It´s Monday, 6:00 A.M. You wake up still on a zombie state. You start to move towards your day with the same routine: Get in the shower, get dressed, maybe get some breakfast if time allows and run out of the house to go to work, take your kids to school. Then you take the car or the metro and find yourself stuck in traffic, or struggling to get through the mass of people at the metro station, all of them doing the exact same thing. You arrive to the office at around 8:00 A.M, hoping to get some more coffee to finally “start” the day. You do your work, hoping that the time goes fast, so it´s soon 6:00 P.M and you can finally go home, just to face another day, waiting for Friday to arrive, hoping for the next holiday.
The lyrics of Loveboy song “Working for the weekend” could not say it better:
“Everybody’s working for the weekend Everybody wants a little romance Everybody’s goin’ off the deep end Everybody needs…”
More than being an observer, I have participated in this life. I often wondered what is what motivates us lead this kind of life. Do we feel obligated to do the same as others, to earn some decent living? When you wake up in the morning, do you feel happy and energised to start the day, or do you wish your wake up alarm would run out of battery, just to stay a few more minutes, or a few more hours… or even better, not to have to get up from bed at all?
According to statistics highlighted at Forbes regarding job satisfaction, 53% of Americans are currently unhappy at work. This reveals an uncomfortable truth, about motivation and sense of well being. Also, for many, it is the fact that they get stuck in a job they no longer like or enjoy, or does not let them grow, for the pure reason of being afraid to be unemployed and worried about not being able to meet the months end. Although there are certainly other reasons why people stay in jobs they don’t like or do not make bigger steps in their careers, I would like concentrate in the relationship most people have with Money.
We need Money, to be able to function as an individual, as a family and as a society. Yet most of people have an altered understanding about Money. We often think, that Money is scarce. That you have to compete with other people to get more Money. That it is wrong to wish and desire more Money because it make us selfish and unthoughtful of people that have less. That in order for us to get more Money, we have to take it away from other people. Or even worse, that we don’t deserve more! All those beliefs makes us have a rather conflicting attitude about earning Money.
But guess what? There is a way to maintain a more healthy attitude about Money. In fact, according to the old Tibetan wisdom, “all human endeavour, is to enrich ourselves-to achieve prosperity, both outer and inner. We can enjoy this prosperity only if we maintain a high degree of physical and mental health”.
Let’s look at five ways we can improve our relationship with money and how this has a direct impact in our personal choices in the kind of life we want to live.
1. Identify what are your underlying beliefs about Money
I’m sure you have heard many times the famous phrase: “You cannot have it all”
Why not?
Most of us got raised thinking that we have to do certain things in order to get a reward or else we get a punishment. We had to “work hard”: Go to school, do all our homework, clear our room and eat all our dinner in order to get a reward, which was sometimes getting a toy or pocket money.
So this belief that we must work very hard in exchange for Money and that there is a restriction about how much we can get, is injected in our subconscious mind and as we move along in life and we follow the same path over again: We get a university degree, get a regular job and strive to stay there, even if we don’t like it, jut to pay the bills. We learn that economy is rather focusing in scarcity rather than abundance. The media only talks about poverty, conflicts and catastrophes. There is therefore no wonder that most people think they live in scarcity and we must save and collect money because it can run out, rather than think about getting it circulating, which is why most people get afraid of changing the status quo of their current situation.
Dedicate few moments a day to reflect what are your personal beliefs about Money. Once you identify those beliefs, you can take the decision to turn them around and decide that you have the right to live abundantly in order to grow spiritually, mentally and physically. Money is not the goal, is just an instrument to get what you truly desire in Life.
“The person’s right to life means his right to have the free and unrestricted use of all the things which may be necessary to his fullest mental, spiritual and physical unfolding”- Wallace D. Wattles
2. Concentrate in what you can give, more than what you will receive
There are many ways to give and there is always something to give. The act of giving is one of the most basic yet one of the most wonderful human virtues there are, as it is an expression of generosity and love.
“Love finds its most natural and spontaneous expression in giving” – Wallace D. Wattles
According to the Buddha teachings, giving is a natural expression of cause and effect: “Every effect has a cause and condition. Cause and condition combine to make an effect. There is no exception to this rule”. If you want to experience an abundant life you must give and you will receive. If you are kind to people, people will be kind to you. Whatever you send out to the universe, it will come back to you.
3. Invest in yourself
We always find excuses why not to invest in ourselves: There is not enough time. There is not enough Money. My boss is not supporting my development. The economy is bad and therefore there is no budget left for trainings.
All of us want to grow. We all want to get transcendental in the things we do and get recognition. However, in order to know more, and do more, you also must invest more in yourself. There is a popular saying that “you cannot render greater service to God or Humanity than to make the most of yourself”. The law of life is grow and expansion for all living things on this earth.
Warren Buffet also rightly pointed it out: “The most important investment you can make is in yourself”
4. Maintain a positive Mindset towards Money
We can increase our confidence in our capacity to manage Money by developing good habits. Planning your finances towards the goals that matter to you and your family the most, helps in keeping focus in your saving and spending habits. When your spending is in line with reaching your goals, you get more motivation and confidence on the goal attainment.
It also helps to keep the focus on your own goals alone and stop comparing your situation with what others have or do not have. Experience gratitude for the abundance that you currently have in your life, and forget about past mistakes that might hold you back from developing a more positive attitude about your financial situation.
5. Trust in your capabilities and don’t be afraid to dream Big
“I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.”-Warren Buffet
We all are born with the same potential to be and do what we desire. The only difference is in the awareness you have in yourself about this undeniable truth.
Honor yourself by having confidence in what you can achieve. Don’t be afraid to dream big. The most valuable thing we have is time. A common mistake we do is to trade all our time for Money. Because we all have only 24 hours a day, the amount of Money we can get by only trading time is limited. Think about giving more value to your work. Think about multiple sources of income. Multiply your possibilities by diversifying your resources and building powerful partnerships.
Life is short. Take that shot! like Mark Zuckerberg says: The biggest risk is not taking any risk … In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks”.
“A man who conquers himself is greater than he who conquers a thousand men in battle”- Buddha
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