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I don’t believe in regret.

Yes, we have infinite choices and infinite possibilities in life. Yes the world is our oyster. Yes, in this exact moment there are myriad versions of how my life could turn out based on what I decide to do in the next 30 seconds.

And yet, there is no such thing as a wrong decision. There is only the decision that you make. As soon as you choose, that’s your choice. The other choices you could have made but chose not too dissolve and their existence becomes immaterial. What lays before you now is a fertile, endless field of new choices and potentialities that is only possible because you just made the choice you made.

To those who are afraid of making a wrong turn, of choosing the wrong person, of missing something, of looking one direction and not seeing what was happening the other direction, listen up:

What is for you cannot pass by you.

(My dear friend and very wise woman Sandra Chiu tells me this from time to time when I get lost in the tangled web of my mind. Thank you angel Sandra.)

Since you can only make one decision in any given moment and since the next choices in your life unravel only as a result of the decision you just made, how could you choose wrong? You can only choose what you choose.

And therefore, I do not believe in regret. Regret inherently means that I made one choice but that I should have chosen something else. It means that I chose wrong. But how could you possibly unravel every single moment from the present moment to the moment in which you felt you may have made the wrong choice and discard it with a quick flick of regret?

How can you dismiss all of the pregnant moments between here and there, now and then and say that those precious gems, heart warming or heart breaking, should not have been?

Here’s the thing: the web of our lives is far more intricate than we could possibly comprehend or even imagine. The choice you make today makes tomorrow possible. And tomorrow when you’re living in the richness of every moment full of more choices and possibilities, please, please, please don’t throw them out with the overly simplified idea that you could keep all the moments of today (which is yesterdays tomorrow) and still go back and make a different decision. It’s, in a word, silly.

So next time you’re faced with a decision, may you hear Sandra’s words whisper in your ear:

What is for you cannot pass by you.

May you remember always that there’s no such thing as a wrong decision. There is only the decision you make. Make it with gusto. Make it with panache. Make it with the wonderment that must accompany something without which the rest of your life would cease to unfold.

And don’t worry. There’s no such thing as opportunity only knocking once. If you miss her the first time around, she’ll come back later when it’s a better time. What is for you cannot pass by you. Don’t worry, you can’t screw it up.

Throw regret out the window. Treasure today because without your brilliant choices yesterday, it wouldn’t even exist.

2011 was quite a year. I changed almost everything that it’s possible to change in one’s life. I’ve spent the past couple of weeks reflecting and digesting. After some back and forth I decided to share some of the best of 2011, things I learned, and my plans for 2012 with you. I do this not so much because I think my life is inherently that interesting to you, but more to inspire you to digest your own year and to consciously create the next one.

I find that when I skip the digestion step of everything that’s happened, I get cranky. I forget my blessings, I start finding myself wrong, and things kind of go bland. But when I take the time to notice all the good (and some of the challenges, as well) that I’ve just experienced, life gets back to its usual sparkly sheen.

In no particular order, here are the significant things that happened in 2011:

• I got rid of most of my stuff and left my home in NYC and hit the road on The Freedom Tour. (34,000+ miles by car, 30,000+ by plane, over 60 beds, hundreds of hours spent looking out the car window)
• I fell in love.
• I started and ended a business partnership with grace and love.
• I ended another business partnership that was a little tougher to unravel with just as much grace and love.
• I learned to say no far more often and with far less angst.
• I bought my first car.
• I sold my first apartment.
• I reached a level of financial abundance and consciousness I’ve never achieved before. (This manifested as making, giving, and saving more money.)
• I explored what freedom is and is not to me.
• I spoke in 18 cities in North America to hundreds of different people.
• I spent time with people, like my aunt and uncle Penny and Phil and my Granny, who I haven’t ever spent as much quality time with.
• I got a book deal.
• I individuated from my mom financially, business-wise, and emotionally. We are both all the better for it.
• I realized how much open space there is in this country. Having lived on the tiny island of Manhattan for 6 years this awareness calmed me down in a way I found surprising and refreshing.
• I gave myself a demotion and stepped down as the CEO of Team Northrup so that I can now focus on running my own show instead of other people’s. I’m now the co-creator which feels much more expansive.
• I was invited to become a part of Hay House’s new Ignite initiative, which is focusing on attracting a new generation of authors, speakers, and audience members.
• I started and maintained a 6 days a week meditation practice.
• I started teaching yoga at Yoga Shanti.
• I received profound support from friends and family on The Freedom Tour as Mike and I traversed the country. Thank you to all of you. You know who you are.
• I made new friends.
• I got better at doing nothing.

