Welcome to the Blooming Mindset. I'm ​Ruth Rieckehoff​, and I'm so glad you're here. Some of my emails include affiliate links. If you choose to purchase, I may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. I only share what I’ve personally used, trusted, and found meaningful enough to pass along.

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Beloved Architect of Identity,

Paying for help can make you feel like you’re making progress.

Sometimes, it’s just a very expensive form of procrastination.

Years ago, when I ran blogs and websites, friends would ask me to recommend people who could help with theirs.

I took those requests seriously.

Even though I already knew plenty of professionals, I would ask trusted blogging groups for recommendations, compare names, check their work, and sometimes even verify availability.

Then I’d send everything over. And wait. Sometimes for months.

I’d follow up and hear:

“Can you just tell me which one you would choose?”

They hadn’t contacted anyone. Sometimes they hadn’t even looked at the options.

But the strangest part came when someone actually hired the person I recommended.

One professional called me because he didn’t know what to do. My friend had paid the deposit. He had started the work. But she barely communicated what she wanted and then disappeared for months.

She had technically taken action. But she wasn’t really participating in what she said she wanted to build.

And I’ve realized we can do exactly the same thing with wealth.

I know because I did it.

When I decided I wanted to become more serious about investing, I opened a brokerage account. I paid for a service to learn more and consumed information.

All things that looked like progress. But for months, I barely moved.

Opening the account wasn’t investing. Paying for information wasn’t learning. Having resources available wasn’t the same as using them.

Fear and uncertainty were still making many of my decisions for me.

That distinction matters when you earn good money.

You can hire the financial professional. Buy the course. Open the brokerage account. Increase your salary. Read the books. Build the spreadsheet. And still remain strangely detached from building wealth.

Because resources don’t build anything by themselves.

At some point, you have to participate.

You have to decide what you want your money to accomplish.

Ask questions. Learn enough to make decisions. Move money from income into assets. Review what is working.

Change what isn’t. And keep showing up.

Until next time, keep blooming,

Ruth

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Reflect

Where have you mistaken acquiring a financial resource for actually using it?

What opportunity is already in front of you that you keep treating as if it will always be there?

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Reframe

Old: “I’m serious because I paid for it, signed up, opened it, or hired someone.”

New: “I’m serious when my behavior begins to match what I say I want.”

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Actionable Transformation

Choose one financial resource you already have but aren’t fully using.

Maybe it’s an account, an advisor, a benefit at work, knowledge you’ve acquired, or simply excess income.

Then do one thing with it that requires your participation.

Because wealth isn’t built by having access to good opportunities.

It’s built by what you do while they’re still available.

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P.S. Some opportunities can be replaced. Time can’t. Don’t let a resource you already have become something you later wish you had used.

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