Are you INCOMmitted?
Commitment is a scary thing…only when you don’t know what you want.
It is expected of you to be committed to your family, to your children, to your religion, to your significant other, to your job, to your friends, to your country, but labeled as greedy when committed to your money.
If money is one of the seven areas of life,(Spiritual, Mental, Financial, Vocational, Social, Family, and Physical), who’s to say one area takes precedence over another?
I’ve seen more negative connotation to the idea of mastering wealth than any other area of life.
What do you call a person who is committed…
extremely to spiritual? Holy, Saved, Enlightened, or Prophet
extremely to mental? Nerd, Smart, Genius, or Prodigy
extremely to vocational/career? Professional, Expert, Distinguished, or Master
extremely to social? Popular, Famous, Influential, or Renowned
extremely to family? Loyal, Nurturing, or Role Model
extremely to physical? Healthy, Fit, Strong, Athletic, or Vigorous
extremely to financial? Greedy, Snobby, Selfish, “Stinking” rich, or “Filthy” rich
Notice the negative adjectives commonly used to describe rich. I don’t often hear “filthy prophet” or “stinking smart”. Whether we are consciously aware of it or not, it registers subconsciously. So why is it such a sin to be INCOMmitted?
Maybe because popular social influencers attach “get money” with “fck bitches”. Or the media extremely publicizes the sins of wealth and leaves out the blessings of it. If you watch any news anywhere in the world, you’ll start to feel like there are more people dying everyday. Truth is that roughly 150,000 people die everyday BUT roughly 360,000 people are born everyday.
It is undeniable that money is essential to life. Once you break the conscious and subconscious negative association to building wealth, you’ll be able to shift from fear based thinking to love based thinking. When I say love based thinking, I mean thinking from a balanced state of gratitude that facilitates growth. Fear based thinking is designed for survival, not growth. Imagine being in a relationship and the only thing you’re focused on is to NOT lose them. That is fear based thinking and most people manage their money the same way, to NOT lose it. In the relationship they will eventually leave you, and so will your money.
It is scary to see that the top 20% of Americans own 85% of the country’s wealth for years over and over again. It’s not because of racism, inequality, minimum wages, Obama, taxes, your hood, your friends, your teacher, or your mom. It’s because of you. If you don’t have the money you want right now, the truth is that you don’t care about it enough to have it. Well that was a kick in the teeth, but it’s the truth. The same principle applies in relationships. If you don’t care enough about a person, you’ll undermine them, under appreciate them, run over them, forget about them, and they will eventually leave you. I often hear people say at the end of the month, “I don’t know where all my money went”. Can you imagine a mother saying, “I don’t know where all my children went” the same way? You won’t hear that from most mothers because they care enough to keep them.
Do you really care about your money? Let’s put that to the test 🙂
What was the annual inflation rate in 2014?
What is your current net worth?
Is your liquidity ratio greater than 1?
What is the tax bracket percentages in the US?
Who is the wealthiest person in the US?
If you can’t answer these questions, you don’t really care about money. Why are these things important?The inflation rate determines the purchasing power of your cash, your net worth (assets-liabilities) is the true measure instead of salary/revenue, your liquidity level prevents you from having your money “tied up”, your tax bracket lets you know how much you owe Uncle Sam each year, and the wealthiest person is who you want to learn everything you can from.
Think of the last time you only had $100 to your name. You probably cared enough about it to track every penny at all times. The difference between the wealthy and the rest is that they don’t wait until their last $100 to treat their money like that. They care about it enough to know how much comes in, how much comes out, and how to make more at all times.
Commitment in marriage is the promise to stay together and work through things whether good or bad forever. With that commitment comes sacrifice. Those who generate continuous wealth apply the same principles of commitment in their marriage to their money. They save a percentage of their income no matter how good or bad times are. They keep their emotions out of the game. They make sacrifices for the greater purpose. They don’t give in to temptations and instant gratifications to splurge.
What is your relationship with your money? Are you infatuated? Is it complicated? Or are you INCOMmitted?
