Foundation 3: Life is an Adventure

Once upon a time, there was a young woman named Lily, feeling lost in a sea of expectations and financial pressures. Then one day, she stumbled upon an old journal tucked away in a dusty corner of her attic. Its pages spoke of adventures, of treasures sought, and of journeys embraced. Inspired by its words, Lily embarked on her own financial quest. She faced challenges, unexpected twists, and moments of doubt. But with each hurdle, she discovered resilience she never knew she had.

Like Bilbo Baggins, she encountered companions along the way, mentors who offered guidance, friends who shared laughter, and loved ones who cheered her on. Through highs and lows, Lily learned that life wasn't just about numbers on a balance sheet. But about the richness of experiences, the depth of connections, and the growth of the soul.

She realized that her true treasure wasn't a sum of money, but the courage to carve her own path, the joy of living authentically, and the love she gave and received. As she looked back on her journey, she smiled. Knowing that every triumph and trial had shaped her into the person she was meant to be. For Lily, life indeed was an adventure. One filled with treasure, laughter, and love. And with a heart full of gratitude, she whispered, The ponies are loaded. Let's keep going.

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So that was a fun story, right, Amanda? I feel like we should be watching, uh, I don't know, Gandalf and, and the Baggins and all that fun stuff. Or any, any Grimm story always has, um, something that guides a person. In Lily's case, it was this journal. It was this journal. I don't know, was it this journal? Some journal that she found. It's a mystery. Somebody, somebody apparently picked up five smooth stones and was writing in it, and she found it in the attic of the house.

Yeah, this is in the future. And she got her own copy so that she could, yeah. Yeah, that's, it sounds like that's what happened. Whatever. So, we're in, um, the series of, um, foundational principles. This is foundation number three. If you missed one and two, please go back, watch them. They're really important. These are gonna build on each other. Mark.

Um, but this is maybe one of my favorite principles and it's this idea that life is an adventure. And how can we apply that principle to our money? One quick thing, the, you might be like, yeah, of course life's an adventure, carve my own path, whatever. You might be like, oh, but our invitation is to I want to just invite you to see how might you live into this more? Where is the growth edge here?

Often times when I'm digging into principles, I'll find that there's a layer under the layer I think I know. And that as I get deeper into it, I'm like, Oh, there's new insights, new ideas here. Hope you get some of that out of today. You ready? Yep. Okay. So, you know how if you were going to craft a story for a child, you might start with the words, once upon a time?

Yeah. Yeah. It all gives you a moment to think what's going to happen next in the story, but it's also to build excitement for that child. You know, you take them once upon a time to a galaxy far, far away, or, you know, a long, long, long, long, long, long time ago, or something like that. Well, what if today was your once upon a time? For this grand financial adventure that is waiting for you to just take the first step, start moving on it. What if today was your once upon a time?

That would be amazing. Uh, and I kind of think about this as one of the biggest regrets of people. I think in hospice, I saw this there and I, I kind of alluded to it in the last episode, uh, where people, um, Didn't prioritize certain things. Didn't make predecisions about like what happens if they get sick, something like that. Yeah, but, but what their biggest regret is not moving, not doing what they were called to. They didn't take that adventure.

They were just kind of sleepwalking through life, which again was another episode I did of putting the head in the sand.

Now, here's the thing I think about is Life is an adventure as as we've I don't know my life and in your life both of us We've done some crazy stuff people ask me um About my story and i'm like, well, I just did that because that was I don't know it seemed fun to do Uh, not just fun, but but I felt like I was called to it, uh from opening a Shop to being the music industry to what else and just taking that adventure and realizing You It's still an adventure and also things happen.

I mean, like, literally, um, we've had a flood in our business, and someone asked, how are you okay with that? I'm like, well, there's nothing I can do about it. I prepared for it a little bit. Uh, we've had some, some craziness, some chaos. I've had to, uh, fight a dragon or something like that. Um, just happened to be, um, spitting water from the sky or something. But seriously, um, you said something that's really critical. How do you get ready?

