Roughly a year ago today, I was cleaning vacation homes for a living, and was lucky if I made $200 bucks in a week. I was miserable, stressed, and utterly loathed my job. Seriously, I don’t know a single person who can honestly say they LIKE cleaning up after other people. Glamorous it is NOT!
I was tired all the time, depressed because I never had time for me, and certain there just HAD to be a better way of living than how I was currently. I had two boys I barely had time for, and when I did I was too tired to really enjoy them. I was buried in debt, buried in disenchantment, and trying my hardest figure out why happiness seemed to be eluding me.
Fast forward a year and I am earning a full-time living, working from the comfort of my own home office, and actually have money to spare. $200 in a week now seems almost like a drop in the bucket to me, and merely a fraction of what I’ve come to expect in terms of income. My income goals are much loftier now than when I started, and I am grateful everyday for the path I chose to take in becoming a ghostwriter and in taking charge of my life.
It was a struggle, and the past year has not been easy. I’ve gone through some major upheavals, and put my boys through them as well. But these days I am happy. I am excited to start my day. I have more freedom to enjoy my boys and enjoy just living. My bills are paid, and I am able to support myself and my family entirely on my own financially, which is just downright amazing to me at times.
Sure there are still hard times on occasion. Sure I still have days where I’m unmotivated, or don’t feel well, or forget to be grateful. But I’ve figured out that mindful living… living with intent, whatever those intentions may be, make all the difference in your life and perceptions of yourself and your world.
So my intention is to be happy and be rich in every way possible. And my intention is to be grateful for the blessings in my life and to try to pass those blessings on to others and teach my boys to be grateful and pass on their blessings as well.
And the reason I am kicking off the start of this blog with such a personal post, is because I feel there are a lot of people in the world who are struggling, and need a bit of a push sometimes to get their butts in gear and start living mindfully and find things to be grateful for. So consider yourself pushed. What are YOUR intentions for the coming year? What are your goals and how will you go about reaching them? Let me know if I can help.
Warm regards,
Cori Padgett
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
What’s really amazing is the number of copy writers on the web who went from broke to ‘well on their way to riches’. I wonder if one can have the same opportunities from outside the US and EU
bryanb@vacances thalasso´s last [type] ..Thalasso Frejus Hotel 3
If you’re outside the U.S. but are writing for U.S. markets, I think the main thing is to have a stellar grasp of the English language and master the conversational tone. Those two skills alone can take you pretty far when it comes to writing and getting paid well for it.
Thank you very much for your answer. Have you written a book yet about your experience? How your past life was and how you made it to a better lifestyle?
bryanb@vacances thalasso´s last [type] ..Thalasso Frejus Hotel 3
Alas, no book yet.
Maybe someday when I’ve really got some goods to share. 
Richard Branson wrote a book of less than 200 pages called ‘Screw it, let’s do it’ which I bought. All the content you wrote would not fit in 200 pages.
On the other hand, I can’t understand why your home page does not contain the keyword meta tag, nor does it contain keywords about what you do in the title or even a description meta tag, all of which would be very helpful in helping people find you. I tried ‘Big Girl’ in Google, you were not in the top 10, I then tried ‘Copywriter’, ‘Copywriting’ etc : same results.
Your content is wonderful and it’s a pity that it doesn’t show at the top of the SERPs
bryanb@vacances thalasso´s last [type] ..Lodge de la Fouque et Bastide Blanche
I’ll have to pick that book up, it sounds like I’d like it! Home page serp stuff, I have a feeling it’s been wiped out when I did the re-design and uploaded the new version of my theme. All my settings were probably lost, I hadn’t realized they weren’t showing again. It’s the second time I’ve had the problem now! Thanks for the heads up Bryan, hopefully I’ll be able to get that fixed next week, for good this time. ugg. lol
Will there be a post soon about books that have helped entrepreneurs (or their favourite books)?
bryanb@vacances thalasso´s last [type] ..Lodge de la Fouque 4L
Hmnn.. good idea, highly possible!
I did one about movies, so books should be a great topic as well.
RT @BigGirlBranding: An Oldie but a Goodie: The Power of a Single Year… http://su.pr/24BMMY #BGB #Blog
A lot of times we are so beleaguered by the big picture that we neglect to see the present moment. We tend to focus more on what we should have done or what we should be doing. So busy with worrying about the past or the future, we forget to focus on the now. Right now is all that matters. Living the present day with the intent that something will happen or manifest, you will gradually move differently through your day and see how things will start to move into the direction that you want.
Well said Robert! Now is all we’ve got, and that lesson gets driven home every day to people all over the world. Seize it.