Life Can Seem Unfair
I have suffered job loss and unable to cover bills from my savings. I know the pain of getting calls from bill collectors. I have suffered the effects of divorce and paying child support. I can see why God wanted us to stay married for life. And perhaps you have had similar or other painful experiences in your life.
Life can sometimes seem unfair. There were times when my brother-in-law would say, “If it weren’t for bad luck, you would have no luck at all!”
However, I worked to change all that, beginning with my attitude and my vision of my future. It took some honest self-reflection to see how my decisions had created difficulties for myself at home and at work.
Love and Money
As for your relationships, you must remember one thing. Money will be a factor in any close relationship. Not money itself, but the managing of money. A long look at how your friends perceive savings over using credit will reveal a lot about their financial maturity.
I mention financial maturity because there must be an understanding about living within your means. When spending goes beyond income there must be a sense of responsibility to reduce any debt that occurs. That means working extra or cutting back on spending until the situation has improved.
Without that attitude and perspective, a relationship has a lot of stress built in that will strain the connection between them.
To keep love in your life, you need to be open about your money maturity.
Consider the Hopeless and the Homeless
I know there are many reasons why so many feel hopeless about their income potential and find they cannot afford a place to live. They become homeless and have more difficulty finding work, especially if they have no transportation.
Since I have started this blog to help you build a better mindset for money, I am hopeful that you can learn to control your money to the point that you can afford to give others some help and hope for their future.
Transition to Hope
You must make this transition to hope before you can help others. And part of that process is developing a willingness to work on yourself. You must get beyond blaming circumstances for your problems.
I often reflect on the advice Jim Rohn received as a young man. He had stated that things cost too much. His mentor said, “No, you can’t afford them!” That can be the driving force behind you getting up each day with the intention to learn more skills to increase your earning potential!
You must face the facts about your knowledge base. William James, a well-known philosopher and psychologist, also the godson of Ralph Waldo Emerson, noted that we use less than 10% of our mental capacity. Knowing that, you must allow yourself more potential than you had in the past!
Just because you feel stuck in your job or whatever line of work you pursue doesn’t mean that will always be your future. You must open your mind up for change!
A little self-talk and reflection on your decision process that has brought you to this point in your life can give you some insight into what you really want to pursue. Then, setting goals is the next logical step. The key is to not set limits on what you might want to do.
Goals for Growth
For those who have not allowed themselves hope for the future, goals can seem like a futile attempt to change your circumstances. But consider this from Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
Goals provide some hope for the future. Start with small goals that can be easily accomplished to build your confidence. But always have bigger goals for your future that will help you see other steps to get you closer to reaching them.
Over time, you will see that some goals are simple with just a few steps to reach them. And other goals require months, if not years, to prepare and make transitions to accomplish them. Those are steps not roadblocks.
Encourage Growth
Just as you might encourage someone else to keep trying, keep a positive attitude about what lies ahead, you must have faith that you can learn more, understand more, and achieve more than you feel capable of today.
Experts do not become experts overnight. They focus on learning about something until they know more than anyone else about that subject. Perhaps you are afraid of becoming an expert. However, there is knowledge available to you to aid your accumulation of skills that will increase your earning potential. That should be an incentive for learning all you can.
If you earn more you can afford more!
Make no mistake, you cannot learn much just sitting in a library. You must make yourself read, study, and plan what experiences will add to your being able to apply that new knowledge.
Can You Afford to Save?
There are many in need of help. My desire is that you and I can reach that point where we can afford to save enough to give others the help they need.
You must work to stabilize yourself before you get too carried away with helping others. However, be faithful when you do see a need. Remember the Biblical story of the “widow’s mite”, see Mark 12:41-44. Your goal may be to position yourself to be a help to many.
This is a very personal thing. However, as difficult as it may seem sometimes, helping others will help you feel better about yourself. And I am sure that God will be happy that you were willing to help!
Be Encouraging
Building a better mindset for money goes far beyond the money itself. How you manage your income and how you pursue your income will greatly affect how you spend and why you learn to save.
Be encouraging to yourself and it will be easier to be encouraging to others.
Look beyond today. Have faith in things that you are unable to see today. Allow yourself to learn. Give yourself the options to grow mentally and spiritually.
Read. Seek advice and you will find it. Pay attention to what you need to know. Study what you need to learn. Apply what you know.
The more skills you learn will add to your value as a person and in the job market. Then, you can afford to save for good!