Weekend Design & Wellness Project
Photo by: Harli Marten @harlimarten
Enjoy where you are in this moment. Count your money no matter how much or how little you have. It’s yours. Forget the debt for now. Look around you, do you have food, a place to sleep, people you love, a pet and a window? Be still with what you have and where you are. This practice will cultivate gratitude and growth will take place naturally. Be patience and kind to yourself.
Financial Wellness
Photo by: Pawel Czerwinski @pawel_czerwinski
Creating a financial plan is gobbledygook wrapped in gibberish to a right brainer. I cannot confess how many times I’ve called a financial institution and prefaced my call with an apology and a warning that they are dealing with a creative person, so they will need lots of patience.
Of course the goal is to be debt free, have an emergency fund, a retirement fund, investments, property(ies) and spend less than you earn, oh yeah, and don’t forget to pay yourself and donate a percentage to charitable causes. Did I get it all? It should have been imperative to learn healthy financial management in school. Sadly, it’s a life skill could save lives, literally. Going dark for a minute. Financial issues contribute to a high number of suicide deaths each year. We learn our money management skills from our upbringing. If our guardians had poor money management or used limiting terms such as; “we can’t afford that,” “what do you think I’m made of money,” or “money doesn’t grow on tree.” If you’ve heard any of those statements growing up and developed healthy financial habits, then you should be very proud of yourself. You broke a generational cycle that could have plagued your descendants.
The most important first step in creating financial wellness is to understand your relationship with money.
How it makes you feel, what does your inner voice say when the topic of money arises in conversations and how does money impact your life on a daily basis?
What words surrounding money did you hear as a child? Are your behaviors with money self-sabotaging or did you make a hard pact with yourself as a young person to create wealth and never worry about money?
Do you see money as an energetic exchange?
Writing out these answers will help to work through any residual mental money issues. The answers that come out on paper may surprise you and most likely expose some areas that need fine tuning on your financial planning. Financial wellness is a work in progress regardless of how much you currently have or not. Find gratitude for everything you posses in this very moment and know that your quality of life is not defined by your bank statements and upward facing arrows. It’s rich in the love you have for your family and friends and the memories created. Yes, money makes life easier, however, if you’re happy, you’re happy rich or poor.
MORE GOOD STUFF:
Financials for Creatives is a financial coaching website I found that deserves further exploring. I love how Jenny gears her financial coaching toward the creative entrepreneur.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 800-273-8255 available 24 hours.
Next Steps
Photo by: Jake Hills @jakehills
Taking the next steps in a design process can either be anxiety inducing or filled with new discoveries led by your intuition. Yes, intuition. I know you’re not fortune teller or a psychic, but all living organisms have intuition or spidey senses as I like to call them.
Choosing intuitive decision making over stressful, “what will Blankety Blank think of this,” will set your creative heart free. Your assumption of Blankety Blank’s opinion will only hinder your mental capacity to intuitively deliver an above and beyond final product.
HOW TO MAKE INTUITIVE DECISIONS:
STEP AWAY: After gathering all of the information needed to create a design plan, step away by being in nature or playing a mindless game.
THINK & PLAY LIKE A CHILD: Remember back to childhood and problem solving happened naturally. Grab some art supplies and draw, paint or dance to fun songs.
BE QUIET & BREATHE: This is a chance to create calmness through silence and meditation to begin to trust your natural intuition. You’ll know it’s working when you get that “yes” in your gut. This part may take some practice so be patient even if there is a deadline.
Listening to your intuition when making next step decisions will most likely lead to a success and some very happy people.
A Bit Further
Photo by: S O C I A L . C U T @ socialcut
Can you push just a bit further on your career, fitness or personal goals? Can you take one big stride to move past your comfort zone? How about walking or jogging until the next tree and then decided if you can make it farther to the next one. Before you know it, you will have exceeded your goal without stress or premeditated pressure. What “goalposts” can you push out a bit further to slowly increase your productivity? Imagine the sense of accomplishment you’ll have when you ease into the next level toward you achievements.
Maintenance & Growth
Photo by: Markus Spiske @markusspiske
Maintenance, plateaus and stillness between growth spurts are essential to every process.
Each of these phases provides opportunities for rest and changes to occur. Patience has a shining moment to be activated or cultivated. Trust in any process’ twists and turns will keep you present at each stage and open to for growth. Embrace all of the phases because the end game is comprised of the shortest lived segment of an entire process.