The Abundant Practitioner Podcast By Dr Tilean
Welcome to our podcast channel. I'm Dr. Tilean, a Chartered Psychologist and Behaviour Change Expert turned Business Mentor for Practitioners, Coaches and Consultants who want to start and scale their own purpose-led business so they can live a soul-nourished and profitable life without compromise!
The Abundant Practitioner Podcast By Dr Tilean
Ep. 76: Faith Over Fear: The Stretchy Truth Behind My Move to Ghana
In this deeply honest and faith-filled episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on one of the biggest, boldest, and most soul-aligned moves of my life…
We’re relocating to Ghana.
But this episode isn’t just about moving countries. It’s about moving in faith.
It’s about those sacred moments when God whispers (or shouts!) that it’s time to shift.
To start the business.
To launch the program.
To leave the job.
To move the family.
And your whole body trembles at the thought.
You’ll hear me share:
Why freedom isn’t just about location, it’s about alignment
How to recognise the divine “GO!” even when fear is loud
The delay tactics I used to call “wisdom”
Why obedience leads to overflow, even when you don’t know the how
And the quiet (and not so quiet) voices that try to talk us out of our assignment
I reflect on the fears I had when starting my business over a decade ago, and how those same patterns showed up again as we prepared to move our family, which includes two young kids to Ghana.
This is a message for the visionary who feels like they’ve been circling around a mountain, and not sure how or when to make the next ‘right’ move, because sometimes, what we call preparation is really procrastination in disguise.
Ready to move… physically, spiritually, or entrepreneurially?
Then listen to this episode right now.
Good vibes always,
Dr. Tilean
P.S. If you're building or scaling a faith-first business and ready to rise into your next level with purpose, structure, and soul… Join Us In The Soul Success Business Academy: academy.drtilean.com/starthere
If you’re done with striving and ready to lead from peace in your mind, body, spirit, and strategy… Join Us In The Calm CEO™ Community: discover.drtilean.com/calmceo
Thank you for joining me today on The Abundant Practitioner Podcast. I’m so glad you carved out this time for yourself because you 100% deserve soul-nourishing and soul-aligned success!
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Thanks again for tuning in, and I'll see you next time on The Abundant Practitioner Podcast!
Welcome to our podcast, designed for psychologists, therapists and counsellors who want to take their business online and live a soul, nourished and profitable life without compromise. If you want to know the secrets used by practitioners just like you to navigate the global e-learning market successfully, then you're in the right place. I'm Dr Talib, chartered Psychologist, business Mentor and your host, and welcome to the Abundant Practitioner Podcast. So today I'm going to talk about my move to Ghana. I'm talking about freedom, I'm talking about obedience. I'm talking about fear and faith, right? How do you feel the fear and move anyway? How do you recognize that there's a call on your life to do something next and feel like, oh my gosh, this is bigger than me. How is it possible to do that? And have all these internal excuses come up and then let it settle and move in obedience, how you're meant to move, and how that relates to the Ghana move that I'm doing with my family. Right is, we've got two young children, a two-year-old and a six-year-old, and my partner and we're moving from the UK over to Ghana. Right? But I feel this conversation is not just about relocation in the sense of freedom, relocation and like the fact that we can make the decision quite quickly to be like yeah, that's what needs to happen and we're going to make that decision Right. It's more about it's more than location freedom, it's just about freedom in its entirety. And it's about alignment being able to make those decisions to be in alignment with your mission, with your God-given mission, with your God-given directions right, and that, actually, when you are in that space to move, when you're being asked to move and I talk about move it, when I'm saying the word move, i're being asked to move, and I talk about moving, when I'm saying the word move, I mean more than just move country maybe. Move and start the business, move and execute this new program, move and do the launch.
Speaker 1:Move in whatever way, shape or form, right, it is going to have some levels of uncomfortability, right. You're going're going to feel stretched. You're going to come up with excuses of like who am I to move? How can I move? Should I move now? What would happen with this and that and the next? Right. But the reward on the other side is so much more right. There's a beautiful reward, an earthly reward, heavenly reward, depending on your beliefs, right, but the reward of obedience is huge and so it's recognizing, actually right, experience, move to that. You can feel it, know it, see it. Right, that when you experience it, you know it. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:Earlier someone was saying about moving home and they moved into a space and were like, yeah, I'm here. And then they saw another space and was like that's where I'm meant to be, that's where I'm meant to be. Right, like the full body. Yes, so, like that's where I'm meant to be. Yeah, that's what's happening. You might not even know the how. Likely, you probably don't know the how. So what happens when you have a full body? Yes, of this is what I'm meant to do next. Right, or maybe it's not a full body, yes, but maybe it's a clear certainty. Because it's not a full body, yes, because the fear is overpowering it. But if you took fear away, it would be a full body.
