The financial areas of our lives can impact how we are feeling about other days. It's not just the working poor who feel financial stress. It's the affluent, too! A recent article in The New York Times highlighted the problems of the affluent and the difficulties they have.
Attorneys have the pressure of the billable hours. CPA's have a similar pressure. Therapists have session hours. Any professional can work longer hours, earn more money, and still be unhappy if they have not met one's personal criteria for success. These same people can also work longer hours and not earn more money. And they can misspend their money, too.
If the financial area is the only area you use to judge success, then your self-esteem might be on a roller coaster.
I just spent a day talking with clients - attorneys, software designer, CPA - about finances. Now I am not a financial expert nor do I give investment tips. What comes up in this sector of your life is often related to stress -- even the wealthy have problems. It's not how much money you have -- it's the meaning that money has for you.
Research has suggested that money can't buy happiness; but, lack of money does inhibit happiness. For those with good earning potential, not being satisfied with the money they are earning sometimes suggest that their mindsets -- their beliefs about money-- are holding them back.
One of the clients whom I saw today told me that she overspends so that she can feel successful. The other person told me that he hoards money so that he can feel successful. Same desired outcome but different behaviors. And, of course, how sad that money is their only standard for success.
What clients discover is that the financial area of life often reflects the same patterns of limiting beliefs that sabotage other areas. For example, Carl is a 47 year old married man who can't break a certain six figure income. What holds him back? Through some self reflection, he identified some beliefs that "too much money was vulgar." His belief? No -- his mothers. He also realized that he was afraid to be really successful - as defined as surpassing his current income. Underlying this was his belief that he was an impostor, a fraud. He discovered similar beliefs that he have been ruling his life.
These beliefs are the rules by which we live. Until we can fully identify them, we don't realize that they exist. If we are unaware of their existence, we have limited our choices about how to think, feel and behave in our lives. And then we find ourselves feeling dissatisfied, maybe depressed and anxious, with life.
Identifying what our money beliefs and patterns can help liberate the needed energy to live our lives more fully - we can make more money when we have more energy.
Several books are available on this subject. Suze Orman has written quite a few. All Your Worth authors also delve into this. Another excellent book is The Financial Wisdom of Ebenezer Scrooge.
If your financial life is not what you want it to be, then perhaps it's not just a matter a working longer hours. Your money beliefs might be interfering. Let me know if I can help you identify and change them.
Great post. I tried to give you a track back to my blog, www.financialawakenings.com, but for some reason Type Pad may not be accepting them?
Posted by: Richard Kahler | July 30, 2008 at 12:06 PM