Success Advice

3 Principles to Help You Transform Your Relationship With Money

Published

3 years ago

Oct 29, 2020

Image Credit: Unsplash

Money is a cultural obsession. Whether we accept it openly or just silently nod, money is central to our life. Not in a binary sort of way, where when someone likes money, they don’t care about other virtues in life or if they never talk about money, it must make them a saint. But money as means to an end; A channel that takes you to a better place than where you were 12 months ago. As an input to your growth and a resource for creating an enriched life.

I grew up with a scarcity mentality believing that I had to relentlessly work until retirement and save enough money. This thinking underscored pretty much all the decisions I made in life. Decision fatigue before deciding how much to spend and what to spend it on – Expensive trainers to Peloton – and immense guilt for not using the purchase enough. This spin cycle calcified my growth for years.

Over the years I transformed my relationship with money. I am sharing 3 timeless principles that can help you re-evaluate your relationship with money.

1. Trade money to buy time

Our lives are busy and despite the pandemic, our to-lists are still as long. This makes time a premium commodity. Pick anything you are working on – a project report, a side hustle, designing a house, producing a song – often, it always takes up more time than we budgeted.

Can we buy back time? The goal here is to buy time back so you can use that time to nurture your priorities, creative pursuits or micro-goals for the day. I like to keep things in the realm of a day as that keeps things bite-sized and more relatable.

A 16-hour day can soon get chipped away with various things that come our way. Some of these things are on our to-do list and we know will need our attention but then there are a whole lot of unexpected things that pop up and hog our time like unexpected calls, emails, social media. All these things slowly add up & before you realize, an hour is gone.

So, if you start with the assumption that some unknown things will surely come up and allocate time for them, that makes a great starting point. You could look at the last week and assess how much time those things consumed. That helps you get into a pro-active mode. Start with the weekly unexpected ratio and your accuracy at predicting it will get sharper by the week.

“Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.” – Norman Vincent Peale

2. Find the source for the way you think

The relationship we have towards money is based on the behaviours we saw when we were growing up. How our parents, our role models and that favourite loopy uncle engaged with the topic of money. Was money discussed at all over dinner, whether it was scarce or in surplus? Or whether money often had to be borrowed or was lent to a friend or relatives? Was the lent money ever asked to be returned? These are just a few shades of how we sub-consciously end up absorbing money-conversations. Not just that we also absorb the emotions, the reactions & the statements that got spoken and lo & behold, they become our rules of engagement with money.

But not all viewpoints may fit into the architecture of our thinking process and ultimately our life. So, it becomes very important to pause & check about who you are taking money advice from.

Money is not an isolated topic but underscores the type of life we live, the books we read, the adventures we make and whether the tip we leave in a café is accompanied with a smile or a friendly wave.

If you don’t like the way money undergirds your life decisions, then ask yourself the question – how did you come to think this way? This question often takes you closer to the source of where the thinking took shape and that gives you the choice on whether you want to change your relationship with money or not.

“Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are.” – James W. Frick

3. Cost versus value

Over the years I started asking the question, “what value do I get from spending a certain amount?” Value = which problem of mine will get resolved. Cost = the actual dollars I dish out.

All this while I looked at things from a perspective of the dollar amount, I was paying. And the size of that figure was usually the deciding factor if it was a go or no-go.

You could argue that ‘value’ is the degree of improvement you get in your life. Would I pay almost 60% more for a pair of earphones, (not a fan of the cordless ones) because they don’t tangle up each time & travel well? Would I bother saving $100 on the best phone or laptop, something that I will use every day for a few years at least? Will I think twice about helping a friend’s fund-raiser? Not a chance.

Value is something that solves my problem and improves my life. I see it as removing irritants so I can stop jacking around and get on to things like working towards my goals or increasing my downtime.

Our relationship with money is lifelong. Re-hash it on your terms.

Up Next

Don’t Dump Your Boss to Start a Business Without Doing These 3 Things

Don't Miss

5 Simple Ways You Can Raise Your Vibration For Success

Pallavi Sidhra

Pallavi Sidhra is a Cancer Survivor. She identified herself not as an expert at anything but a Mindfulness Junkie and a Consciousness explorer. She believes that the quality of our life depends on two things – How we treat ourselves and how we break away from our default thinking patterns to rewrite our story. When you don’t see her gulping oxygen or in a yogic posture you will see her immersed in conveying scarps of wisdom about life, health and wellbeing. She channels her thoughts at her website www.magiclieswithin.com and selflessly dishes out strategies for Positive Wellbeing on Instagram and Facebook.

Click to comment

Success Advice

Mastering Self-Management for Success: Lessons From Peter F. Drucker

With careers no longer following a straight, predictable path, self-awareness and adaptability are essential for success.