Some things that didn’t go as well as I had thought they would:

• I thought The Freedom Tour would be better for building my Team Northrup business but given my lack of strategic planning around this and my burn out early on in the trip, it wasn’t. That’s okay. It was really amazing for a lot of other reasons.
• I wanted to document The Freedom Tour more. I had visions of daily videos, more pictures, more updates, and more transmitting my adventures to my readers. But instead, I enjoyed a lot of adventures and precious moments that went undocumented. And because I was there in the experience instead of capturing it for the future I suppose this is really a good thing.
• I wanted to do more connecting with people I didn’t know on my travels. I had visions of tweetups, donation yoga classes, and meeting people at coffee shops to talk about freedom. That kind of conversation only happened once and I wrote about it here. It was enlightening, but not exactly what I had imagined. It turns out I’m scared to talk to strangers and sometimes I have social anxiety. Another lesson in learning that sometimes it’s okay, and even necessary, to do less.
• During The Freedom Tour I didn’t take that great care of my body and I ended the year with about ten extra pounds on me. Ooops! A reminder to prioritize self-care in 2012.

Luckily, far outnumbering the things that didn’t turn out the way I thought they would were wonderful things I hadn’t even thought to think up (like falling in love and getting a book deal!) So, overall the year ended significantly on the upside.

Taking everything I learned from 2011, I spent some time focusing on how I’d like to create 2012. I still have some more refining to do (using some of the tools recommended below). But I’m sharing my 2012 creation plan with you now, even though it’s not complete, because the idea that I could create the perfect 2012 plan and control how the year goes is not only absurd, it’s also exhausting.

Here are my 2012 intentions/goals/desires/creations:

• Tighten up my brand to clarify and expand upon my message of financial consciousness as an inroad to spiritual and emotional freedom.
• Write my first book.
• Launch my 2012 Mentoring Program.
• Take a tropical vacation with Mike.
• Follow my inner compass as my default setting instead of checking outside myself to see if I’m ok.
• Launch two or more digital products.
• Rock the stage at the Hay House I Can Do It Ignite events.
• Increase my USANA business revenue by 100%.
• Spend more time alone and more time doing nothing.
• Get better at asking for what I need/want.
• Continue to say no more often and with more grace.
• Dance more.
• Intentionally align with organizations that uplift and serve women such as Women For Women International.
• Prioritize self-care.
• Create The Freedom Family. (More on this soon and NO, I’m not planning on getting pregnant this year.)

Tools for 2012 Creation

Something I’m adding to my planning of the year this year that I’ve never done before is assigning measurable goals to each intention and then tracking them through the year. This is inspired by Chris Guillebeau’s Annual Review. I’ll also be scheduling specific events, actions, and goals into my calendar and breaking them into action steps using my new Getting Things Done system a-la David Allen.

Lastly, as I’m going through my intentions/desires/goals for 2012 I’ll be creating a list of things that I’ll be delegating to the universe. For example, if my goal is to enroll twelve people in my mentoring program, I may write down that I’ll be personally responsible for attracting six of them, and I’ll ask the universe to attract the other six. This will act as a reminder to myself that I’m not responsible for everything, that synchronicity and magic abounds, and that there’s help for me (and you) available at all times if I’m simply willing to ask.