Speaker 1:Yes, right, so, for example, if I, if I go back 10 years you know I was voicing out in one of our clients in the business academy earlier and you know I was sharing with them the story of me 10 years ago, 10 years ago, just over 10 years ago, right, I started my business. So 10 and a half years ago, I was in a job that was really not a great environment to be in. I was experiencing workplace bullying. It was very challenging, very tough. However, I knew that I was meant to start a business. I knew that. I didn't just know that in that moment either. I knew that before that, but I kept putting it off. It was like God was talking to me and I was like, well, yeah, I get it, but let me go and do in a company and get more qualified and experienced first, because I'm not quite sure. God, you know what you're talking about. So let me do it my way Right and figure out my way, and then I'll do it your way Right. How about that? Yeah, and you know like it just kept coming up, coming up, coming up Right, and maybe within you there's a whisper right, or maybe a real loud knowing that there's something else, something different, a move, a transition that's meant to happen and it's not quite happening because all the delay tactics are coming up. Your own internal delay tactics, right, your own internal delay tactics.
Speaker 1:If I go back 10 years ago, I had so many internal delay tactics of it can't happen right now because I'm going for a divorce. It can't happen right now because I'm figuring out where to live. It can't happen right now because I haven't worked for X amount of years, like I feel like I need another 10 years of experience. It can't happen right now. It can't happen right now because I don't know how to run a business. I've never run a business before. It can't happen right now because of X, y, z, right, surely I need another qualification, even though I'm now up to doctorate level. It can't happen right now because, right, what is your? It can't happen right now because, yeah, that's a natural human reaction to have objections. Right, because you're stretching to another level that you haven't been on. And we're human, yeah, so our humanness is going to show, right, and so that humanness is going to show right and so that humanness is going to show.
Speaker 1:But it's what you do with it. Do you walk with that voice or do you walk with god's voice, right? And so when, um, for a while now we've known as a family we want to move out of the uk, we've known that for a while we want to move out of the UK, we didn't know where, right, so it was curious, like, where are we moving to? Like, what's God talking to us about? Where would we even go. Like you know, we pondered on a few countries and stuff. But I just know, when you know, you know, like you, you, the the next visible step will always be shown. Yeah, the next visible step will always be shown. Yeah, the next visible step will always be shown to you, right? And then it's about taking it. So, in the next visible step, like when we went to Ghana, we was just like, oh my gosh in love, like, wow, this is home. Like, thank you, amazing, wow, and everything.
Speaker 1:Like steps started the questions I had. Steps would be revealed. The answers would be revealed right, in terms of like well, we need to find a school. Like, or how would we educate our children? Maybe homeschooling, what would it look like? Steps were revealed right, where would we live? How does it all work? And there's like steps were revealed, right.
Speaker 1:But if you're open to seeing them, you know there was many years on my journey before I started a business. I wasn't open to seeing the answer. All I wanted to entertain was my own human flesh, my own thoughts around, like, well, well, I don't know how to run a business, I need more qualifications, I'm going for a divorce, I don't know where I'm living, excuse, excuse, excuse, excuse, but god but god, but god, but god, but god. Right, excuse, excuse, excuse, excuse, delay right now. Everything will always be made better. You know what I mean. It's all good, like you know, god is a great good and that's a great God, and that's amazing, right, like, however, like, wouldn't it be more amazing if I could just answer the call quicker, the call quicker, right, and trust more and have faith more?
Speaker 1:Faith is being able to lean into what you cannot see with these eyes. That's what it's about, right? You can't see it with these eyes, yet. You can see it here, right In thought. You can see it in thought, in vision. You can see it in heaven, right On earth, as it is in heaven, right, bring it down, right.
