Ep-2 “The Battered Career Syndrome”, Chapter 1 Your Career 2.0

Watch Now! Possibilities, Options & Dreams: Ep-2 “The Battered Career Syndrome”, Chapter 1 Your Career 2.0
POD: Episode-2 “The Battered Career Syndrome”
POD - Possibilities, Options & Dreams fosters meaningful connections, empowering aspiring entrepreneurs to identify, pursue and achieve their dream of self-sufficiency. The largest Career Ownership Coaching™ organization for nearly 40 years, The Entrepreneur's Source® (TES) has helped nearly one million professionals explore their career possibilities with our powerful approach to education, awareness and discovery and our unique Income, Lifestyle, Wealth and Equity™ assessments.
In this episode of the “Possibilities, Options & Dreams” Podcast, Mary, Melissa, and Tamara, discuss the revolutionary concepts put into a program of action within The Entrepreneur's Source® (TES) which has helped nearly one million professionals explore their career possibilities. Based on the best-selling book for successful and emerging entrepreneurs “Take Ownership of your Career 2.0, A Survival Guide for the Battered Career and Investor Syndrome”  POD – Possibilities, Options & Dreams fosters meaningful connections, empowering aspiring entrepreneurs to identify, pursue and achieve their dream of self-sufficiency.
More in This Episode:
Have you ever been in a situation that has not made you happy, and while you’ve acknowledged that fact, you weren’t able to see any options for escaping? Perhaps you admitted to the problem but put off trying to fix it, or thought that if you gave it another chance the next time would be different–the situation would change? Sometimes the simple act of recognizing that things are not going well, and seeing beyond the illusion, is a comfort in and of itself—a way to feel that progress has been made, even though the situation has not been rectified.
For example, in the “new normal” that we are currently experiencing, we may be less likely to fall back on the illusion of security and more willing to admit being duped by corporate dependency. While some people hold out hope that the economy might one day return to the traditional model, not too many are counting on that. Most people understand that things have changed, yet their behavior patterns, which are based on habits they developed through years of working within the corporate system, are still on autopilot. They know there is a problem, but they are too habituated or fearful to extract themselves from the situation.More About This Podcast:
You are painfully aware that the job market has changed dramatically in the last 25 years with more and more layoffs every time there is a downward shift in the economy, with jobs being lost to cheaper labor in other countries and entire industries moving overseas. We have been living in the Career Revolution era where job security no longer exists and pension plans are a thing of the past. Our families, our income, our emotional wellbeing, and the way we must plan for the future have all been drastically affected. Maybe there have been cutbacks in your company. Maybe you have been lucky enough to have survived them but wonder when your turn is coming. Or maybe you didn’t survive the latest layoff and are currently unemployed or underemployed, or perhaps you have even joined the unemployable ranks. Increased levels of fears and uncertainty in today’s workplace don’t leave much room for inspiration or empowerment. In fact, when was the last time you felt inspired or empowered? 
