The Empowered Messenger – The heroine whose message burns inside her, begging to be released. Even though her pen may quiver and her voice may shake, she knows it is time to stand in her power – clear, confident, courageous. She says yes to the call, and she shares her message, because she was born to inspire.

Question: Every time I try to make or stick to a budget, I feel anxious. I feel like I have to limit myself, and I feel guilty if I overspend. I know that I’m stuck in the “lack” mindset, but I don’t know how budgeting and the abundance mindset go together. How can I feel abundant while sticking to a budget?

Answer: We’re going to start by inviting you to simply erase the word “budget” from your mind altogether. Let’s instead replace the word “budget,” because clearly it’s got heaviness to it for you. Clearly it’s burdening you and bringing you down. Let’s just erase it altogether and replace it with a brand new word called the “ESP plan.”

Here’s how the ESP plan works:

The E is Earnings.

We want you to get excited about earnings! So in a traditional budget, you would project at the top of your budget all of the income and the revenue that you’re intending to create in your business. You want to get excited about this! You want to be imagining all the amazing clients that you’re going to be bringing into your business and all this money that’s going to be coming into you. So this is an exciting thing! This is the E of your ESP plan. Get excited about earning!

The S is your Spending.

The invitation here is for you to be spending in service to your big vision, to your big dream, to your big desire. The most important expense, your most important line item in your ESP plan is to pay yourself first. Then, look at what’s left over and what you absolutely essentially need in order to serve your bigger plan and your bigger picture.

The P in your Profit on Purpose.

For me, that means taking my earnings, subtracting my spending, and what’s left is the profits. For me to profit on purpose, there’s got to be more than enough left over after I’ve paid myself so I can reinvest in the business if I’d like or so I can philanthropic, which also begins with a P! What I love about being philanthropic is that I can take the extra that’s left over at the end of my year and make a contribution to another organization that has my heart.

In my case, I love to make a philanthropic contribution as a percentage of my profits every year to the Life is Good Playmakers foundation.

So if you look at the ESP plan as your tool, remember it’s a plan, and woman plans and the goddess laughs! So it’s important for you to be flexible as the plan unfolds, because sometimes you get an opportunity that is so amazing that you can’t say no, and you have to go ahead and take money that you might have allocated for something else in order to fund or invest in that opportunity. It’s important for you to be able to course correct as you go along.

Know that this is a living experience, it’s a living document, it’s not something that’s meant to put you in jail!

We’d love to hear from YOU…

Do you have trouble using a budget? What are your tips for feeling abundant around money? Leave your answer in the comments below!

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abundance mindset, abundant, August 2016 Issue, budgeting, business owner, entrepreneur, finance, money, online business, women in business