Happy New Year! The year 2013 is wrapping up and with 2014 following swiftly many are setting their resolutions, goals and wishes for the months to follow.
Nearly everybody has resolutions about one or more life areas; some have resolutions about getting healthy, others have resolutions about finding love, others want to own a new car or house and some might want to start a family. All of these resolutions are, however, incomplete because one major component needed for bringing them to fruition is money.
Money is needed or wanted to accomplish most goals, resolutions or desires; whether it is money to get that new gym equipment or a new house or money for dates everyone starts their year wanting the money to fulfill all those resolutions. Desiring to have money is a natural conclusion, but it can lead to worries and stress about accomplishing those aforementioned goals.
Monetary stress, as everyone knows, can completely zap your energy to the point of not being able to accomplish the very goals for which one needed the money. The following mental attitudes are meant to relieve at least a tiny bit of that stress.
The first of these is pretty simple and straightforward:
1. Have a Positive Outlook
Having a positive outlook means that you feel positively about money. Someone with a positive outlook might say” I’m grateful I have the money to pay this bill!”, instead of complaining and stressing out about the bill. Those with positive outlooks frame most situations in a positive way. One might not have the money to pay a bill today, but the money might be there tomorrow. Those with a positive outlook will say” I will have the money tomorrow” or ask themselves how they can get the money.
Monetary situations framed in a positive manner give the person freedom from worry and the dividends paid in peace of mind are absolutely worth it!
2. Things are Temporary
People with positive outlooks (see the point above) understand that- though today they might be out of money- committing oneself to making the money requires not only a positive outlook but the understanding that things are truly temporary. Paying a bill might require that you work for a few days, whereas paying off all your debt might take years but it is all a temporary situation and depends on you to take action.
Framing situations in temporary terms gives one ways to plan around these situations and actually have a life.
A person can plan to do certain things at certain times or set financial goals if looking at them in terms of how much time it will take to accomplish those goals. This makes the goal tangible and concrete instead of an ethereal worry and puts control of the monetary situation firmly in the hands of the person.
3. A Situation not A Problem
Speaking of temporary situations another great mental attitude is to frame everything as ‘a situation’. The main reason for this is psychological because situations are not only temporary but also solvable and the connotation of having problems is that everything is hard to solve and going slowly or not going at all.
Events framed as situations once again put the control firmly in the hands of the person thus freeing the mental energy expended worrying about the problem. This mental energy can then be focused to plan positive solutions to the temporary monetary setbacks people might experience.
4. Practice Detachment
Repeat after me “You are not your monetary situations”. Detachment is my favorite mental attitude because it has instant effects and can be applied to more than monetary situations. This attitude is basically a mood elevator because when one detaches from their temporary monetary situation it frees the mind and the person to deal with life as a whole.
That means that nobody is poor or broke.
This means we are all people dealing with temporary monetary situations. A person practicing Detachment might say I have a temporary setback instead of identifying negatively with the lack of money and saying I’m broke. The detached person will resist defining themselves by the way money manifests in her life. These four mental attitudes are meant to be used in tandem one can start with any one and move on to the next one or start with all of them or just use two.
Every person is different with unique personal goals dreams and monetary situations.
This article is meant to be a stress relief and is written from the personal experience of the author in the hope of giving readers a stress free New Year! Happy Holidays!