Melissa McDonald

Dear Melissa,
I love this question, Melissa! And it’s one that I get quite often. I’m going to be really honest and just be myself here.

For most of my life and certainly at the beginning of my career, I only allowed myself to have socially acceptable desires.

Meaning, I gave myself permission to desire to go to college and get a degree that would “help people.”

I gave myself permission to live modestly or travel a little bit on a budget. I gave myself permission to invest quite extensively (given my income at the time) on personal development and business programs. All things that, in most circles, were not controversial.

Then one day I walked into a Bob Proctor seminar. He opened his talk with a bold statement: “You can never really live a full life unless you’re wealthy.”

When I first heard this, it totally freaked me out. I thought it was very unspiritual, and it certainly went against everything that I had been taught growing up.

However as his message started to sink in, I quickly began to realize he was right. If I truly sought to fulfill my highest human and spiritual potential, it would actually be necessary for me to become wealthy.

What I came to understand is that money is currency, and that currency is simply a form of energy. And yes, living out your true purpose requires a lot of energy.

In my case, my desire is to bring transformational coaching into the global community of women entrepreneurs, and I’ve needed a lot of money to be able to do that. For starters, it takes money to travel and be able to reach women internationally, and it takes money to host live events that inspire not only me, but also the women I’m connecting with.

Now I guess you could say I could still do flights and events “on a budget.” However as soon as I started to understand that everything is energy, I saw that my ability to expand my creative potential was connected to how I treated myself and related to my own true desires.

The truth is I don’t want to sit crouched up on the back of a plane in coach (who does?). I don’t want to wear clothes that don’t feel amazing on my body. I don’t want to stay put in one city. And I don’t want to live in a broken down environment, or in a home that doesn’t feel like an exquisite reflection of me.

The more I say yes to myself, the more honest and authentic I really am. To live at a high-vibration, to really shine and bloom, it requires that you embrace your truth.

If first you desire to be of service and do good in the world, then whatever physical form of creative expression arises need not be judged.

I’ve come to understand that creative expression is really where God is, and where spirituality is. We each have our own way of creating with purpose, but to find what that is, we can’t allow ourselves to be limited by what society expects of us, or “what other people will think.”

Believe me, one of the biggest surprises of my career is how controversial “luxury” is in the transformational coaching and women entrepreneurial circles.

I have found that this segregated approach to life, keeping luxury in one corner and spirituality in another, is for many of us limiting our potential. The more your true heart’s desires are integrated with your ability to serve the world, the the more powerful, aligned, true, and spiritual you can actually become.