Play the Hero

A lot of us are facing new challenges this year. If you checked the new Marketplace health insurance prices this weekend, you know what I’m talking about.

And if you spend more than 5 minutes on social media or watching cable news today, I wouldn't blame you for walking away with a pit in your stomach, feeling like the world as we know it is about to completely fall apart.

And who knows - maybe it will.

But what are you going to do about it?

This is not a political post, be I need to acknowledge that just about everything is political right now. Health insurance, taxes, tariffs, inflation, crime, gas prices, education - there are a lot of things that impact us that are in the hands of other people. And tomorrow we get to vote for the people who we believe will best represent our interests as individuals and as a country. But then…. WE need to go to work.

Please don't just sit on the sidelines to clap or boo about the outcome. Don't rely on other people to make your life better. The person with the most influence over your daily life is yourself.

External forces may help or hinder us along our path, but ultimately we're the ones who need to walk it. And we plod along with a victim mentality, or we can move forward with a hero mindset.

The victim mentality believes we're ultimately at the mercy of other people's decisions. We are just the background actors getting stomped on by Godzilla. The hero mindset believes we ARE Godzilla. I'm just kidding! The hero mindset (or lets call it the protagonist mindset; you don't have to be a knight in shining armor or Superman to play a bigger role in your own story) acknowledges that we'll have to face some monster sized challenges, but we have agency. We’re not helpless.

We don't have to accept the cold scrambled eggs someone else serves us when we asked for sunny-side up. We can ask the waiter (politely!) to take it back and try again. Or we can get the ingredients and cook it ourselves. Heck, some people go out and raise their own chickens. They get inspired by a challenge, and they grow and create value for themselves, and often end up creating value for other people as well.

And other people leave 1-star Yelp reviews because they let a minor inconvenience ruin their day.

Back to health insurance. My family greatly benefited from the enhanced premium tax credits. Without them, I’m going to have to pony up an additional $400 a month if I want to keep my current coverage. I certainly won’t complain if the credits end up getting renewed. But I’m not holding my breath.

That’s just one rising expense that I and a lot of other people have to deal with now. There’s a few options I have to save money by switching to a cheaper plan or health insurance alternative. I can also take on this challenge by increasing my income. I can work to rise above the external factors instead of accepting cold eggs.

In the weeks to come, I’m going to be sharing more content to help you tackle some of these new challenges and explore ways to generate more value for your family and your community. But it will only be helpful if you believe you are more than a victim of your circumstances.

Play the hero. Don’t get stomped on. Raise a chicken if you’re into that sort of thing. Write a newsletter with more metaphors than anybody knows what to do with. Where people see catastrophe to complain about, choose to see a catalyst to create something stronger and more sustainable.

And don’t feel like you need to figure it out on your own! Every hero can use a sidekick. Are you facing increased insurance costs or another challenge? Feel free to reach out to me directly. Reply to this email. I’d love to connect and learn how I might be able to help you navigate your self-employment journey.