Make The Money You Want

Larry, a client of mine, recently shared the memory that his Mom wasn’t very happy when he was applying for colleges. She wanted him to fill out scholarship applications, and he was dragging his feet. His school wasn’t that expensive, and the family had enough money to pay for the school. "It just wasn’t that important to me," Larry now realizes.

Larry is willing to acknowledge what most adults won’t – we tend to avoid the things we don’t want to do. We often think this is a bad thing, but it is simply the way it is. It can even be a good thing if we use this information to identify what is important to us and then start paying attention to it.

I’m not saying that you never have to do what you don’t want to do. I’m saying that you need to find a way to align what’s really important to you and what you’re doing. If you aren’t nurtured in ways that are important to you, you will start to burn out. You may get sick or sabotage yourself, your work, your finances, your diet or exercise program or even your relationships.

Most of us know what excites us, and whatever we do must be in line with this. If I had a job that required sitting at a desk going over numbers all day, no matter how much money I made, I would soon burn out. If you told me that dealing with those numbers would help the children starving in Asia, I might be able to do it for a while longer before burning out. Making and sustaining an income when your day is filled with activities you don’t enjoy is difficult and may be costly to your health, your relationships, your spirit and your self-esteem.

In contrast, making your life line up with your inclinations and desires can go a long way toward making every area of your life rewarding – including your finances. The bottom line is that you will not succeed or thrive in a job or career that is not aligned with your desires Be conscious about your choices

Sometimes we’re blessed with a life and career that clearly follows our bliss. Sometimes things are great. Other times, we may need to remember why we’re doing what we’re doing in the first place. For instance, we deal with the trials of working in a bureaucracy as a teacher in elementary school because we love to teach kids AND we want summers and holidays to travel to exotic places. Yet we get caught up in the day-to-day stuff of life and lose sight of the fact that we made choices – sometimes by default but often for very good reasons. We get lost focusing on the things we don’t like and forget what we’re about and why we chose to be in this situation in the first place – playing the victim rather than owning our power and freedom.

This isn’t simply about positive thinking. This is about crafting your thoughts, actions, feelings and even your energy patterns to make your life and finances work. It’s about finding your core values, your spiritual beliefs, recognizing who you are and making sure these are in sync. When you do this, things become very simple.

If an action doesn’t support who you are, who you want to be, or what your life is about, then you simply shouldn’t do it. Whatever it is. If family is your primary value, and your job undercuts your family relationships – it’s the wrong job. Or if your work doesn’t support having a big vision and giving to others, and that's a core value for you, then you need to reevaluate it.

In the late 1970s, I was hired by a school district to implement the new Education for All Handicapped Act. I thought I was hired to help the kids and the classroom teachers – to make a real difference and create a great program. It turned out that I was hired to help the district change as little as possible to be in minimal compliance with the law. It was clear to me that I couldn’t strive to create mediocrity. They had the wrong consultant for their goal, and I had the wrong position for my integrity and my vision. We happily parted ways at the end of the school year.

A colleague was looking for a corporate sponsor for a health-related product. One of her priorities was to see if she and the company she was considering were on the same page about health and the quality of the food they brought to the public. She was clear – if not, no deal and no problem! Lack of alignment was a deal breaker.

We often have trouble making the income we’d like because we’ve lost our focus and we’re out of sync. We come up with all kinds of theories about what’s wrong – lack of a mentor, lack of capital to get our business going, lack of education or know-how. What’s really going on is that something is out of whack – a lack of congruence between body, mind, and spirit.

I suggest that if you want to make your financial life work, take a look right now and see if it is in alignment with who you are and who you aim to be. I was interviewed recently for a video segment on finance and divorce. I suggested that viewers check to see if their finances were in line with who they were. When I was finished, a woman came over to me all excited and said, "That’s me. That’s me." She knew she was bright, competent and had a lot to offer, but she wasn’t making the money that seemed appropriate for who she was. Her own financial situation was way out of line with her abilities, her vision, and who she wanted to be in this world.

So, if your finances aren’t in line with your talents, with your vision, with who you are now and with who you want to be, ask yourself "What isn’t working?" Ask yourself how you got where you don’t want to be. Explore how someone with your gifts and personality could create what you want. The bottom line is that you need to continually ask yourself what is important to you and what works for you – and take action on your answer.