The subject of today's newsletter is hope, which may seem like an unlikely subject matter for a newsletter on money. But it is a very relevant subject when you're talking about change.

 

I didn't wake up one morning and decide to move to Eugene, Oregon. I am a native Californian, and had said many times that I'd never leave California. It was just out of the question.

 

I was in a workshop in 2010 about thriving in the new economy, and one of the exercises was to write about a future five years in the distance that I was passionate about. I started writing about the future I was headed for, living in Marin and gaining a foothold on my golden years. And I stopped cold...I wasn't passionate about that future.

 

That stumped me for a while. That was my future...how could I not be passionate about it? I let that percolate in my brain for a while, kind of "simmering on a back burner." My brain tends to work best if I introduce a topic and then let it baste.

 

These are the things that surfaced: I wasn't crazy about the stress I was feeling in getting around the San Francisco Bay Area. The traffic was intense and the drivers cranky. I felt rushed when I was shopping. God forbid I take a moment to note something in my checkbook or check my shopping list while at a register. I didn't like the income level I needed to make just to keep the doors open and the lights on. I was leery about getting older in an area that required such a pace.

 

If I hadn't opened up the internal discussion about this, I wouldn't have given any credence to what I was hearing. I must have thought these thoughts before, but had dismissed them as impossible. What solution could there be? It was just what "was."

 

So I said to myself, "What if I didn't have to live in California? What would I do then?" That's when I gave the green light to my imagination to come up with alternate futures. That's what led to my living in Eugene. It gave me a doorway to possibilities that hadn't been available to me until I gave myself the hope that my future could be different.

 

That's why hope is important. Without hope, we just keep on keeping on, even if we're not liking the results.

 

You don't have to live with what you have if you're not content with it (and it doesn't mean to you have move to another location). You gotta have hope.

 

One thing I've noticed is that sometimes a BIG commitment, like a six month long program sucks the hope out of change. The fear factor sets in and nothing transforms. Be sure to check out my brand new mini-program, offered in the sidebar and the end of the article. It was designed as a way to get you hopeful and started. Are you ready? Just let me know.

Until next time,

 

 

Susan

 

A special welcome to my new subscribers! I sincerely hope you will appreciate my articles and insights!

sb  

You Gotta Have Hope!

 

What do these situations have in common:

 

A couple who can't discuss money without strong words or arguments, and aren't meeting their financial goals.

 

People who make good money but can't seem to get it all to work and still save money.

 

Individuals who feel like no matter how much money they make they will struggle and never have money work for them in the way that others' seem to.

 

The common element here is that to change these situations, you need to have hope. The hope that things could be different, that you have what it takes to create a different outcome.

 

Hope is the first step toward transformation. The other two steps, planning and action, can't take place until there is a glimmer of possibility that things could improve. Without hope your imagination isn't given the green light to visualize a different outcome.

 

So what would keep us from feeling hope?

 

One of the hope-killers in our culture is the negative treatment of the news. It seems to me that the news sources make most every story about a disaster, or problem, or crime, or at least a negative spin on an event.

 

I am told that crisis sells newspapers, but I can assure you that constant negativity is counter-productive to hope. Listening to the news is a tricky business when you're trying to keep your hope alive.

 

The other culprit that sabotages hope is our self-identity. If you're choosing to identify yourself repeatedly as someone who can't save money or who is endlessly meant to struggle, you aren't allowing yourself the space to hope for it to be different.

 

Many of my clients have started their work with me saying: "I make a mess of my finances. I don't know how to handle my money." "I've never been good with money." "I've tried all the things that the books say, and it doesn't work for me."

 

I point out to them that there is a part of them that believes this can change or they wouldn't be in touch with me. I am a change agent. I hold the door for hope to enter until my clients are ready to embrace that hope for themselves. People wouldn't be in contact with me unless there is a small part of them that is ready to embrace change.

 

Because I know the power of self-identity, I watch what words my clients use about themselves. If hope is to live, it has to have an entry point and the identities we've selected for ourselves need to have room for it. How we identify ourselves can either encourage or deny hope.

 

Hope can also be a victim to the people we choose to keep around us. If the people in our lives aren't supportive, then hope has a harder time to surface. If they drain us or say damaging things about us, it becomes very difficult for hope to stay alive.

 

You can tell what effect someone has on your life by checking your energy level after you've been with them. If you feel invigorated and "full" then they are the people who will help your hope thrive. If you feel fatigued and empty then they are people you probably don't need to have in your life or have at least limited exposure to.

 

So how can you grow your hope...hope for change, hope for a better financial future, hope for a less stressful money life? If you're looking for transformation in your life, you'll need to give hope a fertile ground. Here are some ideas:

• Dispassionate news: Find a source for the facts, not the spin, on the news. This is a challenge, and means you'll need to look for a source outside of mainstream TV, radio, and newspapers. We do need to be informed, but not influenced by the push for viewership and readership.
• Check how you talk about yourself: Write down the comments that you hear yourself make to yourself. Ask yourself if these are actually true. Do holding these ideas help you or not? What if they weren't true...how would you be?
• Make a T-chart about the people in your life. Put on the left the people that invigorate you and fill you up, and on the right the people that drain you or demand more than you want to give. Can you think of a way for your time to be allocated to the people on the left rather than those on the right?
• Challenge your thoughts. If we create our own reality, why not make up a good one?

 

Hope is important. It feeds our souls. Hope lets our creativity soar and gives us the impetus to vision a better future.

 

One thing I've noticed is that the seed of hope can be  fragile. Sometimes, after a financial discovery session, the newly sprouted seed of hope can be squashed by the fear of commitment and change that a 6 month long program might suggest (even though the fear is mostly not real).

 

That's why I developed an abbreviated program that will allow you to get started, plant, cultivate and water your hope, while you begin to see the changes that are possible. It costs less than 10% of my 6 month program and in the two months that this program takes, you'll have real tools to help you achieve real change and ignite your hope in a big way!

 

Curious? Email me and I will share with you the details and help you decide if this program is right for you.

 

Life can be lighter and more stress-free if you believe it. You gotta have hope.