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Transcript

Unknown: 0:27

Hey everybody, welcome to the possibilities, options and dreams podcast with the entrepreneurs source where we empower individuals to identify, pursue and achieve their dreams of self sufficiency. You've got Marian Mel here to kick off today's podcast member relationship strategists. And we are very excited to have Tamara Loring here. So I'm going to kick it over to her and just have her introduce herself to the people. Hey guys, Tamara Loring here with the entrepreneur source been here for almost 20 years, believe it or not. And in my role today, I am in charge of T's brand ideology. So I'm happy to be with you guys today. Thank you for inviting me. Absolutely. Okay, I'll take. Absolutely. And Tim has a wealth of knowledge. So we are really excited to have her and today, we are going to be covering the second chapter of the your career 2.0 book, a survival guide for the battered career, and investor syndrome. And there's a lot to unpack here. So today we're going to be talking about writing your own success story. You 2.0 And I'm wildly excited to get started here. So Mairead, you want to kick it off for us? Yeah, happy to. Um, so writing your own success story, I just think there is a lot of excitement around that, in general, there's a lot of possibilities. There's a lot of potential, which we're going to look at in a little bit more. Like, how can you write your own success story? What does that actually look like? So the first thing, before, you know, you know, before you can get to where you're headed, you have to know where you're going. So the first thing if you're, you know, interested in writing your own success story is you have to define what success means to you. And this is very, very critical, because I think, unlike what what, you know, traditional society or traditional conversation or mindset would, would have you think, is that there's one fixed definition of success. And what we're seeing more and more today, especially with who we work with our clients, the coaches working with different individuals, is that success looks and feels very different from person to person. So T, would you mind just kind of extrapolating on that a little bit more? What does real success look like for you? And that's a rhetorical question, but why can it look so different from person to person? That's a really great question, right? And the answer is, it really depends. It depends on where you're at, in your life. For instance, you know, if you're in your mid 20s, and you're still paying off college debt, your success is going to be being debt free, maybe, maybe you're in your 30s, and you're starting a young family and you know, successful B, being able to save up for college, and maybe being home with a little kids. Or if you're in your 40s or 50s, you know, maybe your career is at a certain level and you want to, you know, give it one final push before you're getting ready for retirement, so or maybe you're already on your second or third act. So success will really depend on who you are. It's going to be dependent on your dreams and your personal aspirations. So I think the important thing that you guys said, is not what does success look like? But what does success look like for you? Right? So you need to internalize what will make me feel successful, not what my mom wanted, not what my dad wanted, not what my boss or a colleague or anybody else wants. It's really doing the soul searching and doing some reflection saying, What will make me feel successful. So the book has some great questions. I know we're gonna look at that a little bit. But it starts with defining success for myself. What do I want to do and what will make me feel successful? Great answer T. And thanks for clarifying that. And I think exactly what you said, taking that time just to think about what what do I want? What does success look like for me, but I love about that. And about going back to the theme of writing your own success story. It's that you the end dividual are in control of not only defining what success looks like, but then also taking the action, you know, taking steps towards realizing what that, you know, bringing it into fruition what that looks like for you, it can be a little bit difficult to put some structure around this, I think, you know, reflection, taking, you know, stepping out to reflect and take a wide overview of what you want your life to look like, that's a great first step, but, but in that reflection, you know, that's a that's, that's a big, you know, thought process to define what success looks like. I would say, and Mel, maybe you want to talk a little bit about this too. But a good place to start kind of filling in some of those blanks is to create some vision around four buckets, income, lifestyle, wealth, and equity. And what this is going to do is help look at some of the short term goals. What does that look like for you, right, someone in income, you know, someone might define success for them an income as 250 a year, someone might be very happy with 80,000 a year, someone might not be satisfied until they hit a million dollars a year, right? So it's gonna look different from person to person. But defining specifically in those buckets. What does income lifestyle wealth and equity mean for you is going to be a great place to start? And maybe T or melki? Could you guys give some examples of, of how to define what that looks like for them? Well, now, if you don't mind, I'll jump in here. Right. So what I love about the income, lifestyle, wealth and equity formula, so to speak, is it really gives you balance, right? Because we're not just one