Have you ever stopped to ask yourself what you really want from your career? I don’t mean the answer you give in an interview or when someone asks about your goals. I mean the answer underneath that. The reason that sits much deeper than money, achievements or recognition.

Recently, I was reading The One Page Financial Plan by Carl Richards. One of the exercises asks a deceptively simple question: Why is money important to you? You answer it, then you’re asked again. Each time, you go a little deeper until you uncover what is really driving you.

I was working through an exercise from The One Page Financial Plan by Carl Richards when I uncovered something that completely changed the way I think about money, confidence and my business.

The moment everything changed

It reminded me that I had lost both of my parents within seven months. That I had completed my degree while grieving, endured years of bullying and micromanagement, rebuilt my confidence and self-worth, retrained as a coach. And that I now spend my time helping capable Assistants recognise their own value.

Then it shared one sentence that completely stopped me in my tracks.

“You don’t simply want business success. You want everything you’ve lived through to count for something.”

The moment I read those words, I cried because I knew how true they were. I realised that I wasn’t building a coaching business because I wanted money. I was building it because I wanted every experience I had lived through, both the painful and the meaningful, to not have been for nothing.

Money was never the destination

As I continued reflecting, another realisation emerged. Money is not the goal. Money is simply the enabler that gives me the freedom and peace of mind to live intentionally and make choices that align with my values.

My coaching business is the vehicle. The destination is meaningful impact. I want to use everything I have experienced to help other people recognise their own value and trust themselves more deeply than I once trusted myself.

Also realising that what I fear most is living by default. I don’t want to drift through life doing what is expected of me. I want to consciously choose the life I create and know that my contribution reflects my experiences, my values and the person I am becoming.

What this taught me about confidence

As I reflected on this breakthrough, I couldn’t help thinking about the Assistants I work with. Many believe confidence will arrive after another course, another qualification or another certification, and I used to as well. While others wait for recognition from their manager before they believe they are doing a good job.

The pattern is remarkably similar to believing money will eventually make us feel secure. In both cases, we place our confidence outside ourselves and wait for something external to tell us we are enough.

The truth is that confidence doesn’t come from collecting more qualifications or waiting for someone else to validate your worth. Confidence grows when you recognise the experience you already have, trust your own judgement and begin making decisions that are aligned with the life you genuinely want to create.

Living with intention creates meaningful impact

This exercise reminded me that our experiences are never simply things that happen to us. They shape us, teach us and prepare us to make a difference in someone else’s life. Even the experiences we would never choose can become the very things that help us to understand, encourage and support others.

When we stop asking, “How can I become more confident?” and instead ask, “What kind of impact do I want my life to have?”, everything begins to shift. Confidence becomes less about proving ourselves and more about trusting ourselves enough to live with intention.

For me, that is the ‘why’ that makes me cry. I want to look back on my life knowing that I fully lived it, that I used everything I experienced for good, and that I helped other people recognise the worth that was already within them.

I’d love to hear from you

If you keep asking yourself “Why?” until you reached the answer that made you emotional, what do you think you would discover?

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments because your answer may inspire someone else to look a little deeper into their own story.

If this blog resonated with you, I would also love to connect with you on LinkedIn or Facebook, where I regularly share personal stories and practical insights to help Executive, Personal and Virtual Assistants build self-worth, trust their judgement and create meaningful impact by living with greater intention.