Published

4 days ago

Dec 8, 2023

Benjamin Gruber

Image Credit: Midjourney

In today’s dynamic professional world, self-management has become increasingly important. With careers no longer following a straight, predictable path, self-awareness and adaptability are essential for success. (more…)

Success Advice

How to Ignite the Spark Within for Future Success

All of us come to this world with our own reserve of magic unfortunately, not everyone can unleash it

Published

1 week ago

Dec 4, 2023

M.S. Rao

Image Credit: Midjourney

What is it that makes some people great leaders while others remain followers? What magic do they have that others don’t? What special blessing gives them the power to bring significant change? (more…)

Success Advice

How Your Beliefs Can Supercharge or Sabotage Your Success

Your life is dictated by beliefs and biases that drive your thinking, behaviors, and decisions

Published

3 weeks ago

Nov 20, 2023

Jane Frankel

Your Beliefs Can Supercharge or Sabotage Your Success (1)

Image Credit: Midjourney

Pause for a moment and ponder two pandemic-era beliefs: First, closing schools will control the spread of a serious virus. Second, the consequences of such school closures—particularly social interruption and the prevention of immunity—are worse than becoming sick with the virus. (more…)

Success Advice

How to Break the Cycles of Mediocrity and Manifest Your Greatness

There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity

Published

4 weeks ago

Nov 16, 2023

Jamelle Sanders

Image Credit: Midjourney

In just a few weeks, we will be wrapping up 2023. Can you believe it? This year has been absolutely incredible for me.

I have seen amazing doors opened, new relationships formed and I am seeing dreams realized in my life. While this seems like the hallmarks of a great year, this has also been the most challenging year of my life. With all of the change happening in my life, I have been forced out of my comfort zone and challenged to grow in every area of my life.

I can truly say that I have made the most of my moments this year and I have used everything as a catalyst for maximizing my greatest potential.

As a revolutionary leader, I have the pleasure of consulting and advising leaders around the world to fulfill purpose, realize their greatest potential and make an impact.

I want to share some insights with you that will help you to break cycles of mediocrity and manifest your greatness.

Everything legal must come through the matrix

I am sure that some of you are wondering why I am using the term matrix. However, what you have to understand is that I am trying to make a highly complex spiritual principle practical to understand.

Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, every life has an origin and I believe that origin is divine and begins with eternity. You are birthed from eternity and into time to fulfill a unique purpose and assignment in your lifetime and generation.

The matrix is simply the portal or vehicle that brings something out of the invisible realm and into tangible form. The problem with much of the teaching today is that it excludes the matrix. We are told to believe that success is instantaneous and overnight.

Nobody talks about how a dream progresses through stages beginning with visualization and ultimately culminating in manifestation. Without a matrix or portal then everything that you attempt to birth and build will be illegal.

The matrix not only makes you legal but it gives you the authority and power to function as the greatest expression of who you were created to be.

Every matrix has an incubation process

While many people admire and respect me today, I remember a time when nobody knew who I was or the significance of my message. How did I get to where I am today? I got here through an incubation process.

In other words, everything that has been destined for your life is incubating and awaiting a set time of manifestation. The problem is that most people live their entire lives idle and never initiate the incubation process.

What do I meany by that? Most people are living reckless and very few people are living intentionally. I am amazed at the number of people I have conversations with that have no vision, goals or strategies for their lives. They show great promise and they have undeniable potential.

However, without development they will die with their dreams still in them.

Everything that has been destined for your life must be incubated and converted to become realities born to time.

“Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin to build.” – Robert Collier

You must give expression to that which is not yet born to time

When you think about a matrix or a prophetic incubation process, you have to understand that potential is often unrealized and untapped. In other words, your potential is in raw form and your potential cannot serve you as long as it is untapped.

The thing that makes me valuable is that I have the ability to convert potential into power. I have done it in my own life and I have empowered leaders around the world to do the same. How do you convert potential into power?

First, it is important to note that you have to perceive potential. If you cannot perceive your potential then you can never cultivate your potential. In addition, you must take the time to cultivate your potential. We often get excited about our capabilities; however, we never expand our capacity in order to realize our greatest potential.

In other words, the strength of your potential is only discovered through your willingness to stretch. The more we are challenged the more we are empowered to expand our capacity for greatness. Most of all, you must begin to express your potential. The expression of potential is different for every person.

For example, the expression of my potential is best demonstrated through the thoughts, ideas, products, services, books, etc.

For another person the expression of potential may look like a screenplay, artwork, sports, scientific discoveries, medical breakthroughs, etc.

Regardless of the form of expression, I know that you will live empty and unfulfilled until you make the decision to express your potential. The expression of your potential gives voice to your dreams, life to your vision, significance to your moments and activates your true power.

You must manifest your greatness

As a revolutionary thinker and leader, my work has impacted people around the world. I am grateful that my life is a source of empowerment to so many people. However, before anyone could ever benefit from my life, I had to make a non-negotiable decision to become who I was born to be.

I wish I could tell you that this journey is easy and that you will get there overnight. However, in a world that celebrates us for doing we are often criticized for being. As a result, I wasted a lot of time trying to be who other people wanted me to be instead of being who I was born to be.

There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity. It is through our bravery to be vulnerable that we ultimately manifest our greatness. We do not bless the world by being a duplicate. We bless the world when we honor our difference. When you honor your difference you honor your potential.

Ultimately, your difference is how you manifest your greatness.

When you present anything but your authentic self to the world, you are playing small and you are robbing the world of your significance. Manifesting your greatness requires you to master your gifts.