thing, right? My income doesn't define me as a person. I'm more than that, right? I'm a human big, I'm living a life. I've got some other things, right. The income is, for instance, short term, that's the here. And now while I'm not just living from paycheck to paycheck, maybe I'm thinking about the future, like five years from now, 10 years from now, what do I want my wealth and equity to look like? That is all part of the success formula. So it helps to break it into those four buckets. And when you think about income, and lifestyle, those are the shorter term things, right? Like, Mary, you were saying, maybe my aspiration is to double my income. Maybe I'm at 100,000. Now, but you know, how nice would it be if I could get myself to 200,000? Right. So that is something that you can laser focus in on? Or maybe for somebody else, it's like, that is it's not so much about the dollars and what I bring home, but it's can I generate enough income to pay for my expenses, so that I also have the time, which then leads me into lifestyle to do the things that matter to me also, right? So once I know what that income bracket would look like, and what would make me happier, what do I want to aspire towards there? How is that going to fit into my life? Right? So if I think about some of the clients that we talked to day in and day out for some, right, they're just really tired of having to punch the clock, and having to maybe be confined to working set work hours, right. For others, it's, you know, I don't like the commute that that just by, you know, bites into the time I could be spending with maybe my family. Nowadays, you know, maybe it's not as important to do the job between nine to five, maybe I can do other things during regular work hours and do my programming in the middle of the night if I want to, if that's part of the lifestyle that I want to create, because I want to be more with my kids. So income and lifestyle are shorter term goals, wealth and equity is more longer term, right? Thinking about how can I maybe diversify my investments? How can I increase my net worth? How can I maybe acquire cash flowing assets? How can I, maybe if it's important to me build a legacy for my family and my kids? Right? So those are longer term aspirations. But I think the income lifestyle, wealth and equity formula really gives you a balanced approach for short term aspirations and long term goals. Make sense? Yeah, that makes sense and great way of breaking it down. I love the part of it as a formula. So with actually breaking apart like the why that's a lot of people can have you know why, why is to die, I don't know, take more vacations, but it's like breaking it down into very specific parts that you then can actually work towards. And I also think too, just in today's society, and everyone who's employed or maybe just a majority of people do Maybe they think these things like, I'd love to make a little more money, or I'd like to spend more time with my family. But it's really just like a fleeting thought. And they think it and then it kind of goes away. And you just kind of go back into where, how you were doing it before. Or sometimes things are their frustrations, like the things that you're talking about tea, their frustrations, I have to commute, I don't get to spend time with my family. I don't, I'd like to make more money, but I'm not really able to right now. And so their frustrations, but they just kind of linger on as frustrations. And so that's what I'd actually like to ask you next is what might be keeping someone from building their success story. So maybe they thought a little bit about income and lifestyle, or they've even gotten to the point of wealth and equity. But I think it's pretty common for someone to say, I don't actually know how to get there, or I'm not gonna be able to achieve this. Let me just stay where I am. So what are some of those things that might be preventing people from actually starting to act towards those? Yeah, so you're absolutely right, right. So sometimes people have to take the scatterplot approach, right? Like, yeah, I want more money. Yeah, one more time. But they don't really see how they can accomplish that. But even if they did, and they said, Okay, you know, what, these are my goals, these are my aspirations. And this is what I want my income to look like, this is the life I want to live. Long term. This is the type of wealth and equity I'd love to create for myself and my family, oh, my gosh, the mind sometimes is so powerful, because we will talk ourselves right out of it and go back into just being a human doing right back on the rat race, on that forever, treading on that treadmill, and forever, not moving forward. So I think it helps to first and foremost, breathe in and slow down and to start thinking about our thinking, right? And it takes really an honest look at our current beliefs. And our current actions are my current beliefs, preventing me from moving forward, like I'll give you an example. Right? Before I was introduced to the entrepreneurs, doors, I always heard my father who's an entrepreneur, say, You know what, tomorrow, you need to do something for yourself. And my belief at that moment in time was, I'm not like him, I don't have this crazy idea, or this great idea that I want to take to the marketplace, and that I can capitalize on it. And therefore I made it mean, I'm not an entrepreneur. And if I'm not an entrepreneur, I cannot be in business for myself. And therefore, you end up doing what you always do. So that was a problem with my belief, I had a limiting belief about what it can and cannot happen. And then the other thing too, sometimes you believe is right, it's like maybe you do