This blog is dedicated to finding, sharing and discussing a variety of topics around the struggles our clients and audience go through. Each episode we discuss a key concept that many humans struggle with. To give you a variety of perspectives for you to see the concept through so you can find one that makes it feel easier to deal with.
And if you prefer to listen, this episode is available as a Podcast or a Video.
Let Me Tell You A Story…
Instead of my usual blog posts with lots of information for you to read and use in your life, today I want to tell you a story. And this story is also being written / read / told live every Tuesday and Thursday at 8:30pm GMT on (hopefully!) YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn between 12th November and 24th December. Click these links to subscribe and join us for the next instalment!
Stories have been used for centuries to share wisdom and ideas within our species. And this idea for this particular story came to me a few months ago as a way of sharing some new ideas with people that can improve their life.
I find stories are the best way to get a message across. It is why we like to read books, watch TV series and films. Because stories are a great way to share a message by inviting the reader / watcher / listener to be a part of the story. To become the character in their imagination.
And that’s what this story will do. It will invite you to become the main character, Morgan, and become the hero / heroine of the story!
There will 13 chapters and this will constitute the first draft of this story before I send it to publishers and become a published author. Which has always been a dream of mine! So thankyou to you for joining me and holding me to account to get this planned, written, shared, edited and finally published! Without you, I would probably let myself off the hook (like I have effectively been doing all year since the idea came to me!) and this would never get done.
So I hope you enjoy these 13 blog posts, and if you want to send me any ideas or ask any questions to guide the story or to make it make more sense to you, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I look forward to hearing your thoughts, but for now let us carry on…
Read Chapter One HERE.
Chapter Two is HERE.
See Chapter Three HERE.
Chapter Four is HERE.
Find Chapter Five HERE.
Chapter Six is HERE.
Check out Chapter Seven HERE.
CHAPTER EIGHT – The Joker Card
They say that life is like a pack of cards. Sometimes you draw the aces, other times you draw the jokers.
Remember that letter that I didn’t notice hanging from the letter box after getting home last night? Well, I found it after I got home from my cleaning shift this afternoon…
You know I mentioned that perfectly good boat as an analogy for my life? The one that had everything I needed, was comfortable, safe and just floating along wherever the tide or the wind decided to push it?
Well, that boat just got torpedoed and is now floundering on the verge of sinking.
The envelope simply had my name hand written on the front and the letter inside was neatly typed. It was addressed to me and simply said:
“In response to rising costs, new regulations on landlords, and your inconsistencies in paying your rent, I am sorry to inform you that this letter serves as your eviction notice.
In line with regulation, you will need to vacate this address within the next 6 weeks in order to avoid escalation of this matter.
I look forward to receiving the rent you are owing as well as next month’s instalment or I will be unable to return your deposit.
I look forward to hearing from you with regards to this and can provide a reference if you require it.”
Great. Joker…
6 weeks to find a new place to live and also pay two months payments on this place… Well, they can take the deposit for that, I guess! I still haven’t received my pay from my old company that should have arrived this week, and there isn’t enough in my bank to cover it either.
Yes, I will be paid soon for my cleaning role, but I do actually need to eat! Sorry landlord! My priorities have now shifted…
But they also deserve to eat, don’t they? And pay their own bills? If I don’t pay my rent, then their income is impacted as well. Surely they have contingencies for that? A pot of money set aside for emergency repairs maybe? They could even sell their properties if they were really desperate! They have options. Whereas I literally have nothing.
I take off my boots and hang up my coat.
Maybe I shouldn’t have bought these…
These were needed yes, but bills are supposed to be paid first before things I want. And my old boots and coat were still just wearable. With a few more repairs.
My notepad, sitting on the table next to the library books, catches my attention, and I suddenly start to feel very angry.
I’m not sure why, but when I focus on it, I start to think about all the people who get what they want, but yet when I start to focus on what I want the things I have now get taken away.
First my partner walked out.
Then I lost my job.
Now my home is being taken as well.
And it is all outside of my control!
Yes, I am building the image of what I want, but if I can’t even pay for what I have now, how am I supposed to ever pay for the things I want that are even more expensive? How is that fair? Others get everything seemingly given to them on a plate and I just get everything taken away regardless of how hard I work or what I do!
BREATHE! Morgan!
The loudness of the voice makes me jump and it is so shocking that I simply do as I am told.
A few deep breaths.
Where does that voice come from?
I notice my forehead is feeling really tight. My eyes are sore because of it, so I close them.
