Discover Your Passion for Life through Money & Values

One of the things I love about what I do is that I get to talk to some pretty incredible women.  The world they are juggling is immense, and rather than celebrating how amazing they are, they either beat themselves up for not being able to do everything they want to do.  Or, they are feeling depleted, with a lack of passion for life, and no idea why.

There’s no wonder – what with all the roles being potentially juggled – a mother, a wife or partner, a daughter, a grand-daughter, a sister, a co-worker, a friend, a carer and possibly even more than that!

Where amongst all that is there time for the woman herself to be able to identify, let alone connect with and live her passion?!

Some of us are better at making time for ourselves than others, but there is a general trend where the “self” is ignored.  That’s not to say you become selfish or self-absorbed – at least not all the time.  There are times though when it’s OK to focus on yourself and figure out what it is you want to do with your life.

One of the ways you can do this is by identifying and understanding your Core Values, creating a vision for your lifestyle, and then setting up your money to get you there.  Sounds like a simple recipe for happiness, right?

Well, simple it may be.  Easy, is another thing.  It is also incredibly difficult to do on your own.  We no longer have access to a “village” of help, and the volume and pace of interruption in our lives is huge (and I’m not even talking about the number of times your kids interrupt you in a day – this is all sorts of other interruptions, including the digital/social media kind).

Before I get too carried away, I’ll back up a bit and explain what I mean by Values, Lifestyle and Money.

Firstly, Values.  What are Values?  They operate as a compass for your life, helping you to head in the direction you want in a purposeful way.  That means being deliberate with your intentions, decisions and behaviour.  Without knowing and understanding your Values it is more likely that your life feels random and not in your control.

Values help you to understand your past as well – why things went well and why they didn’t.  Otherwise, you are likely to repeat the patterns of your past (whether you really want to or not – as humans we lean more towards the familiar) and the people you observed growing up (aka your parents being your primary role models – which may or may not have been a good “education”, but without applying your Values to it, you won’t know which one it was!).

Values also act as a filter for future decisions – you may be at a crossroads, or even needing to decide on a job, joining a particular social or networking group, or even where to send your kids to school.  Using your Values as a filter through which to put the information you have to make your decision, will allow you to make decisions that are aligned with who you intrinsically are.  This leads to greater happiness, less decision fatigue and more energy to apply to the things you love!

Then there is Lifestyle, which is the “sweet spot” – what you are truly aiming for.  It isn’t just about retirement – why wait until you have lived most of your life to actually achieve the lifestyle you want?!  Besides, without knowing what you’re heading towards, it makes it very difficult to make decisions that will take you there.

Creating a vision for your lifestyle is important, as you will then be making money-related to decisions (aligned with your Core Values) to put you on the path to achieving that lifestyle.
For example, where do you want to be living (in the city, in a small town, by the water, in a forest, up high – so many options)?  What kind of house/apartment/farm do you want to live in? How many and what sort of holidays do you want to take each year? Do you want a fast-paced, exciting lifestyle, or a slower more low-key pace?

There are so many facets and options, and the collection of answers to a bunch of questions will for the vision of the lifestyle the YOU want – not something you think you should want, or someone else thinks you should have.

A guided lifestyle vision meditation is a great way to help with this, and it’s something I offer in my Financial Fulfillment in 7 Simple Steps course, which will be out soon.

Last, but not least, is Money. This is a huge topic, but let me ask you a few fundamental questions – What is money? Why do you want money? The first question I can answer here. 

Money is both a tool and energy.  It’s a form of exchange that humans “invented” to allow something to go from one person to another.  Before money, bartering was used.  Two things with intrinsic value were exchanged under mutually agreed terms.

These days, money is rarely even a physical thing.  It’s numbers on a computer or phone screen.  It is essentially a tool that you use to get something that you need or want.  There is also energy that surrounds money – the lack of it, the abundance of it, the wanting more of it, the perception that we don’t have enough of it.  This is all energy that comes from the thoughts in your mind that influences how you see and treat money.

Money is NOT something that defines you as a human being, nor does it indicate your worth as a person in the world.  You are a unique, wonderful human being, and no amount of money will make you a better person, or worth more than anyone else (on a human or soul level).  
In the age of social media, there is this Comparison Curse that bewitches many of us (and yes, I’m being dramatic for effect to make my point), and it’s about as insidious and harmful as the emotions of Guilt and Fear.  They have the capacity to strangle your creativity, confidence and self-belief. As you can probably tell, I’m VERY passionate about this, so before I go off on a tangent, I’ll leave it there 😊

Apart from the history and mindset side of money, there is also the “mechanical” side.  This is learned information, which we don’t get formally taught in school.  Instead, we fumble along figuring it out as we go through life – either through observation or trial and error.  Unfortunately, errors can be very expensive.

Things that we can learn about money include, how to increase our income, tax, how to match our spending to our desired lifestyle, how to save in buckets (which I call the Money Pie), how to invest and how to take care of our legacy (such as Estate Planning and Personal Insurances).

Once you figure out your Core Values and then identify the Lifestyle you want, the money side literally becomes quite simple, as you then have the clarity you need to make decisions and take action.  Things always feel more difficult when you don’t know what you’re doing or why you’re doing it.

I hope you have found this useful, and sheds a bit of light on perhaps some thoughts or conversations you have been having lately.