Speaker 1:So, like you know, it's like recognizing that, as you, as you step out to do something new, you hear the call. You're like this is what needs to happen. You're like this is what needs to happen. It's natural to have a response, a reaction to be like well, how would that financially work? Is now the right time? Yeah, what? What would I do? How would that pan out? Right, going into so many questions, and then it's like do we trust right Is. Is it a yes, right? First comes, like, the decision of like this is a yes, the figuring out will get figured out. Yeah, so you know that is the part.
Speaker 1:So first is like dealing with your own stuff, and then that's what's laid on top of that is other people's stuff you know and that share earlier, right, for those of you that are listening to this, live in the roundtable, right, is that other people's opinions? Oh well, surely, like you shouldn't do it this way, or surely I wouldn't do if I was you, I wouldn't do it this way, right, like other people wanting to protect you, sometimes because they are like well-meaning loved ones, they just want to, like ensure that you don't fall. Like a parent doesn't want their child to fall down, right, but how is a child going to learn to walk if you don't let them try and stumble and then get up and try again? Yeah, and so you know, it's like, naturally, some people that may be very close to you partners, loved ones, moms, dads, friends, whoever maybe around you like don't do it, I wouldn't do that. Yet this is risky. What about savings? What about? You don't know enough. What about this right XYZ, right, so many things they might want to say on it. Yeah. However, you've got to be strong in yourself to recognize this is what I know god is sharing with me right now. This is the what I energetically feel in my body. It's a yes, and I humanly feel the delay tactics rising up, but I'm a human, so I'm going to recognize that and I'm going to put them aside. Right, I also can visibly see everybody else's stuff coming up Right, yeah, and I'm going to put those aside. Right. The move to Ghana has required more calm CEO of me than ever before, right, you know, which is beautiful because out of it, the calm CEO was birthed. Right, which is is is a movement there that I'm I'm leading on and I'm so excited to do that.
Speaker 1:But in terms of, like other people's opinions, right, other people's fears, worries, well, what would happen? What would happen, um, what? What happens with work? What happens with the business? What happens with your house? What happens to the children? You know what happens with, like, several questions you could imagine, like different thoughts or questions coming up, right, but actually, when you are anchored more in yourself of your self and your connection with god, those questions don't faze you as much as they might once have. Right.
Speaker 1:In the beginning of my business, I was not as strong in my faith as I am today, and so other people's questions would throw me off. They'll be like so how exactly is this business thing gonna work? Then I don't know. All right, you know. And then I'd start doubting myself, right, or like so, how, how, how do you do that? Then? How do you just work with people online, right, or whatever it might be. And I'd be like, well, you just do that.
Speaker 1:But there would be hesitance within me because I'm now questioning myself have I heard right? Can I do it? Right? Can I do this? Because I'm bringing all of this stuff and everybody else's stuff along with the journey, right, and the sooner you get into your journey where you can just release that stuff and that's what we do in the business academy, right, that's the stuff, that, that that makes people wander around forever. Right, and you know I sent an email. I can't remember when, but you know I was talking about um, just the Bible story where they get lost in the wilderness. A journey that should take them like a week to 10 days took them like forever and ever. Right, it took a long time, and why? Because of unbelief, right. Why? Because of all of these things, right?
Speaker 1:So think about like, where is like your internal Egypt? Where is there like? This is like your internal egypt? Where is there like this, um, this, this like I, I don't believe, or am I good enough? Or you know, um, what if it doesn't work out? Or what if, or, and you're stuck in loops, and so that you can't, actually you're being more faithful to the loops, to the, to all of that that is not God's voice, than to actually being obedient to what is being called of you. So how much percentage of time do you spend on what you are being asked to do, right, being purpose-driven, being mission-led, executing that versus the fear, versus the worry, versus the doubt, versus the unbelief, versus the fear, versus the worry, versus the doubt, versus the, the unbelief versus the all of the other questions that you may layer on right and the?
Speaker 1:The funny thing is is that fear dresses itself up as wisdom. You actually think you're being sensible. You actually think you're being like doing the right thing. You're like think you're being wise doing the right thing. You're like think you're being wise, right, but it's keeping you in delay. So these are things that you know, I, as I journey through this stretchy season of relocating country Right, with two small children, yeah, yeah, I'm anchored in to god's word, I'm anchored in to the vision, I'm anchored into all of this I only revealed to my clients yesterday, right, because as I anchor in and I'm in that space, I need to anchor in, and sometimes there's a season where other people's opinions right, or other people's feedback.
