“Worried about taxes — you should be” — that is the first line of a TV commercial for H&R Block, reminding viewers that there are thousands of new tax laws this year. Not-so-subtly we are told that the only way to feel less stressed about taxes is to hire their company to help sort things through.. The commercial creates fear, plays on fear — an easy target around tax time! With many people on tilt about their taxes and general state of finances, especially during these tough economic days, playing on fear is an effective strategy to get more business to H&R Block. However, it does little to get to the core energy around our attitudes about money.
So, let’s talk about money and our beliefs, and maybe even think of some new ways to think about money in a more empowering way. Let’s try to alleviate some stress by developing greater awareness of our view of money, and how our perspective may be creating some real energy blocks (Wayne Dyer says: ”When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” ).
From early childhood, we are sent messages about money from a variety of sources – our parents, friends, teachers, the media. Some messages are positive, some negative. These beliefs can have a powerful hold on us.
Here are a few of the more common sayings that maybe we have heard and taken to be Truth. Which of these resonates for you? What others come to mind?
Money doesn’t grow on trees.
Lack of money is the foot of all evil
A penny saved is a penny earned.
Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue
Money can’t buy happiness
Money is power
Discussions around money and our beliefs about it can create some extremely emotional responses. Finances and security and regrets about money wasted or money that we feel we will never have enough can create strong feelings and victim or conflict thinking. Discussions around abundance and scarcity are powerful. For many, our personal and professional value is tied to how much money we have or don’t have. It creates our self-concept. We compare ourselves to that guy down the street or hallway, who we perceive has more than us. We compare our worth to the guy driving the more expensive car.
So to get to the core of your belief by asking yourself questions like these:
What is the first thing that comes up when you think about money?
What are your feelings about abundance?
What is “enough” money to you?
What is your biggest fear about money?
How have your beliefs about money been working for or against you?
What may you be attracting based on your beliefs?
The good news is that the economic downturn, which has been devastating to many people, has also brought about a shift in thinking and values. It has created real opportunity for introspection – to start asking yourself questions like these.
D. Luke Iorio, President and CEO of my coaching school, iPEC Coaching, suggests that our values which were perhaps swept up in the “value” of the profitable economic engine that ran for 17 years, have shifted more inward — to peace of mind, to our relationships, to our overall enjoyment. Studies from The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), he says, have long indicated that employees rated their job satisfaction significantly higher than their working relationships, and “being heard” as more important than their compensation.
Well, now these values are front and center well beyond just the corporate walls.
So, maybe it is time for a new paradigm around money…Change how you think and feel about money, that is the inner-work. Begin to challenge those assumptions and limiting beliefs about what your worth.
“More than you may be aware, money is an extension of the person who uses it. Your thoughts and feelings color it, making it “filthy lucre” or blessed divine substance,” writes Eric Butterworth in “Spiritual Economics.”
And once you have done the inner-work, develop new skills – that is the outer work.
Cheryl Richardson, in “Take Time For Your Life,” offers these tips:
As for help
Balance your accounts
Know where your money goes
Cut your expenses
Pay your bills on time
Eliminate debt
Repair your credit score
Start saving
… among others
So here’s to a less stressful tax time!
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