Written by: Brooke Anne Richey, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
When you find yourself in the mind space of millionaires and billionaires, but you yourself are in thousands of dollars of debt, you can’t help but think: “Okay. Something’s not adding up.”
And that’s 100% true, it’s not. So how did those people access their success? The better question: How do you access yours? How do you finally start doing what you want to be doing; what you love to be doing; what you need to be doing, to fulfill your purpose? There is a vague order of operations to getting there. It is somewhat linear, when you take a step back and looker closer at the bigger picture. Developing the confidence required to start practicing your calling really only needs one thing: less seriousness. Treat your career and life like a game of Catan (or chess, as it’s been explained by one of the millionaires mentioned in this article). In order to create the space for you to start playing, here are a few reasons why you haven’t been able to just yet; with some insights on how to start.
Reason No.1 You haven’t changed your brain
Bad news, good news. Your brain is the strongest force keeping you from doing what you want and keeping you where you don’t want to be. The truth behind the statement: “creatures of habit” comes from the way our brain functions. What your brain likes, is routine and predictability. So if you have been stuck in a cycle of negative thought-patterns for years, don’t beat yourself up. This is what your brain is programmed to do. Your brain is working just fine, it just needs new, positive thought-patterns to build from in order to get to where you want to be. What it can’t do on it’s own, is change that foundation of operating from a negative standpoint. That change, is up to you to work for. The question is, are you up to the challenge of shifting your focus from negative thought-patterns to positive thought-patterns, every time you recognize the negative, self-limiting thoughts? This probably means you’ll have to speak life into your own life — and this is exactly where so many of us find we are outside of our comfort zone. We are uncomfortable with the thought of nurturing our own happiness and successes.
The good news is, our brain can start to operate in a new way, in as little as 30 or 40 days of practicing a single activity or habit. Our brains are malleable. So long as we keep up consistency to implement a new practice or habit, we can change our brain to operate from a different foundation. The way to do this though is by taking small, progressively expansive steps out of your comfort zone, otherwise known as your default resource base. It’s like playing a game of Catan. Winning at this game all starts with a shift of focus. You might only have 3 resources in your hand. Instead of responding to those 3 resources as, “I can only do this” you respond with, “What can I do with them?”. To make that shift of the mind, you must release the focus from the negative, self-limiting thoughts. Not only will that way of living not win you the game, it’s also not very fun to play when you operate this way. This leads us to our next step.
Reason No.2 You need to let go of a former way of living
Hand in hand with changing your brain, is letting go of a former way of living that is incompatible with where you want to be. The easiest way to transition out of a former way of living is to take a closer look at the bigger picture. Redefine your life by focusing on your vision, not on your individual circumstances. It will even be easier to take care of any circumstances when you shift your focus in this way.
Here’s an example: you are in thousands of dollars of consumer debt, so you focus all your energy into saving money by spending less dollar amounts, finding deals, finding things for free, limiting your amount of play/fun/pleasure, etc. How do you think you got into debt in the first place? It was by living, exactly in this way. All you are doing is finding deals, limiting play/fun/pleasure by operation of a self-limiting mindset around your finances. Sure, if you can spend $4/gallon on gas instead of $6, by all means buy the cheaper gas. But if your focus is on the debt dollar amount and avoiding getting into further debt, you are inadvertently keeping debt in your life. This is simply because, that is your focus.
Now let's say instead of focusing on the debt dollar amount with a limiting mindset (circumstance), you focus on making more money with an expansive, growing mindset (vision). You look at your current resources and ask, “how can I multiply them?”. Now, you’re in a position to eliminate your debt and grow wealth, all because you freed up the grip on your circumstance in order to move forward past it.
Here’s another example: you live in a not-so-great apartment and neighborhood and you feel stuck, but you want to move elsewhere. It’s easier to just stay where you are because of the stress and pressures that come with moving house. Your bank account also doesn’t exactly reflect the flexibility to move, so it seems as if your circumstance is conveying that it’s not going to work. Here’s what you’re really looking at. You’re looking at an obstacle: that obstacle is temporary discomfort. If you can shift your focus to your vision though: a cleaner, safer, closer spot in proximity to your obligations, you’re then enabling yourself to take the steps necessary to move. Your circumstance, at least in this scenario, means nothing — it doesn’t have any power over where you end up. Your mindset alone holds that power.
It’s not easy to do, but we see people do it all the time. Other great thought leaders like Oprah, Brendon Burchard, Tori Dunlap, the list goes on…They didn’t get lucky to find their success. They had a vision, and they did not let go of it despite their circumstances. They left any former ways of living behind, by looking past the temporary discomforts in order to bring their visions into their realities. You can really do whatever you want, it just requires you are wholeheartedly committed to that vision. It requires you ease up the grip, get in the game and play with your life.
Reason No.3 You have yet to accept your calling and purpose, your true identity
The number one reason we might be inconsistent with commitment to our vision is that we are inconsistent with commitment to our true identity. Touching back to Reason 1; if you are uncomfortable with the thought of being responsible for your own success, you will only ever ride on the successes of others, or you will always rely on a crutch to do what you want or need. This keeping you slightly out of touch from stepping fully into your purpose. A “crutch” could be a 9-5 job that doesn’t at all feed into your purpose. It could also be a long-term relationship that has never felt like it’s held the space for you to be 100% authentically you. It could be a trend of moving house or moving jobs too frequently, so you don’t ever have to face being fully known by a group of people. You might do these things to avoid getting to know you.
Accepting our true identity is not the easiest thing to do, it comes with cost and sacrifice. When we find certain things (our crutches) don’t actually support our purpose, and that those are actually keeping our vision in the background, we come to a crossroads. We can continue on where we are, staying just out of touch of the fullness of our calling, or we can let go of what’s not supporting our true self. We can learn and transform through the next best step. In letting go, we get closer to our calling, or we are able to fill a need to continue to nurture it. It is work, and the task load of a transition can seem unbearable, just to get started with another shift to continue on our track.
However, accepting our true identity is also play. When you keep that element in any of your crossroad circumstances, what may seem heavy to embark on will have a lightness to it. You’ll find that you’ll receive the support you need, even from the places and people you may be leaving (or taking a break from) because you are all celebrating in “the next best step” — your next game move. The question here though is, are you up to the challenge of shifting your focus to the bigger picture — where the costs and sacrifices necessary for a transition, will look a little smaller, and feel manageable to navigate through to your purpose? Remember though, it doesn’t have to be too taxing.
Get started
In order to join the millionaires and billionaires that are saying and doing the exact same things as you anyways, you have to just get started. Something you can do right now to jumpstart your success is to get talking. Yes, vocalize your stream of consciousness with awareness of your bigger picture and let that guide you. To help you find the next best step, here is a link to my Release & Unlock Guide, full of prompts to exercise voice validation, and gain some clarity in developing your voice.
If you are looking for a bit more rigor, you can purchase my course, Pitch Your Voice, a 6-week program designed to curb your imposter syndrome through vocal development.
If you’d like specialized guidance in navigating to your purpose and calling, you can submit your interest to develop your voice directly with me here!
Let’s get vocal.
Brooke Anne Richey, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Brooke Richey is a leader in holistic vocal development. She is a 20-year singer, trumpet player and musical performer with a Master of Music in Film Scoring. Brooke inherited generational trauma at birth and later developed Complex-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder during her upbringing. At the age of 18 she experienced a major injury to her throat in a surfing accident. She overcame these things through the development of her voice through music. Brooke lives by the mantra, "never stop being curious" which has been a fundamental motor in moving her forward past unforeseen hardships. She is on a mission to develop and amplify the voices of those who did not have a choice.
