I sometimes think I should have called the $1000 Project the $1000 Challenge. If you’ve set yourself a powerful enough goal, the project will sometimes be a real test of your mental and emotional resilience. However, while the emotions sometimes come out of nowhere, you can change them with the flick of a switch if you learn how to channel them to your advantage.

For me, the $1000 Project was hard work. I went to bed thinking about what I needed to do to come up with the next $1000, and woke up wondering how and when I was going to come up with a new parcel. It consumed me. I’d get frustrated if my current $1000 manifested slowly, and then I’d get an exhilarating high when some parcels of $1000 freely and easily flew in.

I loved the feelings of achievement and accomplishment each time I purchased some shares, ticking the parcel off my list and seeing the increase in my passive income. But there were also times when I was exhausted and bored – I was sick of thinking about it, talking about it and doing it!

This roller-coaster of emotions went on for the entire twelve months. I think I drove my family and friends nuts talking about it with so much determination, stress, confusion and, at times, anxiety. I felt like this project was my baby: my passion to help other people and to lead by example meant that I wasn’t just financially invested, I was emotionally invested as well. I wanted to show people how to open their minds and to realise their potential, to show that money can be created and earned beyond our salaries, and that we all deserve financial freedom and harmony in our lives. And I wanted to do it honestly, openly and with complete transparency so that people could see it for themselves. I’d put a lot of pressure on myself!

And then, when I finally hit my first twelve-month deadline, I fell short of my ultimate goal. My aim had been to build a passive income of $2000 p.a. I got to $1750. It was such a small gap, but I felt disappointed.

It was hard to swallow – I’d come so close but hadn’t quite got there. As I sat with that disappointment, though, a sense of relief began to emerge, and then a feeling of peace. I knew that I could take a little breather and reassess my goals and my methods for the project, and even sharpen my axe for round two.

And then I realised that I was actually really chuffed with myself and my accomplishments! I’d set myself a tough goal, with strict rules and guidelines, and I’d stuck to them. I felt pride knowing that I’d done everything I could to make the project as successful as possible. I was proud that I’d abided by my rules, stuck to my goals, regularly reviewed my progress and constantly looked for ideas, opportunities and ways to improve. I could put my hand on my heart at the end of the twelve-month period and say with authenticity and contentment that I’d given this project everything I had.

Nothing great is achieved with ease. The $1000 Project was not always a walk in the park – and if it had been, that would’ve meant I was setting my bar too low and not really striving to the level I could accomplish, or that I wasn’t taking my goals seriously enough.

Falling short of my passive-income goal also made me a better goal-setter when it came to restarting the project for round two, as I knew what was realistically within my reach and how much to push my goal out so that I was continuing to grow. As discussed in chapter two, your goals need to be realistic, but also a challenge, so that you wake up the skills, mindset and attitude within you that will create what you want from the project.

If you find that you’re coasting through, it means you need to up the ante! You either need to set yourself a closer deadline or make your goal bigger. You could aim to pay off your student debt sooner, save a bigger deposit, invest more regularly or build more passive income – the only person who misses out if you’re complacent is you. If you find the project easy, go harder: you’re selling yourself short and missing out on the golden nuggets of growth that come from hard work, passion, determination and challenges. So dare to dream bigger, bolder and better!

PUSH THROUGH THE HARD TIMES

Back when I initially began the $1000 Project, I was excited, motivated and empowered. Ideas constantly came to me, sometimes in a burst of several at once, and sometimes as just one great idea on its own. When I was in this stage, turning these ideas into action was easy. I didn’t stop to think and allow myself to come up with excuses; I just powered through. It was a great zone to be in and the feeling of simply getting things done and seeing my progress was addictive.

At other times, though, I would hit a low, where I ran out of ideas, or opportunities simply weren’t there, such as when I realised that I had no more items to sell or I had no more weekend jobs that I could work on. The worst came when people didn’t honour payment for my weekend jobs or paid four months late . . . then feelings of frustration and stress kicked in, and my fear of failure rose. I juggled feelings of anger, disgust and disrespect, but learnt to shift that (with great effort) to feeling sorry for those people.

