Dare to Change Life Coaching & Mentoring

Tag: create wealth

  • Story #5: From Comfort to Sacrifice to Compromise Again

    Story #5: From Comfort to Sacrifice to Compromise Again

    After the confrontation with my husband’s mother, we had our talk….

    I said to him: “You know…if you decide to leave – it’s up to you, if you decide to stay – it’s up to you, BUT I’m leaving.”

    We left the USSR in November 1989.

    We left everything we had accumulated for the last eight years and lived from a suitcase for months.

    Along the way, our luggage was stolen, so we literally only had the very basic necessities…but we kept going.

    We had to travel through many countries without the proper documents, and the journey took about five months.

    When we got to New York City in March of 1990, we started with a few adversities….

    My husband got very sick and had a high fever.
    I didn’t speak English.
    We didn’t have jobs.
    We were almost out of money.

    And yet…the moment I stepped on the ground in New York City, it felt wonderful!

    My “inner compass” had tapped me on the shoulder again and said, “You’re home!”

    I felt grounded…though in uncertainty.

    The beginning of our “new life” in the U.S. was challenging:
    I took a minimum wage job at a local florist shop and learned how to say, “What would you like?” LOL

    We had to go on welfare…for six months!

    I volunteered for a local hospital and took care of my daughter’s depression (from being separated from her grandparents).

    However, I kept my focus on getting a professional job so I could support my family.

    And so, we saved up enough money to get our first (old) car (paid $3000!!), so we could go to job interviews.

    That was an important milestone for us.

    As I self-taught English, I was dreaming about being a physicist again….

    However, my husband – being a very practical man – said: “It doesn’t matter what you love, in this country, even musicians become programmers, be practical!”

    And so, in the spring of 1991, I was hired as an IT consultant for Merrill Lynch and started working in the World Trade Center in NYC.

    On the outside, my life in corporate America was the typical American Dream.

    I worked hard, and as my skillsets grew, I advanced my career and was moving from one major brokerage firm to another, almost always in the World Trade Center in New York City.

    I worked with mostly men, and learned to survive by becoming “one of the boys around the water cooler.”

    It wasn’t the way I wanted things – but it was what had to be done to get along.

    Eventually, we bought a house in New Jersey, and my husband and I commuted about 90 minutes each way, every day.

    We were both making good 6-figure incomes.
    He took care of our money and settled in decorating our house, being a wife and mother at home, and “one of the boys” at work.

    I wasn’t paid as well as men at my same level, but I accepted that as a fact of life and kept moving ahead, conforming again, just to get along.

    It wasn’t what I wanted, it wasn’t what I dreamed I’d do with my life, but it was comfortable, and I was so busy, I didn’t think much about my future.

    What did you have to do instead of following YOUR dream?

    What sacrifices have you made for your family?

    Which dreams did you have to compromise on?

    To Your Health, Wealth, and Freedom!

    P.S. Want to read other stories? Click HERE to download the “BECOMING: Stories About My Journey From Surviving To Thriving.”

  • Story #3: There’s Only 1% Chance Your Child Will Live

    Story #3: There’s Only 1% Chance Your Child Will Live

    While I was attending university, I got married, and we had a child.

    I was 23 years old and very healthy. While my pregnancy was normal and I didn’t have any warnings, my daughter was born post-term.

    I recall being in a hospital room with other new mothers, holding their newborns, and wondering, “Am I a new mother…or not?”

    I was not allowed to hold my newborn baby-girl….

    Then the doctor came to me and said the most devastating words I’ve ever heard in my life…

    “I’m very sorry, but we don’t think she’s going to make it, Her lungs are collapsing. There’s only a 1% chance your child will live.”

    Everything went black…I fainted.
    Life threw me one of the worst curveballs any mother can experience.

    And so, I couldn’t hold my newborn, or even get close to her. She was moved to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the hospital.

    They held her in a little glass box, and she was being fed through tubes and kept alive with a respirator.

