In this episode I explore the first of the five principles of a wealthy life: clarity.
Clarity is having an accurate understanding of what you want your future to look like, because only when you know what the end goal is, can you really put the actions in place to achieve it.
I discuss the steps you can take to get more clarity, and begin to understand what your wealthy life looks like.
I also show you through real life examples with my own clients, how no situation is no far-fetched, how no barriers need to stop you achieving your wealthy life.
So listen to the podcast and make sure you listen back to the past few episodes too, where I go into more detail about how I managed to retire at 48, and how you can too!
Links & Resources:
Highlights from this episode:
(00:58) A Return to Love by Marianne Williams
(05:00) Life is about you playing your biggest game
(08:59) Becoming the role model I want for my children
(14:00) Gratitude exercises
Has this podcast started you thinking about what A Wealthy Life might look and feel like for you? Why not spend another 3 minutes and take my online audit called Readiness to Retire Wealthy based on the five principles discussed in The Wealthy Retirement Plan book and episodes of this podcast? The assessment provides you with a personal score and report to help you take back control of your financial future – something business owners and employees both forget – but for different reasons.
Https://VickiWusche.com/Scorecard/
Connect with Vicki:
Visit my website to learn more
Booking calendar – https://calendly.com/vickiwusche
Browse Books by Vicki:
Using Other People’s Money: How to invest in property 4th edition
Make More Money from Property: From investor thinking to a business mindset 2nd Edition
Property for the Next Generation: Securing your future in uncertain times 2nd Edition
The New Estate: Insights from the 22nd century
The Wealthy Retirement Plan: A revolutionary guide to living the rest of your in style
Or read the following Ebooks on VickiWusche.com:
9 Critical Property Principles
The De-Job Yourself Manual: Break your reliance on a monthly wage
The Values Manual: Understand what your values are and how they can be key to a successful business
The Goal Setting Manual: Create meaningful and practical goals then achieve them
Episode 010 Transcript – What Are You Afraid Of?
Hello, and welcome to A Wealthy Life. This episode is entitled “What Are You Afraid Of?” All I want from any of my episodes is, really, for you to understand the role of your mindset. I think that’s an underlying theme in front of, behind, and in the middle of—like raspberry ripple ice cream—is the role of your mindset in all of this and how important that is.
And specifically in this episode, because what we’re actually talking about is the very first of the Five Principles for Wealthy Life—Clarity—is to understand how once you’re clear on your vision of your future, that you can start to make that a reality today. And I want to start this episode by reading a poem that gives me goosebumps.
A Return to Love by Marianne Williams
It’s actually an extract from a book called A Return to Love. I’ve never read the book. It’s by a lady called Marianne Williams. It was written back in 1992. She’s in American politics. And I’ll make sure that I put the link to both the poem and something about Marianne at the bottom of this podcast, in the show notes, so that you can read about her.
I first heard this poem on a personal development program I was on. If you just take a moment, I don’t know how you’re listening to this, if you’re walking, maybe just move to one side to, to stand and to just listen. And I hope that I can do this justice:
Our deepest fear is not that we’re inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, “who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?”
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God and your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
I don’t know about you, but that really, really, I find such a powerful poem. That idea that we might be asking ourselves, “who are we to be brilliant or gorgeous or talented?” and that you might hold yourself back because of what other people think about you. And as a side-line, there might be people out there thinking unpleasant thoughts because you are brilliant or successful.
And I think social media has made that so much worse for us and therefore exacerbated, maybe, that fear. But at the end of it, do you really want someone who doesn’t care about you to hold you back from what you want? I remember being told by one of my coaches that I’m like Marmite; you either like me or you don’t like me.
And what he said to me is it’s better for me if I get to the point where we know that someone doesn’t like me and that’s absolutely fine, because I can just move past them in my life. And then I can focus on spending my time with the people who do like me. And this bit he said because the people who care about you matter, and the people who don’t care about you don’t matter.
And I think that’s what we’ve got to think about, and that moment there. And now please ask yourself: are you brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? And I know that the answer is yes. And I would love for you to find this poem and read it again. And pay attention to that first little bracket there, and think those words for yourself and feel it and know it.
Life is about you playing your biggest game
And then go on and ask yourself: are you playing small? Are you holding back from what you want—again, maybe because the fear of what other people might say? It’s so easy, isn’t it, to be in an environment where you put your head above the parapet and someone takes a shot. Someone makes a snipe. We see this all the time.
But actually, that’s not what life is about. Life is about you playing your biggest game. You making the most of every minute, every experience, every opportunity. As the poem says, once you let your light shine, you will give permission to others to shine. And if you are a parent, playing small does not serve your children. Letting your light shine guides the way for your children to feel brave, to live their lives, to give them the strength to know that they are brilliant and gorgeous, talented, and fabulous.
