Eyes to Monetize? Can You See the Value of Your Own Life?
Eyes To Monetize. Seeing Value in Your Life.
““Keep in mind that besides the eight hours of work, each day also has eight hours for fooling around, and then there’s also Sunday.” - Albert Einstein”
Interestingly enough, this post really isn’t about making money, not directly at least. It’s about being blind to what we have in our lives that make or keep us ‘broke.’ How blind are you to the things around you that can make you money? Passive or active?
Are you just getting by?
We typically live our lives just ‘getting by,’ unless we make the conscious effort not to do so. Conscious effort, which means that we typically have to put in more energy to get to a place where we aren’t ‘just getting-by.’ Is it just me or does that seem weird?
Retrospection
During my single-mamma-tiger-mom-ego-mania, people were looking at me with some sense of amazement. (Not tooting my horn- I was just on momma-steroids). They had much regard for the time that I put into my baby-girls. The strategies that I created to develop our home-education program. The games, tools and toys that I used, which I eventually created to significantly improve their learning, particularly their math abilities (girls experience higher rates of math anxiety). You can find my patent-pending math learning tool and book here.
Folks all along were asking me to give them suggestions or to tutor their children. For years they did and I didn’t see any value in their awe, compliments nor value in their requests.
It wasn’t until I had a visit from a friend who was seemingly amazed by my little just-getting-by-life. She looked at my life, and what I was doing at home with my home education program. She went on and on, asking why I’m not selling ‘this.’ And I couldn’t understand what the ‘this’-was that she saw. Get it? The-this-that she saw?
Until recently, but all along, my life had areas that were “monetizable”- if that’s a real word. I thought: “Like really? Me? I have knowledge or skill-sets, that can make someone reach into their pocket and part with some of their hard-earned money?”
I certainly didn’t see or have the eyes to monetize anything in my own life. Any strategy, or workbook, or any learning tool and certainly not a blog about my life. Nope. Nothing.
My dear friend Joice, re-entered into my life and looked at it in a way that has significantly changed my own perspective on it.
No longer is getting by an option. I want more. No longer am I going to keep all the amazing math tools that I’ve developed over the years to myself.
We all have stuff.
My point is that we all have “stuff.” Fear-stuff, inferiority-stuff, esteem-stuff and ego-stuff and ‘monetizable’-stuff. Find your stuff!
With the help of my AMAZING Life Coach, Melissa Brown, I was able to uncover and do some work on mine. We all have our spaces of doubt and shame, those factors are typically prevalent and even expected to a certain extent.
On the other hand, what we also have all around us are the people who see our purpose, our potential, our value, and most of all our WORTH. And because of our fears, we find that we mute those voices; or because of our ‘shame,’ we become blind to the amazement that some have on their faces when they look in our direction. We dismiss their compliments, the adorers, the eyes on us that would allow us to capitalize on our own gifts.
How often have you dismissed questions or comments like?:
“you should be a consultant,”
“you're amazing at this, why don’t you own your own company?”
“you should write a book,”
“I can’t believe you still work here, you should run your own company”
“You should apply for that job, you are overqualified”
The challenge
I challenge you, for 30 days to deliver on a compliment. Pick one. Live up to it. Own it. Be present in it and see where that gets you. I did, and my life, my perspective hasn’t been the same since.
Listen to the people around you, who have the eyes that will allow you to monetize.
I dedicate these reflections to Joice and Melissa. I haven’t done a good job of sharing how much you both have helped me just...breath.
The invitation
I invite you to listen to my explanation of my math tools here.
Curious about the benefits of abacus math? Check me out here .
I’m just a mom. A wife. A teacher. Paused. Thinking. Sharing.
