100th Episode: How to Know When Your Season Is Up

I can’t believe this is already our 100th episode. It feels like yesterday that I reluctantly stumbled into the world of podcasting. And now, nearly two years later, here we are. If you’re new here and looking for hardcore advice on things like budgeting and investing, this is not that type of money podcast. You see, Redefining Wealth is about getting you prepared for those types of podcasts – the money ones I mean. It’s about helping you understand that wealth is so much more than just money and material possessions. “There’s much more to wealth than chasing money. At Redefining Wealth, we unpack and explore all the different ways money connects to our lives.” This episode is brought to you by Radical Success Certification Program. If you’re an emerging life coach or experienced coach who feels stuck, check out this proven, A-Z coaching framework by Doreen Rainey.  You don’t want to just become a coach, you want to run a thriving coaching business and she can show you how. Learn more and apply at RadicalSuccessCertification.com.  Knowing When Your Season Is Up To celebrate our 100th episode, I want to take you back to just before I launched Redefining Wealth.  I was in a great place. My career was going great. For the most part I was fulfilled with what I was doing. I was making good money, doing good work, helping and serving people, and yet, the truth is, my season was up.  “What if your season has long expired and you’re extending it out of fear, complacency or delusion?”  Now, I’ll be honest, Redefining Wealth was not something I’d planned on doing. The idea of starting a podcast had crossed my mind a couple of times, but it always seemed like too much work. And there was also a fear that people might not get or want it. After all, I had been known as a personal finance expert for years, and while I still incorporate the term wealth, I rarely talk about those hardcore money topics anymore. I lacked confidence. I also thought I lacked the credibility to go deeper into the money topic – to look at how money connects to all the other areas of our lives. But here’s what I learned: It doesn’t matter how credible you are on paper, what matters is how you feel. A Season Doesn’t Have to Be Bad to Mean It’s Time for a Change Sometimes we think that a situation has to be awful in order for us to move on.  But here’s the thing, purpose evolves and I don’t believe any of us are meant to do the exact same thing in the exact same way our entire lives. “We’re meant to evolve and if we don’t move when our season is up, then we go bankrupt emotionally, mentally, spiritually, financially.”   For me, I was in a space where I was content. I was America’s Money Maven. I had a weekly segment for years on the Steve Harvey Morning Show. I was doing other shows like Dr. Oz and being featured by publications like Cosmopolitan, the New York Post and Essence Magazine. I had a good name as a money expert. Why would I change all of that? How to Know When Your Season Is Up First of all, I experienced what I call the boulder effect. It started out as a pebble, as it always does. For me, well it looked like me getting annoyed going on all of these talk shows and talking about budgets and credit reports when I knew that money and wealth was much more than those things. I kept thinking, “If they ask me one more thing about a budget, I’m going to snap!” Money is not about a template, it’s about your behaviors. It’s about your mindset. It’s so much bigger than a budget, and yet, I’d go, get on the couch, smile and do what I was brought there to do. Then came the rock. My website got hacked. Not hacked in the sense that it redirected to a naughty site or something like that, but hacked in the sense that the hacker went in and deleted files and content, and changed the language. It was bad, and even though the hosting company restored the site, it was a shell of what it had been – so much of my content was gone. Then came the boulder. I received a letter stating that Real Money Answers, my entire brand, was infringing on someone else’s copyright. What?! I didn’t understand and from what I knew, I’d had Real Money Answers trademarked for quite a while. What I learned through this process, however, was that my attorney had dropped the ball, and I didn’t actually have Real Money Answers trademarked.  It was like one nightmare after another, and I knew it was time for a change. What Began as a Dream Turned into a Chore Another way I knew my season was up was that opportunities that once felt like a dream had turned into a chore. They didn’t excite me anymore. Perhaps one of my friends describes this best, “You know what it is?” she said. “I’ve tried to romanticize the fact that this thing started as a dream so that I could survive a toxic environment.” Ding, ding, ding. I know exactly what she means. As an entrepreneur, if you have consistent contracts or clients, you can chain yourself to something and start to believe that IT is your source. In all actuality though, you’re trying to force it to remain or to be the source because you want to romanticize the opportunity based on how it started out. “Not everything that starts out one way will end the same way, and not because the environment changes, but because we change.”  The truth is we can make anything look, feel or seem like a dream opportunity if we have an agenda. That’s the space I was in before finally accepting the call to let go and start Redefining Wealth. “Purpose evolves and you have the right to say goodbye to one season and hello to another – that is part of the journey.”  If I can leave you with anything, it’s to be honest and real with yourself. If you’re in the midst of a boulder effect or if you know that what began as a dream has turned into a chore, I want you to know it’s okay to surrender and accept that the season is up. Lastly, I want to add that one of my clients, Danielle Joseph, has a whole program on seasons and she further explains how you can go from one season to the next in different areas of your life at different times. If you’re interested in learning more about how to know when your season is up, check her out. https://iamdaniellejoseph.com/about  LINKS: To advertise on the podcast: http://www.patricewashington.com/podcastads Become an Official Purpose Chaser: http://www.iamapurposechaser.com Join Patrice’s Pod Club: http://www.patricespodclub.com  To check out ALL of our past guests + episodes: http://www.patricewashington.com/Listen  If you have questions about booking Patrice or sponsoring the podcast, email us at [email protected].  Find me in Social Media: Our podcast hashtag is #RedefiningWealth Instagram: @SeekWisdomPCW Twitter: @SeekWisdomPCW  Facebook: @SeekWisdomPCW  YouTube: @SeekWisdomPCW