have the confidence. And maybe you do have the education about what it takes to be self sufficient. But are you taking action? There's a great book that I once read. And it's it was by Brian Cameron, it said, if how tos were enough, we'd all be rich, skinny and happy so many times. It's not that we don't know what to do, but we just don't take action. And why is that? So the two things I just spoke about is belief. Check in and take an honest look at what you're believing to be true. And then look at are you taking action? And if you're not tech taking action, why? So if you look at the book, there are actually some really great questions that will help you think about your thinking. I think it's on actually I definitely see it's here. It's on page 20, where we say, you know, when you start thinking about your beliefs and actions, ask yourself things like, Do we or do I tend to take the path? The resistance, so do I take tend to take the path of least resistance? And do I avoid looking at myself? Or do we avoid looking at ourselves and take responsibilities for our lives and our futures? So when I think about that question, it's a really good questions because sure, as human beings, sometimes it sucks to take responsibility. It's easier to blame things on government, right? Or the economy. I mean, I'm hearing that all the time right now, right? We've come through some crazy times and everybody's blaming everybody, but themselves, right? Or maybe we're, you know, thinking back and we're holding on to the past and we're saying, Wow, if only I had a better education or if only I was born in a different country or different circumstances. But my challenge for you guys right now anybody listening and trust me, I challenge myself on this all the time to is What if we stopped for just a second, and we took responsibility for our actions and our beliefs. I love the Gandhi principle. I think his quote goes, be the change you wish to see in the world. And just by changing your mindset, and going from being reactive and a victim of circumstances, yeah, all the bots being proactive. And when you start being proactive, you start looking for solutions. And guess what, for me, it is it makes me feel like I'm in control. And I'm empowered. And it's up to me to make things happen. I said a whole bunch here. So let me give you guys an opportunity to maybe comment on that. So many good nuggets, tea. That was awesome. Thank you for going to fleshing that out. And I think you're right, I think, again, when it comes down to mindset is everything. And taking that moment, first of all, to realize how you're thinking how you're approaching a certain situation or a solution. And then and then taking ownership of, you know, make taking the action steps after that is really, really just a total unlock. I think what I heard you say as well is basically you know, what, once you're open to possibilities, so maybe that, you know, that limiting belief of I'm not an entrepreneur, because I don't have a good idea, right. So I can't then go into business for myself, or something, that can be a limiting belief that's gonna keep you where you are. Whereas if you're just like, You know what, that's not really something that's serving me, I don't really know what's out there. But I'm open to the possibility or the potential of something happening or, you know, I'm looking for another step that I can take, you're already kind of opening, positioning yourself to, to take action and, you know, move into taking responsibility for your life. So really, really good takeaways there. I think another thing, you know, that that we can, like, collectively rethink. And I think if you think about what's happening in the world, today, you hear about the great resignation, you hear about the hybrid work life balance post pandemic write just to bring it into real world events, but a complete rethink of what career means. Same way that you have to rethink what success means for you, is absolutely necessary when writing our own success stories. In today's world, in today's reality, we've seen this happen historically, right? If you just think about, you know, the farming age, I don't know if that has an actual title, but like the stone era, and then the Industrial Revolution, and what that looks like the digital revolution, which is what we're kind of in right now. But we're seeing it continue to evolve. You know, from year to year, almost. How does this same principle of rethinking what career looks like and defining what that means? How does that apply today? Yeah, you know, I think, when people think career, many people think, job, they make it seem like it's one in the same. And they say, well, in order to advance my career, I need to find the perfect job or a another job, right? And when you think about the job, is it really the job that people are after? And if so, I would encourage you pursue it? If this is your dream job, go for it, right. But what I typically find is when you start asking people, so is this your dream job? They're like, Well, no, but I need the job to obviously pay my debt, or keep the lights on, you know, pay my expenses. So then I say, Well, hang on, then it's not actually the job that you want. It's what the job will do for you. Right? So really, you're looking at the paycheck or the revenue it's going to generate for you. So if that is the case, what if you found out that maybe there are other vehicles other than just the traditional job market to to pursue your dreams, right? And people will resist that because it's different. And it's, it's a change, I remember feeling the same way. Because, you know, people said, well, you know, okay, so maybe if this is not your