If you’ve been working on creating the kind of goal statement that activates unseen help, you may find the following Q/A helpful.
Getting a Goal Statement just right can be a lot of work!
But it’s worth the effort, because of the impact it can have on one’s results. We’ve simplified our Goal Review process for students who participate in Guided Mindset Mastery, so there’s no longer a lot of back and forth like you’ll see here when a review is submitted. A lot of the questions are handled now before the statement is created. But I share this interaction here, because seeing earlier students’ questions can provide additional clarity for everyone.
Confused about the Bite-Sized Goal?
Years ago, one of our students in Guided Mindset Mastery submitted her Goal Statement for review, and had just received it back from one of our experts, Monica. I’ll call the student Kendra, who had some additional questions but asked to be anonymous. I’ve had some additional thoughts since we first addressed this, which I’ll include in-line below as “Interjections”.
Kendra wrote:
Hi Monica,
I received your review of my goal statement, and I just want to say THANK YOU!!! I appreciate all the feedback you gave, and all the time you took on it. However, I do have questions about the bite-sized goal piece. … I just felt so confident in moving forward that I didn’t worry about it, but perhaps I should have. My question is this:
Is a bite-size goal an ACTION step??? Or is it a SEE IT DONE step?
When I first read about it in the lessons, I took it to mean, “What is the next thing you feel inspired to do, when you are in full alignment with this goal?” I guess I see it as taking action, and there have been several little promptings along the way I’ve received about this goal, and have taken those steps. It’s always on my mind, and I feel like MY JOB is:
- to always be open to inspired action, and
- to maintain faith and hold to my vision (Law of Transmutation).
In other words, to act when I feel like action is needed, and to NOT act when only FAITH is needed.
Interjection – I’d like to clarify this point for my blog readers. It’s not one or the other (acting when we don’t need faith vs. doing nothing when exercising faith). We demonstrate our faith BY taking action, whether the action is to do something, or whether it is to “be still”. Rare Faith is about having clarity and intention on a desired outcome, feeling it done as though it’s already happened, and then taking inspired action to help it happen. Rare Faith is required when it’s for a desired outcome that is beyond our natural control. It’s when we understand it will only be realized if something bigger than us helps it happen.
Intention is the first part, Feeling is the second part. Of course Action and Receiving would be additional parts of the equation, but that’s a conversation for another day. Watch this video clip below (opens in a new window).
Here is a direct link: https://www.facebook.com/reel/3422653981385768
Kendra continues:
So this bite-size piece of the goal is difficult for me to understand or know how to use it in a goal statement. How can I “see ahead” what the end result of a bite-size goal is going to look like, if the idea of Rare Faith is acting WITHOUT expectation, NOT KNOWING beforehand what will happen next, and how it will play out in the end?
You know the END RESULT of the goal itself, but in my mind, the details are up to God, not ME, so I just try to get in a place of relying on Him, always being willing to act, and always willing to wait, when I am called to wait.
Interjection – All she needs to know in terms of “seeing ahead” is how she wants to feel when it’s all said and done. Rare Faith holds a loose attachment to the desired outcome, but that desired outcome still must be very clear in our minds.
Her message continued:
Secondly, in your review you asked me to rank the difficulty. What I hope to accomplish is obtaining the SUV, and that goal is HUGE for me, for so many reasons, but I would say it’s at LEAST a 9, if not a 10.
And the bite-size pieces, some of the things I’m prompted to do each day are crazy big 10s (like the doubts I give up on a daily basis–some days they are 10+, other days they are less, it goes up and down). Sometimes, it’s having a conversation with my husband, which would be another 10, but other days it’s more calm (which I take as a good sign that I’m maintaining that faith).
Interjection – For her Mindset Mastery assignment, she doesn’t need to rank the promptings that come to her, she only needs to rank the bite-sized pieces of the longer term goal that SHE selects, based on how much they stretch or test her faith.
Monica replied:
Kendra,
I loved your vision and it sounds like you are taking each inspired step as it comes, which is exactly what we need to do. What I’ve learned from Leslie is that any goal should be written as if it is already accomplished. Remember your instructor saying, “see it-feel it-declare it-express thanks-then get to work”? This is the pattern for setting goals and accomplishing them.
