Regaining Momentum

Copyrighted by Lorna Tedder. Originally published in Third Degree of Truth.

Tonight’s meeting with my mentor marked the halfway  point  in the first  phase  of  my  career  transition. Among  other  things,  we  did a  bit  of  career  planning, mainly looking at streams of income that I might be able to produce instead of relying on just one area of income. That’s important because I think it’ll take a little longer than originally  planned to replace  income,  given recent expenses and that some things are still “up in the air.”

It’s ironic that one of the most profitable  streams of income is something I abandoned before I ever tried it. Why? Because I discussed it with friends. Big mistake.

Ideas are easy for me. It’s all that Aquarius in my system! Last January, I’d come up with a group of ideas and one particular method of marketing those ideas. I was excited. very excited. This was cutting edge stuff. Back then.

I told two friends. And I told them to keep it to themselves. I was looking for feedback, but it was important that this idea not get spread around too quickly because being among the first had money-making potential and it was something I could tie to the healing center I want to start.

They both thought it was great and were quite emotionally supportive. Definitely a brilliant idea. I couldn’t wait to get started on it!

One friend  never  told  another  soul.  Nine  months later, she’s  doing something  similar  with the marketing approach  but  applied  to  her  own  unique  ideas  and  a much different audience from mine. Am I upset? Not in the least. I think it’s great, absolutely perfect for her, and something I fully expected her to do when she had a little more time to put into it. She probably had no doubts at all about trying my marketing approach because, after all, I’d abandoned my own ideas. She probably didn’t know why.

The why was my other friend. Only a week or two after I’d told her my ideas and she’d promised to keep it quiet  until  they  were  ready  for  my  audience,  she  off-handedly mentioned about half a dozen  friends of ours she’d mentioned my ideas to and how they thought these ideas were wonderful and would be financially rewarding. I was appalled—unlike the other friend who was in a different field,  this  friend  told  people  who  could  directly compete with me. And who had the resources  and time to get similar products on the market ahead of me.

I dropped the idea. Just…dropped  it. It suddenly felt tainted and I no longer wanted any part of it.

My mentor and I had to explore that over sweet tea tonight.  I’m  not  sure  why  the  idea  suddenly  felt  so tainted. Maybe because I associated it with a broken confidence when I’d kept my friend’s  confidences (and still have). Maybe it was the realization that I’d no longer be first or that I suddenly had potential competition where I hadn’t before. I’m not sure why, but the idea I’d been so excited about suddenly was something I couldn’t stand to think about.

And yet, it’s still a big potential income-producer  and I sincerely  need to think in terms of income-producers for part of my new career if I’m going to do any charity work at all.

So tonight,  we tweaked  the idea and I reclaimed it, with plans to set it in motion by the end of this calendar year. I’d try it sooner, but I have other projects that must be completed first to make way for this revised one.

I’m excited again. And this time, I’ll watch who I tell my exact and detailed plans to!