| What is it that you actually want?
What areas of abundance do you seek?
When I was a junior in college, my husband, Michael, and I drove our ten-year-old, orange Gremlin from State College, PA, to Wilkes-Barre. It was actually a pretty nice day for January. We had been hiking, until I fell waist deep into a frigid stream, which in retrospect was probably a good thing because we decided to cut our hike short and head for home. About an hour out of State College, it started to snow, then REALLY snow, snow so hard we could barely see the road. “Pull off and get a motel room,” you say. We were too poor for a cheap motel, both working our way through school, and living in a 1950-model, pink and silver mobile home that had seen more than 30 years of better days. I don’t want to say it was in bad shape, but a couple years later, the roof totally collapsed after a snow storm.
Back to our trip. The snow was so heavy our wipers could hardly keep up. Unceremoniously, the one on the driver’s side decided it had had enough and the blade departed for parts unknown. Now we couldn’t see at all. Michael tried sticking his head out the window, but the snow was blinding him, and he quickly started to show signs of frostbite. We had paper towels, so we wrapped them around what was left of the wiper. About every 15 minutes, we would have to wrap it with fresh towels. Our two and a half hour trip home took us 4 hours, but finally we limped into town. Then on one of the busiest streets bordering the Penn State campus, the Gremlin turned to us and said, “I got you this far; now you’re on your own.” And it promptly quit. There we were in six inches of snow, blocking traffic, half a mile from home, freezing nearly to death, and with not enough money even to call for real help.
Talk about hitting the bottom. We felt that we could not possibly sink any lower financially. A year later as we both neared graduation, we had a conversation about money one day, saying, “If we could just get a job for $25,000, we would be living the high life.” You have to be pretty stinking broke when $25K is your dream.
The funny thing–the best thing–is that we were genuinely happy. We had the best of friends, we relished our studies, we had an awesome church congregation, we were healthy and active, and we were very much in love. If we had had the words at the time, we would have said we were living abundantly.
What would it take for you to say that you are living abundantly?
Recently, I talked to a man who told me that he didn’t want to be a high performer anymore–certainly not an elite performer. He had spent 30-plus years climbing the corporate ladder, culminating with his position as COO for a major corporation. Now, he told me, he just wanted to retire and “be mediocre.” We had a good laugh about his word choice. However, the truth is that he doesn’t want to be mediocre; he still wants to perform at highest levels. He just doesn’t want to excel as a corporate executive any longer. When we dug deeper, we discovered that what he really wants is an elite-level abundance of discretionary time that he could spend with his children and his wife, to hold her hand while walking on a moonlit beach, to explore Paris, and to learn to sail.
PRINCIPLE: Abundance in its purest form is becoming whatever you want to become, doing whatever you want to do whenever you want to do it, and having whatever you want or need to have. It’s not about having tons of money; it’s about becoming and doing and having what brings you joy.
Not everyone defines abundance in the same way.
Last week, I was lying on the beach surrounded by my husband, three of our children, our six grandchildren, and two daughters-in-law. My husband of nearly 40 years and our oldest son were building a giant sandcastle with the aid of our three-year-old granddaughter. The oldest grandchildren were boogie boarding, the babies were playing in the sand (eating it mostly), and the rest of the adults were just talking and tanning. I was momentarily overwhelmed by how filled with abundance my life is.
I have a friend who just opened a new business. He’s talented, well respected, and admired by many of his friends, but his marriage is difficult. He’s not the kind to leave and doesn’t know how to fix it to bring joy back into his marriage. So he lives far below the relationship abundance that he craves.
My husband’s Aunt Pat never married and never had children of her own. She was a career high school teacher. Miss Pat endeared her students to her with her deep caring for them, her humor, and her loyalty. She attained numerous accolades for her dedication to her students and enjoyed life-long relationships with many. She was an exceptional, near-pro-level golfer. Pat and her sister, Peg (my mother-in-law), lived together on a golf course for many years after Peg’s husband passed much too young. Pat and Peg enjoyed an abundance of decades-long friendships every day for the rest of their lives.
PRINCIPLE: Any life of abundance, by definition, includes loving, loyal, and fulfilling relationships of many kinds.
