Hello, my beautiful brave hearts, wonderful to be with you again today. This is your girl, Dawn Damon, your brave-hearted coach, helping you live a life of fullness, of freedom, fully brave in your heart, not depleted, and we do all of that right here on this podcast.

And this month, September, we're kind of shifting ourselves in the month of September to stepping out of victimhood, stepping out of overdoing people-pleasing, into hope, and healing, and a heart full of brave. Because there is great hope for us as midlife women and beyond. There is healing for all the things that we've walked through, and we can indeed have a heart full of brave. What's your heart full of? I might ask that question. Sometimes we find out that our heart, yeah, it's full of something. Maybe it's full of anxiety. Maybe your heart is full of fear or full of regret. We find that a lot around this age, we have more regrets than we do adventures. Maybe your heart is full of anger or grief. You're hurting.

Well, I'm gonna help you discover what your heart is full of and what kind of heart you might be operating out of. Go ahead over to my website, braveheartedwoman.com, and take the quiz. What kind of brave-hearted woman are you? And there we'll help you identify your heart, but that also offers some prescriptions for what you can do to grow your heart, to become fully courageous in the things that you're doing. And we call that a BAM around here, brave action moment. Let's take a BAM. Let's take some movement, a brave action move. BAM, it's time to take a BAM. All right. Today, for you, investing in yourself isn't selfish; it's stewardship. In fact, it's not... I would say this: it's not self-care even; it's self-respect. You've spent decades coaching and investing in everybody else, except for you. So it's your turn. Are you ready to invest in yourself? Are you ready to say, "At this season of my life, it's okay for me to invest in myself?”

Many women will get to this point in life, and they will spend, without blinking an eye, 300, 400, $500 to buy something for their grandchildren, their kids, their home, maybe their husbands, but agonize over spending $30 on themselves. And I know what I'm talking about, because you are my audience, you midlife women. There's very many times when we offer something for you, and you look at that price tag, and you are like, "Ooh, do you have this for kids? Do you have this for husbands?" 'Cause if I did, you would buy it without blinking an eye. But then you look at you, and you say, "Oh, I don't know if I can spend that money on myself." Well, when did taking care of yourself become something that you had to apologize for? You are worth it. You are valuable. And I'm not saying that you indulge in yourself, but I am saying that it's okay for you to put yourself in the line of people who deserve investing in.

So today, before we get started, I've got four points for you, like I, I often do, but let's do a BIHI. Let's take a brave inner heart investigation and really think about this for a moment. When is the last time you invested in yourself without guilt or apology? For something that you really needed or could benefit from, or something that would help take you to the next level? When's the last time you invested in yourself, in education or a course, or in something beautiful for yourself? So let me give you these points.

One, you can't continually withdraw from an account that you never replenish. Do you know what I mean? You can't make withdrawals from an account that you're not making deposits in, and you, you are the account. Your physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and relational self- you are the account. And if you deplete, deplete, deplete, eventually that is going to catch up with you, and then one day you're gonna find out, "I bounced a check." In other words, "I can't fulfill this. I'm spent. I'm exhausted. I'm drained. I don't have any more to give. I thought at this season of life it would be my moment to kind of replenish myself, but I found out that's a myth, that's a fantasy." It's not gonna happen. It won't happen unless you take time for yourself.

And when you don't do that, and you start to get tired, you're gonna start feeling some resentment. Then you feel guilty for feeling resentment, and you can battle that. You can battle the feeling that, "I'm invisible. No one cares. No one, no one's here helping me." You make sure that everybody has a birthday card, that everybody gets a birthday present. You make sure that even your children are getting Mother's Day presents from you. But is it returned? Are people taking care of you? Are they spoiling you? I'm not suggesting that we live selfishly. I'm not saying that at all. I do the same things. I pour into everyone else, and I watch my attitude, but if I'm being honest, there are times when I say, "Mm, okay, well, nobody thought of doing that," and it's okay 'cause I'm not a baby and I'm not a victim.

I'm not gonna let that get to me. But it sure would feel nice, and I have a husband that always takes care of me and always spoils me and blesses me and my children, but it would sure build my heart if I knew that along the way there was somebody and somebodies who are willing to invest in me or just willing to release me from expectations and say, "You don't have to do that. We got it. We got it." So you can't continually withdraw.

Now, we make deposits in ourselves by staying strong in our faith, having a heart full of brave. Take that quiz. Stop by my website, braveheartedwoman.com. Find out what your heart is full of; what kind of brave-hearted woman are you? But make sure that you're in the word of God. Make sure you're focusing on powerful affirmations and that your words are lined up.