Like what is an important thing to be ready for an adventure? And it's to do some preparations. Right? Um, now, nerd alert, I'm totally gonna go back to Bilbo Baggins. Um, um, when Bilbo Baggins finally agrees to go on this grand adventure. Is it Frodo or Bilbo? Which one? I'm, I'm gonna talk about Bilbo. Okay, go. Uh, this is The Hobbit, not Lord of the Rings. Okay, um, and No context, because somebody will correct us, you know. This journey of a lifetime.

What, um, Gandalf does is he takes out a map that shows the treasure deep within the mountain. Now the map doesn't show all the characters that Bilbo's going to meet or the twists and turns that they're going to have to take along the way. Bilbo only agrees to go to prove that he's a good burglar, right? Like, he's not even going because he wants the treasure. He's going because he's got something to prove, right? The next morning, they leave on ponies loaded with provision.

Now, I believe The Hobbit has captured imaginations for so many years in both book and movie form, because once Bilbo says yes to the journey, Is it easy? No, that's not why it's going to capture imaginations. If it was easy, it'd be boring. It's more likely because we don't know what's going to happen next. What's around the next corner? What happens in the next chapter? What's the next scene going to be?

And it's the, the thing that happens as he goes through our journey that is absolutely fascinating to see how Bobo's going to, Bilbo is going to react to that next strange encounter. And it, to sprinkle in a little Martin Luther King Jr., right? You don't have to know the whole staircase. You just need to know the first step. And the first step is saying yes to the journey, getting the ponies loaded with provisions and continue to go. So what about you? What's your journey going to be like?

Is it likely to be easy? Not if you want it to be fun and exciting and it's going to have some challenges and some opportunities that you couldn't foresee. Do those challenges and opportunities create a life worth living and telling stories about for future generations? Like what kind of stories are you going to be telling to your grandkids or the kids that you get to mentor when you're in your 60s and 70s?

My favorite reminder as I go throughout my financial journey is that life is an adventure, not just my career, not just parenthood, not just money, but all of life is an adventure. Yes, and including financial life. It's an adventure. And when I approach it this way, I like to envision a destination like that treasure buried deep in the mountain. Every one of us has our own treasure. Very deep in the mountain. Maybe that changes over time as we find out more about it and get more clarity.

Maybe we get to a different mountain with a different treasure as we go. But just as Bilbo came back to the Shire, forever changed by his journey. So we get to change on our journey, and I pray for the better. And it's actually that that's our treasure. Like spoiler alert, the thing that changes most about Bilbo is Bilbo. It's not the riches, it's not, right? It's the personal growth that he encounters.

And I think if we approach money this way and about how am I personally growing, it becomes way more fulfilling. Way more enjoyable, even when things are challenging. I'm going to, I'm saying a lot here. I better give you a chance to jump in. The something I was thinking about is, um, I joined a, um, mastermind community and I was talking to some people who have stepped into their venture and it's hard.

Like they, they have their business, they're, they're trying to do their thing and they're like, Oh my man, this, this didn't go as I thought. I thought it was going to be easy. Almost whenever we started our coffee shop, uh, someone, we thought it was easy. Easy, um, and but if we knew what we knew now, then we probably wouldn't step into the adventure.

Yeah, right However, we are called to that and and to be around people that can help you again That's why we created the book and why we created our community was to be guides there now My my friend as I was talking to one of them, they're like, yeah, but you're Really good at this you're like a guru in that I'm like, um, I'm not I would say I'm on the journey with you I just happen to be a few steps.

I went through this mountain before and so that's again why we have this book is it's Again, we went through this mountain. We, we found some certain, uh, landmines, if you will, to, um, overcome. So that way, if you're running a business or, or other things, you can avoid those things. And, you know, you still are going to have some dragons to face, but you'll have the, um, tools in place to take on those dragons. Yeah, absolutely. Now we're talking kind of weird.

We're talking about things like joy and personal development and fulfillment when it's a podcast about money. Yeah. Um, now there are other places this happens though. One of my favorite examples is Marie Kondo. She's talking about organization and cleaning up the clutter in your house, right? Your things, your physical possessions. And yet she starts at a place of joy. It's actually a great motivating thing to watch her show, to read her book, um, and think, how could I apply this to money?

