In our class at the high school there were three camps.
The nerds, the followers and the cool kids. We had a great class community and yet there was a kind of belonging to the individual groups. For the girls, there were the straight A’s who seemed to effortlessly pass every class assignment and always participated actively in class. There were the students like me, average grades, rather shy and unobtrusive. And then there were the “Cool Kids.” Female section, blonde, cute, flawless with dimples on their faces and the slightly punk-inspired, flashy haircut, casual clothes, at least three earrings. For the guys, the ones with always perfect hair and Lacoste polo shirt and the ones with washed out 80’s jeans and muscle shirt.
I remember working my mom for weeks until I finally got those stretch jeans so I could start to feel just a little bit cool.
Why am I telling you this? It’s normal and part of our primal instinct to want to belong to a community, because it used to be necessary for survival.
Today it is no longer like that and yet it is often still inside us. That we do things, use words, which we perhaps don’t think are so good. Because we think we have to, in order to belong.
That’s also the reason why most people don’t venture out of the familiar. Because it’s easier not to be different. Because it’s easier to do what the masses do. I used to do that all the time, always conforming, not stepping on anyone’s toes, not saying anything wrong. Until at some point I didn’t even know what was actually my opinion and what was what I was just parroting.
At some point I understood that every person is wonderful and unique in their own way, it doesn’t matter what others say, whether they think you’re cool or not.
This helped me incredibly later in building up my business. There are also those who only do business in a suit, the casual ones in a hammock or on a meditation cushion, and those somewhere in between.
My business, my rules.
Freedom is my highest value and I love it most that I have freed myself from many rules in business (how “one” does it) and run my business the way I want to run it, accompany wonderful people on their journey around money mindset and business building.
I would like to encourage you today to take a closer look at where you might not feel so comfortable anymore, to check-in what in your life really brings you joy from the heart and what you might have been doing until yesterday just to belong somewhere.
Change your Money Story
Change your Life
Yours deeply,
Beate