Here's How Reframing Can Change Your Life

Reframing Can Change Your Life

Here are some facts about my current work / life situation that I'm trying to navigate:

I work full time in a corporate finance role at an amazing company full of amazing people - I'm very lucky to have it

But the work provides zero fulfillment for me. What I do is pretty boring and makes little to no impact on the world (or at least that's what it feels like to me)

I have been building up my health coaching startup company for the last year and a half

I'm extremely passionate about the work, I enjoy doing it most of the time, and I'm making a real impact and changing lives

My primary mission in my professional life is to figure out how to make the health coaching business profitable enough to replace the finance job

I have also become accustomed to living a certain lifestyle that I'm not willing to sacrifice

I will figure it out because I will not give up until I do, and therefore success is inevitable

However the timeline is a huge question mark, and taking the plunge will be the scariest thing I've ever done in my life. But I know that will be the hardest part of the entire journey and that I'll be much more successful long term with the health coaching biz according to every metric, including financially

Negative interpretation of this life dilemma:

My time is limited by the fact that I'm juggling two careers as well as various personal responsibilities, and therefore everything I do with the business feels like it takes forever. It's gonna take so long to get the business where you want to be so why even bother trying?

You need to figure out how to make at least 8x net profit what you did last year to be able to support your current lifestyle. Good luck with that.

Do you really have the balls to actually go for it?

Positive reframe of this life dilemma:

You're in a rare situation where you're in a senior position at a large financial institution that pays you well, has a great culture, great boss and great coworkers. You function with a high degree of autonomy and have a great work life balance that allows you the time to build your business on the side as long as you're willing to clock in on mornings, nights, and weekends. This is rare for someone in your line of work.

At this moment in time, there is zero pressure for the business to generate any income. I rely entirely on my income from the finance job for all day to day expenses, and any income I generate from the health coaching is purely bonus. This is actually a huge advantage from a business perspective. So many small business owners operate out of desperation because they have to pay the rent and put food on the table. I don't have to do anything I don't want to do - whether that's pursue a new initiative or take on a new client. And I can also set my prices accordingly.

You've been super smart with your money for years now. You're putting yourself in a position to go for this, just keep plugging away.

Most startups take 2-3 years to become profitable, and that's with a team of people focused on it full time. I did it in year 1 as a one man show, working on it mornings, nights, and weekends, in a service-based profession that is very time intensive.

My timeline for making the transition is early to mid 2026 anyway due to some very exciting life events happening this year, so relax, put your head down and keep working - that's actually a lot of time to figure it out.

As risky as it seems, the bigger risk by far would be not going for it at all. You know this is what you're supposed to do, and the regret you'll have if you decide to settle will eat you alive for the rest of your life. I'd rather go for it and fail than sit on the sidelines like a coward and not even try. You also only fail if you give up, and that's simply not a possibility.

When you pull this off, it will be one of the most epic stories ever told.

There have been many stretches of time where I have only thought about the negative bullet points above and become overwhelmed, stressed, and nearly given up.

More recently I've been able to focus on all the positive ones. Listing them out like that really helps - look how many more of them there are than the negatives.

You can apply this positive reframe to many areas of your life.

Think about some element of your life that you consistently view in a negative light and try to find some positives.

Then try to keep those positives as front of mind as you can.

Turn a negative into a positive. Turn a disadvantage into an advantage.

Give it a shot and let me know how it goes.

Stay well this week, Hal the Health Coach