And, of course, there were times when I was simply bored or tired or just didn’t feel like doing anything. When I really wanted to go to an expensive restaurant even though a local restaurant would have been more than enough, or to buy a new dress instead of wearing something that I already owned or borrowing a dress from a friend.

I went through slumps in motivation, too. Like whenever I put together a pile of items to be sold online for some extra cash. The pile could easily sit there for weeks, with me occasionally walking around it, coming up with excuses as to why I didn’t need to put the items online right away, I could do it tomorrow – when another excuse would present itself!

But then I would review my deadline, see that valuable time was being wasted, and decide that I was not displaying the characteristics of someone who was serious about success. I’d tell myself to cut the crap, and that I was taking more time to come up with excuses than it would take to actually list the items. I would also focus on the freeing feeling I’d get once the items were gone (decluttering my home is a favourite pastime!), and the satisfaction of seeing the fresh earnings sitting in my account.

When I was feeling stressed, frustrated or demotivated, I would sit with the feeling, listen to what my body was trying to tell me, and use it as an opportunity to recharge my batteries, check in with myself, give myself the nurturing I needed, and then bring my focus back to my goal. Sometimes I knew I needed to take a break for a week, or to buy or do something nice for myself – but nothing too extravagant. I didn’t want to undo all of my hard work and progress!

These ‘treats’ were simple, quick and easy things, such as getting a facial, or taking the night off cooking to enjoy home delivery. If I needed it that badly in order to get back on the path again quickly, it was allowed. After all, we aren’t robots – we have emotional needs and wants.

Once I’d listened to my mind and body and given it what it needed to feel re-energised, I would remind myself why I’d set the goal in the first place. What was it that made me set the goal? How would I feel when I achieved this goal? What would it take to know that I gave it my absolute everything and to be able to look back with pride?

I’d also ask myself what key characteristics I’d need to have to be a successful person for the $1000 Project. Just listing in my head these positive qualities – energetic, inspiring, motivated, organised, in control, proactive, creative – would help to gently encourage me to get out of the dangerous zone.

These simple questions were enough to create the shift and help me to feel connected again to my goal. I never let the feeling of being ‘off ’ continue for too long, as I knew that it was eating into my valuable time, which would then create more pressure and stress, breeding even more dissatisfaction and reasons for failure.

And one thing that I never did was berate myself. I never bullied myself, or gave myself a hard time, or told myself I was being lazy. I always approached the project from a place of support and self-love – like I was my own inner life coach!

Negative self-talk when it comes to personal challenges serves no good. Quite the opposite, in fact – it can keep you stuck in a toxic, defeatist place where you completely stop growing. And no one is any good to anyone when they’re operating in a place like that. You need to trust yourself and know that you have everything within you to complete this project and make it a success for you.

So if you catch yourself falling into that place, stop, take a break, and remind yourself of what made you decide to do the $1000 Project in the first place. Why is the goal that you set so important to you? What are you going to feel when you achieve it? Pride, achievement, relief, freedom? How are you going to celebrate when you reach your deadline? What’s going to be your reward for successfully completing the $1000 Project?

Another good way to motivate yourself could be to start thinking about what you want your next goals to be. If you’re using the $1000 Project as a way of getting out of debt, for example, it’s easy to feel that all your hard work is going to something not very exciting. Focus on the next step: once you’ve achieved your highest priority goal, then you can get stuck into a fresh new goal that could be more meaningful for you, such as starting to save or even investing. This can help to trigger excitement and energy for you, as the money that you’re creating will actually remain with you rather than going towards paying off something from your past.

Sometimes these difficult moments can be very valuable, as feelings that you might have buried deep finally come to the surface, bringing with them wisdom and awareness. If you’re using the $1000 Project to get out of toxic debt, such as credit card debt, you’ll find yourself confronting the reality of just how bad this type of debt is, and how destructive it is for your hopes of building wealth and financial security. It’s healthy to discover this – letting the feelings come to the surface and being able to acknowledge them is how you’ll learn to sit comfortably with them, and then to let them go. And hopefully this gives you the push to replace old, bad spending habits with new and positive ones that will serve you financially and holistically. You can use these waves of emotions to learn more about yourself and grow.

