From Financial Grind to Growth!
Do you want to flourish in your financial life? How do you move from feeling like a gerbil on the financial treadmill to using your resources as the wind beneath your wings, giving you freedom to live a full and prosperous life? If you want to cultivate the best within yourself and enhance your experience in relationships, work and play, you have to look at money differently as well as the ensuing financial decisions.
Well-being theory holds that individuals flourish in life when they experience five key elements: Positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment. Your past life satisfaction, your present feelings of pleasure, happiness, joy and comfort and your future feelings of optimism would fall under the umbrella of positive emotions. Engagement is when you feel absorbed or immersed in a task or activity that uses your talents and strengths. Relationships encompass your experience with healthy, supportive and meaningful people woven throughout your day. Meaning refers to your contributions to the world, knowing that you are an important part of something greater than yourself. When you pursue mastery, giving it your best, knowing you are where you are supposed to be at any given moment, you embrace accomplishment.
Your financial decisions on a daily basis should reflect these five areas of well-being. It is not about having more, it is about using what we have thoughtfully and intentionally. If your financial decisions are too heavily weighted in one area, you will eventually feel unsettled, disconnected, and unhappy. For example, if a preponderance of your disposable income is going towards purchasing stuff that you think will make you happy, you will eventually be left feeling empty.
This is NOT about spending more money in each of these areas. Given the parameters of your financial means, what would this look like? Cultivating positive emotions will entail the outlook on your money life. What money messages have you brought forwfard from your past? Are they serving you, or hindering you? You do have a choice in how you see the world and your impact on it. Do you have an abundance mentality, seeing the best in yourself and others? Are you grateful for you what you have and optimistic that you will grow from whatever lies around the corner? Engagement will encompass your financial decisions about hobbies and activities. Here in our valley, this one easily weighs heavy on the scale as we are constantly pulled to the latest and greatest toys or adventures. Again, decisions made within safe boundaries. In your relationships, do you channel your financial resources towards experiences with others, and appropriate gift giving? To infix meaning in your life from a financial context, do you have a giving plan that reflects your heart? Have you put tools in place that can leverage your giving in creative ways? In the area of mastery, are you choosing to use your money to pursue educational endeavors, professional development, or increasing your aptitude in a sport or hobby?
The financial decisions you make to create positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment imbricate each other. There will also be a constant tension in discerning what financial resources you should use today and what is appropriate to build up and have access to in the future.
The University of Pennsylvania has a series of user-friendly questionnaires to evaluate an individual’s well-being. Check them out at https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/testcenter. Then look at your answers from a financial decision making context and where you want to make some small baby step changes, or build upon.
Recognize an area that you feel positive about, then apply it to another well-being facet. Focus on what has gone financially well and why. For example, “I received a promotion at work because I put forth extra effort and I am good at what I do”. Then apply this to another area “I am going to attend this conference because it will help me excel”. You have a positive emotion on a past experience and you are making a decision to build upon it. This would be a wise investment of your financial resources!
The gerbil wheel is not much fun, no matter how big your wheel is! Toss in a spouse and family communication and I know this isn’t easy. You are not alone, we are all on this journey. Step back, take a deep breath and decide what you want to do to start flourishing in your financial life.
