where we're at. I don't know. Does that mean we start over? There's we know what happens next. This is gonna take us on another. Yeah. This an hour long more podcasts. Next episode, navies are making a comeback episode. Yeah, name that song. Name that to next episode. So Oh. And it's the little things right? Like, I always say, you may not have, you know, you may want to go back and get your degree and you may not have the, you may not be in a position to do it. You know, maybe, maybe you're maxed out on Pell Grants, maybe you're in a place where it's like, Okay, I can't, you know, it's not in my budget right now. And I need to figure out how to get there. But like, there are websites like edx.org edx.org, where you can like take courses from Harvard, Berkeley, University of Texas System, Boston University, University of Maryland, MIT, you can take courses, now you're not going to get a degree for it, because you're not technically enrolled. But that doesn't mean you don't you're not gaining the knowledge, knowledge. Right. And that's, and we're in, we're in a, in a, in a point in our society, where I mean, you know, people like Elon Musk, Love him or hate him, you know, he's, he's been a big outspoken person about our current school system, our current educational system. And there are a lot of businesses, entrepreneurs, CEOs, leaders of organizations that are just not putting as much stock in your degree, as your experience and as in as your knowledge and not at all saying that degrees are not useful or but but in some way they are Yeah, and some, some education is better than the no education and some life experience is just as transferable as education. So it's just knowing. Yeah, cuz it's like they're just I mean, I'm just like, oh, like six sigma, six, sigma, analyze, improve control. There's a Six Sigma course I mean, this Is this type of this six sigma is a, a way of annal analyzing and it's used in, in running businesses in, in all kinds of areas, especially in like analysis and productivity departments in companies, it's like, you can take a free Six Sigma course, you can take a free introductory to programming course, analyzing data with Excel from IBM, Berkeley, the foundations of, of happiness at work that goes into like, HR, right? Marketing Management. They're all I'm just looking through some of these courses here. You know, exercising leadership, foundational principles, strategies for online teaching and learning. And these are all courses that are put together by accredited universities that if you have the want to learn this, and you say, You know what, I'm going to go and I'm going to do this, and I'm going to learn it and then I'm going to talk be able to talk about it. When I'm, whether it's your in your entrepreneurial journey, whether you're going and looking at getting a promotion at work, or moving into a new role, you can take these and these are now marketable skills that you can, um, that you can share, like, Hey, I know this now, right? So I'm, you know, we're not sponsored by by this, this website, or this tool, and all but it's things like this right Coursera, the Google has, has created, you know, their Google certificate program. And I think those Google certificates if I, if I remember correctly, they are the Google Search certificate program they have in project management, user experience, design, and, and IT support data analysis, analytics, and Android development. And the pricing on these is like $300, or something like that. And then they help they're supposedly have a network where they help you get into these roles that are in higher pain type roles. By having these by having this certificate. And so it's about learning these different things. And understanding what is it that I can do from where I am today? In order to move closer to where I want to be? Not all or nothing, right? You talked about, it's not an all or nothing game, right? It's not a zero sum game. There's a lot that you can do from where you are. And the way to get there is is to start from start where you are, yeah, work with what you have and do what you can. Exactly right. Wow, I this is a really, really good, great topic. I, I love, you know, the ideas that go behind just starting, it's like you said, you know, we'll we'll add that Eleanor Roosevelt. I'm pretty sure it's the way to begin is to begin. The other thing is just a few more things that I was really imagine your future. Imagine it because not only are you just like you want, like planning for it, but you want to imagine what you're planning for that will help you kind of get visualization. Visualization is huge. Reward yourself when you've made some small accomplishments, you know, don't again, and that kind of goes along with like, the all or nothing and it's not you know, I'm on a diet now. I can never have anything sweet. You know, like, all right, I made it to the school and you know, if you could never have anything sweet again in your life, you'd probably like me personally. Yeah, you personal I have issues. I've we have a problem. Yeah, I was sweet too, for sure. And then just again, be patient with yourself in your journey. Yep. Grace. Absolutely. And also, like, I love the I love the idea of rewarding yourself and think about what your rewards going to be. And set milestones for yourself so you have something that you're working towards, but don't make the like, okay, like, if you're, if you're saving if your goal is to save money, and get to a certain point, don't make your reward like I'm gonna buy a new boat or vacation, or boat. It's like okay, I've seen I've saved $300 I'm gonna go reward myself with a new shirt. At the store this no or something reasonable something reasonable, as long as you get a smart, like, dollar share I've saved $300 My reward is to spend 300 and doll hairs, like, be reasonable and be smart about it and, and make make a milestones. Like that's a big deal, right? Like if you have a big outlandish goal out here, what are some smaller steps along the way, right and let's let's do steps we'll go this way instead of going this way because most steps go down. Ascending, but what are some, what are some small milestones along the way that you can like, for me, a great reward might be just going for a two hour drive. Like that's a big reward for me, right? Like, I'm gonna have like, take time to myself, by myself. I'm gonna go and drive out to the river. Just get out and walk along the riverbank for a while. Think see some some round animals? Right? Yeah, do some grounding, right. But we think about who you are and what your rewards can be along the way. Batian Yeah, what is what's going to keep you energized and motivated along the way? That's definitely something that's super, super important. Yeah. Love it, man. Well, this has been really fun. So keep in mind that you can connect with forward motion at forward motion AZ on Facebook and on Instagram. Our YouTube channel you may have found this on YouTube if you found it on Spotify or Pandora or Stitcher or something like that. Our YouTube channel where you can watch. The podcast is moving forward, one family at a time on YouTube where you can get merchandise on our bonfire store and also on our Facebook page. And the proceeds for the merchandise does go to two back to forward motion in the form of donations through bonfire. You can donate we are a nonprofit 501 C three nonprofit organization you can donate at forward motion az.org/donate I am money manda so money dot manda on tick tock and we'll have in our show notes some of the resources that we talked about today. Outside of that, thank you for tuning in. Hopefully you enjoyed the episode, please rate. You know, give us give us some stars on Google podcasts or you know subscribe on Spotify on Google podcasts on on different places get rate at rate the show. It helps us to to continue to bring the show to you and to reach more folks outside of that. Thanks, guys. Yeah, thanks for being here. See you guys next time. Bye.