Guest Article

If The Gold Sneaker Fits, Wear It!

Chellie Campbell, Financial Stress Reduction Expert

You can have a fabulous life! And you don’t have to be rich and famous to have it.

I used to have that big dream: to be a rich and famous movie star.

Luckily, that didn’t pan out. I discovered later that it just cost too much: too much time, energy and money devoted to work and more work. PR, and more PR. Always moving, always striving, never content unless you catch that brass ring. And the one after that!

So when I designed my workshop business, I had different, smaller goals in mind.

Smaller goals mean I have more freedom. I can structure my life so that work is more part-time and I have more time off to read, travel and play. More time for friends and family, hobbies, discovering new ideas and philosophies. Reveling in the world and all its treasures.

I want a business that I run – not one that runs me.

This work model means I work fewer hours as I get more successful, instead of more hours. I like that—how about you? My goals don’t fit everyone. Yours won’t either. There are no one-size-fits-all goals. 

When I was acting, I always liked the second lead parts—the funny, dancing lead—better than the leading lady roles. I’d much rather play feisty Ado Annie than lovelorn Laurie in Oklahoma, or perky Gladys in The Pajama Game rather than the romantic love interest. 

Once in summer stock, a director wanted to cast me as Wendy in Peter Pan. He sought me out and announced his casting decision to me happily, thinking I’d be delighted since Wendy was a leading role. “Yuck,” I said, “Can’t I do Tiger Lily instead? Wendy’s on stage all the time and doesn’t even have a song, and Tiger Lily has two!”  

He was very surprised by that, but thankfully, he let me have my way. I had fun, got a lot of attention, and didn’t have to work too hard. “Ug-a-wug-WAH!”  (That’s a line from one of Tiger Lily’s songs.)

The lesson is to know what you want so you can pick the path that will lead you there. Don’t be blinded by the glitter of the wrappings. Look within the box at the real present inside the package. Then decide if that’s what you really want. 

It doesn’t matter if everyone else thinks that’s the best goal in the world, if getting it won’t make you happy or fulfilled. And it doesn’t matter if everyone else thinks your goal is crazy, either. Your goal is your goal you don’t have to answer to anyone else about whether it’s the right goal or the best goal. It’s your goal, and that’s all that counts.

To be fair, there is a downside to being small. Some people may discount you, pay you no attention, think you’d be bigger if you could have been, think you’re a failure, and chide you for not honoring the adage “Go big or go home.” 

A woman recently said to me, “Not to be a jerk here, but…I found it interesting that you did not own a house but yet you were teaching classes about finance.” Her measure of financial success is real estate holdings. That’s just not my measure – for me, it’s living in a $3 million home in an exclusive area for a tiny rent with a fabulous roommate.

Let the naysayers chide you. Who cares if they don’t understand you? Let them discover for themselves that contentment can be found in small things; that your mom was right when she told you that big presents often come in small packages. It all depends on whether or not you are being true to your inner goals. 

Here is the one-question test: Are you happy?  

In my elder years now, my goal is to be a Wise Woman. I want to help others find the wisdom within themselves so that they can live a good and honorable life, full of riches—interior ones and exterior ones. 

If one of my books becomes a bestseller that will be great, because that will mean I’m helping a lot of people. I’ll make a lot of money, too, and that is certainly a fine thing. But if it is only treasured by a few, it is just as worthwhile to me, because I care about each reader and want to feel I have helped them. The Wealthy Spirit had its time as a bestseller, yet what I treasure most is the thousands of letters of thanks and appreciation from readers that have warmed my heart and brought tears to my eyes. Those letters, and the fun I have with the process of writing, are enough to satisfy me.

In their futurist book, The 500 Year Delta, Watts Wacker and Jim Taylor with Howard Means state that “What society has always treasured is what is scarce. The old status objects are all over the place, begging to be bought. Satisfaction and domestic contentment have rarity, and rarity, as always, has the greatest value.” This book was published in 1997, but I never forgot this passage: “If you want status, walk into a room and announce that, amidst the ambient chaos of our times, you’re a happy person.”

I’ve found that happy people never have to make that declaration. You can see it in their eyes; you can feel the energy of the joy that pours from them. I used to hunger for that and tried the diets and the high heels and the status jobs in order to get it. 

But those aren’t the things that get it for you. When you find the work that makes you sing and helps others to sing along with you—that’s where happiness lies. Whatever someone else might say about me or my “success”, I know that I’ve never been happier in my life. I’m living my life the way I want, I’m doing the work I want, and I have enough of the things I want. 

You don’t have to be all things to all people. You can be something to some people. I am delighted with the dolphins that have found my work helpful to them. How many of them there are will be the result of grassroots word-of-mouth, not because I have the biggest advertising campaign, the most email pitches or the most viral videos on social media.

Finally, it’s because I love myself now that I can love my life. Because I love myself, I can love you. If accolades come, that’s fun. If I get a little taste of fame, that’s fun, too. 

But my life is fun anyway. Do you see?

What do you want? Why do you want it? How is your life without it? What is important to you when night falls? 

If the gold tennis shoe fits, wear it. Happily.

Chellie Campbell, Financial Stress Reduction Expert, is the author of bestselling books The Wealthy Spirit, Zero to Zillionaire, and From Worry to Wealthy: A Woman’s Guide to Financial Success Without the Stress. She has been treating Money Disorders like Spending Bulimia and Income Anorexia in her Financial Stress Reduction® Workshops for over 25 years and is still speaking, writing, and teaching workshops—now as Zoom classes and The Wealthy Spirit Group on Facebook—with participants from all over the world. Website: www.chellie.com.