So in answer to your question, “Is a bite-size goal an action step, or is it a fulfillment, see-it-done step?” It is a see-it-done step that LEADS to the next inspired action step. Sometimes that step is just receiving, sometimes it is maybe giving up doubts, or maybe it is having that difficult conversation with your husband.
So, your bite-sized goal might be something like:
- “I had a conversation with my husband which brought us closer and helped me feel calm and excited about receiving a new SUV.” Or,
- “I felt a calming reassurance from Heavenly Father that keeps my thoughts positive and focused on my goal.” Or,
- “I just talked with someone who has a trailer hitch that is the perfect fit for our SUV, and he is willing to give it to us and even install it when we’re ready!”
You don’t have to know HOW those things are going to happen, but believe that they will. You’re doing great and have totally got this! I hope this helped clarify the bite-sized goal question. Monica
Kendra wrote:
Yes, thank you very much for this!!! That is really helpful and I will think some more on this, but thank you for your guidance. I appreciate it so much!!! One final question that’s coming to my mind is this: As far as rating a bite size goal, I feel that sometimes I don’t know ahead of time how difficult it will be for me.
For example:
When I spoke about in class how I didn’t know HOW my husband and I would get on the same page (being willing to pay for my daughter’s gymnastics courses and letting her continue felt SO HARD), I was filled with all sorts of emotion about why that could never happen. However, the inspired action step that I later received was really easy to do, and then the end result came super easily, but to me, it was A HUGE MIRACLE that it happened, because of where we had been.
Interjection – She should just rank the difficulty based on how hard it feels like it will be when she first set the goal, not based on how hard it was actually doing the inspired steps to achieve it. In the course students are asked to rank the difficulty when they do it for the exercise, and then how they’d rank it if they were to do it again. (We hope that number goes down, to show that their confidence is growing as they practice the principles).
Kendra continued:
Another example:
When I set the goal to give up ALL my doubts for 40 days, that goal sounded easy to me, but the actually daily process really varied. Some days were easy, but some we’re REALLY DIFFICULT. So that’s another example of where I get hung up about rating a bite-size goal ahead of time, because I don’t necessarily know where that action step will take me, or what that process will be for me.
And now that I’m writing this, and processing the see-it-done method for EVERY SINGLE GOAL… And that makes so much sense to me to a certain degree, however, some confusion is sneaking in again. When I receive an inspired action idea, I DON’T KNOW WHY I’m being asked to do it. I’m confident it will lead me in the right direction, but I don’t feel like I can presume to know where that is. So it’s difficult for me to see it done.
Interjection – Again, when we talk about “seeing it done”, we’re talking about the end result. We’re not talking about seeing how all the little actions that get her there are going to play out. She should just hold strong on the main, primary vision and maintain firm expectation that she will realize her long-term goal. Let THAT be her focus; instead of getting caught up in trying to create visions for every little thing she does between here and there. Her arrow needs to be lodged securely in that one main target.
Imagine reeling yourself in by a string attached to an arrow lodged solidly in your main target. Whether you move right or left to get around obstacles, it doesn’t matter. The string will keep pulling you toward the target. Stepping over rocks, moving around trees, getting a drink of water, these are all things that happen along the way, like inspired actions, but you’re not going to pull your arrow out of the main target to stab it into twenty different targets along the way, thinking that will help you get you to your long term goal.
Keep just the arrow fixed on one target, and move through the obstacles as they come. Take inspired steps as promptings come, but keep your focus and intention lodged securely into the target representing the main goal.
Kendra continued:
Another example:
I felt impressed to connect with a certain person to enroll in a financial course. This all came after I set the SUV goal, and my husband and I started the course, and it’s been really good and I feel like we’re on the right track, but to SEE THE RESULT of this goal feels way too much to me. I don’t know for certain if this one class will lead me to the answers I need for the SUV.
That’s what I want it to be, but I don’t think I get to decide, because I feel like that takes over for God in a way, and I don’t know HOW it will work out. And one of my weaknesses in the past has been assuming I can figure it out and getting stuck in certain expectations. I’m always trying to figure out how it can happen and to make it happen, and that, I know, has been in direct opposition to faith and has prevented me from receiving.
