Spirituality

When You Combine Profit with Purpose…Watch Out!!! (Part 1)

I’ve learned so much from interviewing high earners. Above all, I learned that a Profit Motive is a prerequisite for financial success.

But what propelled those women to higher levels was an added spiritual component, a deep commitment to a Higher Purpose.

While men tend to be motivated largely by profit, perks, and prestige, once we women are financially secure, we shift our focus to how we can serve.

“It happened when my mentality shifted to making a difference,” a successful financial advisor told me of how she went from six figures to seven. “You get to a point where you have more than you need, so you start thinking how you can help others.”

What’s Emotion Got to Do With It? Everything!!!

I call it the Secret Shame of Successful Women. And I see it all the time. Bright, sophisticated professionals, making ample incomes, who have little (if anything) to show for it.

Their problem isn’t lack of money. That’s merely a symptom. The real problem is that money is a far more emotional subject than the financial industry recognizes…which does a huge disservice to women.

After decades in this business, I’m convinced that the major reason smart, capable women struggle financially is because of Unresolved Emotions. Emotions such as fear, grief, anger and shame, incurred during their lifetime or passed down from earlier generations.

If You’re in Transition, Read This!!!

She had just separated from her husband, moved to a new town and was trying to restart the coaching business she’d put on hold.

Yet she kept procrastinating doing the things she needed to do.

“I feel stuck,” she sighed. “Like I hit a brick wall.”

“You’re not stuck,” I told her. “You’re in transition. And transitions are a bitch.”

I spoke from experience. I remember, back in the 80’s, when I moved to San Francisco, a dream come true. But as soon as I settled in, I sank into a confusing funk. This wasn’t what I expected.

That’s when I read Transitions: Making sense of Life’s Changes by Bill Bridges and understood what was happening. A transition is a gradual psychological process of reorienting to the new situation.

Primitive societies had rituals to give meaning to life’s transitions. Members were taken out of their villages, into the wilderness, where they didn’t know what was going to happen next.

“Every time we make a change,” Bridges writes, “We take a metaphorical journey into the wilderness.”

The wilderness is full of uncertainty, indecision, confusion, disorientation, vacillation–all a vital part of the reorientation process.

The ‘in-between’ period is not a time to commit. Or take decisive action. Or even make plans.

It is a time to feel our feelings, grieve our losses, practice self-care and, like the primitives, commune with our spirit guides.

We need to unhook from the past before we can create a new future.

“The more you can tolerate, even embrace, uncertainty,” I told my client, “the quicker you will get through it.”

Eventually, I assured her, your energy will return. Opportunities will appear. Loose ends will come together. Out of the chaos of uncertainty, new beginnings will inevitably emerge.

How have you successfully navigated transitions in your life? Leave me a comment below.

Want a global transformation? Build Your Wealth & Claim Your Power

Come January, my newest book, Rewire for Wealthwill hit the shelves.

I imagine some of you, upon hearing that title, are bristling like an irritated cat, thinking: ‘How dare I be rich when so many are poor?’

If you think amassing riches is bad or selfish, consider the words of Abraham Lincoln: “If you want to help a poor person, do not be one.”

Building wealth is about far more than money. It’s about the powerful woman you must become in order to create, grow and sustain wealth. I assure you, it’s the process, not the money, that empowers.

Too many of us have been in a deep sleep regarding our true nature, how powerful we actually are, or how affluent we could be.

It’s time to wake up to the truth of who you are and the enormous power you have to create wealth and to generate change.

As the Rev. Michael Beckwith put it: “You can’t be light of the world if can’t pay light bills.”

My Journey Through Fear (Thanks to A Course in Miracles)

I’ve always been an upbeat person.  But these past months have cast a dark pall over my positive attitude. I’ve been feeling fragile, fearful, unsettled.

Finally it dawned on me. I need to surrender in stillness to receive guidance from a higher wisdom.

Almost immediately, a lesson from A Course in Miracles came to mind—You can see peace instead of this.

Huh??? How can I possibly see peace in a world filled with frightening and depressing events?

But I remember the Course’s primary teaching.  Our minds have two “thought systems” or two distinct voicesthe voice of fear (Ego) and the voice of love (Soul). “There is no compromise between the two.”

A Spiritual Approach to Financial Angst

I woke up this morning, with an almost obsessive thought. It’s time to preach the gospel of the Metafiscal.

Metafiscal, a word I coined, blends financial knowledge with metaphysical principles, melding the spiritual with the practical in regards to money. You don’t have to be religious to be Metafiscal. I’m certainly not.

But I do agree with Deepak Chopra who said, “We need a more spiritual approach to success and to affluence.”
Especially in the midst of so much financial angst and upheaval.