DON’T BE AFRAID OF FAILURE

As I was doing the project, sometimes I would experience setbacks that were out of my control. Once, when I was in the middle of a drought and feeling a little frustrated, I was given an opportunity to do some market research for $240. I really appreciated this as it gave me the opportunity to finally get the current parcel that I was working on – ever so slowly – to the point of completion.

The market research session was on a Thursday evening, and the call came through at the last minute. This meant that I wouldn’t be able to have dinner with my son, which is one of my favourite times of the day, as we take time out of the busy week to cook and eat together. Fortunately, my parents very kindly offered to have dinner with Rocco so that I could go.

That evening it was absolutely pouring. I already felt flustered as I picked Rocco up from day care, quickly got him home into the bath and his pyjamas, rushed him over to my parents, and then headed straight to the office where the market research was being held.

In spite of this, though, I felt prepared for the job. Part of my task was to do some homework, which I had diligently completed and packed in my handbag. And I’d looked up the location and estimated travel time, allowing for peak-hour traffic and time to find a parking spot, while still being five minutes early as requested.

But the traffic was horrendous. It was cold, dark and wet. The trip that was supposed to take me twenty-two minutes took over an hour. I rang the phone number given by the market research company to let them know that I was on my way, but there was no answer. I finally got there, parked and bolted inside, holding my homework close to my chest so that it didn’t get wet. There was no one around except a sign that read: ‘If you are here for market research, please take a seat in the waiting area and someone will come to collect you.’

I waited for twenty-five minutes in the empty office. No one came, and I ended up heading back into the rain to sit in more traffic and head back over to the other side of town to pick up my son and take him home to bed.

I was tired, hungry and so annoyed at myself. I’d missed out on finishing this irritatingly slow $1000; I’d spent the evening rushing around to try to make this happen; and, hardest of all, I’d missed a night with Rocco. I was too exhausted to even cry.

I’d tried my best but it was out of my hands, and I had to accept that and move on to the next opportunity. But that experience also made me realise where my boundaries lay, and what I was and wasn’t prepared to give up in pursuit of the $1000 Project. While I made up the quality time to Rocco, I decided that, from that point on, missing out on quality time with my son was not worth it. It was a good boundary for me to discover, and since then I feel no guilt when I make decisions not to sacrifice time with Rocco.

Whatever negative feelings, disappointments or setbacks you experience while doing this challenge, just keep persevering. When these hard moments happen (and I guarantee they will), it doesn’t mean that it’s time to give up. They’re simply bumps along the way, and stopping would be selling yourself short.

And, on the positive side, there will also be times when you have incredible strength and energy and feel intrinsically connected to your goal. When you’re riding these powerful waves, keep riding them. Keep creating more success, and then stop when you need to. And when you’re tired and exhausted, those are the nights that you head to bed early.

Incredible growth and strength comes from accepting what you’re feeling, giving your mind and body a quick but replenishing pit stop, and then soldiering on. But you only realise you’ve received this gift of growth when you look back from the point of completion, and realise just how much strength and determination exists within you when you need it.

After I’d finished round one of the $1000 Project, I took a much-needed break to recharge and relax and have some time back for myself – and then I realised that I actually missed the project. I missed the test and the challenge, I missed the new-found awareness that I was building, I missed seeing how far I could go if I pushed myself. I missed the feeling of pride in seeing what I was building, and the excitement of being able to show people how to do this for themselves, how to discover their own strength and improved financial awareness and security.

And so, after only a few months’ break, I found myself setting new goals and coming up with new ideas and hit lists for round two. I felt kind of lost without the $1000 Project in my life, and I craved the new world of discoveries, purpose, deeper self-awareness and exciting opportunities that I could create and capture for more financial stability, freedom and harmony.