Someone recently asked me a question that I thought others might find helpful re: getting out of debt. This is the exchange – hopefully, it gives you or someone you know some good support in facing this same challenge. Please leave me your comments at the bottom as to your situation and ideas about how to handle debt. Thanks.

The Question:

Lynn, I have a problem with lack of focus. I have gotten into so many web based programs and bought so much junk that I have gotten in debt big time. How do I pull out of it?

My Answer:

Hi -

I SO understand! The allure of good marketing has the power to just suck you right in… I’ve done it myself and have shelves full of stuff to prove it! ;+)

My first thought is, naturally, do not buy anything else! Next, go through what you have to see if there’s anything in there that you can leverage to make cash. If not, put it on craiglist or ebay and pass it on…

Re: getting out of debt, there are a few things I would suggest. As with anything I say, please feel into and see if it feels good for you – it it doesn’t, please disregard it. ;+)

Anyway, just like a diet, you’ve got to ‘own’ the number. Know how far you are into debt so you have no surprises – you know what you’re shooting for in terms of a result. Next, negotiate with the lenders so that you can either freeze the interest or work out a reasonable payment plan.

Then follow the energy of your money opportunities – create a mindmap about how to generate cash. Take a piece of paper and write the number you need to create in March – add $1000 to it for good measure. From there, draw out, like wheel spokes, all the ways that can come to you… commissions, garage sale, affiliate marketing, consulting, clients, etc. Brainstorm on what you can do to create that money. Then use that as a roadmap to prioritize what you focus on next.

Please bear in mind that I am a Midwestern girl at heart, so the solution has to be practical. AND, I am a spiritual teacher so I believe in invoking in all the energy that’s required to help make that happen. One of my clients did the above mindmap, set her intention to increase from 2 students/wk to 10 paying students/wk. Within 2 wks, she was at 8 students/wk – and that was after going for 6 months without an increase! It works…

I invite you to join me on my mailing list as I send out resources and information often. Also, at the risk of tempting you with something else, I am teaching a class on how to face your fears. I figure there are no coincidences here… ;+)

If you’d like to check that teleclass out, it’s $39 and you can see it www.LynnsClasses.com. It’s both a lecture AND a separate Q and A call, so that’s 2+ hours in there.

Meanwhile, I send you good energy to power up some positive momentum! Please keep me posted… I know you can get it handled. :+)

With good vibes ~~~

Lynn

Lynn Scheurell
Creative Catalyst

When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my first answer was always the same – ‘to help people’. And that answer revealed my true gifts in a profound, sweet way… it’s also that answer that has held back my business growth over the years.

Now I’m able to articulate my natural wisdom points – I’m a teacher, a healer, an intuitive and business visionary. So, ‘helping people’ is really how I’m wired from the inside out – these are talents that I’ve never really had to ‘learn’ because I just naturally know and express them.

However, I struggled for years beginning in corporate America and then as an entrepreneur. And people couldn’t really help me either – they just knew they felt better and that things flowed better when I was around. Unfortunately, as a business owner, not being able to pinpoint what you do is the entrepreneurial black hole.

I spent literally decades trying to sort my way through how ‘helping people’ was not a niche market. ‘People’ don’t know who ‘people’ are, right? After years of frustration and many different businesses, my current business is tailored to exactly the people who can most use my natural wisdom AND everything I’ve learned along the way.

The bottom line: I teach renaissance / spiritual / creative / conscious entrepreneurs how to find and translate their soul’s wisdom into a viable business. I want to help every entrepreneur offering a natural talent, message and/or gift to express it through their business because, for me, that’s our highest calling. One’s life purpose made manifest through service, creating and generating value for self and others, is the whole point of being here.

So, I’m still ‘helping people’… and now they know who they are and I am living my purpose when we make that connection. ;=)

What did you say when people asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up? In what ways has that come true? How has that guided you in your life? Please leave me a comment – I’d love to hear your story.

Sir Ken Robinson (who I frankly had never heard of) gave a TED Talk about creativity. As much as I like to get new perspectives on, well, everything, I wasn’t going to watch this 20-minute video because it was described to focus on education and creativity. And then something told me to watch it. It was eye-opening.

This speaker described the dilemma of educational systems today as having to educate for something that we don’t know is coming, that we are innovating for what we can’t yet see and that current systems actually stigmatize making mistakes. By making mistakes, and being criticized, judged and minimized for them, we learn to follow an intellectual system of perfection.

We are educated above the neck and to the left side (linear brain). He calls it academic inflation, as education systems focus on cultivating for university admittance (the equivalent of ‘strip-mining the mind’). The result all this is that some of the most intelligent, creative, innovative people around don’t know how amazing they are because they fear making a mistake and being wrong.

This wisdom is foundationally relevant to any entrepreneur because it is in risking who we are that we create and generate value. Our imagination and creativity is the key to solving problems that we don’t even know exist yet. Our original ideas that have value are the very core of creativity, in Sir Ken’s description. He says ‘take a chance – don’t be frightened of being wrong!”, degrees (credentials) really aren’t worth anything and that it is the richness of human capacity that matters. I couldn’t agree more.

You can always change your mind, but the greatest mistake is not taking action on expressing who you are with the world. The greatest tragedy is feeling shame for being divorce, dynamic and distinct as a person (the speaker’s definition of intelligence), not valuing those very qualities for the power held within them.

Here are three keys that entrepreneurs can use from this video.

1.       Be prepared to be wrong so you can innovate beyond what’s known.

2.       Cast aside rigid structures that limit and make bland your natural gifts.

3.       Express the core of who you are in what you do.

To see this video yourself, go to: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Be prepared to be inspired.

And please let me know how your world is different as a result of that inspiration by leaving a comment below – thanks. ;+)