If you’re wanting to some guidance in your 2011 review and 2012 creation, I recommend the following resources:

• Creating Your Magical Year by Molly Mahar (Molly interviewed me about how I wrap up the year and plan out the next one and I gave her some juicy, honest answers including sharing the family New Year’s Eve ritual we started when I was six. Click the green and yellow button on the right to get access to it.)
• Marie Forleo’s Free Planning Tool To Set & Reach Your Business Goals
• Chris Guillebeau’s How to Conduct Your Own Annual Review

What were some of your best moments of 2011?

What did you learn last year?

What are you thrilled to announce that you’ll be creating in 2012?

What do you think about doing a year in review and planning out your year in general?

Leave a comment!

As the year tiptoes to a close (it really snuck up on me this year) I’m taking stock.

And I’m making stock. (Yes, I have been cooking non-stop since Mike and I settled into our new home for the next five months. My inner Susie Homemaker has come out in full force. I’m just as surprised as Mike is.)

Part of my taking stock has involved going through all of my “stuff”, digital, physical, and mental, and deciding what to do with it. More on this in a future post when I tell you why I’m obsessed with Getting Things Done by David Allen. In my process of diving into my notes and bits (it’s amazing how much you can accumulate while living in a car) I found a note I’d written to myself sometime this year entitled, “Here’s what I know.” I don’t have a clue when I wrote it, but I know that when I read it it made me feel good.

Here’s hoping it makes you feel good too.

Here’s what I know…

• Doing something for the money never ends up being worth it.
• If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no.
• You are valuable because you exist. Period. (Or, full stop if you’re British.)
• You are enough. You always have been. You always will be.
• Your place of greatest ease and joy will also be your place of greatest service.
• It’s okay to sleep for ten hours or more a night from time to time. In fact, it’s critical.
• No accomplishment or moment of recognition will ever replace feeling loved, by yourself or anyone else.
• It’s not going to turn out the way you thought. It will be better.
• You know. You always know.
• The fact that it feels good is reason enough to move every day. The fact that it will tone your ass and make your waist smaller are mere side effects.
• Organizing your life around what feels good is the single wisest choice you can make.
• There is always going to be a small part of you that wants to please your mother, even if you’re not conscious of it, and that’s okay.
• Saying yes to someone simply because you don’t want to disappoint them is not only unfair to you, it’s unfair to them.
• Sleep, water, movement, greens, and a good cry cure almost anything.
• Anything worth taking seriously is worth making fun of. (Thanks Mom)
• Paying attention to your money is a profound act of self-love.
• It turns out that life is happening right now.
• Loving yourself more is the best place to start to solve any problem.
• You can’t judge and have an open heart at the same time.
• Nothing is random. Everything happens for a reason.
• Your body is wise beyond what you could possibly imagine. Listen to her. She will lead you home every time.
• Home is not a place.

Your turn!

What do you know?

What can you count on no matter what?

Tell me and remind yourself. Leave a comment.

Are you exhausted? Might be time to quit.

I remember when I was growing up, the other kids would tell me that they hated going to basketball or lacrosse practice, but their parents had taught them not to be quitters so they just toughed it out. I was always totally mystified by this. I had tried and quit just about every sport available and I had no problem with it. (The only thing I stuck with was tennis because I liked the skirts.)

What was the point in grinning and bearing it through hours of practicing something you had no intention of doing past graduation? What was the point of wasting hours of our precious childhood just so as not to be seen as a “quitter.” I just didn’t get it. It turns out, this same philosophy applies to my adult life (and perhaps to yours.)

I’m a quitter and proud of it. It means I’m in hot pursuit of my passion and purpose. It means I know what feels good and what doesn’t. It meant I value my time, my energy, and myself.

When I left on The Freedom Tour and told people I was going on an “indefinite road trip around North America” the most common question I got was, “For how long?” to which I would reply, “Until I’m done.”

In early September my man Mike and I decided not to go to Asia in Spring 2012 because it just didn’t feel right to either of us. So we decided to stay put somewhere for six months or so. We were already in Scottsdale, AZ and since I have family there and the weather is awesome in the winter, we decided that was our spot. We found a gorgeous apartment. We scouted yoga classes and rock gyms and juice bars.