So I’ve worked really hard at getting into a place of receiving and faith and not trying to figure out God’s work for Him, and trying to see the result of each and every bite size goal feels like so much work to me, and also, it feels for me personally, like I’m trying to be at the helm, rather than let Him steer my ship wherever it’s going.
Interjection – I think what’s happening here is a confusion between bite-sized goals, and inspired actions / steps.
Bite-sized Goals are what WE intend, what WE select, something we see done because we know it’s something that has to happen between where we are now and achieving the long-term goal.
For example, if you want to run a marathon but you don’t have good running shoes and can’t afford to buy any, a bite-sized piece of that long term goal would be to use Rare Faith to first help you obtain the running shoes.
The goal is the marathon. That’s the target. Your commitment and determination to achieve it is the string attached to the arrow in the target.
The lack of shoes is merely an obstacle on the way to that target. Sure, you could see yourself getting the shoes and treat that goal like another target with an arrow in it, but in doing so, you run the risk of losing your focus on completing the marathon.
So yes, see yourself getting the shoes, but even better, see yourself running the marathon IN your shoes! Do you see how the main goal can always be the focus, even as you use Rare Faith principles to achieve bite-sized pieces of the goal? Just remember – overcoming obstacles is not the goal – it’s something you do on the way to your goal.
As you remain focused on the marathon, and identify the obstacle that must be overcome to stay on course, you might get a thought to go to an outlet store downtown that you’ve never been to before, or to search a certain website, or to call someone. Those are Inspired Actions, not bite-sized pieces of your long term goal.
The Bite-Sized Piece of a goal is something YOU determine, ie. committing yourself to finding a way to get the shoes you need. Inspired Actions are the idea sparks you RESPOND to which showed up BECAUSE you set the intention to find a way. An example of an Inspired Action would be to visit a certain website.
Kendra continued:
And maybe the answer is just to keep it more simple. Maybe I don’t have to see the result of each action step specifically, but more generally see myself progressing continually, constantly receiving guidance from God, and continually maintaining faith, optimism, and joy in receiving the bigger goal. Kind of like what you said earlier: “I felt a calming reassurance from Heavenly Father that keeps my thoughts positive and focused on my goal.” I like that, and maybe that’s all I need to do, in general.
Interjection – Yes!
But I struggle a bit with this bite-size piece, because it does FEEL to me very specific, and it feels really difficult to rate the difficulty level of a bite size goal because I’m not sure I want to dictate what the end result of a bite size goal should be, and hence, I don’t know how difficult it will be until I’m in it.
Interjection – She should DEFINITELY decide what the end result of her bite-sized goal should be. It’s HER clear and determined intention that activates the unseen help she will need to accomplish it. What she doesn’t need to decide is what her INSPIRED ACTIONS will DO. She should simply respond to those with faith and trust that somehow they will bring her closer to her INTENDED outcome. She CAN decide how difficult a bite-sized goal feels to her, because she is the one who selected it. She doesn’t need to decide nor report on how difficult the inspired actions are that she is prompted to take.
She continues:
Signing up for the financial class and to SEE MYSELF doing that felt easy, fun, and exciting for me, but honestly, the first class sent me into anxiety for a week or more because of all the things it stirred up in me about money.
So maybe my bite size goal that was a 10 was to work through that anxiety about my money that came after my class, and to see myself on the other end of it, feeling a newfound confidence and reassurance about money and spending??? That seems to fit better with what you’re saying. I will ponder some more about this.
But thank you, Monica, for welcoming my questions and for answering them! It is very helpful. I sincerely appreciate your willingness and your time!!! Kendra
I popped in with some additional thoughts:
Hi Kendra,
Monica has done a great job with her insights. About ranking your goal, first of all, I would not consider 40 days of zero doubt to be a bite-sized piece of a short term goal. To me that sounds more like a short term goal, and a bite sized piece might be 6 hours in one day of giving up all doubts. Or even 30 minutes. Chunk it down into bite-sized pieces.
