Finding what motivates you to create the life you want

photo cred: beth cath

There is so much I want to share with you and when I get excited, I have this really uncool tendency to word vomit everything I think I want to say to the point where none of it makes sense and then everyone is like peace out, lady. I don't want to do that to you. What I want for you is clarity and freedom to pursue a life that falls in line with your core values.  

Many entrepreneurial/mompreneurial sites are going to talk about "living our dream" or making all of the monies, which is fine. I mean money is nice, but it isn't everything. It has never been a motivating factor for me. If you don't trust me, you can ask my former boss at the one job where it was commission based. Actually don't ask him, because he fired my not-motivated-by-money ass.

I've also read a ton of "success" and "live your full potential" books and they always have you list out all of the things you want in life, down to the details. List the cars or homes or vacations or clothing brands you want as a point of motivation. The problem is, my list is short, because like I said before, I'm not really motivated by money. If you had to pressure me for material possessions that I don't already have, it would be: a reliable car with a sunroof, jeans for my ass that won't quit and I wouldn't pass up having a cabin on a lake up north someday. That's it, really.  I'm pretty dang content with my life, which makes it hard to be motivated to grow my business.

The problem is, that if you don't have something big enough as a motivating factor, you just won't do it. The end. Your dream is dead. So, instead of focusing on the material things, I like to focus on the big WHYs in my life. 

1. My husband and kids and our ability to be together as a family.  

This is a big one. When Nate and I talk about our "dreams" (AHHH, there's that word again) for our family, we talk about how we can build into them and teach them our values, but we want to give them great memories of us as a family and build genuine and loving relationships with them. That means we want to explore new places with them, and help them learn how to love learning. We want to enjoy each other's company. So basically, we want to build a life for ourselves that allows us to prioritize time as a family in the daily life while also adding in vacations and other adventures together. 

2. Staying inside God's will for my life. 

Yes, I know, the righteous thing to do would to have put this one first, but really if I have to be honest (which you know I always am), my family is my number one motivating factor. There is some heart stuff going on with this one right now, but that's between me and God and I'll tell you about it when I'm ready. 

Here's the deal with this one. God is so good and I believe he has blessed me with so many gifts and talents that go beyond my parenting (thank goodness, because I'm not even that great of a parent), and I have to be faithful with them. When the Holy Spirit gives me an idea, I test it and pursue it and trust that God will either open or close doors at the given time. I can go into this one with more detail (and like real scripture) another day. I mean there are countless verses on fearing the Lord, but it boils down to this: I love my God and want to please him and it makes me sick to think about wasting gifts he's given me. Does this mean, I have to make money doing those things? Absolutely not, but know that is not wrong to support your family while using the gifts God has given you. 

If you are not someone who has a Christian faith, this one may not resonate with you, but I urge you to think about being true to yourself and following the things that you are innately good at, because this is important. You have one life to live, so make sure you live it to your fullest. You owe it to everyone else to put your best self out into the world (my apologies for how cheesy that sounds).

3. Financial Freedom

A motivating factor for us is staying debt free. A couple years ago we paid off all of our student loans, and last summer we had to take out a loan on a car because when we compared safety and debt-free-ness, safety won. Our next big goal is to pay off our mortgage to free us up to to more things. Be more generous, take more risks, spend more time as a family, etc.  

We have longer term financial goals from there, but that is a big milestone to work towards and it is motivating to me. When I think of a home that is completely paid off, I think about how easy it would be to spend a summer with my husband and kids in Europe, or work remotely from Hawaii in January without thinking about how I'm paying out the wazoo while still financing my mortgage back home.  

4. Generosity

Again, this one should probably fall higher up on the list, but the reason it is low is because I don't see generosity as a large milestone, because you can be generous at any time in our life. But here's why it is so important for me here.

To be a stay at home parent, usually that means living on one income which means having a ton of sacrifices. By investing my time in my business, we have had the financial freedom and room in our budget to bless others as needed rather than needing to ask people for help ourselves. It's not just our money that we have room for generosity, but it's my time. When a friend needs someone to watch their child(ren) for a day, I can almost always be available to assist.  

I don't want to share this for credit, but just to share what is possible when you choose to invest in yourself through a business. You are actually able to invest in others. It's kind of like the whole put the oxygen mask on yourself first sort of thing. God really blesses this, and I still have such a huge way to grow in this area personally and my personal goals in this area are big. Like REAL big. This keeps me motivated. 

These are my why's, what are yours? What do you want to do with your life that you can't right now, for lack of either time or money?  

I love that this doesn't have to be a selfish thing. In fact, if you make it bigger than yourself, the more likely you are to find a way to support your why's and set goals that will help you get to where you want to be. 

Okay, now a little feedback from you. 

So, this was my first post, that revolved around my passion for being a work at home stay at home mom (wahsahm?), as I pray over this and plan to move forward, I would love feedback from you. Did you even like it? Was it helpful? What do you want to hear more of? Either let me know by emailing me or feel free to post it in the comments if you don't mind sharing with the class. I don't claim to know it all, but I know some and I am committed to lifelong learning, so I can know that tomorrow I will at least know more than I did today.  

See you soon! 

xoxo,