It’s no accident that “In God We Trust” is emblazoned on our currency. God can be whatever you’re comfortable with—a personified deity, a Higher Power, your inner wisdom or an all-encompassing energy far greater than our earthly selves.

When I was going through my financial crisis, with a million-dollar tax bill and no money in the bank, I was sure God had abandoned me. But eventually I realized, it was me who had abandoned God.

“When you think God has not answered your call,” declares A Course in Miracles, “you have not answered His.”

I did as the Course instructed. “Learn to be quiet, for His Voice is heard in stillness.” I spent hours in prayer, meditation, along with learning about money. Over time, the veils began to lift. Slowly I took the financial reins, and shockingly, I actually enjoyed the process.

I’m convinced that healing financial angst is not meant to be a solitary journey. When you focus on communing with the Divine, requesting guidance, developing a deep sense of trust in the inexplicable forces of the Universe, along with studying the practical facts, everything changes.

Financial success becomes a transformational journey, a sacred initiation, empowering you to become all you’re meant to be and to do what you’re put on this planet to do.

I’d love to hear how you’ve combined the spiritual with the practical in your financial journey. And if you haven’t, do you think it might be time? Leave me a comment below.

FIRE!!!!

My family have all been affected by the wildfires. As I write, I look out the window and cannot see the mountains through the heavy layer of smoke from distant fires.

For my children in California and Oregon, the fires are dangerously close by.

My daughter Julie and her 3 year-old were packed to evacuate, as fires raged 4 blocks from her house. I sat by the phone, hysterically waiting.

Hours later, a miracle occurred. The winds suddenly changed direction. Her home was saved. But the neighboring towns were demolished.

Disaster seems to be the theme for this year. But, according to the Chinese, the word for crisis consist of two characters, one for risk, another for opportunity. And I wonder…

Could these disasters actually be opportunities for growth and transformation? 

Clearly, a new normal is emerging. Life as we know it will never be the same. Perhaps the pandemic, the riots, the natural calamities and whatever else may befall us, are in truth, a wake-up call from our Soul with an urgent message:

Stop what you’re doing. Pay attention. The world is changing. In order to thrive, you must change too. 

The Power of Letting Go

A long ago memory came to mind today. I was living in Kansas City, raising two little girls, running a thriving career counseling firm. Business was hopping, but I wasn’t happy. I was longing to live near water and write.

Huh??? I’d never written anything. And there was no water in KC (at least none that I’d want to live near!). Why would I give up a flourishing business, uproot my kids, leave behind a network of friends and reliable babysitters? 

Here’s What Really Needs to Change

Am I the only one feeling this way?

Yes, the protests—peaceful or not—have led to incredible changes. Companies are hiring more blacks. Communities are implementing radical police reforms. The shares in black-owned businesses are soaring.

But to create true and lasting equality, we must look beyond the external. To change the collective, we need to transform the individual.

I say this from experience.

I came of age during Women’s Lib. Enraged by rampant discrimination, we took to the streets, burning our bras, demanding gender equality. And lo and behold, the workplace opened its doors, albeit a crack. The banks gave us credit cards without requiring a man’s signature.

I Was Wrong!

To those who took me to task for last week’s newsletter, I have one thing to say. Thank You! You opened my eyes.

I had praised the angry but peaceful protesters insisting black lives matter while disparaging “the looters and arsonists” for their senseless acts of destruction that had nothing to do with social justice.

And then you, my beloved community, showed me the light.

“Two wrongs do not make a right,” one woman wrote. “But when those four police murdered George Floyd and all the others, too numerous to mention, they broke the contract of good conduct. If the law enforcement agency cannot follow the law themselves how do they expect others to do so?

Another reminded me that peaceful protests “made it easy for many White Americans to turn a blind eye to the sufferings of African-Americans, to explain away mistreatment. But the damages have meant that people can no longer look away. Instead it has caused many to look inside at their privilege and find ways they can help dismantle it.”

I still can’t justify violence. Yet I have to admit, people are paying attention, springing into action like never before. But there must be other ways, better ways, to generate change.

Perhaps Ghandi said it best: “If you change how you think then you will change how you feel and what actions you take. And so the world around you will change.”

I’ve been following Ghandi’s guidance. It’s been powerful. If you care to join me, begin by asking—How must I change my thinking to create a just, compassionate and loving world?

Please share your answer with me. I really want to hear from you.

Meet Barbara Huson

When a devastating financial crisis rocked her world, Barbara Huson knew she had to get smart about money… and she did. Now, she wants to empower every women to take charge of their money and take charge of their lives! She’s doing just that with her best-selling books, life changing retreats and private financial coaching.

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