Another thought to consider is that a bite-sized piece of a short term goal really should be something outside of your direct control, so that it requires Rare Faith for it to happen. Giving up all doubts sounds more to me like an act of the Will, not an act of Rare Faith. Think about the inconsequential goal you achieved in Phase 1, and see if you can come up with something like that was designed to be, except make it something to do with moving the needle forward on your short term goal.
I think you may have an easier time assigning a rank once you’ve identified a bite-sized piece that is not an act of the Will, but rather an exercise in Rare Faith. Make a list of all the things that would need to happen for the SUV to come about, and choose one of them on which to apply Rare Faith and intend to see it happen within a day or two.
Leslie
Monica added:
Kendra,
I get where you’re coming from about not being able to see each goal done. I believe that is why Leslie has us write a life statement (which can be tweaked and changed when needed, btw). This is so we can focus on the most important things we desire. All the other smaller goals come as we keep in mind the important desires for our life and act on the inspired steps along the way. You are doing an excellent job seeing your goal, trusting and acting on those “next right steps.” We don’t know HOW things will happen. We just need to exercise the faith that they WILL happen and trust God.
With your desire to build family relationships, one of the smaller goals is to get an SUV to allow your family to pick up that boat and experience good times together. Whether the action steps are to have a conversation with someone and get on the same page (see it go well and feeling good about the way it went), take a course (see the things you learned helping you manage your finances better and feeling happy to see more money in your account), or giving up doubts every day (feeling secure in faith and trusting that things are going to be for your benefit and learning), you can continue to exercise your “faith muscles” that the success principles will work by acting on the inspirations you receive as you focus on what you desire.
Life is a process. As we practice these principles, our knowledge and confidence grows. Keep it up! You are doing great and inspiring me along the way as well.
Thanks, Monica
Kendra replied:
Leslie and Monica,
Thank you so very much for taking the time to answer my questions.
I didn’t realize I was so hung up with this “bite-size” piece. And honestly, I don’t think I thought it was that big of a deal, because I figured I would just accomplish my short-term goal, and either way, that would at least ‘count.’
I was just so focused on my short-term goal, taking the approach of:
- Keep the Faith, so that I create “fertile ground” by my acorn to grow
- Meditate daily to be in “receiving mode” as much as possible
- ACT on the promptings I receive
And I know these things are and have been so good for me, and are all part of it, but after much pondering about your email, Leslie, I believe I came to some new understandings, and I hope it’s okay if I set them forth here to get some feedback and clarification, because I sincerely desire to understand and do this right!
Yes, Monica, I agree, you have done such a great job explaining so many things, and I appreciate all your thoughts!
And Leslie, thank you for your clarity. You have an amazing way with words, and I appreciated what you said. Yes, it did help.
You mentioned the act of Will vs. acts of Rare Faith–so good to consider! And you spoke about making a list of everything I need to obtain the SUV, choose one piece of it and apply rare faith to move that needle closer.
So, in relation to the SUV, when you asked me to make a list of what I need first in order to get the SUV, I felt stifled at first, because I don’t KNOW HOW God is going to work this out for me, but I know that He can and that He will, but when I try to “figure things out on my own,” all the doubts and worries creep in and it’s harder for me to maintain that faith. So I tend to steer away from those types of thoughts.
But I took your advice to heart yesterday, and I made a list. Of course, the biggest and probably only obstacle is the money, however, in efforts to stay OPEN to ALL the possibilities, I’ve also considered the possibility that someone who has the perfect car might just not need it anymore and want to give it away and would somehow find us and it could work that way.
But in response to “choose one of them to which you could apply your Rare Faith and see happen within a day or two,” the only thing that came to my mind that could reasonably happen in a few days is to receive our stimulus money, which for some reason, hasn’t come yet. So I thought, Okay, this is definitely outside my control. I could visualize the deposit in my bank account, which led to another thought, that money is actually needed elsewhere and we won’t be able to use much, if any, towards the car, so I thought, well, I’ll visualize some extra money, because maybe there was some mistake, or maybe, because it’s been delayed, it will include the additional potential child tax credits along with this check.
