The Cost: From Bankruptcy to Breakthrough

The Cost: What Are You Really Paying to Stay Stuck?

Have you ever stopped to think about what your life is really costing you?

Not just in dollars and cents—but in energy, identity, peace, purpose, and soul?

This week’s episode of The Free Advantage gets personal, because I’ve lived this truth—and I know many of you have, too. We’re diving deep into the hidden toll of staying stuck in patterns, people-pleasing, jobs that drain us, and lives that don’t align. And more importantly, we’re learning how to retrace our steps… so we can start making better investments from here forward.

Because freedom doesn’t come without cost. But neither does staying in bondage.

LISTEN HERE! THE COST: FROM BANKRUPTCY TO BREAKTHROUGH

The Debt We Didn’t Mean to Pay

Most of us are used to calculating the obvious costs—rent, groceries, gas, and bills. But what about the price tag of our mental health? Our emotional well-being? Our spiritual peace?

So many of us are paying for things we never agreed to. We’re trading our peace for productivity. Our identity for approval. Our purpose for a paycheck.

And we don’t even realize how much it’s costing… until we’re spiritually empty, emotionally numb, and physically exhausted. I’ve been there. I know what it feels like to be depleted and disconnected. To have overinvested in all the wrong places.

But here’s the good news: we don’t have to keep paying the price.

Return on Identity: It’s Time to Invest Differently

We hear so much about ROI—Return on Investment—in business and finances. But what about the ROI on your identity?

Every time we say yes when we mean no…
Every time we shrink ourselves to fit…
Every time we ignore our intuition to keep the peace…

We are investing in something. And if that investment is yielding stress, shame, regret, or burnout… we’re allowed to stop. To say no more. To choose a different path.

You were not created to be a shell of yourself.

You were created to live free, whole, and aligned.

And the return on that investment? Is always worth it.

Reflection + Reveal Practice: Retracing

This week, I’m guiding you through one of the most powerful practices I’ve ever done in my own healing—Retracing.

We’re not doing this to relive the pain. We’re doing this to finally understand the cost and reclaim what’s still ours to carry forward.

Reflection Practice:

Answer these questions:

• Where in your life are you paying a cost you didn’t agree to?
  
  
• Where have you over-invested in something that’s no longer worth the return?
  
  
• What belief or behavior are you ready to stop financing with your energy?
  
  

Now the reveal.

 Reveal Practice:

To Retrace, divide your life into 5-year increments.
1-5, 6-10, 11-20, 21-25, and so forth.

And for as many as you can remember or that stand out during these different increments, I want you to:

List moments, events, decisions, or turning points that still carry a cost.

Ask Yourself:

• What did I choose?
  
  
• What was chosen for me?
  
  
• What did I lose in that season—emotionally, spiritually, mentally, or physically?
  
  
• Is there pain, tension, or even a memory that still lives with me from that time?
  
  
• What am I still carrying from this?

• What do I need to let go of, forgive, or heal to stop paying the price?
  
  

This may take time. You may not do this all in one setting. But I promise—this work is worth the return.

For those who are looking for a little more or just some helpful tools with today's reflection and reveal practice, I have created a special workbook for this episode.

CLICK HERE FOR YOUR FREE WORKBOOK! 

It will ask you to create a FREE account, and once you sign in, you will then have access to all of my free resources, all of the workbooks from this series, including today's! 

This is your chance to trace back the real costs—the ones we don’t see on receipts.

Not to relive the past… but to reconcile, reclaim, and recover who you are.

So if you’re tired of carrying costs you never agreed to…
If you’ve been overpaying in soul currency for far too long…

Then it’s time to Retrace.

To remember.

To realign.

To reclaim.

Your return on identity.

Key Takeaways

✨ Everything costs something—energy, peace, identity, time.

✨ We often pay emotional and spiritual debt without realizing it until we’re depleted.

✨ ROI isn’t just for finances—it’s for your identity. Invest in things that bring freedom, not burnout.

✨ You can stop paying the price for choices you didn’t make or parts of yourself you gave away to survive.

✨ The Retracing practice helps you identify the toll you’ve paid—and invites you to choose differently moving forward.

✨ Healing begins when you stop avoiding the cost and start rewriting the contract.

Final Thoughts

Your peace is worth something.
Your wholeness is worth something.
Your life is worth something.

So let’s stop spending it on things that leave us bankrupt.

There’s always going to be a cost for everything in this world..
But you get to decide what you're willing to pay. Or if you're willing at all.

You can choose to stop overpaying for a version of life that doesn’t include the real you.

Choose to invest in who you really are. Your authentic self.
Because true freedom?

It’s always worth the cost.