In order to earn the badge, complete 5 of this month’s monthly challenges (including the three required). ♥
Monthly Challenges:
(required) Create a JOY BUDGET. This is an allotment of money set aside the must be spent in ways that bring you unbridled joy. Maybe it’s a dollar a day. Maybe it’s twenty bucks a week. It doesn’t matter what number you choose, as long as it’s consistent throughout the month. Feel free to go big here if you want to. The goal is to add consistent purposeful joy with this money. You might even rephrase it in your head and start calling money “joy”. (I spent three joy today on these awesome flowers.) It might sound weird at first, but notice how it feels. (Aside from initially awkward.)
Use real cash. Set it aside in your wallet in a special compartment or envelope marked “JOY”. Make sure that by the end of the month you’ve used it all. For joy. For what lights you up. With full permission.Approach a stranger and ask for a dollar. No explanation necessary. Also approach a (different) stranger and offer them a dollar. No explanation necessary. Do each of these twice. A total of $4 exchanged. Now for the fun part! Sit down and write out your experience. What happened in your heart, body, mind, and spirit? What were your fears? What surprised you? What did you learn about yourself? Share with us in the group.
(required) Sit down with your bills and write them down in a list. Now go through each one, and consider what the source of each bill is providing you with. Then consider what that’s providing you. You might keep asking 'then what’ until you get to the bottom of it. Write it all down.
For example: The electric bill - It’s providing me with power. Light, cooking, I can run my electronics, my fans, my electric kettle. These things provide me a lot of ease in my life. More joy. More healthy eating which leads to more satisfaction. More comfort which leads to a feeling of more security. Plus I get to use my phone, the internet, type these adventure league challenges… So those things give me purpose, which makes me feel my capability and my impact.
Consider what you’re really getting out of these products and services at the deepest level. It might be freedom, brilliance, adventure, love, passion, or any number of other things.
So now this month when you pay your bills, don’t just pay your bills. Consciously exchange your money for that which you are actually investing in.
If you’d like, you can even extend this to more of your spending. “I’m putting $20 of freedom in my car.” or “I’m procuring $50 of love, support, and beauty for my feet in the form of these amazing boots.”
Go to town and let us know how it goes and what shifts for you!Read the book “You Are A Badass At Making Money” by Jen Sincero. The audiobook is awesome and read by the author, but it can be useful to have the words in front of you for when she gives you practices to try, so… Your call.
Speaking of those practices, choose three and complete them. Share with us what you choose and how it goes.
And if you’d like to join us for a glorious book night discussion, that will be held on Tuesday November 27th at 7:30pm Eastern Standard Time. If you’re interested in joining us, put it in your calendar now so you don’t completely forget about it. (Like I did last month.)(required) Keep a Gifts Received Log. Might just be on a card you keep in your wallet. Might be in your calendar, or on a pretty page you make up for your refrigerator.
We are always receiving gifts, and we are often subconsciously resisting them. So make sure you mark down at least one thing you’ve received every single day.
They can look a lot of different ways. Sometimes they will have direct monetary value, and sometimes they won’t. Anything that improves your life counts. The more you can allow yourself to be a joyous, grateful, worthy receiver of small gifts, like acknowledgements and favors, the more the bigger gifts will start showing up for you.
An example from my life last week: I got rung up wrong when registering my vehicle. I asked “Are you sure - I was expecting it to be more?” She was sure, so I took it as a gift and saved over two hundred dollars. Then when I got home, a neighbor had removed the bike rack from the back of my RV for me - a thing I had been meaning to do - which saved me time and struggle. The another neighbor had hung a snakeskin on my doorknob! So many gifts all within less than two hours. The more we appreciate them, the more they roll in.
Post a photo of your log every week so we can celebrate with you!Busking! Make a sign and put out a hat in a bust public place and perform. Bust out that flute from high school, sing bawdy songs, tell bad jokes, juggle, dance, hula hoop, dress up and be one of those “statues” that moves when people drop a coin in your jar…. Whatever. Everyone’s got party tricks. Pull yours out and go have a little fun with it. Spend a minimum of 15 minutes, then come back and tell us about it!
Discover a new location that fills you with serenity.
Then leave an anonymous note with money in it for someone to find.
This can be an insanely powerful experience for giver and receiver alike.Revisit your Adventure Fund from BADGE #1. Here it is:
“Start an Adventure Fund. This could be as simple as a jar, an envelope, a separate bank account, or as complex as you want to make it. Make it a habit of adding to it a minimum of three times per week. Create a structure, for example maybe a card with boxes you color in when you’ve donated to your Adventure Fund. Share what you’ve created in the group, and your vision for spending it.”
If you haven’t done this yet, do it now! If you started and then forgot, dust it off and breath a little new life into it! If you’ve been awesomely consistent, share your win with us in the group so we can celebrate with you!