Lately, I have had a lot of people asking me how I created the life I live, a life of abundance!
So, I have been thinking and meditating on that this week and decided to share with you my story.
I grew up in a suburb of Chicago, in a middle class family. We moved a few times when I was a kid, did lots of sports and were able to travel quite a bit for competitions.
When I was 15 my parents divorced. I had a rocky relationship with both of my parents, after all I was a teenager and there were some major changes happening in my life.
I started dating my now husband on my 16th birthday. He was already out of school and I decided I would graduate early and get an early start on College.
My junior year in high school, I tool evening College courses and went to Summer school and graduated high school before my 17th birthday.
Not even a month after my 17th birthday, Dave and I moved into an apartment together and started to learn what it was like to be out on your own.
Now, I had already been working since a young age, but I didn't really have bills and neither did Dave. Shortly after we moved out, Dave lost his job and was struggling to find a new one. He had tried everything and often got turned down for being overqualified - talk about confusion. I was working 3 jobs and going to school. We had two dogs at home, that added to the stress. Dave and I were still kids, trying to figure this whole thing called Life out and that made for a rocky relationship.
We had our ups and downs, but always pushed forward. If it meant eating Ramen Noodles everyday of the week in order to make rent, we did it. No matter what got thrown at us, we were sure to always be on time or ahead on our bills.
Dave had worked in construction since he was 15, and eventually found a construction job working about 1.5 hours from where we lived. The company he worked for was a couple, and the wife owned a meeting/event planning company and needed an extra hand for a couple weeks. I went to work for her and by the end of the first day she hired me on full time.
Now we were both working 1.5 hours from home! Each morning we would get up at about 5am, drive together to their home office, I would go back to sleep on their couch for about an hour and Dave would head off to a job site. This lasted maybe 6 months and then we moved closer to work.
We still worked our tails off, often times working multiple jobs and I was also still taking classes at the community college on entrepreneurship.
Again, no matter what came up, we would power through it and figure it out. It could be a problem in our relationship, creating money, or even the decision to give one of our dogs to a new home because apartment life for a husky was just not fair.
In 2010 we started Cutting Edge Remodeling, and in 2012 we took a drastic leap of faith, huge risk and both quit our jobs of 7 years. We loved our jobs and the people we worked for, but we wanted to create something of our own, we had a vision of our life.
This was during the recession, times were tough, but it felt right, so we jumped in. 6 years later and we have a thriving business, that brings us opportunity and flexibility!
I could get into so many stories of the pain, struggles and challenges we faced, but this is about creating abundance, so how did we get to where we are today?
With a beautiful 10 acre farm, two thriving businesses, the ability to travel and surrounded by a community of people that fill our hearts!
Here are some tips that I have for creating abundance that helped us create the lives we want to live!
1.) Get Clear on What it is You Want! So many times we focus on what we don't want or don't even have a clear picture of what we do want. What we focus on grows, take time to write out, draw, or record what you truly want in your life, then focus on it, each and every day!
2.) Say Yes! Do you get stuck in always saying "No"? We hear it a lot as we grow up it almost become habit. Each time you say "No" you are missing out on an opportunity.
3.) Make a Plan! Write out your 10 year plan in intricate detail, where do you want to be a year from now, 5 years from now, 10 years from now.
4.) Take risks! Now, be smart and educated in those risks, but take them when they feel in alignment with your goals.
5.) Keep Learning! Take each opportunity, each risk and each challenge as an opportunity to learn. It is only failure if you do not take what you have learned and try again. "Failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success."
6.) Gratitude! Have a gratitude practice. Each night, I meditate on the things I am grateful for from the day. I thank God for all my blessings in my life. You can also have a gratitude journal where each day you write down 5 things you are grateful for. Find what works for you.
7.) Release and Empowerment! Take time to release negative emotions and beliefs you have around there not being enough - I like to do this in the morning - immediately followed by my empowerment practice. Create a vision board, a set of affirmations, or again something that make you feel empowered and abundant.
When we have a mindset of abundance and more than enough, we create that in our life and the universe responds. When we focus on scarcity and not enough, again, we create that and the universe responds!