Author: Joan Stepleton

I am ready to go all in on life and the Credit Hero Challenge. I will build a life that helps people financially, live a healthy life, form great relationships with their kids and make the world a more beautiful place. I will become the next Credit Repair Cloud Millionaires Club success story. I will help Drs change the face of medicine. I will be a leader in child development and parenting and I will have a beautiful home to host people. And above all, I will be the bridge from people’s reality to dreams.

I am ready to commit to changing my emotions so that they represent my future self. I am committing to dreaming, but trusting in the universe so that abundance will flow to me. I am committing to living a life of love. To stop the habitual negative feelings that my body craves. I am committing to changing my morning routine of twitter and late night talk show monologues to starting my morning with meditation, feeling the emotions of my future and of gratitude.

I grew up pretty normal, but I was living a life of depression, pain and low energy. Why couldn’t I be happy? Why did I not feel exuberate about life? Why did I wake up either feeling nothing or dreading my day? Why could I not remember the a day when I was truly happy?

First it was because I listened to everyone else. I never really thought about my life. I went to school, got good grades, went to college and went and got a job. I even had a job that “fit” my requirements – pretty autonomous, good pay, good company whose values aligned with mine, nice co-workers, a decent boss. Yet, I was still unhappy. I tried to stay in the job for 5 years. I would build my wealth, build experience, foster helpful relationships. But I just couldn’t hack it.

All this time, I was looking to be happy. I thought I would be happy that I was successful – at least on the employment realm, that I was financially stable, that I was married to a man who loved me and had a daughter that was well behaved and becoming a pretty good human being. But none of that mattered.

What was blocking me? A little bit of self worth, confidence and truly believing that I could break my mold. That I could be a millionaire on my own. It’s strange, I believe in my skills and I believe in my power, my intelligence, and my beauty. But my biggest fear is being one of those people who only talks, but never does, or never produces. Another fear I have is that I will work hard and then it will all crumble.

I finally hit a wall in June 2020. It was the beginning of the height of the pandemic. My mom had just passed away, the following day I underwent a hysterectomy, then I severed the relationship with my dad. I had lost so much. I was struggling at work. I was stressed out and I had no motivation. I was just done. I knew I was not living my life to my highest potential. I was wasting away at work. Work started to go against my values. “Work harder during the pandemic.” “Let’s gain customer loyalty, while trying to nickel and dime them.” I was done. I wanted to take control of my life. So i quit/got fired from my job. I quit, because I just stopped working. I did the bare minimum for my customers but that is it.

Negatively, I lost the good relationships I had with co-workers. I lost some self esteem, feeling like could not hack it out in the world – ie. I am the loser guy who cannot hold down a job. I also had financial fear. The fear of being able to make my bills, the fear of never being financially independent, the fear of always living below my means because I don’t have a choice not to. The fear of never being able to accomplish my dreams. Of being able to do what I want. I also lost a little bit of my identity. What was I going to tell people who I was? A shopper for Shipt (while it is a good part time job) is not what I want my identify to be. I felt like I was falling further away from my financial dreams. Since I could see my bank account getting smaller and the medical bills piling up, I started getting more resentful towards my spouse. How could he have a pH.D and still make 30K a year? How come after 10 years he is still in the same place? It brought up resentment because even when I was making money, he still was not living up to my expectations of a house husband. He couldn’t feel the dog and get the child to school. He would cook, but the kitchen would be a disaster. It would infuriate me. I also hate that I am not paying down our debt as quick as possible. That I find myself relying on credit cards again. That I feel like my choices are limited. That I feel like we’ll never get to have expensive fun again. That I feel like one big financial thing will put us into ruins. I was not feeling abundant. Which is why I partially quit my job.

The epiphany for me is based on several things. And things that I gotta keep remembering and doing, because I can get dark pretty quick. One, to be happy in the moment. Finding law of attraction people like Joe Dispenza, Christie Marie Sheldon, and Abraham Hicks. How much my food and sleep affects my mood. To really start taking care of myself. To know that I am on the right track with my credit repair education. Listening to Joe Dispenza and Christie Marie Sheldon helped me realized how much I need to open up my heart to love. It sounds crazy, but it really does help. They showed me how to envision my future and prepare my body for the future instead of living in the past. Listening to Dr. Eric Berg and Dr. Mark Hyman talk about insulin resistance opened up my eyes to how my metabolism works. Going to Dr. Grace Alessi showed me how I was missing half of my gut bacteria and gave me supplements to help with my healing journey.