Just acknowledging the possibilities that it could be higher than we expected got me started on a list of several potential things that could happen (things that I can actually believe happening) that could provide a little bit here, and little more there, and eventually get us to the point where we’d have enough for the car we’d like, and we wouldn’t have to take out a loan, which is really what we want, because currently, we don’t have room for a car payment.
So, I actually had a lot of fun doing this and it got me really energized. And I thought, “OH!!! Maybe that’s what Leslie’s talking about, to come up with specific little steps that would help us get closer to the car.” And it felt good and made sense to me, because that’s moving your feet, rather than just waiting for God to either deliver the car, or send us a giant check in the mail. I felt like this is what God wants me to do, to be taking these “bite-size” steps.
And then all the contradicting thoughts came: “But wait, how do I know that’s the LORD’S way, or the LORD’s will for bringing this about??? Who am I to presume to know what God’s mind is, and furthermore, who am I to tell God what to do for me???”
At the same time, the Lord did ask the brother of Jared, “What would ye have me do for you?” And I thought I felt God press upon my heart, that it’s not only okay to ask for these specific things, but that’s what He wants me to do, to really employ the use of “Rare Faith,” like you were saying.
So, these are my new questions, because I want to be careful here:
Is it OKAY to ask for these SUPER SPECIFIC little steps, even if I don’t know if that’s the way God would do it???
Interjection – YES! Because moving our feet just means He can steer us. We proceed with our best judgment, and trust that He will guide us in a different direction if He has something else in mind.
She continued:
I’ve always tried to stay away from too much expectation about specific things, but maybe that’s how to use Rare Faith in a more powerful way. And maybe it’s okay, if we feel like it is an “inspired idea?”
Interjection – Yes!
She added:
Part of me wants to just write up all the ideas on my list, and then let God choose which ones He wants to do, which ones are His will, but maybe that’s a copout, and I’m pretty sure you would say, “No, just choose one and focus on ONE at a time, whichever one you feel inspired to do first.” Is that right???
Interjection – Yes!
Also, IF I do this stimulus money as a bite-size goal, is it better to say, “We received the check today, and it was so much more than we anticipated” OR, “We received the check today, and it was $4000 more than we anticipated.” I get so nervous about specific amounts, because I don’t want to limit God. Can you tell I have a TON of fear about trying to “take over” for God??? It really is the LAST thing I want to do.
Leslie, after reading the final, BONUS lesson at the end of MM, that was by far my FAVORITE lesson. It was so powerful for me and it reaffirmed everything I’ve always known, that ultimately, God is in charge, and we can always trust in Him, even if it’s different from what we currently desire, which I believe with 100% of my heart and soul.
However, I think I used it as an “excuse” to fall back into some faulty thinking: that of letting God decide for me, or hoping He will tell me what to do, rather than having the courage to decide for myself and dare to dream. In the week or two after that lesson, I felt God whisper to my heart, “Kendra, I gave you a paintbrush. Now USE it!!!”
That is so difficult for me to do. And though I feel I’ve greatly improved in this area, I find it very tricky in this particular circumstance, because I DON’T want to overstep my bounds, I don’t want to presume I know more than God, and I definitely don’t want to tell Him how to do His job.
So I implore your feedback on these thoughts and some guidance and counsel, because to me, there seems to be a very fine line in this area of choosing what to have happen with Rare Faith, and it scares me too, because I don’t want to abuse that power, because it is GREAT POWER, and honestly, I’m a little (a lot) scared of it and using it in the wrong way, so I thank you in advance for helping me to understand this piece, because I really don’t want to get it wrong. I’m hoping you can help me filter through my correct thinking vs. my faulty thinking, from your outside perspective and masterful insights.
Okay, I think that’s all I need to say. And I apologize for the novel, it often takes me some time to fully explain what’s in my heart, but I appreciate your hearing me and being willing to give me counsel and guidance. I sincerely thank you BOTH for all you’ve done for me.
Warmly, Kendra
My response:
Great thoughts, Kendra!
In short, make a crazy list of all the ideas you can think of that could get you closer. Consider the possibility that those ideas CAME from God, or at least that some of them were inspired, if you have trouble believing they ALL were inspired. You don’t even have to decide which ones were.
