The Class I Couldn't Wait to Leave

There’s an exercise class I tried a few weeks ago that I still think about.

I won’t name it. You know the type. The room was packed, the music was loud, the instructor kept calling out “You’ve got this!” like she meant it. Everyone around me looked like they were having the time of their lives. I spent the entire 45 minutes watching the clock on the wall, doing math in my head about how many songs were left.

It wasn’t a bad class. It just wasn’t for me.

I’ve been trying a variety of different types of workouts lately, different formats, different instructors. The pattern that’s emerged has been impossible to ignore. Some classes I float out of. I’m still thinking about them hours later, already looking forward to the next one. Others feel like something I have to talk myself into before I even put my shoes on, and something I drag myself out of the second class ends.

For the classes I love, I never have to convince myself to go back to. For the ones I don’t, no amount of discipline makes them stick.

I couldn’t stop thinking about how much that sounds like investing.

Most people invest the way I got through that class. They do it because they’re supposed to. Because someone, a parent, an article, a well-meaning friend, told them it’s irresponsible not to. There’s no spark behind it. No sense of why. Just a number that moves from one account to another every month while they try not to think about it too hard.

As far as autopilot goes, it beats doing nothing but it also leaves so much on the table. Not just money. Meaning.

This is what’s different for me. I invest in my own business every single day, and I have never once had to force myself to do it. I know exactly what that money is doing. It’s turning into a phone call where a woman finally understands her own finances for the first time in her marriage. It’s turning into the moment a client stops flinching every time she checks her bank balance. When I put money into this work, I’m not guessing at the return. I’ve watched it happen, more times than I can count.

I also hold a fund built around advancing women into leadership inside the companies it invests in. That one is quieter. I don’t see the results the way I see them with my own clients. But when I check that account, it doesn’t feel like a number on a screen. It feels like my money is doing something I’ve spent twenty years talking about.

I see it in my own clients too. The ones who feel connected to what they’re invested in are the ones who don’t call me in a panic every time the market has a bad week. They already know why the money is there. The noise doesn’t shake that loose.

Alignment isn’t a soft add-on to a real strategy. Alignment is the strategy, or at least the part that decides whether you’ll stick with it long enough for it to work.

Values-aligned investing gets dismissed sometimes, like it’s something you do instead of building real wealth, not alongside it. But motivation isn’t a nice-to-have in this business. It’s the whole engine. When your money reflects something you care about, checking your portfolio stops being a chore you avoid. Adding to it stops feeling like deprivation. Staying invested through a rough quarter gets a lot easier when you understand, specifically, what you’re invested in and why it matters to you.

So if you’ve been putting off investing, or you’ve got money moving on autopilot and couldn’t tell me the last time you looked at where it’s going, ask yourself the same question I ask about fitness. Which classes do you float out of? Which ones do you drag yourself through?

Then point that question at your money.

Your investments should feel like the classes you love. Meaningful. A little energizing, even. Built around who you are, not just what you were told you’re supposed to do.

Investing doesn’t have to be boring. For most of my clients, once they find their own version of it, it stops being boring for good.

If this is where you’re stuck, figuring out what you want your money to be doing and not just what you’ve been told to do with it, that’s exactly the work we do inside The Empowered Sisterhood. Come find your people.

This post is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute personalized investment, legal, or tax advice. Nothing here should be construed as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal, and past performance does not guarantee future results. Leah Hadley is the founder of Intentional Wealth Partners, a fiduciary financial advisory firm. Opinions expressed are her own and are subject to change without notice. Please consult a qualified financial, tax, or legal professional before making decisions based on this content.