    She was only one day old when her health challenges started…

    Over the next few days, her condition worsened. Even though the doctors had filled her with antibiotics, nothing was working.

    I remember pleading to God and giving God my ultimatum… “Please, HELP! Please help my baby-girl get better! And if she doesn’t survive, I NEVER want to have children again!”

    My husband and family were stunned.

    Things got worse.

    My baby was moved from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to the hospital for “infectious diseases” because, in addition to other problems, she also got Salmonella, then Sepsis….

    She needed a complete blood transfusion asap.

    When she was only ONE month old, the doctor called me and said that they got a Hepatitis B outbreak in the hospital, and if she gets it, it would certainly kill her.

    And so, the doctor asked me if I would be willing to “request” that my baby gets released from the hospital and would sign legal documents stating that I would take full responsibility for her health, from this point forward. He had good intentions but needed to be released from any legal responsibility.

    The doctor also mentioned that my daughter would likely have developmental disabilities…because of all the medication they had used in both hospitals, trying to keep her alive.

    After hearing that, my father suggested that “Maybe it’s better if you let her go, and have another, “HEALTHY CHILD”? Because the truth is …you’ll NEVER be able to handle a disabled child!”

    I remember screaming at the top of my lungs, “Watch Me!

    It was a deciding moment in my life.

    I was only 23, still attending the university, and was really scared.

    I had already decided that this would be my ONLY chance to have a child.

    And this was her ONLY chance to LIVE!

    So, with unwavering faith in my heart and newfound courage of a mama-bear, I took my tiny one-month-old baby home.

    Knowing how traditional medicine had failed us, I decided to look for natural alternatives. Fortunately, I found a woman who taught me some natural remedies, and that’s what I used to save my daughter’s life.

    What were the deciding moments in your life?

    What was YOUR” WATCH ME!” story?

    And what brainwashing (aka conditioning) did you receive in your PAST?

    Was it “You’re not smart enough to be a millionaire”? OR maybe “You were not born to be wealthy…”?

    There are doubters in almost every family. BUT I want you to remember YOUR “WATCH ME!” story and keep moving forward!!

    To Your Health, Wealth, and Freedom!

    P.S. Want to read other stories? Click HERE to download the “BECOMING: Stories About My Journey From Surviving To Thriving.”

  • Story #2: The Things Women Are NOT Supposed To Do

    Story #2: The Things Women Are NOT Supposed To Do

    Going to the University was my escape plan from the constant negativity and emotional abuse I felt at home.

    My plan was to go to school and never come back. EVER.

    I had achieved top honors in high school and had decided to attend a top college in St Petersburg (now Russia), to become a physicist.

    In the former USSR, the application process included your passport.

    Even though my family did not practice the Jewish religion (ALL religions were prohibited in the country at that time), I was identified as Jewish in my passport.

    The university advisors looked at my paperwork and passport and said: “This University is not the right place for you.”

    Not only was I a woman, trying to be a physicist, but I was identified as a Jewish Woman trying to be a physicist – an unacceptable combination at the “Old School Communist Boys’ Club” University” and frankly, the entire country.

    My friends and high school teachers told me to “Not Fight The System!”

    But I pushed to make it happen.

    I needed to pass one test to start the process of college enrollment. Normally, that test was given orally, and the answers were delivered on paper, but things would be different in my case.

    The professor asked me the questions and had me do the math and answer the questions on a blackboard instead of paper.

    Once the test was done, even though I had passed the exam with flying colors, the “specially trained” professor erased the board (destroying my work), and gave me an F grade.

    I was stunned; it was like I’d been knocked down by a hammer.

    For my entire life, I had believed that knowledge, hard work, passion, and dedication were all I needed.

    Before that dismal day, despite my father, I always believed that I could do anything!

    But my friends and teachers were right – I couldn’t fight “The System,” but maybe I could work around it.

    And I did…kinda.