Breathe…
A few more deep breaths and I am feeling much better. My mind has a tendency to start down routes and keep going and I can feel the familiar pull of it trying to carry on with that narrative of everything being unfair. It’s a powerful pull, and I wonder if others get the same. Now that I think about it, they must do. If they didn’t then people wouldn’t rant and rage at shop owners or at other drivers. There wouldn’t be shouting matches between spouses or parents and their kids. Arguments wouldn’t need to happen, or get so heated, if people could catch the red mist as it descended instead of being taken over by it.
That would mean that we also wouldn’t then feel so bad afterwards. Anger I find feels powerful, in the moment. But after things have been said and emotions have been heated, we seem to then feel pretty bad. Usually, we’ve said something we didn’t want to say. Or made someone else feel beaten down, belittled or small because we felt they should be feeling that way. Either way, we usually either then feel really guilty about the whole thing, or we just get more angry at ourselves.
But that voice in my head. The one that told me to breathe. It made me instantly calmer. I wonder how many others get that voice… And if they do, do they listen? Maybe I’ve always had that voice, but never hear it when in a situation involving other people or circumstances. This time it was just me. In my home. Reading a letter. So there was nothing else that could raise my anger other than my own mind and thoughts.
And I am in control of my thoughts…
Yes, I feel really angry that this is happening. But while I have had a part in creating it by not paying my rent on time, I can’t now change what has happened. I am being evicted. Black and white fact. I need to find somewhere new to live and I have 6 weeks to do it.
Or 5 weeks and 6 days as the letter was dated yesterday.
So what can I do? I HAVE to find somewhere new to live. I can’t stay here. Or I could, but then things will escalate according to the letter. I’m not sure what that means, or what they can do if I do refuse to leave? Physically remove me? Wait until I leave one day, break in, change the locks, throw my stuff in the street? At least I don’t have much stuff… This place is rented furnished, so I don’t have much to move. Which is good as I don’t have a car or anyone to help me move it!
I think right now it is time for lunch. My mind is wandering but I can still feel my stomach grumbling. Can I even afford to eat? Yes, I can avoid paying rent for the next 6 weeks and lose my deposit, which is less than two lots of rent anyways, but I would still need to raise enough for a new deposit and first month’s rent up front. Which by a quick calculation would be about 8 weeks of work at my current two jobs. If I don’t eat or pay any of my other bills that will be wanted next week…
I take a deep breath again and look out of the window. Well, life is definitely up and down! I get so far forward and then seem to take a hundred steps backwards.
Then a thought pops into my end.
I may not be able to control this eviction notice. But I can decide how I respond to it and what I do next. I get to choose. So what am I going to choose? What are my choices?
I take my lunch to the table and open my laptop. I search for properties to rent near here and my heart sinks. Everything is so much more expensive than I currently pay. I expand the search radius. Things get a little cheaper, but it still looks like I would get a lot less for the same amount of money. But yet, all the jobs available are a lot lower wage as well… How does that work? Rent goes up, income goes down. So how can anyone afford to actually rent a place, pay their bills, and still have some money left to feed themselves and buy clothes?
This is crazy…
But yet, Napoleon Hill said in Think And Grow Rich that it is just as easy to live in abundance as it is to live in poverty. Seems a lot easier to live in poverty than earn more money when all the wages are so low! But I do have some time each day where I could get a third job… I open a new tab and start searching the job sites again.
Still the same… Low paid. Or asking for qualifications I don’t have. So, what is the answer?
My new book You Were Born Rich is just to the side of my laptop, so I pick it up and flick through a few of the pages. A small piece of paper falls out and I pick it up. It is a handwritten note that says:
“To the receiver of this book, if you ever want to know more about how to shift your life around, then get in touch!”
And then there is an email address.
I recognise the name as the speaker from the seminar and instantly put the second half of their email address into my browser and start exploring their website.
Lots of images of them standing in front of large audiences. Even more testimonials. The stickperson graphic features quite heavily. There are also some links to some articles and seminar recordings. But the bit that catches my attention as a I scroll down, is a banner that says, “It Is YOUR Choice.” I click it and it opens a new page.
There is a diagram of two circles, one inside the other. In the very centre of the smaller circle, it says, ‘What I can control’, and then outside this inner circle but within the outer circle it says, “What I can’t control’.
I scroll down.
It starts to explain about the things that happen in our lives and how they impact us. But it is our choice whether these impacts are positive or negative. We get to choose whether we let the things upset us or not. Everything has equal amounts of positive and negative in it, and all things are neutral until we individually decide whether they are negative or positive.
It gives the example of losing a job. Some people may find that a negative experience, while others may find it positive. The negative response could be fuelled by all the thoughts of where the money will come from to pay the bills. Whereas a positive response could be the thought that you didn’t like the job anyways and you are now free to find a job that you do like. The only fact is that the person has lost their job. The response is just an opinion.