dream job, and we understand most of us don't need to work for a living, right? And if we're wanting to accumulate some wealth and build, increase our net worth, what else can you do, but then they think, Well, you know, yeah, I could start a business, but have you heard about how many businesses failed? That seems so risky, right? Why would I do that? But then I said, you know, so then sometimes you realize, like, okay, maybe it's not just the money people want for a job, but it's the perceived security. And when you start asking about that, and it's like, how secure is a job nowadays, right, with all the furloughs that right sizing the cap sizing the acquisitions, the mergers, you name it, right? It's like, Is your job really so secure? Or could advantage just like that? So if security is what you're after, are you really going to trust and put that in somebody else's hand? Or who can you trust the most in this world? Wouldn't it be your own action? So wouldn't it make sense to maybe see if there's something that you can do to take charge, and do it yourself. But I understand it takes confidence, right? Remember how I shared the story about how I didn't identify with being an entrepreneur myself, and that seemed riskier. So what I encourage people to do is just don't jump to conclusions. Don't limit yourself, just because you think something may be true, go out and find the facts. What I found after and thank God for being exposed to the entrepreneurial resource was that there are many people who are in business for themselves that here's the shocker, who had no prior industry experience, or even necessarily a love or an affinity for the product, or service that they're in. And I remember when I heard that the first time, I'm like, that sounds crazy. How successful can that be? And then they said, Oh, we're going to use a word that you don't like very much. But in franchising, it's actually pretty predictable. So bam, I had to dispel another myth. Because I thought franchising was all about fast food and French, fast food and french fries. I didn't realize that franchising is actually a way of doing business where you get to be in business for yourself, but not by yourself, where you get to use somebody else's existing system, and you get to replicate it. That's why the result is so predictable. So even though people are a in business for themselves, but not by themselves, they're also doing something where maybe they had no prior experience. And once I realized that, I thought, oh, my gosh, right. Never in my life, do I have to worry, again, about whether I'm employable, whether my job is going to last forever or not. And I get to participate in maybe over 80 different industries, if I wanted to, I'm not gonna get old enough to be able to take advantage of all the opportunities out there. But it's such a liberating feeling to know the world is my oyster. So just going back to what you were asking right is a complete rethink of career is what is needed, right. So I'm just saying, Don't limit yourself, see the career track that you're on, if you're happy with it, and it's your dream job, all the power to love it, pursue it. But if it's, if you're thinking, there has to be a better way, don't limit yourself and just say, I need another job, explore all the possibilities that are available to you, not business ownership is not for everybody, but at the very least explore it and see whether that makes sense for you use your career track and those opportunities as a vehicle to attain. And going back to the concept, you guys introduced us to a way to generate the income, live the life you were meant to live and build long term wealth or equity. And guess what, even if the business wasn't exactly your dream, if it helps you make more money than you've ever done before, if you're able to live the life that you were meant to live, and you're able to build wealth and equity, I don't care. Even if you're in the Porta Potty business, suddenly, that will become an attractive business, because you're meeting those goals that you define as what you want to eat, to be successful. So as you can tell, I get quite passionate about it. So I'll flip it for a second allow you guys to maybe ask some follow up questions or, you know, chime in. I will first of all, I just wish I could articulate as well as you tee it. But that's what really gets me excited about your career to point out and actually just what it is that we do with the entrepreneurs source because it's opening up these doors for people to just have a space where they can learn about these different things. Like you said, when I started in franchising five years ago, when I started with the entrepreneur source five years ago, I didn't know franchising, either. And, you know, Terry jokes, you know, we don't know a franchise from a french fry. And that's absolutely completely true. But being able to give people just this environment and this space to learn about these different things, and I see to rethinking career. It's just something you kind of fall into, you go to high school, you graduate, you go to college, you get a job, and you just start the cycle. And like you said, for some people, that's great, and it's what they're looking for, and they find that job or whatever that they love. But for a lot of people, it's just, I'm going to work again, it's kind of checking off the box. I'm working for the weekend. I you know, it's like a struggle to get through the day. All these things and just understanding It actually doesn't have to be like that. And I was talking to one of our coaches who was working with a client. And he was like at the beginning, this this guy was in corporate America had a good