FriChats: Simulating Abundance

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In today’s discussion, Cara and Marly talk about Simulating Abundance and how to tap into real, authentic changes in your life as an entrepreneur. Because you can’t just repeat a few mantras and become an enlightened entrepreneur. Wake up the real, authentic abundance inside of you and available to tap into every day!

The Chopped Podcast "Frichats" with Marly and Cara

It’s been awhile, but the Chopped Podcast, and specifically, FriChats are back!

Cara and Marly are talking today about Simulating Abundance, but not without from warm-up chatter on exercise. Yes, exercise. To sum it up, Marly and Cara agree, that exercise is like magic.

“Exercise is the fuel of happiness.” — Marly McMillen

If you’ve been in a funk for awhile, or even just a day, go for a walk. Leave the headsets behind and just explore and take a listen to what’s going inside of you. It’s the thing that makes you feel so much better.

Cara explained how she’s found value in breaking a sweat. Marly lives in Missouri and breaking a sweat in the summertime is inevitable.

Can you do a pull-up? Cara and Marly have a goal to do a pull-up one of these days. See the link below to Marly’s favorite Instagram yogi who shares tips on pull-ups.

External Symbols of Abundance

If you are sad because you’re wanting more traffic and it’s not coming, your troubles are not about the traffic. Frustrated because you can’t lose  weight? Guess what! Your troubles are not about the scale. What if you’re downright angry because other people are getting all the love on Instagram and you feel left behind? That’s right, it’s not about the number of likes on your most recent post.

Those are all external symbols of abundance. Jonesing on them is putting your focus on the wrong things. The number of likes you get, when you focus on it as the end-all and be-all, is an external symbol of abundance. You want it because you think you need it to feel successful.

Because you’re convinced that’s what it really is. Say you want a million dollars. Ask yourself…why? Because you’re looking for security? Because you want people to think you are successful?

You can give yourself your own security that you’re looking for money to give you. You can give yourself the feeling of being successful. It’s all within you. Then, when you give up the notion that you need a thousand likes on your Instagram post to be successful, that’s when true success comes your way.

It’s like Yoda says, “there is no try, only do.”

Black text on a white background reads: It's all within you." This is a quote from this episode on Simulating Abundance.

I am in control of my day

Marly talks about the exercise of writing down what you want. This comes from the book Emergence (see the link below).

Get out a sheet of paper. Draw a line down the middle.

At the top of the left side of the page write, “What I want.”

At the top of the right side of the page write, “Why do I want it.”

Marly gives the example of learning Spanish. So, in the left hand side of the page she writes, “I want to learn Spanish.” Then on the right hand side of the page she writes her “why”, which, “I want other people to think I’m smart.”

Because that is an “external” want, it now goes in the next entry on the “Want” column. And you continue with this process until you arrive at something internal. For Marly, this usually lands on “I want to be loved and respected.”

The good news? You can love and respect yourself. You don’t have to wait for anyone else to deliver that!

That means you are in control of your day.

It’s about activating those feelings; It’s transformative.

Cara’s Journey

Cara describes the transformations in her life over the last couple of years. Her son, Jax, is now 17 months old. Cara talks about how she gained 40 pounds with her pregnancy and lost 20 pounds after he was born and then struggled with the excess weight, post partum depression, and the grief from the loss of her mother. She had a moment where she looked at her life and realized she was angry, depressed, and unhappy with her work. It sparked something in her and she changed all her habits.

She lost 25 pounds and her life feels completely different. And she walked away from her highly successful site, Fork and Beans. She felt like something new was birthing inside of her. It’s like night and day from the last time she was on this podcast!

Cara’s Expansion

Cara explains she hired a business coach to help her believe in herself and give her tools to take action.

Cara has a new site she’s working on, Happy Whole Mom, which has a difference theme and feeling than Fork and Beans. Marly talks about how hard it was to hear Cara talk about moving on past Fork and Beans because Cara had grown it to be so successful.

Simulating Abundance

You can follow all the rules. Do keyword research. What if you follow all the right people on Instagram? There’s still no guarantee it will all work. Doing all of these steps? Discovering what you think is the secret formula? That’s simulating abundance. Sure, you can do it, but you might be miserable if it doesn’t work out.

You see, all the “secrets”? They simply create an external symbol of abundance. You can achieve these symbols of abundance — like large followers on social media — but it’s not true abundance and you’ll always feel lacking.

Let’s repeat that. If you don’t address the storm going on in the inside, achieving all the symbols of abundance in the world will only leave you feeling like you do right now…not enough.

See, the truth is, that’s merely simulating abundance. It’s not the real thing.

The true secret? Here it is.

Are you ready?

You already have what you need and it’s inside. You just have to tap into it.

Also, Marly points out that you don’t have to give up keyword research. You have two audiences on your site. You can create some content that goes for traffic, but you can also create content for the people who really love you and come back to learn more about you.

Creating Space

Cara and Marly recommend creating space for yourself. Cara has a sacred space where she places things that make her happy, and she listens to music and talks out loud. She likes having different things going on. Meditation doesn’t have to be done only one way. Do what speaks to you. Do what will bring out the inner quiet and you can start hearing that quiet voice within.

Cara and I are tinkled pink to talk about the woo-woo side of blogging. We’ll be back another Friday in the future so be sure and stayed tuned and join us!

We’re tickled pink to create content and share knowledge that can help you be your best!  We hope today’s episode on Simulating Abundance is a part of your progress.

Now, go forth and Be Your Best You!

More from Marly & Chopped

More from Cara

Want to suggest a topic for our next episode? Send an email to: marly@chopped.academy

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Posted in Cultivating Creativity, Food Blogging, FriChats, Podcast