Speaker 1:You need to just limit it, right. And my clients are amazing, yeah, right, and they were all just like, right, you know, on our call yesterday it was cool and that's not what I'm saying. But even that, even the yay maybe I'm not ready for it, you, I'm just in the, I'm in the vision, I'm in the word, I'm in the laying down, the questions, the thoughts. They're like, that's not of God, right, we're doing it. That's not our God, right, we're doing it. Right, like I'm in that space. And so it's important to recognize like, what season you are in in terms of how you deal with and operate and around people, around others, around your vision and on all of those things. You know, and some of you may have have noticed, the 21 day one to one experience I'm currently offering was born out of this.
Speaker 1:When I really look at people executing their God-given mission, doing the thing is the easy part, right, doing the thing is the easy part. When I say, like the doing the business is the easy part, easy when you know how. Yes, yes, get it right, yeah, um, but it's all the things that come up around it that delay. What should I charge? What should I write? Am I using the right words? Who's the right words? How do I don't even know tech? How do I set up a system? What's my website? What's the funnel? What's the all of this stuff right keeps, keeps people confused. Plus, then, am I qualified enough? Who am I to do this? What if I fail? What if I fall? This is why the business academy cannot exist and could not exist without me having my hat on as a psychologist and be able to support people with their identity, with able to support people with their mindset, being able to support people to just strike out and do the thing right and get stronger in themselves. That's why I have the business academy.
Speaker 1:It's not just about strategy. It's about identity, growth, identity recalibration, identity like reclaiming right. There's a transformation that's got to happen on the inside to see what's happening on the outside, yeah, and so that's what happens. But that's a process over time, and as they're doing that, they've also got to do the thing, and that's what the 21 day thing was like. Do you know what? There's some people out there. They've been in the wilderness for a long, long, long, long, long, long time and they want to do the thing, and so why don't I do the thing? For 21 days, you still got to do the thing, right, you still got to walk the mission. But we can do that over a year. We just take out the, the, the, the, the itty bitty parts, right, and we'll get to it. You know, um, but coming back to this whole Ghana move right.
Speaker 1:But coming back to this whole Ghana move right is there is like things that I would say to really think about when you are in movement season. What if your movement season is fear and what is the voice of the Lord? What is the fear and what is the voice of the Lord? Whose voice is it? What is the voice of other people? Yeah, I love that. Whose report will you believe, right? Whose report will you believe?
Speaker 1:Every day, as a human being, you're going to be faced by your own internal narratives that your flesh wants to kind of hook onto of whatever it might be. Right, those patterns, yeah, a great thing that I tell people you know to lean into is a statement of like. Previously I would right, previously I would lean into perfectionism, but now I listen to the voice of the Lord and while I see it creeping up, let me place it aside and move along and forward and execute. Yeah, so you detach your identity, right, you detach your identity in a way that allows you to press forward each and every day, and that's a daily thing that happens. Right, it's placing aside fear. It's placing aside internal voices or external voices. Right, that may cause the delay, because no delay is needed, you know, and taking every thought captive, captive your own and others.
Speaker 1:Right, certainly was that question when was like oh my god, this is a yes. And we was like okay, how many years do we need to wait? That was our response. How many years do we need to wait? Like, when are we gonna do this? When the children are done? When, when the youngest is five, I was like well, why are we waiting? Why are we waiting? I don't know because, why are we waiting? Could we do it sooner? Ok, well, maybe next year, so why not this year? The children at school, but they break up for summer and they're going to finish and then it's summer holidays. Could this not just be divine timing? I was like, okay, it could. Right, there's a process. Yeah, you, you know it's recognizing that you can create your own delay. There doesn't need to be a delay.
Speaker 1:You know, I remember is, um, exactly tomorrow isn't promised, do it now? I remember I was talking to a client once and she was like, you know, I'm just getting like everything ready in my business. And she was in real estate and she was like just getting everything ready in my business and you know, I'm going to sign up some clients in like about four months. I was like four months. She was like, yeah, yeah, in four months. I was like four months. She was like, yeah, yeah, in four months I'm gonna like start signing the clients up. And I was like, well, what's, what's? Maybe I missed something, but what's happening between now and four months that stops your phone ringing and somebody like needing help selling their house? Um, um, well, my phone could ring today technically, but I was thinking that I, like would put together this marketing launch and this plan and I'm like, yeah, I get it and you can do the work and stuff, but could your phone actually ring today and somebody needs your help and you could help them and you could sign an agreement and get paid. Well, technically, yeah, well, technically, yeah, right.
