Lockdown Lessons - On Relationships, Business & Investing in Your Self

Auckland is back in Level 2 and I couldn’t be more stoked.

Despite my very cool mask set up I was honestly a little shook by the last lockdown.

I shouldn't have been surprised really - I mean it's 2020 after all - but you see I had BIG PLANS before my gal Cindy pulled the ripcord on Auckland.

My plans hadn't factored in a surprise lockdown.

After the dust settled, the flights were refunded and plans cancelled, I found myself in a bit of a funk. I was jamming the Netflix, went back to staying up late and forcing myself out of bed in the morn and took every opportunity to pick a fight with the boyf.

And thats about when I realised I was up to some tricks.

And if 2020 has taught me one thing - it's that tricks are best dealt with over a digi-coffee with a life-changing coach. And that's how I found myself jumping in to the Mana Mind Programme with @jaredtuoro.

So what exactly did I learn?!

Great question.

Here are my top 3 lessons and what I got from exploring them.

1. Ask for help - you don’t have to fly solo

2. Do the big scary thing - the reward is worth it

3. Invest in your growth - the payoff is high

Sounds good but I’m going to need something a little more compelling Megs..

Fair enough - let me spill the tea.

01. Ask for Help.

I know - not exactly revolutionary BUT, easily forgotten.

For the first few weeks I thought I could break the funk myself. Each Sunday night I’d find myself up until 1am finishing off the work I had procrastinated all weekend, thinking to myself: “this week will be different”. I would bargain with myself, announce new regimes to the incredibly patient boyfriend and make promises to myself about how this week would be productive, would be better, I would feel better. But I didn’t change anything.

I’m in my car softly weeping driving round and round the block listening to greenday on repeat when I finally realise…

If I was going to work it out by myself - I would have done it by now.

It was time to do something different. I reached out for help.

I joined the Mana Mind programme - something I had been thinking about doing for ages but kept putting off and I was bold enough to put on the table what I really wanted - to feel grateful everyday for a life I knew was everything I wanted. To live in to the identity I was wishing for.

You have no idea how much better I felt even saying it out loud. Do it: I dare you.

Asking for help, declaring what my vision was for myself - was transformational in itself. Suddenly it was real, there was no going back but it was okay because I had an incredible coach (@JT from Mana Mind) right there helping me bring it to life, breaking the funk and creating massive shifts in my identity and the way I was showing up.

02. Do the Big Scary Thing.

I ended up doing a few big scary things throughout lockdown but the catalyst was calling my parents and having a long overdue conversation. Something I’d been avoiding doing for AGES. Like a really long time.

With the prompting of the aforementioned Supercoach - I finally got up the courage to call my parents and acknowledge all the feels I’d been hanging on to forever and what I had been making them mean to me.

AND HOLY SH*T. It was scary AF.

I had no idea how they would react, what they would say back - would they think I’d finally cracked?!

But it blew my world wide open. As the big scary thing usually does - it was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. To feel as though I have healed my relationship with my parents all because I did the big scary thing I didn’t want to. Mind blowing.

I then went on to spend the most money I had ever spent in one go in my entire life (more on that below) and I even almost bought a house! (No I’m not rich just liberated).

If you dare - Ask yourself: Whats the big scary thing you’re currently hiding from, and what rewards are waiting for you on the other side? Feel free to dm me @cocollaborate if you’re ready to hit go - I’ll hold your hand energetically while you hit send!

03. Invest in your growth

Both 1 & 2 combine almost poetically to bring me to number three: Invest in your growth.

Now being a finance major at university this one shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me - it’s no secret that in order to get growth in returns you’ve got to have skin in the game - and the bigger the risk - the bigger the return. It’s straight up maths.

But it never feels that simple when it comes to ourselves does it.

I’d been spinning my wheels a bit over the last few months in getting things FINISHED, I’d half assed my way into a few different things in my business (and my personal development) and I was seeing this play out in the form of mediocrity in my business growth. I was playing it safe.

So I got serious and I invested. I put skin in the game in order to start properly playing.

1. I signed up for coaching with JT to break through my personal barriers

2. I paid my BestFriend and marketing genius (Hey Sarah) to come be my marketing manager for the day and sort out my content strategy and marketing channels

3. I locked in a social content session with @mindfulnesscreativeco to overcome my social media block

4. And I spent the most money at once IN MY LIFE on a next level business coaching programme to get the comprehensive support and collective experience of the incredible Allie Bjerk team to launch my product suite and build my revenue eco-system for my own business.

Lots of people told me I was crazy. I told myself I was crazy. We’re in the middle of Covid for the sake of Peter - who did I think I was dropping huge amounts of money on personal and professional development?!

Literally picture me forcing the long suffering boyf to hold my hand while I hit the “pay now” button.

BUT, I did it.
Because like I learnt in my finance degree - you’ve got to invest to get.

I could have done all these things solo, I have a lot of the skills required and I’m a smart gal when I want to learn something - but at the end of the day I hadn’t. I’d been all talk and no action and so I did the next thing on the list, I asked for help and I did the big scary thing - and I invested in my next level growth.

And do you know what? I had my best month yet - I smashed my first years revenue goals in just 6 months.

And this is only the beginning.

So I’ve got just 3 questions for you.

1. What can you ask for help with right now that’s going to help you get un-stuck?

1. What is the Big Scary Thing that you know you need to do but you don’t want to even admit it to yourself yet?

2. What are you prepared to invest in order to reach your next evolution - the next level of personal or professional (lets be real it’s always both) growth?

And on all three of the above - what’s holding you back?

If you’re ready to do something different to get something different I’ve got your back. DM me @cocollaborate or hit reply right here and let me know. I’ll send you all the good juju and digitally hold your hand while you do the thing that scares you most.

Love your work.

Megs xx