job. And success was successful, according to him, probably the average person. But he was broken. He was pigeon holed, he was micromanaged. After working with a coach and kind of going through that and understanding exactly like you said, there's things out there in 80 Plus Industries, a lot of different opportunities in franchising, he found something that really met his income, lifestyle, wealth and equity, it was something he never had thought of before a completely different industry than what he was originally in. And the coach said, after he found that like clarity and decided that was the way that he was going to go, and that was the vehicle, that concept, that business model was the vehicle that was going to get him to his income, lifestyle, wealth and equity goals. He's like, I saw, like passion and like this spark re ignited in this man. And just even thinking about it from that perspective, that's possible for someone who is feeling maybe broken and battered, and like they're just in this hamster wheel. There's something out there that can reignite this kind of excitement to kind of build your life and doesn't matter when, when that happens. And that's so empowering. Just just to think about that, the possibilities. And I think about everything that we've just talked about here, right to, you know, redefining or just understanding what does that job symbolize? And is there a potential way to get those things and I'm looking for in a different venue. And what Melissa was saying, just That's so exciting that someone can realize there's more to life than just doing the same thing over and over again, I think the magic question, the question overall, that's, that can really impact someone to start thinking about all those different things in a different way is just to ask yourself, What if what I believe to be true? Well, anything that we just talked about, or or any situation that's not serving you? What if I believe, what if what I believe isn't true? How would that change the way that I think or approach the current situation, and I would just encourage and invite anyone who's listening right now, to allow yourself to go from limited thinking to limitless thinking, or truly the possibilities are endless, and just see what happens and the shifts that can happen in your life. So okay, so now we've defined what success looks like for you, and what you're looking what you're actually looking for out of your career out of a job out of doing something every single day. So we now though, it's about how do you take control? How do you take action steps towards creating that version of success and backing into it, if you will reverse engineering? We know that the majority of people are settling for less, right? We just thought we just heard of someone who maybe they wouldn't have said that. But they felt stuck. They were compromising their happiness, their peace of mind, their passion for a job that looks successful on the outside, but was like, you know, soul crushing? And why would someone stay in that position where they're just totally unhappy and unfulfilled? This actually, if you're feeling this way, I would say check yourself, you're actually in your comfort zone? And how do we get out of that? T when if failure wasn't an option, and you had your whole life in front of you? What were you thinking about? You know, I love that question. If failure wasn't an option, what would you be doing thinking and feeling? Right? The book talks about perhaps it's time to polish your dreams, right? Remember when you were a kid, and you're going to do anything and everything. And it didn't matter if somebody told you tomorrow, you can't be the President of the United States. You weren't even born here. Right? It doesn't matter. You dare to dream and I would encourage people to go back to that space. We're only given this one life, we might as well have excitement for it. We might as well live in very intentional life. And we don't have to settle for just going through the motions just feeling like we're making ends meet or maybe feeling like we're stuck in a dead end career, but we have no other options. I love the story. You were just sharing about you know somebody who found that spark again and found a purpose you know, and so if you're thinking of feeling you know, but where do I start? We already gave you a great formula, the ill we formula, income, lifestyle, wealth and equity formula. Another great tool We have is something called the your career 2.0 Worksheet. And before we even tackle that worksheet, it helps to start thinking, you know about what does the book call it, asking yourself these big questions. For instance, you know, how would you describe your feelings about your present career? What do you want more of in life? And what you want less of in life? Five years from now, if you stay in your current career path, how do you see your options? Mary's question, if you knew you couldn't fail, what career would you choose? How do you see yourself achieving financial independence? What are your biggest concerns about changing careers? And so what the worksheet does is really, it helps you to take your thinking and organize it, it starts off with what we call the empowerment question, right? If we looked at your year, life, a year from today, what has to have happened both personally and professionally for you to be happy with your progress? It's maybe a tough question to ask. But you know, if the answer is nothing, then I'd say I don't know whether you're open to coaching, or whether you're even open to possibilities. But if you say, I know that I'm not happy with where I'm at, and gosh, I'd be happy. If I could be debt free. I'd be