A couple years ago I had the pleasure of speaking on the EconoMe stage. At the time it was a new conference, billed as “the TED talks of financial independence.” I felt intimidated. I knew nothing about financial independence. Who was I to talk about money? I struggle with mental math!

I saw the list of other presenters… Big podcasters and bloggers, all known in the financial independence (FI) world. They could talk about investments the way I talk about cleaning stains out of a T-shirt. They were a club and I was not a member.

Self doubt crept in. 

I tried writing a first draft.

I scrapped it. 

I drew a diagram. 

I crumpled it up.

I considered telling the organizer I couldn’t do this. I didn’t have enough to say. She’d asked me to speak because she’d seen my TEDx talk, but she didn’t know that was the result of months of work with coaches. I couldn’t pull that off by myself.

Then one night I opened an old journal and found my speech topic staring me in the face.

I’d written the entry a year prior, when I’d hit a low point. Frustrated and feeling like a failure, I’d found myself unable to enjoy a family vacation because I was too stressed about the number of signups for my online course.

While I wrote that night, I noticed something I’d felt my whole life–during my career as a teacher, as a college student, as a high school student, even as a little kid…

NEVER ENOUGH. 

I reread this journal entry with new eyes. 

The next day, I started writing what would become the speech I’m most proud of–The Journey to Enough.

It brought me to tears while writing. It often brought me to tears while speaking.

Too many of us walk around believing we don’t have, own, do, achieve, or succeed enough. 

It’s a lie. 

We’re all enough. Always.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re not enough, listen to my speech. It takes 20 minutes, but if you’re like me, you’ve probably spent at least that much time berating yourself for not being good enough, so I’d say it’s well worth your time.

After listening, if you want to tell me something it sparked in you, reach out to me personally at [email protected] and let me know.  

To always being enough,