Lesson 16 Jumpstart Your Memoir

Finding Your Voice

to gain a better sense of your style and how to improve or modify it begin this lesson by free writing for 10 minutes starting with words “This morning when I woke up I knew…”

This morning when I woke up I knew I didn’t want to get out of bed. I knew I’ve been struggling but this is more than a struggle, it’s outright depression. I’ve been working incredibly hard so Jon can have what he wants, to promote the Money and You workshop and cover all the extra expenses he won’t even acknowledge.

Barbara and Liz are so busy it’s hard to get anything done. We take in money for the workshop and it all goes out and nothing covers the office expenses, and now Jon wants to make Barbara a partner and give away half of what we don’t really have.

(I don’t know it yet, when Barbara decides to leave us will need to pay her an extra thousand dollars to buy out partnership. It’s hard to remember the exact order of things. When was the Win-Win Forum up and running? It was started by Lucy, Barbara, and someone else. We were involved but not responsible for the meeting that supported graduates of and recruitment for the Money and You workshop.)

Back to how I felt that morning. Angry and scared–lots of reasons for being scared. If I pull out, the way I want to, what will happen to the business? Will Jon even be interested in staying married? Basically, what will happen? I just don’t know, but I know that something needs to change.

The rest of this story is told in some detail with the emphasis on codependency in my book, What Is the Emperor Wearing? Truth-Telling in Business Relationships