So make your list, and then let your bite-sized piece of the goal say something like, “I’m so happy and grateful now that one of these things on the list has happened!!!” The important part here is the feeling – can you imagine saying those words and feeling amazed and grateful? It’s not a copout to have more than one goal at a time if the bite-sized piece is for ANY one of them to happen for you. I do that by describing how I want, believe, or hope things will go, and then ending it with “all this or something better.” That’s how you can give it to God, while not shirking the responsibility that is yours.
I recommend you add that to the bottom of your statement, even if you’ve already made your list and intended that one of those things would happen. That keeps things open to the possibility that God has another way in mind. But if you do that, just make sure your intention is around how amazed you’ll feel, and that if it IS something different, it will clearly be tied to this exercise. That way you can KNOW that what ends up happening was exactly what the Lord had in mind, for showing His hand to you.
Monica added:
I see amazing things happening for you, Kendra! I’m excited for all that you will receive and all that you will give back to the world because of the things you have desired and continue to learn. Keep on dreaming! Monica
Kendra’s response:
Oh that is so amazing, THANK YOU!!! I had no idea how much I needed this, but this will be so helpful.
It fills me with renewed vigor and renewed passion, so I’m very excited. Thank you, Leslie, for taking the time for my questions. It was exactly what I needed to hear. It gave me the push I didn’t know I needed. And Monica, thank you for your faith and confidence in me, your encouraging words, and thanks for seeing how my short-term goal fits in with my larger vision! That was reassuring.
I love that bite-size goal idea so much. It’s very exciting to me. Yes I can already feel that joy and excitement of receiving one of the things on my list.
Just one last question, for all those things on my list, is it better to be SPECIFIC in terms of amounts of money or the amount of a raise at work, etc., or is it better to leave it more general?
And I assume it’s still okay to write up each one and visualize it and feel those fun feelings, with an understanding that they might not ALL happen, but all that needs to or something better will?
Thanks again for EVERYTHING!!! Sincerely, Kendra
I added:
Yes, about feeling them all. It’s up to you about how specific you want to be. Getting specific helps you imagine them being real. But don’t force specifics, just daydream about them and see what comes into view. See how they develop like an old Polaroid. 🙂 Leslie
Six weeks later…
Kendra messaged us again. She said:
Leslie and Monica,
I wanted you to be the first to know!!! One of the things on my list happened!!!!
It took longer than expected, and of course, the thing that happened was one of the least expected, while I gave more attention to the ones that seemed closer and more probable.
Anyway, I just want to thank you both so much for all your help with this! I’ve been following you for a long time, Leslie, trying to apply these principles and I have! But with money related things, I have not experienced a true success until now!!! So it is very thrilling for me. Something BIG happened for me. And it’s directly related to mindset shifts I needed to make. But it was BIG! Like $10,000 big. And, it happened EXACTLY how I had written!!!
I had to go home and remember what I had written and it was stunning to me to see how it happened word for word! This is the first time something like THIS has ever happened!!! And it’s so fun and humbling to witness God’s miraculous workings!
And because of that and a few other things that have happened (not directly on the list), we are likely set to go get our SUV. We’re going car shopping this weekend
I am just so happy I had to share. You are some of the only ones who knew about this “list.” Thank you, Leslie, for your guidance with that. I believe it was just what I needed!!!
Thank you again!!! Sincerely, Kendra
How she did do it? It all began with the creation of her goal statement weeks earlier. Here is part of it. Notice how she spoke about what she desired as if it had already happened. We call this “telling the truth in advance” 🙂
“… And above all, I feel so blessed to know that this car was trying to reach us the whole time, and it feels so good to finally succeed in receiving the blessings God loves to give us. It was so easy, much easier than I expected, and the way was provided for us, and I’m just so grateful to my Heavenly Father for teaching me how to truly receive, grateful I was able to maintain the faith that it would come, and grateful to God for showing me how to be in tune with what He has prepared for me. And that’s the best feeling in the whole world, and I’m so excited to share these miraculous truths with others.”