Two weeks ago I was in NYC for Marie Forleo‘s spectacular event Rich, Happy, and Hot Live. I told my friends who I ran into on Friday night that I was moving to Scottsdale, AZ. Every time I said it, the response was, “Why?” And inside me every time I said I was moving there, I asked myself, “Why?”

Do you ever make a plan just so you can have something to tell people?

I called Mike that night and he told me my aunt and uncle were leaving Scottsdale and given that they were basically my only community there, it suddenly dawned on me that there was no good reason to move there. Moreover, it didn’t feel good, and quite frankly that’s all that matters.

Based pretty much all on instinct and what feels good, Mike and I have decided to move to Sag Harbor, NY. We’re actually going to sign a lease and stay put. I’m going to teach yoga. We’re going to eat vegetables, build solid businesses, and work out with consistency. (All of these things, and more, have been challenging on the road.) I’m going to write a book and hibernate.

Yes, it appears that that moment of “Until I’m done” has arrived. The Freedom Tour is winding down in absolute perfect timing.

Have I done everything I planned on The Freedom Tour? No. Absolutely not. In fact, the last nine months turned out nothing like I had imagined. They were better.

Those parents of my childhood friends might look at me and call me a quitter. This year I ended a business partnership that I’d invested three and a half years in. I ended another business partnership that I’d invested several thousand miles, several thousand brain cells, and several months in. I bowed out on an investment where I had a large chunk of change coming my way. I said no to a sponsorship deal with several zeros even though the paperwork had already been signed.  None of these things felt right anymore so I quit.

Call me a quitter. I welcome it.

Just like it makes no sense to spend an entire winter of beautiful afternoon hours in a stinky gym if you don’t even like basketball just so you won’t be a quitter, it makes no sense to keep doing anything that no longer feels right or feels good. Even if you’ve invested thousands of hours or thousands of dollars. Even if it will disappoint someone. Even if it used to feel like a good idea and suddenly it doesn’t anymore.

It doesn’t matter. I give you permission to quit. If you feel done, you’re done. That’s the only information you need. Let it go. Expand your expense allowance for “projects that I decided not to pursue further because they didn’t feel good” and simply write it off at the end of the year. Let it go. Move on. Quit.

There will never be a payoff after spending time, resources, and precious energy doing something that no longer feels good that will make it worth it. I promise. It just won’t happen.

So, I’m quitting The Freedom Tour as it currently exists. I don’t quite know what it will morph into, but I’m certainly not quitting on freedom.

Next up: an exploration of freedom within the structure of living in one place and having regular routines. Stay tuned.

What are you doing that doesn’t feel good anymore?

What are you doing that doesn’t feel right anymore?

What do you continue to do just so you won’t be a quitter?

Have you ever been called a quitter? Why?

What are you ready to quit?

What are you ready to let go of? Leave a declaration here!

Leave a comment. I can’t wait to hear what you have to say on this!

What if you didn’t have to wait to have a million dollars in the bank to feel good about your financial status and security?  To feel like you were taken care of, and that everything was going to be okay?

Is that even possible?

The truth is, we ALL feel freaked out about money sometimes. We live in a world that is completely freaked out about money. So it’s easy to get turned upside down and full of worry, anxiety and stress when it comes to your bank account, job status or the state of Wall Street.

But isn’t all this fear-based hoopla a total downer? If you’re anything like me, you know how ugly it can be when fear hijacks your bank account.

I’m so excited to share a f*r*e*e call that I’ve been invited to be a part of on Saturday, November 12, a fear busting conversation called MONEY PEACE.It’s all about kicking fear out of your bank account and getting on the path to true money peace right now.  GO HERE to check it out.

