Demons are thought to be supernatural creatures that can attack you at any corner at any time. I believe those demons exist! You see, I think demons are lurking IN you and me everyday as we deal with our money, manage our investments, and reach for financial freedom. Let's take some time to discuss those demons as we identify how they can hurt us and figure out ways to slay them!
Let's start with maybe the biggest demon of them all, the one that hangs around constantly pointing out our faults. This demon overstates our miscues and doesn't pay mention to our talents. This demon will send you down a very black hole if you allow it. Listening to this demon as if it was the only truth, causes us to lose hope, stop trying, and literally give up on our dreams when tough times arise.
It is critical that you realize that we all have weaknesses and that is okay. We improve on them over time and lean in on our talents which are many, even though the demon will not mention them. When that demon rises up, you MUST stand up to him and do what is difficult. By challenging that demon again and again, it diminishes him. Do what is easy and life will be hard. Do what is hard and life will be easy.
The next demon is the creature we call fear. He makes us fearful of all things bad. It could be the thought of losing our job and thereby our earning power, the stock market tanking, taking our portfolio to $0, our retirement being pushed out to never, never land, etc. The demon called fear stops us in our tracks from improving our lives. It robs us of our humanity as we curl up in a ball and try to hide from the world.
This demon can be overcome by understanding what you are dealing with, a paper tiger. This emotion hurts you only if you allow it to hurt you. Those fears can be reduced and minimized dramatically by pushing through them with education and courage. Moving forward into your fear with action will push this demon aside. The dragon becomes a nat that you shoo away. You are in charge!
The next demon is one of apathy and pathological procrastination. This demon is truly evil as it tells us to not care and to push off into the future all of the challenges that we do not want to confront today. This leads to an empty existence where we accomplish very little and allow what needs to be done to fester inside us. If we allow this demon to win, a life of regret is sure to follow.
This demon can be overcome by dealing with what needs to be done right NOW. We do not push it off until tomorrow. We get it done and then we move on to the next item. This provides us a sense of accomplishment as we get things done in the present, creating a better future without regrets. This demon can be slayed with a mindful approach to being fully present with your thoughts and actions.
The next demon is the thought that you have forever to do things. You don't. You and I are going to die, probably sooner than we hoped. By letting this demon tell you to put off the things you want to do to some far off future, you are allowing it to stop you from what you really want to do. This can cause a great deal of sorrow over time as you age, looking back on what you wanted to do, but didn't.
This demon can be overcome with action today, knowing there may not be a tomorrow. Overcome this demon with the realization you are going to die and then use that reality to jumpstart what it is you want to do with your life before you pass. By getting busy doing what you were meant to do, this demon slowly falls away because you are so busy doing. Go here to get an idea about how much time you might have left.
The next demon is the one telling you to live in the past where all of the "good" times were. This demon reframes your past to make it look and feel much better than it actually was. It hides the bad and highlights the good, remembering only what it allows you to know from your past. It is a skewed look, but this demon paints it themselves keeping you from seeing the good today.
The way you conquer this demon is to let go of the past, embrace the present and plan for the future. You make the decision to live in reality instead of some distorted view of your past life. The more you are in the moment, the less you are thinking about the "good ole days." You are creating a life right now that will lead to a better life in the future. Push that demon away; he is lying to you. Go design your future!
There is one final demon we should expose. It is the demon of guilt over the mistakes we have made knowingly or not. It tries to get us to dwell on those miscues, sending us down a rabbit hole that appears to go on forever. We will feel worse the more times we relive our guilt provided by the demon himself. This keeps us in a perpetual state of anxiety and unhappiness. This demon is a killer.
This demon is conquered by letting go of the past and whatever mistakes were made. We learn from them, but we do not dwell. We move on from something that we have no control over. We let go of all guilt and simply embrace the present as we strive to grow beyond our past, creating a better future. We release ourselves from our past. It is gone and a new day is here. Move on and go forward. That is our mantra.
What does all of this have to with personal finance? These underlying demons cause a great deal of harm to the individual as they try to traverse life with their money coming and going out of their life. If they allow those demons to run their life, there won't be much of a life to live. Once they let go of those demons, reducing their hold, better finances and a better life can follow. Slay that demon!
