Being in the influencer world, leading a blog association for a few years and blogging since 2009, I’ve lived and worked in a world where people passionately lie or over inflate about how much money they make because their reality doesn’t fit into the narrative of their IG lifestyle. This money moves lesson is a huge part of me ‘Spiritually Becoming‘ who God created me to be.

I, too, fell into that mockery for a good while. But why? Why did I care what people thought? I mean I bought my first condo at 25 on a teacher’s salary as a single woman with no help from anyone even my parents. I bought my first car right out of college while working at a daycare. And that car ran good right into the ground after 10 years. Lol. I drove that paid for car until it died. I was able to pay it off thanks to buying my condo and being able to get into a first time home buyers program through the Obama Administration. So I built a good life for myself.

What does this have to do with my original point of this post?

Everything. I was able to live a life, a good one, without thinking it wasn’t good enough. Then I got into the world of blogging and was made to feel that I needed more. That I needed to reflect some reality TV lifestyle. That what I had and the life I created was just not good enough. So I did whatever I could to make people think my life was one they wanted. One they craved. And some did. The illusion of my life, the invites I got, the places I traveled. People thought I was on top of the world. And I was. But not for the reasons people thought I was.

Then 2018 happened.

That was such a pivotal year of my life. I lost the life I had built for myself. I lost it all. It was a combination of my fault, doing too much for others and not having a safety net because I used my excess money to take care of others who very well could have taken care of themselves.

Now two years later, I’m reflecting on what God was doing and telling me during that life crisis. And it goes back to this reality life of an influencer.

This year I have literally been living off a prayer.

I stopped working in ways that I’ve made money as a blogger. I stopped event blogging. I stopped teaching others how to monetize their blogs. I stopped consulting. I had a virtual summit that brought in some money and paid my bills for a minute. I even got some money I didn’t think I qualified for thanks to my blog being my business. And that took care of me until now and I was able to help family, a friend and some nonprofits I like to support.

Funny thing is I made more money this year doing nothing than I did all of last year working way too hard.

I was able to start writing for another publication again. I received random Cashapps from people who have been helped or blessed by me or my work over the years.

I have not had the stress that for so long just hung over me. I finally got to learn what peace felt like. Like truly felt like.

I plan to keep blogging for as long as I can. But to place a value of my life that is attached to some interpretation of how much money I make blogging is not going to have a grip on me anymore.

Living off a prayer has not been all cake, sunshine and roses. But it has afforded me the opportunity to do more things outside of what I’ve done, pay all my bills on time and not feel any type of way about not being considered a highly paid blogger anymore.

The most important money lesson I’ve learned in 2020 is to choose what I want my life to look like and be happy with that.

Once I did that, money I never had to work for just came to me. I may no longer have this “IG life” that others admired or wanted. But I do have a life that I admire and respect.