My friend, inspirational catalyst Christine Arylo, has gathered four of her smartest money-minded, miracle making friends, a true Money Peace Dream Team: a Harvard MBA, a Harvard PhD Economist, a Spiritual Minister, and a Serial Entrepreneur for a transformational conversation in which we will all…

• GET REAL about the truth of how fear hijacks us through our relationship with money
• GET WISE about how we can make different choices, ones that lead us to MONEY PEACE instead of MONEY MADNESS
• And GET INTO ACTION and receive tools for switching our minds and emotions from fear to peace when we face financial challenges

 ***Check out my Glimpse TV with one of my fellow Money Peace guests, Manisha Thakor, author of Get Financially Naked, and find out the three most important things you should be doing with your money.***

There’s no one better to lead this call than Christine Arylo. She’s the popular author of Choosing ME Before WE and the co-creator of the wildly successful 40-Day Fear Cleanse … suffice it to say she knows her stuff when it comes to clearing fear and becoming happy.

We all have a lot of things we could be doing on a Saturday morning … but given the current state of money fear out there, I can think of nothing more important than to be with you all kicking fear out of our bank accounts and bringing the truth about money peace (plus Christine will also send you a recording of the call so you can turn your Money Peace on whenever you need.)

If you are tired of waiting for the day when you can feel peaceful about your $$, this call is for you. Regardless of your situation, you’ll leave this call feeling like a Zen Money master, with tools, techniques and wisdom to set foot on the path to true Money Peace!

Sign up for the call now and become a money miracle maker yourself… more calm and confident about cash than you ever thought possible.

Here are the deets:

Date and time: Saturday, Nov. 12, 9:00 a.m. PST / noon EST

Call-in info: **You’ll get this info once you sign up!**

Who: Christine Arylo and the Money Peace Dream Team  – Reverend Karen Russo, Dr. Margaret Smith, Manisha Thakor and me – check out the website to find out exactly who we are and why you want to jump on the opportunity to join this fear busting conversation. (And don’t forget to check out my Glimpse TV interview with Manisha Thakor below!)

Why: Gain wisdom about your relationship to money and get on the path to Money Peace right now.

P.S. Can’t make the call live? Go here now and sign up anyway to get the recording. Create some ME time this weekend and tune in. You deserve MONEY PEACE of mind.

p.p.s.  No one, including you, should have to wait until the future to feel a sense of serenity about money... I like having nice things as much as anyone else, but honestly, aren’t you over people trying to sell you the secret of how to make a million dollars so you can be happy?

Why should you have to wait til then to feel secure, happy and taken care of. You are worth happiness right now, regardless of your bank account balance.

You deserve money peace right now … tune in Saturday the 12th!

Glimpse TV with Manisha Thakor

And now, I’m so thrilled to present Glimpse TV with women’s personal finance expert and author of Get Financially Naked, Manisha Thakor! I stopped by her gorgeous home in Santa Fe, NM about a month ago, shared a delicious home-cooked meal (not only is she amazing with money, she’s also a great cook!), and had a chat about the “he-cession” and the “she-conomy”, the next HOT commodity we should all be paying attention to, the three things you must be doing with your money, how to talk to your guy about money, and more. Cuddle up with us and get ready to get more intimate with your money!

More Manisha:

Money Zen Blog

Facebook

Twitter

Money Peace call with both of us!

Did you like what you saw? Excited about the Money Peace call? TWEET about it and share the love!

Copy and paste the pre-written Tweets below to Twitter or Facebook to give your sisters a leg up in the money game!

Get financially naked with @katenorthrup and @manishathakor #glimpsetv http://bit.ly/rQ1i2Y

The 3 most important things you have to be doing with your money per @manishathakor on #glimpsetv w/ @katenorthrup http://bit.ly/rQ1i2Y

How to talk to your man about $ w/ @manishathakor + @katenorthrup on @glimpsetv http://bit.ly/rQ1i2Y

What if you didn’t have to wait to have a million dollars in the bank to feel good about your financial status and security? http://bit.ly/v1M084

Turn your freak-out about $money$ into a peace-out about $money$ @Christine Arylo @katenorthrup #fearcleanse http://bit.ly/v1M084

Kick fear out of your bank account today… it’s got no business being there @ChristineArylo @katenorthrup #fearcleanse http://bit.ly/v1M084