And I just love this poem. I would love you to go and read it again, please. Or press pause, rewind. If you can do that and listen to this again, “our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure.” You are brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous. Your playing small does not serve the world.
It’s going to be that moment when you shine that you are going to help others shine, give them permission to do the same and liberate them from their fear as you’re liberated from yours.
Right. So, let’s get to Clarity. What do you really want? Especially now you’ve heard that poem and you know that you’re brilliant.
I knew I wanted holidays, which is actually maybe the sound of quite a very selfish goal, but I had worked in a university setting where we would have big summer breaks and I loved that time with family. And while I say I want holidays, the moment of a holiday for me is about fun and adventure with friends and family.
And that is what sort of the core of me. It’s friends and family, it’s my community. Those people that I care about doing things with, that I care about. And sometimes that’s simple things like going off on holiday and staying somewhere as a family group and going for walks, maybe cooking meals together.
Other times it’s when I’ve taken my children abroad and shown them different countries and how people live, shown them animals when we’ve gone on safari that they could never have imagined seeing other than in a zoo—seeing them in their wild settings. It’s those moments, I think, for me, that when all of this comes to an end and there I am, I hope in that nanosecond before the light goes out, when I can think of all these memories, I can think of all the smiles, I can think of all the joy, I can think of the adventure and the excitement for some of the holidays that we’ve had.
that’s what I want. I’m driven by that; I’m not driven by things. And therefore, it’s the memories rather than the material things that drive me. And so, I’m looking for time that I can carve out so that I can spend a number of days doing these things that I enjoy. And when I realized that holidays were interesting, but not really fulfilling—having just said everything that I’ve said—they were interesting, but I couldn’t spend my whole life on holiday.
And I know, I’ve spoken to people and what they want to do is they want to retire, and when they want to retire, what they want to do is go and live on a beach. And that’s fantastic, but they’re back within a couple of years because even though the place you’ve gone to is beautiful, there comes a point where if you are someone who achieves this—do you remember how I talked about focus and the focus crystallizing?
What happens in your mind is that it grows, that it expands, that you become capable of so much more. And therefore, just lying on a beach, doesn’t do it for you. So, you dig deeper and you find what that next level is for you. And I knew that that next level for me was that I wanted to help other people, specifically at the start.
Becoming the role model I want for my children
It was single mothers; as a single mother, I was so grateful that someone had lent their house to the council, and in lending their house to the council had enabled us to rent a home—myself and my two daughters under three—so that we could put down roots, create that stable platform from which I could find myself, become that role model that I wanted for my daughters. And I wanted to do that for other single mothers, to give them a decent home from which they can build and support their families. And then later on, we send pebbles out, really, when we do these things—who knows what those children would be.
And now I want to help people like you, because again, what pebbles am I popping in ponds and having ripples go out? From, maybe, the words that I say—how might something I say change you? And how can I do that? How can I help you live the life you want? That’s really what it is. So here we are with “what do you really want?”
I wanted holidays. The holidays, then, were not mentally stimulating enough. I mean, yes, I always learn when I’m on holidays, but it wasn’t enough. Then I realized I wanted to help. I narrowed in initially on single mothers and then generally helping my tenants. But now also to take my knowledge and experience and help you, the listener, and help my clients so that you too can go on and make a difference.
What do you really want? And now let me ask you that second question, given the poem: what fears are holding you back? I recently did a podcast with a lady called Tiffany, and her podcast is called “The Humanitarian Entrepreneur.” And the episode we recorded will be out in July; I’ll let you know the link when I get it. And we spoke about worrying about money. Well, we recorded that.
And the thing is that a lot of people worry about money, and worrying about money gets you absolutely nowhere. Worrying, like a negative emotion, it doesn’t help. A worry is not something that moves you forward. So more generally, I’ve worked with a lot of women going through divorces.
They need to get out of the marriage before they can really let their own wishes come to the fore, because while they’re in the marriage and they’re not happy, they’re very much focused on that. And maybe, like I spoke about in the very first few episodes that I recorded, there’s a sort of an agenda or a role dynamic going on here.
In that men, as financial providers, or you as the financial provider, are worried about losing money or not making enough money. And you can’t possibly dream of what you would like, because you have to do certain things that it’s not possible to imagine a future because you’re either on a hamster wheel—or, I like to think of it as a merry-go-round; that we’re all told to get on this merry-go-round, that it’ll be fun—but you spend too long on the merry-go-round and it just makes you feel sick and you want to get off.
So, whether you’re in the financial provider mindset and you can’t imagine what you want; your fear is that you won’t make enough money and so you can’t let go of that idea so that you can think forward. Or that you’re a woman, or that you’re in the home nurturer role, and you may be a bit stuck in a rut. You might have a lack of reliable income or maybe a less than significant income—maybe you’re at home looking after the children are not working.
