Your Year of Courageous Choosing

By Rha Goddess

This year is all about courage and currency — that is, the relationship between what you choose and what you value.

I was recently in a training session where the facilitator kept pressing us to choose our No. 1 value. “Only one?!” everyone asked. ”Yep. Just one.” She had us sit with a partner and write out our top five, and then used a rapid-fire sparring method to get us each to our top pick.

What I discovered is that my most-valued currency is freedom, and I will choose it above all else. It’s why I’m an activist and an entrepreneur. It’s why I teach people how to make money and keep their autonomy. Please know — the two are not mutually exclusive. Nor are they the same.

So why is freedom so important to me? I don’t want anyone else to be the boss of me. Sure, I can surrender to my amazing team who consistently guide and teach me, or my beloved husband when it’s his weekend in charge of date night, but at my core, I have designed my life in a way that reflects my highest calling and not someone else’s vision for me.

That freedom has moved me to spend many years climbing the ladder in the corporate world. I’ve navigated the complexities of the nonprofit sector in support of organizations and movements I truly valued, and I’ve traveled the world as a performing artist, transformational speaker, and coach. With each leap, I had to believe that I could create my own reality. I had to embrace my agency and choose to live according to my most deeply held values.

And what has enabled me to do all of that? Good, old-fashioned courage.

We talk a lot about courage in the change-maker and social entrepreneurial spaces, but we don’t really talk about what courage is.

Courage is choosing boldly and unapologetically. Most of us don’t want to be uncomfortable, we don’t want to piss people off, we don’t want to do the hard thing, and we don’t want to take responsibility for what we have or don’t have — especially when it comes to handling our business.

But happiness is a choice. Clarity is a choice. Progress is a choice. How willing are you to choose boldly and unapologetically? When you embrace courage as a practice, you own your choices.

And when you own your choices, you get to evaluate whether or not they are giving you the results you want. And if not … make a different choice.

Ideally, currency — what we value — governs how we make decisions. But in reality, many other things influence this, especially other people’s opinions.

Courage needs incentive. If you are braving the storm, it better be for a damn good reason. Hence the question: What do you value?

I value freedom because I want the right to be the shaper of my own destiny.

So I make choices about my life and my business that enable me to have more freedom, and I’m willing to go to the wall for my own liberation.

When I ask people what they value, money is often the go-to answer. But dig deeper here: What does money buy you? What does having money enable you to express? What does having money enable you to achieve? How will more money contribute to your personal and professional life? And what other currencies are important to you?

Health is a currency. Love is a currency. Authentic relationships and respect are currencies.

Once you’ve come up with your list, you can create your own pecking order and determine your No. 1 currency. Then evaluate if your current choices are in alignment with what you value.

The breakthrough opportunity of currency is the unwavering commitment to have more of what you really value in your life. And in this life and in these times courage and values alignment are essential.

Do not miss this opportunity to get in alignment with your values. By understanding your life’s vision, mission and purpose, you can truly embrace your highest contribution.  Your vision, mission, purpose is the integration of three key things:

1. Your most deeply held values = how you LIVE

2. Your unique combination of talents, gifts and abilities = how you LOVE

3. The passionate impulse that guides you towards the opportunities and challenges you most want to engage in the world = how you LEAD

This time in our economic and cultural evolution is all about empowering and facilitating people’s ability to become supremely creative in making their highest contributions viable. We call this the Age of the Citizen.

May you go boldly towards what inspires you, may you honor and cherish the values that make the adventure of life worth living.  

And may this year bring you all of the blessings of greater courage and currency in all of the places where you want and need it most.

Be sure to listen to Rha Goddess in the Inspiring Women Summit - click here to register free.

Rha Goddess is THE Entrepreneurial Soul Coach behind hundreds of breakthrough change makers, cultural visionaries and social entrepreneurs. Her mission? To revolutionize the way we live, work, play and handle our business. From multiple NY Times Bestsellers to multi-million dollar social enterprises, Rha’s unique methodology has empowered a new generation of conscious entrepreneurs to stay true, get paid, and do good. Her work has been featured in Time Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Variety, Essence, the Source, Mind Body Green and the Chicago Tribune, among others. A sought-after speaker, Rha has lead the conversation around a “whole self” approach to entrepreneurship as key to a more just and sustainable economy and culture. She has presented at Bioneers, SVN, Women Donors Network, Equity Now, Netroots Nation, TedX BroadStreet, Emerging Women and more. As Founder & CEO of Move The Crowd, Rha has leveraged her innovative curriculum (through its renowned Academy,) to galvanize a movement of 1 Million entrepreneurs dedicated to re-imagining “work” as a vehicle for creative expression, financial freedom and societal transformation. To learn more: http://www.movethecrowd.me