Remember the five fortitudes that are in my book. If you don't have 'em, I'll give 'em to you. In fact, I'll let that be a free download. I'll send you the five fortitudes. But make sure that you are watching your words and that your vision for your life is vibrant and alive inside of you. Make sure that you're excellent in your habits and your daily routines. Invest in yourself, and that leads me to my second point: investment isn't indulgence. It's not indulgence. There's a difference between buying things for yourself to fill a void, or if you have a shopping addiction and you just love the dopamine that you get from buying something new, but there's a difference between that and intentionally investing in yourself to become the woman that God has called you to be.

Again, a class, invest in a coach. Everyone needs a coach. Let yourself go to that retreat or get that gym membership. Read that book. Write that book, for that matter. Get a therapist, a counselor. Have a beautiful experience. Do something totally wonderful at a spa. Get a new skill. Those things fill you. They increase you. They expand you, and they're not automatically selfish. Sometimes they're strategic. Do you know what I'm saying? It's good for you, and it's good for those around you when you're finding fulfillment in the ways that you're investing in yourself. I'm so thankful that I have a husband who invests in himself. He believes in the same thing, and when I invest in myself, he is very supportive of that and doesn't roll his eyes, nor do I at him, because we know the value of what it is to register for that class or to build that new skill, and so we need to attend that webinar. Whatever it is, it's not selfish. It's strategic.

All right, number three, your future requires your investment. Why do I believe in investment so much? Because if you want a different life at 60, 65, than you had at 45 or 50, then you can't just coast. You can't keep everything the same. You can't just keep giving everything to your present and nothing to your future. You have to invest in the future you. We talk about that here on The Bravehearted Woman, that I'm not just speaking to the current you. I'm speaking to the future you. I'm speaking to the bravehearted woman in you that is yet to emerge, that all of a sudden discovers there is more to me. I have one client that I'm coaching right now, and she's un-tapping all kinds of dormant skills and talents that she didn't know that she had or that she thought she believed that her time It was too late for her. But when we began to talk about hope- and healing and a heart full of brave, she lit up and said, "Wow, I can do this. There is hope for me. It's not too late. I can heal from the mistakes that I made in the past. I don't have to live a sentence. I can try again. I can put my faith back out there. I can have a heart full of brave and take courageous steps of action." Yes, you can do it. Bam. Brave action move. Take it. You'll be so grateful and so thankful that you did.

And number four, you know what? Stop waiting for someone else to invest in you. Stop waiting for someone else to see the gift in you, unless, of course, you hire a coach who is trained to help you unearth those things that are in you. Stop waiting for someone else that says, "Oh my goodness, you are so incredible. Let me open a door for you." It's not gonna happen that way, and this is what I like to tell my brave-hearted women: we don't wait for the husband to buy the ticket. We don't wait for our boss to recognize our full potential. We don't wait for someone else to invite us in.

Sometimes the woman you've been waiting for to believe in yourself is you. Don't wait for someone to discover your worth. Teach them your worth. Show up with your worth. You are worth it. Invest in yourself. Very often, we wait for others, and this is sometimes a teaching or a training that Christian women will push back on because it's like, "Well, I want God to open the door. I don't wanna strive. I don't wanna go in a place that I'm not supposed to." But I just wanna counter that with the verse, "Faith without works is dead." That steady plotting brings prosperity; the plans of our heart, this, the plans that we put in place, God will bless our success. So cooperate with God, not apart from Him, and not in front of Him, asking Him to, you know, bless what you're putting together. But in combination with God, in partnership with God, as you're collaborative: "God, I believe this. I sense that you're telling me this. I'm gonna move forward with this. I'm gonna take a step of faith and believe that you're in this, and I know that you will direct me." A parked car is hard to direct, but a car that's moving in forward gear, God can direct.

So, brave-hearted challenge for you: what is one investment that you can make in yourself in this season? This is Shift September. We're stepping out of waiting. We're stepping out of procrastination. We're stepping into hope, and healing, and a heart full of brave. So what is one investment that you can make in yourself this season? Put it on your calendar. Budget for it. Plan for it. Hopefully, the family and the people, the spouse that you have, will understand it and bless it. But if not, you're not asking for permission; you're communicating your intent. I'm just informing; I'm reporting: this is what I'm going to do. And remember, you're not a project that needs to be fixed. You are a woman worth developing, and I encourage you to do that with everything that is in me. Write your plan. Write the vision down. Make it plain. Lay it before the Lord. Sense what God is saying. Let the Holy Spirit fill you and empower you with the energy to perform and to do and to take the steps that you need to reach that goal and to see that dream fulfilled. God's not against that. He's for you. He's waiting for you to start doing what He's already said yes to. He's checked the box. Get going. I'm gonna offer you my five fortitudes, the brave-hearted woman- five fortitudes that you need- just by going to my email, [email protected], and put in the subject line there: five fortitudes.

In the meantime, don't forget to take that quiz, discover what kind of braveheart you are, at thebraveheartedwoman.com. All right, bravehearts, and again, as always, I love it. It helps me so much when you follow and review. This is Dawn Damon, your braveheart coach, saying, find your brave and live your dreams!