Changing Directions on the Blog
Hello! It's been a long while since I sat down to blog for Day Hiker Grammie. A lot has been going on in my life to prevent this. I wanted to share a bit because it's been a phenomenal period of personal growth for me as an individual.
I have a video I loaded on my YouTube channel that I'd like to share with you now.
January Update
Life is such a great teacher if you are paying attention to the lessons. Most people will think that what happened to me was an enormous failure but that's not the way I'm looking at it. I learned some valuable lessons during the last three months. In March of last year, I experienced a major depressive episode fueled partly by my place of employment. I had a very difficult customer assigned to me that deepened my depression and made working there intolerable. When I went to my management team for help, I was told that I was a 20 year employee and they were not going to reassign the account. In other words, deal with it. Unfortunately for me, I was not able to cope with this customer and I resigned my position without notice. I spent the next several months traveling and living off of my retirement funds. Then, I found a retail space on the main street of my little town that I felt I could afford. I opened a store trying to sell my handmade and manufactured jewelry. Turns out that even though I was on a very busy street and I did everything in my power to get people in that store, there was just not enough interest in buying costume jewelry. After three months and the remainder of my retirement money, the store closed. Now, I'm working part time at the local Starbucks to try to pay my bills. Luckily, I live with my parents and have no rent to pay otherwise, I'd be in deeper doo than I am now.
Sounds like a tragedy, right? For anyone else, it probably would be but for me it was such a deep learning experience that I have zero regrets. I learned that I have terrible tunnel vision and that it clouds my judgement when it comes to decision making. I learned about my perspectives on wealth and money in general and how that perspective also colors how I dealt with my customers and my own money management style. I learn how deeply I deceived myself into believing that I was financially independent when I haven't been independent since I bought my new car in 2015. The retirement money just further deepened my own illusion.
Coming out the other side, I have clearer goals than I've ever had. I have a healthy relationship with money and a clear idea of what not to do when it comes to finances. I'm also taking some lessons from Dave Ramsey. If you don't know who he is, I highly recommend getting out on the net and exploring his teachings for yourself. It is definitely helping me learn how to manage my finances better even starting out with an impossible budget.
What that means in terms of how it affects this blog and my YouTube channel is pretty straight forward. I have zero funds to travel on so instead of being about travel, it will be about my road to self sufficiency and learning how to do the things I love on a minuscule budget like hiking and camping! I will be documenting all the steps I am taking to lift myself out of my own trap and get myself back on my feet where traveling will become a possibility again. I hope you will all stick with me for the ride. I sincerely appreciate your time and attention.
Many blessings,
Lisa
I have a video I loaded on my YouTube channel that I'd like to share with you now.
January Update
Life is such a great teacher if you are paying attention to the lessons. Most people will think that what happened to me was an enormous failure but that's not the way I'm looking at it. I learned some valuable lessons during the last three months. In March of last year, I experienced a major depressive episode fueled partly by my place of employment. I had a very difficult customer assigned to me that deepened my depression and made working there intolerable. When I went to my management team for help, I was told that I was a 20 year employee and they were not going to reassign the account. In other words, deal with it. Unfortunately for me, I was not able to cope with this customer and I resigned my position without notice. I spent the next several months traveling and living off of my retirement funds. Then, I found a retail space on the main street of my little town that I felt I could afford. I opened a store trying to sell my handmade and manufactured jewelry. Turns out that even though I was on a very busy street and I did everything in my power to get people in that store, there was just not enough interest in buying costume jewelry. After three months and the remainder of my retirement money, the store closed. Now, I'm working part time at the local Starbucks to try to pay my bills. Luckily, I live with my parents and have no rent to pay otherwise, I'd be in deeper doo than I am now.
Sounds like a tragedy, right? For anyone else, it probably would be but for me it was such a deep learning experience that I have zero regrets. I learned that I have terrible tunnel vision and that it clouds my judgement when it comes to decision making. I learned about my perspectives on wealth and money in general and how that perspective also colors how I dealt with my customers and my own money management style. I learn how deeply I deceived myself into believing that I was financially independent when I haven't been independent since I bought my new car in 2015. The retirement money just further deepened my own illusion.
Coming out the other side, I have clearer goals than I've ever had. I have a healthy relationship with money and a clear idea of what not to do when it comes to finances. I'm also taking some lessons from Dave Ramsey. If you don't know who he is, I highly recommend getting out on the net and exploring his teachings for yourself. It is definitely helping me learn how to manage my finances better even starting out with an impossible budget.
What that means in terms of how it affects this blog and my YouTube channel is pretty straight forward. I have zero funds to travel on so instead of being about travel, it will be about my road to self sufficiency and learning how to do the things I love on a minuscule budget like hiking and camping! I will be documenting all the steps I am taking to lift myself out of my own trap and get myself back on my feet where traveling will become a possibility again. I hope you will all stick with me for the ride. I sincerely appreciate your time and attention.
Many blessings,
Lisa
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