Many people can’t put their fingers on exactly what abundance means to them, because what they really seek is an abundance of freedom: freedom from financial worry, freedom to travel, freedom to pursue their dreams, freedom to be creative. Freedom.
One of our children-in-law’s father is a senior banking executive. He could retire tomorrow and live comfortably for the rest of his life. He drives 45 minutes each way to and from his office 5 days a week and works 10-hour days because work gives him the feeling that he’s living abundantly. Carroll O’Connor’s character in Return to Me says, “I’m blessed with work.” Work is often the reason people feel their life is abundant, and just as often the reason people feel a lack of abundance.
PRINCIPLE: It’s not about whether you are working or not working professionally; abundance is often about your relationship with your circumstances.
No discussion of abundance would be complete without talking about material abundance – money, money, money. People who say “money can’t buy happiness” never had enough of it. In an interview, Emmy Award winning actor Ray Romano revealed that his wife once complained that he was so famous they hardly got to spend time together. When the interviewer asked how he replied to her, he said, “I told her to go cry in a bag of money.” In all seriousness, money may not be the answer to an abundant life, but financial stress and poverty definitely aren’t.
PRINCIPLE: It’s seldom just about the money; it’s really about the freedom money provides: freedom to become, freedom to do, freedom to have, freedom from worry and want, freedom to sculpt your own life.
What do you actually, truly want? Where are you lacking abundance? Where are you taking joy in abundance?
However we define it, we all want an abundant life. The truth is that abundance is within reach for all of us. That’s what motivates me as a strategist: helping people reach new levels of abundance, however they define it.
Message me for more information on the ways you can work with me to achieve ever higher levels of performance and abundance in your life. Especially check out The Abundance Project Mastermind and upcoming Yacht Retreat below!
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To Your Abundance,
Beth Strange
www.BethStrange.com
 
Qualified Abundance Strategy clients will be joining me for a 4-Day ABUNDANCE-LEVEL INTENSIVE aboard THIS luxury yacht in the Florida Keys this November 1-4!
You DO NOT want to miss this! Message me for details at Beth@BethStrange.com |
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P.S. When you’re ready, below are some ways you can work with me to achieve ever higher levels of abundance. Please complete this Application to request an Initial Abundance Strategy Session
The Abundance Project: If you are an abundance seeker with new heights to achieve, you belong here with other extraordinary, good people in a high-level mastermind setting where you will work with me as your expert Strategist and The Abundance Project mastermind members to assist you as you define, create, and execute the strategic projects that will bring abundance into your business and your life. The Abundance Project is for you if you are ready and committed to exponentially increasing ABUNDANCE in your professional and personal life–abundance of time, money, opportunities, satisfaction, relationships–however you define abundance. Entered by this Application and invitation, The Abundance Project requires a 9-month commitment.
Abundance Performance Strategy: For abundance-seeking professionals, service-based entrepreneurs, and top performers. When you are ready to work with an expert Strategist to make the kind of exponential progress that would satisfy you and bring abundance into your business and your life. LET’S STRATEGIZE. I assist extraordinary professionals, entrepreneurs, and abundance performers like you to think and plan even bigger and overcome roadblocks to abundantly idyllic lives and businesses. I bring the experience, the training, the credentials and certifications, the scientific and strategic processes, and the expertise. You bring your ready willingness to try, to plan, to work, to change, to do, and to dream big, exciting, and fulfilling dreams. You will develop insights, breakthroughs, discoveries, and STRATEGIES. You will experience RESULTS. Together we will powerfully face and tackle your plateaus, your stress, your roadblocks, your overwhelm, your inferiority, your fears, your fatigue, your excuses. Abundance Strategy is NOT for the faint of heart. We will dive DEEP. We will work INTENSELY. We will strategize POWERFULLY. Apply here.
Abundance Level Branding Package: This is an exclusive opportunity for global brand expert, Beth Strange, and her team to assist you with the initial definition of your Brand Identity. Define your brand, develop your logo, design your business cards and letterhead, build your website. All done for you! We make it easy and fast to Red-Carpet-Roll-Out your brand to the world.
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