    One year later, I was accepted to another prestigious university and began my Master’s level Physics’ study.

    Unfortunately, the “Old School Communist Boys’ Network” still had a few surprises waiting for me.

    I did great at the University and became an intern at the Academy of Science. In my final year of college, the Academy of Science sent a request to the University for me to work there after my graduation.

    Knowing the “Old School Communist Boy’s Club” I told you about before – any guesses what happened??

    The faculty of the University figuratively put a gun to my head.

    They told me I had to sign a paper saying I did not want to take the Academy of Sciences offer, or I would have a lot of challenges in finishing my courses and ever graduating.

    The message was clear – “Don’t play against us or ELSE!”

    And so, my mentor at the Academy of Science gave me this advice:
    “Learn English and get the hell out of this swamp!”

    In the next story, I’ll tell you about another part of my life that was happening at the same time.

    Have you ever had to deal with an Ultimatum?

    Have you ever been put in the unfair position that was REALLY important for you?

    Has the “Old Boys’ Club” shortened your career or imposed the glass ceiling on your career prospects?

    To Your Health, Wealth, and Freedom!

    P.S. Want to read other stories? Click HERE to download the “BECOMING: Stories About My Journey From Surviving To Thriving.”

  • Story # 1: Conform or Get Out?

    Story # 1: Conform or Get Out?

    I was born into a middle-class family. My family heritage is Jewish.

    My mother was a librarian, and my father was a military officer in the Soviet Union Army.

    I was the firstborn and had a sister five years younger than me.

    One of my clearest early memories was when I was six years old…

    It was the first time I remember getting a tap on the shoulder from my intuition about what I would later come to call “My Inner Compass.”

    I remember thinking, “I want to become a physicist…because I want to know how the Universe works.”

    For my entire life, I’ve been fascinated with how various “systems” work, and with understanding how they can work together to make amazing results.

    My mother and father lived their lives conforming to everything, just like most people in the USSR.

    Their life philosophies were to “NEVER stick your neck out” and “You should be happy with the “Status Quo.” No matter how bad, uncomfortable, or unfair, it may be…

    My father was emotionally abusive and distant. I never had a father-daughter relationship with him. He was berating me frequently…no matter how well I did in school – he was constantly telling me:

    “You’re not good enough to do that….”

    “Why would you think you could do that?”

    “You think you know things, but…you don’t!”

    “You’re not capable of loving anyone, so how could anyone love you?”

    “You’re on your own, and you are going to have to rely on yourself!”

    In spite of my home life, at school, I tried to be the best at everything, hoping to get a kind word or a sliver of appreciation and love from my father.

    But, no matter what I achieved, I was never good enough in his eyes!

    From the time I was a child and all the way through my adulthood, marriage, and the birth of my daughter – I NEVER heard my father say, “I love you.” Or “You did a good job.”

    When I decided to leave the USSR, where discrimination, antisemitism, and human rights violations were open government policies, where conformity and submission to the utopia of communism and Lenin / Marx doctrines were required studies in schools and colleges…my father stopped talking to me.

    He couldn’t understand why I felt suffocating in the environment that felt “normal” to him…. 6 months after I left the country with my husband and daughter, my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer….

    I spend years working on my unexpressed feelings toward him, healing my deep emotional wounds, forgiving what I could not forget.

    Did you live in a family that didn’t support you? 

    What are the subconscious lessons that came from your childhood?

    How did your childhood experiences screw up your self-image, your beliefs about what’s possible for you, your relationships, and finances?

    To Your Health, Wealth, and Freedom!

    P.S. Want to read other stories? Click HERE to download the “BECOMING: Stories About My Journey From Surviving To Thriving”

  • Odd Holiday Message

    Odd Holiday Message

    Decide to change your financial reality, become confident and competent with money by learning how to align your mind with your desires, how to manage and invest your money

    I believe you’re reading this because you’re not where you want to be financially in your life.

    Because there’s a gap between your aspirations and your current financial reality.

