“Just throw it in the bag,” says the rap star over the speakers in my Z4.
No, the rapper wasn’t robbing the store – he was buying a bunch of expensive stuff with no regard to the price.
I have been challenged this week with what T. Harv Ecker calls my ‘financial blueprint’; which is my learned attitude about money.
My financial blueprint tells me to save every penny for a rainy day, be modest with my expenditures, and to never act like I have a significant amount of money. Many in the coaching industry would tell you the same thing.
The odd thing is that the day never seems rainy enough to spend the money that I have been saving, and I always feel bad when I spend money. Is this the way to live – always feeling bad about money?
I would rather live in abundance. I am not talking about spending my money frivolously on “bling” and $1000 jeans – I am referring to abundance of happiness through planned spending and spiritual wealth.
I realized this while dropping $100 on dinner for two this Saturday… Calamari, wine, steak – the works! I also witnessed the impact of an abundant attitude when I saw 3 teenagers eating away in the same expensive restaurant with a STACK of True Religion and Abercrombie& Fitch bags behind them. These young ladies were inadvertently living three principles of having a wealthy financial blueprint. They realized that money is temporal and that we should enjoy it; that givers gain, and when you let go of money, more will eventually come; and that by spending approximately $2000 on clothing and a fancy meal created a belief in them that they could afford it. Even though they were spending their auto executive parents money (I was eating in a ritzy suburb of Detroit), these young girls will always believe that they are worth “more” from a financial standpoint.
I am NOT saying that you need to blow all of your money and quit saving. What I am saying is that when you “act as if”, you are able to imprint your mind with the reality of wealth. You can “act as if” financially as well as spiritually.
The same thing works emotionally or spiritually. As I wrote this blog, that very same Z4 that was telling me to “just throw it in the bag”, was being broken into. The thieves sliced the cloth top with a knife and crawled in with their muddy shoes to ransack my car for $5 in change and a Maglight. The only thought that kept me sane while enduring the windy 5 hour drive home from Detroit was the fact that no matter what someone did to me, I am going to live in emotional and spiritual abundance. My life would still be full and inspiring to others, and NO ONE can steal that.
So, spend a chunk of change on a fantastic gourmet meal, or go test drive that new Range Rover or Mercedes. Flip the script on a bad situation and focus on what is at the core of your being. Tell that store clerk to “just throw it in the bag” – you are only creating an easier pathway for your emotional and financial success!
Jamar Cobb-Dennard is the Vice-President of Business Development for Reachmore, which provides leadership coaching for small business and executives. Email Jamar at jamar@goreachmore.com for the latest on Reachmore’s newest seminar, Launch.
Tags: discipline, financial blueprint, Habits