happy. If I were in control of my schedule, I'd be happy. If I did something that was meaningful to me and gave me passion and gave me a reason to be excited about every single day, then I think this book, and that worksheet could really help you. Because it what it does is it stimulates your thinking, but it does it in an easy way where it doesn't it's not overwhelming, and some of it is a little bit gut wrenching. Right. So for instance, we have some questions about the dangers that you're currently facing. And those don't feel good. But you know what, they can motivate you into action, you will know that these dangers are real, if that gives you the stomach. It's the kind of stuff that keeps you up at night, right? Like, is this job that I thought is going to be so secure? And give me a pension plan? I mean, who even still thinks about pension plans? Right? Can you really count on that? Or is that a danger? Do you need to figure out a way to diversify your income so that you can have a comfortable retirement one day, the opportunities section is about the stuff that you can feel inspired about or hopeful about, right? That's where you think like when you were a kid, and failure wasn't an option, I can do anything and everything you can isn't a great that here and 2021, we still can create that future. We don't need to give up on that. And guess what you may think but like myself, but I don't have the skills. I'm not an entrepreneur, I don't know anything about that. Oh, my gosh, trust me, when you circle reflecting on your strengths, you will find that there's more to you than you think there is. It may be your work ethic, it may be that you have had past successes, it may be that you're a great communicator, I mean, I don't care who you are, I have yet to meet the person who doesn't have anything that they can check off in the strengths column, and then use that as a basis to then feel what success is going to look like for you. What this chapter will do for you, is give you a pathway towards working to that ideal dream. So yeah, it starts by helping and asking yourself the questions. What do I want my life to look like? And what will success look like for me? So the good thing is we have some tools and resources and questions so that we can help you think about your thinking. I love that because it gives you again, like you were saying it gives, it's a formula, it gives a path. It gives guidance, where before it was kind of just a big black hole, or just the ether. And it's just a nice to have every now and then I'll think about it. But you know what I'm on this track my nine to five, gotta get back to work. Okay, and so I like a few things to see. I mean, I like it all but what you mentioned about take a deep breath, slow down, just take a minute to get out of like the rat race or get out of that I gotta keep going, I gotta keep going. I have a job tomorrow. I have to get to work tomorrow. I've kids to get to school, you know, all these different things and just actually take some a minute for yourself, write things down, actually write down what your income, lifestyle wealth and equity goals are. And I'm saying this for the listeners as much as myself, and it's good to revisit that as well. If maybe you've done that in the past and haven't done that in a while. So slowing down, taking time and actually figuring that out for myself. And then also that mindset piece. And I think those questions that you asked, that are in this chapter here of the book, are really thought provoking and a really good starting place. So instead of just saying, it's a nice to have, there's actually some questions you can ask here that can get you excited to start taking action steps and give you some tangible things to take action steps. If I could add to that, you know, I think what prevents people from pursuing their dreams, and people are scared that they can make a wrong or a bad decision, right? Something like what if this is going to be the worst thing? You know, what, if I'm going to be worse off than I was before, right? So take a moment to eliminate decisions. It's not about making the right or the wrong decision at all. It's about creating a safe space where you can just dare to dream. And look, none of us can always make the perfect decision. But what we can do is gather the information, put our emotions aside and start looking at the facts. So that if and when and if the dream is important enough, we can make an informed choice, and then go and work at making it the right decision. But if we're going to try and figure out what is going to be perfect and look for 100% guarantee, guess what your dream is going to be like that horizon, it's always going to elude you. So don't get overwhelmed by the big picture. It's baby steps one at a time. And for right now, it's not about making a decision at all. It's about enjoying the journey and dreaming and just thinking about what could be possible. I couldn't have set up more perfectly confident people make informed choices. And that's really what we're talking about today. Just allowing yourself to even take that moment to think about choices that maybe you didn't even know existed before. And to me that's incredibly exciting. So I'm Mary, this is Melissa, member, relationship strategist with the entrepreneurs source. We just want to thank you so much for taking time with us today T and hopefully, and providing a huge amount of value and a fresh perspective to anyone that's listening and maybe feeling some of the things that we talked about in this episode. So thank you to the listener for joining us today as we explore possibilities, options and dreams. Remember, keep an open mind and always think about