Big Decisions Lead To Big Changes

Last week, I made the uncomfortable decision to spend $1,000 on a group coaching Bootcamp for pitching articles. This Bootcamp will span six weeks starting early May and participants will get weekly group coaching on pitches. We will also have lifetime access to course materials and a community of article-writers for advice.

$1,000 may be substantial or insignificant for you based on where you are in your life right now. For me, it was definitely an uncomfortable financial commitment. Although writing is my calling, I have only taken writing courses under $300 so far.

The negative nannies rambled about my lack of ability and the bootcamp being only average, their voices getting louder in my head.

Coincidentally or not, I had been reading You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Cinsero last month. She says that sometimes you have to make bold decisions if you want to elevate your life to the next level. If you continue to think small, you will continue to live small. She describes how she borrowed $20k for 1:1 coaching when she was in deep debt. How she flew out to borrow the cash from her aunt. How much that scared her, like how this commitment scared me. She did it anyway and this coaching changed her life for the very best.

I recognized that I will not become a well-known writer until I started operating like one and acquired elevated skills.

I can spend decades listening to free writing podcasts, but I will still not get this heightened level of coaching that I will now obtain via the bootcamp. I have been writing for a European content mill, earning peanuts, producing unsexy material about casinos, and virtual private networks. I want to write about things that are dear to my heart. My portfolio wants to grow and hit some famed publications. I knew that I had to make some big changes soon.

I thought about how money can always be raised or earned. Money comes and money goes. Status rises, status falls. Most material things are like this.

To get some encouragement, I shared my deliberation with a friend. He had a string of questions: Have you looked at reviews for the Bootcamp? Have you ensured that this is not a scam? Did you share your current earnings with them? Did you try to get 1:1 coaching instead of group coaching as this is a steep investment? He voiced concerns that I had already been fiddling with for a while.

I went back to Jen’s wise words from You Are a Badass at Making Money. Naysayers are people who care about us a ton. But they project their fears on us. Their concerns are the most logical. But logic seldom builds dreams; faith and magic do.

I decided to bet on myself.

Negative nannies had been quietened momentarily. Without letting too much time pass in case they raised their voices again, I pulled out my credit card and made the swift online payment.

To convince myself that my decision was right, I have been perusing videos from past bootcamps since the payment. I now recognize that this was a worthy investment in myself. Not an expense like I had previously thought. I have learned to employ a thought model, which I will talk about in one of my future posts, not only for writing but also for life. The in-depth knowledge I have gained on this model – even before the bootcamp officially commenced – justifies the $1,000 in my mind. I’m also excited to start the Bootcamp soon to see what other gems I might uncover in the process!

Have you ever been squirmy about a big commitment, financial or otherwise? How did that pan out?

Or are you considering making an ‘unwise’ investment that you know will be a game-changer? Please share your thoughts below.