And Now, a Word

Do not try this at home. Professional stunt drivers on a closed track. May cause drowsiness, hyperactivity, or periods of day dreaming. Do not operate heavy machinery or incendiary devices while (insert dangerous thing here).

I’ve never been skydiving, but I’ve been jumping (and falling) forever, in every area of my life. Because of this, I am an authority on those face-first, blood-on-the-pavement, leaving-flesh-behind crashes and slides that cause pain, scars … and wisdom. Life doesn’t come with a manual. We must learn everything the hard way.

I am not a financial expert, nor should I be viewed as such. But I majored in road rash.

My first eighteen years were spent learning bad fiscal habits. The next ten or so were all about duplicating them. I spent another couple of years in panic mode, trying to fix things on my own, and despite the experts I made some pretty stupid choices - in part because I didn’t understand what they were talking about half the time, and in part because I was trying to do it their way, by their rules, for their reasons. I left an awful lot of an arm-and-a-leg on the money highway in those years.

Then I read a book called The Money Drunk: 90 Days to Financial Freedom (by Mark Bryant and Julia Cameron) and it started to click. Another book, Organizing for the Creative Person: Right-Brain Styles for Conquering Clutter, Mastering Time, and Reaching Your Goals (by Dorothy Lehmkuhl and Dolores Cotter Lamping) helped me truly understand why I couldn’t do it any way but my own. But it took me several more years, and another brilliant, calming book (Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy, by Sarah Ban Breathnach) to bring it all together.

For another decade, I employed what I’d learned about self-control, about loving what I have and who I am, and about the joys and benefits of temperance and restraint. No more great leaps. No more new hard-won wisdom. No more adventures. Just … moderation.

Moderation is fine - in small doses. But balance is what I needed, and balance is what I got – with time and much, much effort. Physically, spiritually, and mentally I am not the person I was thirty, twenty, even two years ago. Yet I still feel my nose on the asphalt more times than I should. And it still hurts like hell. But knowing how far I’ve come, knowing I must recover my self and use all of these lessons, is why the diva won.

In the next few months, I will reveal the five ways I’ve found to make money (and how I plan to do each of them), I will share my (hopefully) amusing and (always) real endeavors, and I will have fun with the doing, the done, and the telling of it. If you want to come along, I would love your company, your commentary, even your advice and your stories about your own adventures along the way. But don’t do it like me, with me, or for me. This is all about my proficiency exam, my road test – and your enjoyment.

But don’t worry - this time I remembered my parachute.