Another six weeks went by and she was finally ready to share to our group how it came about:
I achieved my short-term goal for GMM: “I am so happy now that we have our own SUV to use to go boating!”
My husband and I both grew up boating, and we would love to go boating as a family and to create similar memories for our children. The past couple of summers, we have wanted to go boating more and have tried, but for several reasons, it has not gone well, but has been frustrating. So we decided we would really love a car of our own to pull the boat, but we did not have the money to get one.
Through the process I learned in the Guided Mindset Mastery course, we received what we needed to purchase a beautiful white GMC Yukon XL Denali (2016), and we love it!!! It is perfect for everything we need, and we can now use it to go boating whenever we want. It’s a dream come true!!!
We bought the car about a month ago, and now I will share why it’s taken me so long to post it.
The car is ours, but the boat in the picture is NOT ours. It’s my parents’ boat. It is very large, much larger than we need and to be frank, larger than we would like. One day, we will get our own boat that is smaller, lighter for towing, and easier to manage. But for now, we have an awesome boat to use. But it does make me feel a bit uncomfortable to be seen with such a large, nice boat.
It made me realize that I’m not in vibrational harmony with this particular boat, because it feels too nice and it feels like too much boat for me. In fact, it’s taken me some time to be in harmony with our car. The SUV we just bought has also felt “too nice” for us. But then it got me thinking about money, and about how I feel and how I judge money, and in particular, what meaning and labels I attach to small amounts of money vs. large amounts of money. And I decided I wanted to change.
I would like to see money as just money. I had a thought come to my mind… $10 = $10,000 = $10,000,000, and I decided that this is how I would love to view money from now on. It’s all the same.
It shouldn’t matter what size of boat I have or anyone has. It really doesn’t matter. What matters is what’s behind it, what it means, and how it’s used and why. If the boat accomplishes the purpose of bringing joy and creating memories, then that’s all that counts. It could be a simple canoe or a 100-foot yacht. It doesn’t matter.
But we, as the beautiful human people that we are, often attach judgment to different sizes, shapes, and amounts. But those qualities aren’t great ways to measure value and worth, but I guess it’s only natural to us, and, unfortunately, it’s how we operate. But I believe as we choose to see in clarity, we can understand that money is simply a representation of the energy (the emotion, meaning, vibration) that created it.
I would love to someday look at different amounts of money the same way I see color preferences, because I’m pretty sure it never matters to God how big something is, or how much something is. More money isn’t “harder” for Him, it’s all the same to Him. And that’s how I want to see it too. It really should be about what makes you happy and what brings you joy. And it’s true that “bigger isn’t always better,” and sometimes “less is more.”
I am feeling so grateful for everything I am learning, and I am so grateful for our car that allows us to go boating as a family. I’m choosing to love and appreciate this boat, because it is beautiful and wonderful, even though it’s bigger than what I prefer. It’s a wonderful blessing for our family, and I am LOVING it!!!
Thanks for listening 😃
So if you’re still reading, I know you must be hungry for more details about HOW this all happened for her. Brevity is not my strong suit. There’s so much to say! Here is the rest of the story. I asked Kendra if she would be willing to give more details about her experience. She replied:
Okay, it’s funny, because when I first read your message, I still felt very hesitant to share it. And I thought to myself, “Why am I hesitant about this?” And then I realized that it was perhaps tied to a little bit of shame for being dealt a “handout.”
The story behind the $10K is that my father decided to give each of us (his children) $10,000, just simply as a gift. He had never done that before (at least not to that extent), but he had done enough to make me at least imagine that it might be a possibility. And in fact, it was amazing to me, because how he presented it to us was exactly how I had pictured it in my mind, the exact amount, for the exact reasons that I had envisioned. He even said pretty much the same words to explain why he was distributing the money. Basically, it was a way of starting to distribute some of our inheritance in small bits at a time to help evade tax difficulties and headaches later on.
Interjection – Kendra did not envision this to “make” her father do anything. She was just exploring as many ways as she could think of to help her believe that there would be a way somehow. This is a very important distinction to stay in harmony with the Law.