This has helped me to have a better outlook on life. To really feel gratitude and most of all to be in a better mood. I know that my dreams will come true and that feeling Love from Above will allow abundance and the life that I want to manifest to come to me. My future will change. I will be living my life by my design. I will be more content in my marriage. I will be able to help people do the same. I will be able to full fill my purpose in this world as a teacher and healer. I know that I am meant to heal the world by molding and fostering Eleanor to be the best person that she can be, and to help heal the walking wounded. Those who are just trudging along in life, waiting to retire. Those who are not 100% satisfied with their path and for those who need their light to shine so they can do good in the world. I am also here to educate parents on the effects of modern day parenting. How it is hurting our kids and instead build up kids so that they can also find their power and become a better force in the world. I am also here to show people how to care for themselves through food and finances. The 3 F’s that is what I am meant to do. Also to make the world beautifully aesthetic, by making beautiful people and decorating.

The first action I took to achieve this was to start my mornings off differently. I no longer wake up to scroll on twitter. I wake up to a motivational talk and I also go to bed by 11 every night. I am also only focusing and obsessing on my 3 F’s and an A (aesthetics). The next action I am taking is practicing love and gratitude every day and to truly live by these and my other values. Another big action that I took, was to start becoming more prominent online and to open up my credit repair business. My vision came together so well, that I decided to open up a financial coaching to include personal investment education and helping others reach FIRE. I was also able to help out my family and change our family’s path from middle class to wealthy!

The name of my business is Against Modern Life – helping you to bridge the gap between dreams and reality. For my financial business it is going to be called – Own your Finances – take control of your finances, take control of your life. Through these two business models. I have helped 10,000 families and people reach their financial and life goals. I have helped people navigate our modern world and set them up for success. I have helped 1000’s of family with their parent child relationships and have helped parents model positive financial and life skills for them to continue into adulthood. Through this I have made a comfortable life for myself where I am able to invest my earnings so that I can create a life of 60K per month in passive income. Eleanor is interested in what I am doing and learns how to be an entrepreneur from me. I have learned how to enjoy life, I wake up excited to start my day and I can be generous with my time, money and love.

One of the things that I try to do is to get outside, especially during these short winter days. Getting outside not only helps your circadian rhythm, but it also helps to make the all important vitamin D that so many Americans are desperately lacking.  I also wholly and fully believe that my preschooler behaves better when given the chance to run outside. I am also better behaved as it gives me a chance to soak up the sunshine and increase my dopamine and serotonin levels.

There is a new park open in Fort Collins and so why not check it out? It is called Twin Silos park. We give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars – I would give it 5 stars, but there is not a lot of mature tree shade with places to picnic, but give it 20 years and the trees will provide plenty of shade.

Pros:

• Awesome playground
• Bathrooms are close to the playground
• Ziplines
• Good parking
• Dog Park
• Cool creek to splash around in and even islands to cross too.

Cons

• Not a lot of shade, except for the playground pavilion, and that only has 2 picnic tables.
• Playground spaces are tight and hard for adults to navigate.
• Will be popular and crowded
• Already looks like there needs to be repairs to the stainless steel cable netting.
• Waits for the big slides.

I just finished the book Habits of a Happy Brain by Loretta Breuning and I must say it was very informative. You know how you find a book that hits home, well for me, this is it. The premise of the book is a little different from a couple of neurotransmitter books that I have previously read; her premise is that we are still animals and we need to learn how to accept our mammalian brain, instincts and how to manage the ups and downs that our brain creates. It has definitely made me think about several “loops” I experience with my habits, mindset and thought process. And trust me I have read several books about productivity, habits and living in the moment.

I have come to realize that a lot of my habits have gotten me where I am. All these little habits add up and after a decade they finally caught up with me. I am not happy with the trajectory of my life. But this book made me realize that life isn’t about the “correct” choice, but the fact that there will always be trade offs for your actions. I always go for the immediate rewards: procrastination, over eating, always wanting to be in a relaxed state, indulging, not keeping a schedule, not being sober and not keeping promises to myself. Basically, I have no self management skills. So in keeping with the spirit of the book, instead of focusing on lofty goals that seem so far away, I am focusing on my survival skill: self management.

So here is my plan. Breuning says that we need 45 days (not 30) to create a new circuit in our brain and derive happiness from our actions. I must do the habit every day for 45 days. If I miss a day then I must start over and begin from day one. Her idea is that starting this new habit won’t feel good, it might even feel bad or uncomfortable, but once you do the habit for 45 days, I will start to master my new habit and it will start to bring me joy. So here are my habits. It seems like a long list, but they kinda piggy back off each other.

Goal: Increase my self management and mastery skills by doing these actions that definitely make me uncomfortable for 45 days.

Actions

1. Reach out to one new person a day
2. Follow up with one person a day
3. Do one routine thing that will help organize/move my life forward, ie. make budget, food prep, self development, being creative, scheduling, journaling
4. Drink 2 protein shakes/day
5. Eat 50-75g of net carbs/day
6. During these 45 days schedule 2 deep cleanses.

So far, as I currently write this blog I am on track with my habits as this is #3 – being creative and getting my thoughts out into the world.