It’s very difficult when you’ve got so much on your plate in either of those roles to then focus in on what do you want, as I said in that first question. But if you can identify the fears that are holding you back, then you can start to comb them out and look at them and see them for what they are and move past that.
Gratitude exercises
So, I mean, if we comb this out for a minute, one of the easy ways to do it is to record your finances. Start by doing a gratitude exercise. Set your phone for three thirty-three (3:33)—and I spoke about that in one of the previous episodes—set your phone always, every day.
Think about that question: “what have I done today that makes me feel successful?” Or, “why am I so successful today?” However you want to phrase that question, whatever works for you. And then the third thing: what will drive you forward above all? Look at that thing, that emotion, the outcome, that result—that wealthy life that will pull you through all of this.
That’s the point of Clarity; is to look forward, to find something that is magnetic and draws you forward. And for some of you, it will be an object, for some of you it’ll be a place, for some of you it’ll be a feeling, for some of you it’ll be a result. It doesn’t matter what the thing is that you are focusing on.
That’s going to become the magnet that pulls you forward in your path. And, of course, remember that it will get more crisp; it will sharpen the closer you get to it, and it will sit on your horizon and enable you to focus all your efforts, your energy, your time, and importantly, your financial plans on achieving that focus that is so powerful for you.
Both my recently divorced clients bought their first investment properties within a year of getting divorced. One of them has six children, the other a mere four, all under the age of eight. So, there is no excuse for this.
I have a client who worked in the city who travelled to work every day on the train for nearly two hours, worked in the city in a very demanding senior role, travelled back home, and still managed to create himself a property portfolio of HMO properties, and now is in the position where he stepped out from that corporate job and has taken on a second cash-flowing business that he can then manage on his terms.
Because what he did was for him; he put time with his family as the focus, he wanted to be in a position where he could choose to spend time with his family rather than being stuck in an–it’s never really Monday to Friday 9:00 to 5:00, is it? You know, it’s Monday to Friday, 7:30 until 7:00, plus a bit at the weekend. That’s what he wanted to get away from. And he put his family as the focus, and it’s crystallized for him and he’s achieved his goals.
So, what do you want? What’s holding you back and what will drive you forward? So, what I’d like to do now is make a plan to either take a bath or to take a walk alone. And I do believe you need to do this on your own. And what I’d like you to do is relisten to the last three episodes. I’d like you to relisten to the episode where I spoke about how property helped me retire, because I really want you to understand the essence of focus and how important that is for you.
And then I want you to listen to the reasons why the Five Principles are so important. And go back over this episode again, particularly the poem, and have with you either a notepad or your phone. And as you’ve walked or relaxed in the bath, you’ve gone through the podcasts, you’ve gone through the thoughts and the exercises I’ve asked, and then I want you to take your phone out and I want you to look at your photo reel. And I want you to look at pictures and identify pictures that bring you joy, that bring you longing to do that experience or be in that place or be in that moment again. And then think what difference you want to make, what one change do you want to make to your life so that you can spend more time taking more photos like those pictures that bring you joy and that bring you that longing to be back in that moment.
Of course, I’d love it if you would leave a message and share these ideas on the podcast. But of course, maybe even email your answer; I love hearing about the things that people do differently and the joy that it brings in their life. It’s such an exciting thought to hear people are out there living their best lives.
What could, what could be happier than to know that? It’s almost the antidote to all the news. So, the purpose of this episode was really to plant that first seedling of Clarity for you. And in the words of the Spice Girls—I can’t believe in an episode where I have done a Marianne Williams poem, I’m going to finish with a quote from the Spice Girls song Wannabe: “So, tell me what you want, what you really, really want?”
I’m so sorry for that, I couldn’t resist it, it just came to me. But there you are: who would think, Marianne Williams down to the spice girls in one episode.
So, remember that one of the next few episodes, I’m going to share the link to an online audit that will help you measure yourself against these Five Principles.
As always, please make sure that you subscribe to the podcast, join the fan club and make sure that you put a date in your diary so you don’t miss the next episode—next Thursday—where I’m going to start explaining how you can get more Control in your plan for A Wealthy Life. And thank you for taking your precious time to listen to A Wealthy Life podcast. My name is Vicki Wusche, and I hope that this episode is brought you some much needed “Whoosh” into your life.
You’ve been listening to Vicki Wusche – wealth strategist, author, and property investor. With a name like Wusche, spelt W-U-S-C-H-E, I’m easy to find on all the usual social media channels. Do come and connect. Been loving the podcast? Then join the listener Fan Club, where I will share extra insights and host webinars. Links to this and more of my story are both in the show notes and on my website: vickiwusche.com. See you on the next episode!