She continued:
He said that this money is practically going to be ours one day, and they don’t need as much as they used to, so here it is. He announced it at a family dinner at a restaurant. And when he announced that he had some things he wanted to discuss with us, that’s when I thought, “Oh my, is this really it???” It was a miracle to me!
I guess I was a little uneasy about sharing all the details because:
- I didn’t really do anything to “earn” the money;
- I was a little unsure about how others might react when they know I have a father who can simply give $10,000 to his kids like it’s no big deal, and I worry about how people might respond to ME knowing that, which is revealing about my programming around money.
So it was actually good for me to reflect on that this morning and realize that there is no shame in handouts, there is no shame in having parents who have a lot of money, and there is no shame in not having “earned” the money myself (none of us actually earn anyway, it is all given from the true Source of all things). So it’s good for me to become more aware of where I would like to shift into: being at peace with all of it. I am still working quite a bit on learning how to open up and receive all the Father has for me, especially in terms of money.
So that’s the story. I’m fine with you using it, if it’s helpful. I think I still would prefer to remain anonymous, simply because I don’t love a lot of attention. So confidentiality is appreciated. Let me know if you have any further questions.
But that’s not all. She continued…
I thought I would also add to the story, just because it’s been another learning process for myself. The whole reason behind the money was to get the certain car that would pull the boat that we had available to use (my parents’ boat), so that we could enjoy boating as a family (memories we wanted for our children).
Because of the size and weight of the boat, there are only a few cars that have the necessary towing capacity. That’s why we chose the Yukon. I thought I was excited about the car, and I was, especially initially. It enabled us to start boating as a family that following summer, which was awesome! However, as the summer wore on, we figured out what we liked and what we didn’t like. We didn’t love that the car was so big. We didn’t love taking a boat that wasn’t ours, that was so big, and that we didn’t feel entirely comfortable operating for our needs. It was more than we needed.
Sometime after the summer was over, I was just contemplating about how nice it would be to buy our own boat instead. A boat that was smaller, older, used, that was easy to maneuver and was truly “ours.”
We thought about how we could find money to buy one, and then I suddenly happened upon the idea that we could sell the $40,000 car that we bought and buy a smaller car plus a boat in its place! We might spend $1000-2000 more, but for almost the same price, we could have both!
I thought, “Oh my goodness! Why didn’t we think of this in the first place???” So eventually we did just that. We sold the Yukon, bought a really nice used Toyota Sequoia and an older, but really nice small boat, perfect for our family! And ya know what I also realized? I was never “in love” with the Yukon. Yes, it matched what I had sought out, but it never gave me a lot of pleasure, which was fine, because a car was simply a car in my mind.
[This picture is a representation only, not her actual vehicle and boat.]
But when we bought the Sequoia, I LOVED that car immediately! I loved driving it, I loved how it felt, I loved everything about it. It just felt good to drive, and it felt more like “me.” I can’t even explain why, but I was in love instantly. And it was amazing to me to experience the difference between something that I thought I wanted and was excited about and something that really did match my soul!
It was amazing. I didn’t even know I could enjoy a car that much. And our boat was such a great find as well. It’s been perfect for our family, and it was so much more fun to go boating with that boat the following summer rather than use my parents’ boat. It felt like “ours,” and it was just so much less stressful and more comfortable for us.
So all of this to say that it’s interesting to learn that sometimes we think we know what we want, and we seek it out. But then life has a way of showing us what we would like even more.
Prior to the first summer, I don’t think I was even at a level where I could have imagined a dream car and a boat of our own. I didn’t think that life could be that good to me. It never entered into my mind. I had to get “closer to the dream” to recognize the “something better.”
So I just have further testimony that God really does have our backs, and He wants to bless us more than we can even possibly imagine, but He lets us figure that out, one step at a time. He lets us come to that light and truth of all the joy He wants to give us and already has prepared for us, if we simply catch up to that level, and get in tune with His ultimate love, little by little.
So many great nuggets here to ponder, Kendra. Thank you for sharing your story!
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One Response
This article was soooo helpful for me!! It answered questions that I didn’t even know I had! It really helped clarify in my mind the differences between the GOAL, the Bite-sized Piece and the Inspired Actions. I have some work to do to clarify my bite-sized goal. 🙂