So, we choose whether any situation is good or bad.
And this choice will be based on our life so far. Our beliefs, morals and experiences. Which also means that no two people will react in the same way, or see a situation, in the same way as each other.
The article goes on to say that whatever the situation is, we can’t control it. All that we can control is how we respond or react to whatever happens. The only things in the world that we have absolute control over is what we think, and what we do. Nobody else can control what we think. Yes, we can be influenced by others, but they can’t force us to think something, we choose to agree or disagree with them.
Everything else (the weather, other people’s thoughts or actions, what other people say…) we have no control over. Yes, we can try to influence it, but we cannot control it and therefore we should just let it go and focus on what we can control.
So, from my point of view… The fact is that I lost my job. I cannot control the fact that the company was sold, so I had a choice to rage against someone else’s decision and get angry and upset like minimum effort guy did, or find a new job. My response was to find a new job.
And now I have been served an eviction notice. I can choose to rage against it. Put my foot down and refuse to move. Or I can take responsibility for my part in and find somewhere new to live. It feels like the more powerful and validating thing to just rage and refuse to move… Especially as it is looking almost impossible that I will find somewhere suitable and close enough to my current roles to not need to pay out for transport every day. But equally? What point does raging prove? I’m still going to need somewhere new to live at some point!
I am so confused with all this…
It does make sense about us being what we think and how our thoughts dictate how we feel. And that we can choose our responses to things. But how can I respond to these things when I don’t meet the qualifications for the new role? And I don’t earn enough to build a deposit and be accepted to pay rent? It feels impossible.
Maybe I should email the speaker… The note does say to do that! So, I do. I introduce myself so they know who I am, then write an overview of everything going on to give some context. I then ask what I can do to make these two things line up. My income with what I need to be able to find a new home and how to get a better paying job without the requested qualifications.
Sent.
It is now dinner time, so I wander to my kitchen to see what is on the menu. There isn’t a wide choice I’ll be honest! But I rustle up what I can and sit down to enjoy it while watching some of the seminar recordings on the speaker’s website. It is Friday evening, so I’m not expecting a response to my email until at least Monday.
My mind drifts to what things I could do tomorrow to help my situation. Maybe a walk to the library, see what advice they can give or if they know of other options for somewhere to live. That sounds like a good idea. I finish dinner, have a shower and spend the rest of the evening watching some more of the videos before heading to bed with a book.
Saturday, I sort my weekly admin and also spend some time at the library.
They give me some websites to take a look at for other accommodation ideas, and make a few job suggestions for me to follow up on to fill in the gaps around my cleaning and coffee shop.
Something interesting also happens while I am there. A person comes up to me, introduces themselves and apologises for interrupting. They have an idea of a way I can earn some money around my other commitments by simply showing people a quick presentation. For each person that then signs up to this opportunity I would then earn a commission, and the amount would vary based on the services that person took. It sounded slightly too good to be true, but at the moment? I would try anything!
They ask if I would like to hear more, I say yes, and they ask if I would like to go to a nearby coffee shop where we could talk about it further. I glance at the librarian for reassurance who gives a little nod. I think I was expecting a massive shaking of their head, so a nod from them and I agree.
Fifteen minutes later we are sat in a quiet corner of a coffee shop, one of the ones owned by the same person as the one I work in, and they are showing me the presentation with drinks they bought for both of us. It really is simple! They say there is lots of support and I can show the presentation to whoever I think would be interested. Some of their team also knock on doors, hand out flyers and speak to anyone they meet in the street. There is a low joining fee and for the first few presentations I give there will be someone there to go through it with me. What’s not to love! And the commission is pretty good as well… Just four people sign up and I replace my current monthly wages.
Consider me signed up!
There and then, I fill in the form, pay the money through the online form and have a couple of short training videos to watch and then I’m good to go. I say that I will get those watched this afternoon and start thinking about people I could speak to. They give me some ideas to get me started and then we go our separate ways.
I do a quick food shop, comparing prices, looking for deals and planning meals with the lowest price but that will last a few meals. I usually do get some bits of food from my coffee shop shifts, if there are any left over in the evenings, but I make sure that I don’t rely on that.
Once home, I make a quick, small lunch and sit down at my laptop to do my training and prove my identity. 30 minutes later I am all done so I send a message to the person to say so. They reply and mention that a few of the team are going door knocking in about an hours’ time and they’d be happy for me to tag along. I clear up lunch stuff, check a map to ensure I know where I am going then put a water bottle, my laptop, notepad and a couple of snacks in my bag before heading out to meet the others.