Speaker 1:Like, what is the delay? You know what I mean, other than the mind telling you they need to be four months away. How about we just close the gap? Hey, how about we just close the gap, right? So, how about we just close the gap, right? So where is there a gap? Naturally, your mind is going to want to create a gap. Is this the right time gap? Where would I find the money? Like, I didn't prepare for that. I didn't create a savings account that said move to Ghana, trust me, there wasn't no account. That said move to Ghana. There wasn't surely no account back in 10 years ago that said start a business. It was like on paper, you ain't got no business starting, no business over here, right? So, like you know, like there is like, but you got to close, close the gap.
Speaker 1:You've got to assess and take every thought captive and let it aside and really allow yourself to press in the delay is not god's delay, right? Sometimes god creates a delay, right, but a lot of the times it's your own delay. And sometimes people are making their own delay and saying it's god's delay and God's over there saying, hey, you know, like why don't we just do the thing? Right, let's get going? And you're just like circling around the mountain a few times and saying, oh, but wait, hold on a minute, let me just catch catch up over here and do it my way until I get fed up enough. And now I'm on my knees and saying, god, help me, right, speak to me louder. And he might be saying I've already said the thing. Are you ready to do it? Right? I've already said the thing. That's why you can't hear me, because I'm giving you the assignment. I've told you the thing. That is your purpose. You just made everything else into it.
Speaker 1:So think about the fear. Think about faith, right? Faith is what you cannot see. However, it exists. You can see it up here. You might not see it here. You can see it here, right? You can see it in the spiritual realm. You can see it out here, right. You're just waiting for life to catch up with it down here, ok.
Speaker 1:So it's really, really important to recognize that faith is moving because you can see it up here. Moving because you can see it up here. Faith is not moving because you can see it here, otherwise it wouldn't be faith, right. What is the currency of heaven? Faith, right. Move in faith. As you move in faith, things will be added onto you. Seek ye first, the kingdom of God. Everything else will be added onto you. Move in faith, right, move. Move, though, is the key word here. Yeah, flow, right, you will start, as you move in obedience, you will start to see shifts. Right, you will start to feel it. You will also start to feel stretched because you are moving as a human in faith. So you're gonna feel stretched, which is why, every day, you've got to do the work to say I'm moving in faith, I can see god.
Speaker 1:I can see up here, right, I can see up here. People might think you can see up here. People might think you're mad. They're like what are you doing? I can see up here, what do you mean? You can see up here. Well, I can see up here, right, you know it's a faith walk You've all had.
Speaker 1:I want to make a broad assumption that anyone listening to this has had a faith walk, some level of faith walk. Children have so much faith in them, you know, and joy, and just like, yeah, it's gonna get done. How do I it's gonna get done? Right, like yeah. So how do you bring that back? As we go through life, right, we get disconnected from faith, many of us, and we want to reactivate that. Okay.
Speaker 1:So that's what I wanted to share today about the move to ghana. We are moving to gh, ghana, right, um, we are. I I don't know all the hows. I do know it's the same ish time zone as the UK, so not much will change in that aspect. And for terms of business, I do know where we're gonna live, thank god. I do know how we're gonna educate our children, thank god. Right. And everything else will continue revealing itself as and when it needs to be revealed.
Speaker 1:And I'm walking in faith and it is stretchy. It is stretchy. It's stretchy to say goodbye to parents on the playground and say we're going to Pagana. And I'm like it's stretchy to receive a message from a mom saying I've just been going through my child's school book and they were saying they wrote a message saying to your son or to the teacher it was their homework of like. I felt shy when I first started school and I didn't need to because my son helps him feel included and she sent me that and I'm like at the dinner table. My partner's like what's happened? I'm like, oh my gosh, have you seen this right? You know so there's stretchiness in it. It's okay to cry. It doesn't mean you're crumbling. It's okay to fear. It doesn't mean you're not moving forward. Right, but you just move accordingly and set yourself up with the right support and systems. You know, that's what I would say.