    Yes?

    And I also suspect you have tried to change your financial situation before. Probably a few times….

    Tight budgeting? Done.

    Money mindset program(s)? Done.

    Dabbling with stock investing? Done.

    Investing in your own business? Done.

    You may feel like you’ve tried so many things already yet without a dent in your bank account’s balance, let alone an improvement in your financial new worth.

    Does it sound a little like you or someone you know?

    You’re so not alone!

    I certainly can relate…

    It was December 2008… I was sitting in front of my computer in my small rental apartment…after massive losses in my investment business, car accident, divorce…

    Feeling hurt, scared and overwhelmed, looking at my bank account balance (after paying the divorce attorney)…and thinking:

    “How the hell did I get here? How did I get to this financial mess?? And is there a way out from here?

    Well, I now know that the answer is an unequivocal YES!

    I just couldn’t see things clearly at that time – I was too close to my troubles, really stressed and focused on what wasn’t working in my life (which felt like EVERYTHING during that time).

    Look…whatever your financial situation may be right now, it’s NOT the end of your life story. It’s just a chapter and…likely, a wake-up call.

    There is always a way out and way forward if you choose to make real change, instead of ignoring the need for change by putting another Band-aid on the situation…

    Change is not something that most people seek or welcome when there is not enough “pain.”

    Change is often uncomfortable, unpredictable, and even scary (because it’s unknown).

    And it seems that human nature is such that we delay/avoid/ignore a need for changes in our lives until things get really ugly.

    Until we get so uncomfortable/hurt/disturbed that we can no longer go on with businesses as usual.

    Why am I talking to you today, during the holiday season, about the real change?

    Because I see too often that people wait…and wait…and wait until they lose their health, relationship, money, hope…

    Because this is the time of the year (Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year) to MAKE TIME and reflect on your life experiences.

    It’s the time of the year to make plans and contemplate what you want to let go of, what you want to have more of, and what you want to accomplish next year…

    So, I encourage your to MAKE TIME for yourself, print and use my Wealth Planner (click HERE to download it right now) and really immerse yourself into  “your mind’s journey” that this Wealth Planner takes you on.

    Create a BIG picture for your journey to Financial Independence:

    1. Start with WHAT you want to create/experience;
    2. Dig out the skills and experiences you already have and those you may need to upgrade/acquire;
    3. Outline money habits you’ve got to change, old thinking patterns that must stop and the new ones you want to practice more;
    4. Assess your environment and inner circle (what/who do you want to keep and what/who to let go?);
    5. Decide what changes you want to see in your physical and emotional body.

    If you feel like “I know it already”, consider that this Wealth Planner is a tool to “re-mind” your old conditioned mind so that you allow yourself to snap from  “survival” or “just enough” state and leap to elegant joyful State of Creation.

    So, yeah, this is my “odd holiday message” to you.

    Let me know how it lands on you. What resonated? What frustrated? What inspired?

    To your Peace, Power and Prosperity!

    P. S. Some REALLY cool Wealth trainings are coming your way in 2020. But I have something SPECIAL FOR YOU RIGHT NOW! 

    Something that would help you JUMP START Your Investing Journey OR RE-CALIBRATE it for better RESULTS.

    I am talking about The Wealth Collection Holidays’ Special – a bundle of my most transformational and insightful programs that focus on helping you make your money work for you. 

    AND you can own LIFETIME access to these programs with the incredible 70% OFF (SAVING $700) if you ACT by January 1, 2020! 

    Wanna look what’s inside?

    Check it out here: 
    WEALTH COLLECTION HOLIDAYS’ SPECIAL

  • Your Big Badass Dream Plane & THREE Levers to Upgrade Your Financial Life

    Your Big Badass Dream Plane & THREE Levers to Upgrade Your Financial Life

    What would it take for you to feel wealthy?

    How many millions?

