Right at the precipice of all of the biggest breakthroughs … 

BREAKDOWN. The question is what you’ll do with it. Run headfirst into the opportunity of the challenge? Or retreat, tail between your legs, to the safety and comfort of old patterns?

Either way … the sun will rise tomorrow. The only real question is will you like the person you are when it does? 

And, if you don’t, you can always make a different choice. That’s the great part about life. Everything can shift in a moment.

It simply takes your awareness of the vastness of your choice to bring your attention to what really matters.

As I stand on the precipice of my own next level and in the midst of the big breakdown preceding the breakthrough, I’m reading a book by Ben Horowitz called The Hard Thing About Hard Things, and it should be required reading for anyone seeking to build anything big and meaningful.

If you are in the struggle at all, or feeling the question of whether to give up or forge ahead, read it. It’ll either inspire you to keep growing, or it may scare you right into completely giving up.

Either way, I trust it will support your next step.

Twelve years ago, when I hit up against a very similar challenge, I recall one of the coaches I followed at that time saying “You’re either growing or dying.” And my response to that was, okay then, I’ll die. I don’t want to grow anymore.

So, I did.

I walked away from all I had created, and died into my next best self. I remembered that none of who I appeared to be on the outside — family, financial and legal expert, business woman, or mom —  identified the truth of me. 

The truth of my being was so much more than all of that.

It was a ten year process of integration, and now with this next turn of the wheel, here I am again.

A precipice. 

And, of course, a breakdown to precede it.

This time, though, I have the context of multiple cycles and I know what comes next, regardless of what I choose.

The journey to liberation (especially financial liberation) isn’t linear, it’s spiral. We get to revisit everything we’ve touched in the past repeatedly until we heal it, fully.

My current stage = detachment. 

• Can I hold all that I’ve created so lightly that if it’s not meant for me, I can easily let it go? 
• Can I release my grip on how I think it should be and let Life operate through me in such a way that my capacity is expanded exponentially to steward more, without holding on to any of it? 
• Can I make it through this moment keeping my heart open, my soul in service, and trusting that Life has my back in ways that my little mind can’t see?
• Can I truly trust that whatever is arising is guiding me to release what needs to be let go, and to step into my next best, most powerful self?
  

This time around the wheel, the answer is an unequivocal yes. I’m here for it. I don’t know exactly what I’m being tested on yet (that will come with the benefit of hindsight), but I am deeply grateful for the test because I know what it means …

There’s greatness on the other side, and all I have to do is keep showing up in alignment with my values, honing my leadership, trusting that Life has my back, and is removing everything that is not an energetic match to my next level, and giving me all the resources I need to see my vision come to pass.

When you are in the breakdown and everything around you seems to be challenging your conviction, your purpose and your future, your psychology and management of your emotional state is the single most important factor in how you get to the other side. 

You are an incredibly powerful creator of reality.

And, let’s be clear — the question is not whether you will get to the other side (of course you will, one way or another) But HOW will you get there? 

Will you get there with stress and worry and tension and bad mood and grumpiness (I’ve gone that path before) or will you get there with deep faith and trust that you will be able to keep meeting each moment and knowing what to do, knowing what to say, knowing how to be? 

If this is a hard moment, it means even bigger and better things are coming, but Life will only reward you with those bigger and better things IF you prove yourself worthy … 

Some people say it’s not necessary to prove yourself, but I disagree.

Life is always testing your worthiness. If everyone was just “worthy”, well we’d all have the same station in life, right?

We’d all know our purpose, and our path, and our deep self trust, and our abundance, and prosperity, and self love.

But, we don’t.

So, what does worthiness look like that gets truly rewarded by Life? 

It looks like doing the work of healing, learning to live in harmony, learning to live in values alignment, and integrity, taking personal responsibility, and recognizing your full power as a creator of Life itself.

Whew …

And, so, here we are.

At the precipice of the next level … 

Something big is coming.

Personal Family Lawyer has lived in my vision since 2007 when I enrolled the first 13 lawyers into my dream of a new way of serving families with a heart-centered counseling methodology for making a lifetime of wise legal and financial decisions.

Since then, I tried to walk away from it a number of times, questioning it’s value, questioning if what I was doing was truly important, questioning if I really could create the vision of a Personal Family Lawyer in every neighborhood.

Well, Life has had my back, and the back of Personal Family Lawyer all these years, and wouldn’t let me let it go. 

Instead, I was repeatedly invited to dig deeper, look more closely, and discover the truth of what it meant to be a lawyer helping people look at incapacity, and death, and make eyes wide open legal and financial decisions.

What I discovered is that inheritance and legacy and estate planning … when truly understood, are a gateway to awakening, healing and the cultural shift I think so many of us have been craving for our lifetimes.