Um, for instance, she has people hold things in their hand and feel how it, how that thing makes them feel. And if it doesn't seem right, She invites them to give it, donate it, put it in the trash, like sell it, do something with it. But if it does spark joy, then we want to put it in its place so that that joy gets sparked a lot. And what I love to invite people to do is to do that with their money. Maybe your assets, your debts, your bills, right? Even your own business.

Even your own business, right? Parts of your business, different things you're doing. What's bringing you personal satisfaction and fulfillment? In like a real genuine way, not just temporary happiness, right? But holding that, feeling that, and if it's not bringing you joy, how can you cut it out? Now that's not something you could do like immediately. Let's say you hate where you live, right? You can't just move tomorrow.

But you can start making steps, making preparations, loading the ponies, right? Decluttering some of that stuff so you're ready to move. Maybe not for that down payment. It's going to give you more joy. motivation then to also focus. I'm like, well, what's maybe giving me the least amount of joy or the most amount of frustration. If I got that done, I'm going to be experiencing way more joy overall. So, um, we've got a great exercise of what that looks like in five smooth stones.

Um, actually a step by step, here's what we want you to do. to find your joy with within your financial life right now and also find what's causing chaos and how you might move it toward finding joy. I do want to give you a special opportunity though. Yes, get five to the stone, start going through it, but you're going to get that guide, that old relic journal found in the attic.

Um, but as you go, you're probably going to come up with questions with ideas, things like how do I apply this to my specific situation? I've got this road I've got this. Specific thing. I don't I don't have the creativity or the imagination Or i'm not i've got a hundred ideas. I don't know which one to focus on We've got a special invitation for you to process that through with us.

We're gonna let this special announcement Ready to take the next step towards securing your financial future Whether you're planning for retirement, saving for your dream home, or you just want to make your money work harder for you, the team at Wealth Wisdom Financial are ready to assist you. And now, it's easier than ever to see how we might give you a boost on your financial journey. Schedule a 50 minute discovery call with one of us today.

And let's discuss your questions and your financial goals together. Don't wait any longer. Your financial freedom awaits. Schedule your discovery call at www. wealthwisdomfp. com slash call.

So if you're in life, in business, you, Know that things are happening. It is chaos. There is a lot of confusion out there and that's again why we have the book and the still method is to kind of step back and Think through what do I want? But don't just step back in and just go into your recliner and and like again head in the sand but step back and And be ready for the adventure.

Don't be one of those, uh, older people that say, I'm filled with regret because I did not go on this quest, didn't go on this journey. I didn't pursue that. It will be hard, but that's why we, uh, created this to help make sure that we are okay, right? It is hard, right? But how to then overcome? Like when, when my friend then said, how are you dealing with this, uh, flood that happened? I'm like, well, it's not my first time this has happened.

And I've have a team around me that, that care for us. And we have built a good financial system to overcome those storms or dragons or ice people, whatever, whatever, uh, sci fi movie you want to put in there. So the most important thing, get your copy of five smooth stones. It's not just these principles, but how you can apply these principles to your life.

And the principles are just knowledge. The wisdom is how you apply them. And this is to walk you through what that looks like and how you can embrace that adventure. We specifically carved this for people that want to create their own unique financial journey. So if you're tired of all the cookie cutter approaches. Maybe you like some of the rules of thumb, but you're willing to break them because they're just rules of thumb. This book is for you. Go get your copy right now. Wealthwisdomfp.

com slash shop. And then once you get it, make sure you open it and implement and use it as that guide. The best journals are the ones that have been written in and somebody like Lily can go back to and say, wow, that was an amazing story. Yeah. And we even have these QR codes in there where you can get some great resources to help you along the journey. And we've got that opportunity to talk with us as well. Schedule that discovery call. For now hit subscribe.

Um, make sure you don't miss principle. What are we up to for next time? And we hope you live long and profit. The ponies are loaded. Let's keep going. The topics presented in this podcast are for general information only, and not for the purposes of providing legal, accounting, or investment advice. On such matters, please consult a professional who knows your specific situation.