    Or maybe just having “more than enough”?How many homes/yachts/planes?Or maybe just having more choices?How many children/husbands/lovers? (OK, this topic is for anothertime/place… LOL)Or maybe just having more free time, working less?Obviously, being wealthy means different things to different people…And it’s great to have Audacious BIG Badass Dreams.And my question to you is: “Are you actually ready to bring your currentfinances into harmony with your BIG Badass Dreams?”Because dreaming BIG is great! However, in order to take this BIG BadassDream plane off the ground, you’ve got to get very clear about it (is it REALLYworth the efforts?), then map your way forward and learn to pilot it, so youcreate the momentum.Because if you don’t… well, let’s stay positive here.So, what is your “BIG Badass Dream” plane?What do you REALLY want for yourself and your loved ones?

    Can you describe it as if you were living it in the present moment?What do you do, what do you feel and see, where do you live, who are youwith?Make time and space for yourself to “normalize” your Big Badass Dream –make it SO NORMAL that you start embodying this dream!Then you can get to map your way forward.How do you map your way forward?By mapping your money according to your desired level of financial fitnessand using three cash flow levers to accomplish your desired results.Money Mapping is about discerning what’s REALLY important to you in life(and this may change as you go through different phases in life) and thendesigning your lifestyle so that it supports your values and your BIG dream.Money Mapping is Budgeting 2.0, because it’s NOT just about counting everypenny you spend on groceries. That’s tedious and unnecessary for mostpeople.Money Mapping is about you focusing on your BIG Badass Dream, translating itinto numbers, then reverse-engineering it into the money map so that yourlifestyle and choices are coherent with your goals.In my programs, I talk about 4 stages of Financial Fitness:1. Less than enough2. Just enough3. More than enough4. AffluenceYOU DECIDE what financial fitness level is next for you. THAT will determineyour spending patterns, your saving patterns and your investing patterns.That’s what the money mapping is for.

    My clients come to me at different levels of financial fitness spectrum and withvery different ambitions. And they ALL evolve to much higher but differentfinancial fitness levels. Because they have different definitions of “wealth.”That’s why I asked you at the beginning “What would it take for you to feelwealthy?” Your answer will determine your specific money map.In other words, your answer to this question (which only YOU know theanswer to), will guide your choices and financial decisions.For example, you may have a BASIC money map (to track your money, youcan use an Excel spreadsheet or an app) that reflects just basic needs(groceries, rent, utilities) and paying off debt. This may support a simplelifestyle, living debt-free, in a rural area, and have less pressure…Then you can create another COMFORTABLE money map that will includesome comfort items like massage, mani & padi, trips, restaurants, privatecoaching, etc.Finally, you can create another AFFLUENT money map that will cover allyour intentions and desires – from millions in the bank, to having a personalchef, jet-setting to French Riviera, and having vacation homes in resort-likelocations.Having these money maps will help you “land” your BIG BADASS DREAMplane with concrete numbers that will back it up, support your desired lifestyle.Finally, the time for the HOW question. What levers do you have to controlyour cash flow and upgrade your financial fitness?I invite you to consider these THREE levers to control your cash flow:1. Income2. Budget (pattern of spending)3. DebtAnd here are THREE ways that you can use to improve your cash flow:1. Identify your current ‘financial leaks” and make necessary adjustments.2. Brainstorm and uncover additional long-term sources of in-coming cash.3. Brainstorm and uncover immediate prospects for incoming cash flow.In summary: You Big Badass Dream can be your reality. Being FinancialIndependent is NOT a pipe dream. You’ve got to get your money map inplace, get strategic about your choices and get this plane onto the runway,ready to take off.

    With love, health and wealth

    P.S. If you feel sick and tired of being restricted by money, feeling worryingabout your retirement, anxious about investing – let’s connect! Here’s the linkto schedule a complimentary Money Breakthrough session with Millen.What do you have to lose? Fear, money anxiety, indecisiveness. What youcan gain? Clarity, direction, specific strategies and concrete steps to moveforward.