How Do You Get Paid to Exist?

It begins by asking:

• Who have I been?

• Who am I becoming?

You have to detach yourself from your old identity if you want to step into your new one. Because who you are — or more accurately, who you’re becoming — defines the kind of life you will build.

Your old story is holding you back. It's time to imagine a new one.

So let’s go there. Let’s imagine an average day in the life as your new identity.

Here's mine:
I imagine the version of me that has the life I want probably gets up at a decent hour after a restful sleep. She stretches, maybe dances to some music in the kitchen while making a small but healthy, high-protein breakfast or smoothie.

She makes lunch for her son before he leaves for school, freshens up, and gets to work on her creative business projects with energy and excitement.

After a deep work session — writing, filming, editing, or client projects — she heads out for a walk, listens to a podcast or audiobook, and journals in the sun before grabbing a coffee or matcha at her favourite spot.

Lunch is quick and nourishing. The afternoon is for admin, design, or content repurposing — a slower pace to match her energy. The second half of the afternoon is for catching up with her son, some light housework, and starting dinner in a clean and cozy home.

Once a month, she hosts living room picnic and paint nights — just for fun. Evenings are for winding down: skincare, journaling, a good book, and early sleep.

The act of doing what she loves — and simply documenting it in her writing and videos — is the engine of what funds this life. It’s the magnetic force that attracts her abundance.

That’s what it means to get paid to exist. That’s what it means to design a life that funds itself.

Not hustling for someone else’s dream.

Not squeezing into jobs or expectations that don’t fit.

Not living in survival mode.

This dream life might sound simple, but it’s mine.

It allows breathing room for the unpredictability of chronic illness.

It allows flexibility for spontaneous adventures when the mood arises.

It allows me to use my gifts instead of suppressing them.

Now? It’s time to become her.

This past weekend, I finally listened to Atomic Habits by James Clear on Audible (I know — I can’t believe I waited this long either), and it hit me hard. I’m ordering a physical copy of the book as we speak- it has earned it’s place in my collection. (It also helped me recognize that I may have a dopamine deficiency, but we’ll get into that another time.)

The concept of identity-based change deeply resonated — especially because I unknowingly used it (among a couple other strategies) to quit smoking long before I ever heard about the book. I stopped being someone who was “trying to quit,” and started being someone who doesn’t smoke. Period.

There were occasions when someone would ask if I had a cigarette and I would answer, “No, I don’t smoke. Sorry.”
It doesn’t sound like anything, but it was a huge identity shift after being that person for a significant portion of my life. Every time I spoke those words, whether out loud or just in my mind, it cemented my new identity into reality.

After many previous failed attempts to quit smoking, this time it stuck.

Now, I’m applying that same energy to becoming the version of me who gets paid to exist.

The more you act like her, the more you become her.

Honestly? Right here. With these words.

By writing it down. By saying it out loud.

That’s how we start shifting it into the real world.

Here’s what I’ve learned (the hard way):

If you want people to see you for who you truly are- and if you want to see yourself that way... You have to be loud about it.

You have to decide and assert that this is who you are.

One of my biggest mistakes in the past was just doing whatever people expected of me. I didn’t speak up about what I wanted. I minimized the things I loved. I let other people decide for me because I didn't want to rock the boat. I people-pleased myself into invisibility... And It meant nobody even really knew me.

I couldn’t attract the people, opportunities, or life I wanted — because I wasn’t showing up as me.

I won’t do that again.

Publishing this content is a vote toward the new me.

This isn't so much about becoming anything I'm not, it's really about becoming the realest, most alive version of myself, and unbecoming everything that's not authentically me.

Whatever your dream life is, there is a way to construct it — and we’ll be talking about it more in future posts.

But for now, here’s your starting point:

✨ Your Turn:

• Write out your ideal day. Describe it like you’ve already arrived. Let your future self come alive.

• Choose one habit that she would do, and start practicing it this week.

• Say it out loud: the life you want, the version of you you're becoming, and the non-negotiables you’re claiming.

And if you’re on a similar journey? Let’s be accountability buddies.

This blog is my roadmap, my manifesto, and my declaration:

I’m designing a life that funds itself — and I’m doing it one post, one video, one courageous habit at a time.

☕ Courage, coffee, and content creation. That’s the plan.

No Plan B.