“I was broke…”

Yesterday I shared my origin story with you; how this whole business came to be and admitted that during my struggle:

“I was broke…”

So today, I want to dive a little deeper into that, and explore what that statement really means.

Because at the time when I was broke, the financial stress was taking a toll on all other areas of my life:

• my marriage
• my parenting
• my health
• my mood
• my well being
• my overall livelihood

It hasn’t been until now, looking back on it years later that I am able to have a bigger picture perspective and see that while I felt alone in my struggle; I was not the only person experiencing that same struggle.

Financial struggles are real! They are one of the most stressful struggles that exist and stress has been shown to have the most damaging impact on human health compared to many other diseases.

When I was a child my mom used to read this medical specialist’s work named Doris Rapp; and she had this theory she called the Bucket Theory.

The Bucket Theory is about how everyone has their bucket, and everyone can handle a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, and each person’s bucket is a different size. But problems come when the bucket over flows.

In my previous career I was a Nutrition Coach for children who had Autism Spectrum Disorders and I taught parents the importance of managing problematic foods that contribute to “total load”, and to not let the children’s “bucket overfill”, which is when associated symptoms would occur.

The Bucket Theory analogy, although designed for children’s allergies, can actually be applied to almost every aspect of life.

No matter what size your bucket it is, no matter what else you have going on in your life: if you have financial stress: it is going to take up a significant amount of space in your bucket.

Imagine how much better you could cope with sleep deprivation… or having a new baby… or the cravings that occur when you’re breast-feeding… or people telling you you’re not doing it right… etc. While those things all may go into your bucket, if you have financial stress under control, you would still be within the amount of “total load” that you can manage.

So I have a fun little exercise and we can use the visualization of this bucket below right here:

Think about: what are the factors that are causing you stress and making your life difficult to manage? And really just get that big picture perspective where you can take an outsider’s view on what needs to shift in order to get things within a manageable container for you.

Financial freedom doesn’t mean you won’t still have problems and struggles in life. But by removing financial stress as a factor that contributes to your bucket, you’ll be better able to manage the other things in life, so that you can stay ahead of the game, and in control of your destiny.