They are a nice bunch, and where they are door knocking was only about a 20-minute walk away. It is a nice day, a little bit breezy, but no threatening clouds. And once there, I simply just follow them! I’m introduced, say who I am, who I met to get started with all this, and then I just stand back as I watch them knocking on the doors, speaking to the people, and booking appointments. A couple of times we even get invited straight in! Happy to do it there and then.
It was a really successful day!
And it was really fun. I even managed to sign up a customer and make myself £250 in the process! The person I signed up with was very generous, arranging a few call-backs for us to do later next week and ensuring that any questions I had were answered. The team members, as I said, were all really lovely, lots of stories to share and I really enjoyed meeting these new people.
We spent about two hours knocking on doors, and then I headed home and had a shower. I then explored the website of this new opportunity. There were lots of videos to watch and things to read, which were all very interesting and only built my enthusiasm even further! I headed to bed filled with hope that things were going to turn around.
Sunday morning I spent some time checking the job sites for any new roles, having my breakfast and then reading some more of Psycho-Cybernetics before my shift at the coffee shop. I decide to take my laptop with me as well as my book, and head off early enough to make sure I get everything ready for the regular customers that are always in early.
I ensure all the pastries, cakes and sandwiches are laid out nicely to entice people to buy them, and that everything I need is ready to go. At 10:30 I open the door and greet the older gentlemen who are always in as soon as we open on Sunday. They both ask for a surprise drink, and to try one of new pastries that arrived yesterday. I check for allergies and then decide to make their coffees from oat milk, with a shot of honey, whipped cream to top and a dusting of chocolate powder over the top.
I serve them nervously and watch as they inspect my creations and then start to get through the cream, asking what I would call this creation.
A honey oat latte, I declare.
The cream has been eaten or stirred in and they both take a sip. Both smile and pull approving faces, taking a few more sips being giving their verdict.
“Definitely one for the specials board!” The older gentleman says and then the other man agrees.
I smile, and proceed to write Honey Oat Latte on the specials board for the day, and make a note of how I made it so I can share with the owner and the other baristas. This was something that the owner brought in recently. For the early Sunday barista to try a new idea for customers to try. It is available on a “if you like it, you pay for it. If you don’t like it you simply get to choose another drink from the board” basis, and it seems to be really popular!
A few more customers come in and the special drink seems to be well received across the day. And during a quiet period, I get some time to sit with the older gentleman and chat. One of my favourite parts of the week! I excitedly tell him about my new venture, and we organise a time later in the week to show him the presentation when my mentor is also available, and he asks if anything else is new. I tell him about my eviction notice, and he suggests to look for properties that need someone to look after them. He says it is fairly common now for people to need to move elsewhere for a time, but not long enough to warrant letting or selling their property, so they simply get people to housesit.
It sounds like an amazing idea!
He knows someone else who does it and gives me their details to get in touch.
I start to feel a little bit more hopeful about my situation and snippets of information pass through my mind, reminding me that everything always works out as long as I just let things flow. When we resist or fight against things we block the good that is trying to reach us. I smile at the thought and take a deeper breath to secure it my mind.
The owner pops in during the afternoon when it is quiet and asks to try my new creation. I have made it a few times today now so am pretty confident in making it, but still get a little nervous as I present it to him and wait for him to try it. I made one for myself at the same time and we sit in the shop window to catch up from the week. He congratulates me on my new venture, and also organises a time to see the presentation later in the week. He also agrees with the older gentleman about the house-sitting idea, and also suggests that something work related might show itself later in the week. No more information than that, but he thinks something will show up!
At the end of the shift, I get everything sorted and organised, lock up and head home. I debate with myself about a bath and eventually decide that one bath really isn’t going to hurt. I still have some bath stuff left so I make sure I run the nicest bath possible, and enjoy it for as long as possible while watching some more of the videos from the speaker’s website. Then I tuck into the couple of pastries left over from the shop and settle down to spend the rest of the evening reading.
What Do You Think?
So what do you think? Comment below with your feedback and where you would like to see Morgan’s story go or where you think it will go! I only have a rough outline plan so far so your input could guide it in another direction…
If this story resonates with you and you want to discuss this further, then get in touch today. Either here or through any of my social medias or schedule a call to discuss it with me directly.
I look forward to speaking with you soon.
To your success,
Jaiye
PS.
Don’t forget to come and join me live if it hasn’t gone past the 24th December 2024 yet! I go live with a new chapter every Tuesday and Thursday on my Linked In, Facebook and YouTube channels and you are more than welcome to join me. Register now!