And, now, Personal Family Lawyer takes its next big step into the world. 

In the next couple of weeks, our new brand and website will finally launch. 

And with it, a refocus on introducing you to the lawyers who stand behind the promise of what it means to be a lawyer who truly has the back of her clients.

Personal Family Lawyer is based on a win/win business model that gives you the assurance of knowing your lawyer is helping you make the very best legal and financial decisions for yourself and your family — not just based on what’s best for your lawyer financially, but what’s actually best for you and the people you love.

I so look forward to sharing more about it with you. If you are a lawyer, join us on September 15th, for a live masterclass with me, where I’ll share more. If you are not a lawyer, stay tuned, much more to come.

To your eyes (and heart) wide open life.

Ali

Pictures to come, but for today, I want to share w you the two biggest learnings I experienced from and on the river, while they are fresh in my heart and soul.

My biggest learning so far was that a digital detox really is crucial to mental health and well-being. 

I slept 7-9 hours a night, and rested my brain as I let myself be led by the boatwomen there to guide us. As a result, I am able to show up for all the challenges of life and business with so much more equanimity.

Perhaps that’s a “duh!” but for me I needed to experience the benefits for myself to have it land in my body that way, and my guess is that if you aren’t regularly detoxing from the digital, you may want to give it a try.

The challenge is how to create the conditions for a digital detox. There are so many reasons to not do it, and they are all extremely compelling.

• Not enough time.
• Not enough money.
• What would I do during a digital detox?
• My kids need me.
• My team needs me.
• My clients need me.
• I’m too old.
• I’m too out of shape.
• I’m too disabled.
• FILL IN THE BLANK WITH YOUR OWN REASONS

Every single woman on the trip could have claimed at least one of those reasons.

There was a woman who came on the trip with $1200 left in her bank account. There was a woman who could barely walk due to an injury that’s left her fairly disabled for the last several years. There was a woman who is juggling multiple businesses, massive and fast business growth, and young children. There was a woman who pushed out her launch to be there.

Then there was me, navigating a huge turn of the wheel that can lead to a major upward spiral, or a slide back down to revisit some past lessons that are getting another chance to be lived again, but this time differently. Yes, that’s a big cryptic, but it’s all quite delicate and I’m in the midst of it, so I can’t say more quite yet.

Here’s what I can say: every single one of us is better off for having made the choice to be there. 

And, if she can do it, you can do it.

That’s lesson #2 — and it’s not a new lesson, as it’s a mantra that’s consistently guided me throughout my life as a businesswoman, since the very beginning.

My first $25k/month as a brand new law practice owner, a mom of two little one’s at home, and no idea what I was doing when it came to business — it happened because I knew another woman, a mom like me, who had left BigLaw started her own estate planning practice, and was doing $25k months.

If she could do it, I could do it.

Most of what I’ve done (not all, but most) has been as a result of seeing someone else go first. 

And, if she can do it, I can do it.

So can you.

Whether it’s a digital detox, or a 7-figure business, or leaving your job to start your own thing, or buying your own homestead … if she can do it, you can do it. And, that goes for you whether you are a he, she or a ze. 

If they can, you can.

So, today, I leave you with the eyes wide open question … how can you get yourself a digital detox this month? Even if just for one day? Better if it’s a weekend, and even better if it’s a week.

And, during that detox, what do you want to dream into that you see someone else out there doing … take inventory, begin to make a list of all the people you watch online who are doing what you want to do. 

If you aren’t sure who to put on your list, consider whose social media you are always checking out. Or, if you can’t quite tell by that … you’ll know they are candidates for your “if s/he can, I can” list if you feel any amount of jealousy or judgment toward them at all, and yet you still track their activities in various ways.

Pay attention to who and what you pay attention to over the next couple of weeks, write their names down in a journal, and take them into your digital detox this month to see what they may reveal to you about your next steps.

And, until then … if you track me and my goings on as a model of if she can do it, I can do it, I’ve got some events for you to dive into in the coming weeks. 

The more you can immerse yourself in my free offerings of support, the more you’ll be able to imagine yourself stepping into your next level goals, and just keep remembering, if I can do it, so can you. I’ve got a little something for everyone this month — business leaders, lawyers and moms and dads. Check it all out down below.

To your eyes (and heart) wide open life,

Ali Katz

FIRST, FOR MY BUSINESS LEADERS (IT’S AN EVENT FOR WOMEN, THOUGH SMART MEN WILL JOIN TOO) BECAUSE AMANDA HAS THE BUSINESS CHOPS THAT FEW HAVE, AND SHE’S INTERVIEWING ME THIS WEEK IN HER EXQUISITE LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE. JOIN HERE …