Lately I’ve been talking to my clients about how to consciously spend by putting a gap ino our process. A gap between the thought and act gives us time to make a conscious choice rather than one based on unconscious money beliefs.
The size gap doesn’t really matter; we just need a little break to ask ourselves, “Why am I doing this?” When we do, we sometimes discover we are spending for all the wrong reasons – or at least not for the reasons we thought. The gap gives us an opportunity to change our minds.
Unfortunately, in spite of all my talking, I forgot to use that gap on Monday. Late afternoon, I went to the stores in Freeport to pick up a few things. I ran into a friend (while getting lost coming out of the new parking garage) and joked, “I’m not sure what I’m looking for, but I’ll know it when I see it.” (Boy, did I miss that clue!)
$300 dollars later, I arrived home with odds and ends for my family, and, three new sweaters for myself—bargains I just couldn’t refuse. The Holiday Spirit had me so enthralled that it took me until tonight to realize it wasn’t the Holiday Spirit but rather the Holidaze of “one more gift” combined with beckoning signs of “60% off the already reduced 50% price!”
Old beliefs of the perfect Holiday had combined with bargain beliefs to bury the thought of that gap so deep that it didn’t surface for 36 hours—and not until I woke up in the middle of the night! But, all is not lost; in the words of Scarlett O’Hara, “…tomorrow’s another day!” All I can do is try again. This financially conscious life is not easy!
Fiddle-dee-dee! Still not perfect…