How do you feel about Money?

Did you like maths when you were a kid?

Did you line up for that class super eager beaver for it to start? I didn't.

I was always waiting for things like PE so I could do sports or anything outdoors. I liked art, except for the teacher, and I also liked cooking and sewing classes, really anything that doesn't have you sitting there with a paper and pen.

When it comes to business finances, I think we have so much crap going on inside our heads that this restless intelligence is going off. After all, we are highly intelligent creatures, and our brain tells us we should be able to get. But do you remember back in school days when you were faced with maths, and you didn’t know the answers? I do. I hated maths at school, so much that if someone had told me that in my future, I would be surrounded by numbers and love them as much as I do, well you can imagine what I would have said to them.

When we're growing up, we have so many external influences. You might've grown up poor or in a family that struggled to make ends meet, living week to week. This was my upbringing, but I watched my parents work their a$$es off to keep the roof over our heads and food on the table. In my late teens, I realized this, and I started to see my relationship with money.

I put my blinkers on, and I did all the dumb sh;t anyway, but you know what? I don't regret it. I had to learn, albeit the hard way, but I had to go through it, I had to experience it for myself. So I'm going to call myself a recovering financial disaster. Well, if the glove fits, I'm going to wear it. I think it's more important for us to recognize first, how do we feel about money? Is it our friend? Is it our foe? 

Money is a tool. That's my opinion of money, money is definitely a tool. I consider money my friend, maybe because I work with it so much. I don't look at it as good or bad, it is definitely 100% a tool I get along with. 

I think the reason why I brought a friend to the table is that it can seem like a friendship. Some friendships last a lifetime and have rough patches, they're not always perfect. So when you think about money as your friend, think about a long-term friend that you've had. It's not always peachy, you're not always on good terms, maybe you have a little bit of a spat with each other and maybe don't get along, or you're not always fully in touch with each other all the time.

Sometimes we take a break from our friends, not intentionally, sometimes life just gets busy. So, it kind of translates for me. So when you think of money as your friend, are we catching up with it regularly? Is it at the top of our minds?

When you think of money, do you love it or hate it? Your first answer is the right one. And by the way, there's no right or wrong answer. Second question. When you think of business finances, is that your friend? Again, your tummy just told you straight up and this is all okay.

You don't have to love your response to both questions either, it's not needed. If you don't want to feel the way you do, you have the power to change it. Hang out with me for a little bit and we can touch base a little later and see how you're going. But identification is key.

Now let's dive in a little deeper. Put your hand up, if business finances make you feel queasy or even physically sick. Do you know why? Did you despise maths class? Did you have a relative that gave you a bad example? Did you lose your pocket money in a game of marbles when you were eight years old? It only takes one tiny thing to turn us off something for life, and it can take a lifetime for us to not feel that way anymore.

It can be a rollercoaster ride as well, think about going to a theme park with your friend and you're going from here to there, doing everything. It can be something good, something not so good, and we have to check in, sometimes we need to pick up the phone to our friend and say, g'day.

You have those conversations, you touch base with it. That's how I feel about money, you know, I'm in that field. So obviously for me, checking in on it, touching base with it is very normal to me and it's not going to be normal for everybody else. But I see it as it can be, it really can be simple if we come back to the idea of friends. Have you ever had a friend that has just been a little bit too much, or a little bit overwhelming? I've definitely had those friends.

Maybe you're on the fence. Perhaps you have a good year and then you have a bad one. You might have a couple of years in a row that can go either way. This is all okay, there's no rule book to life. There is no rule book for money. Many of the air quotes, and great influences will tell you that you can make a million dollars in a weekend. "Just follow my simple plan" what a crock of BS that is and part of me wonders when we have that influence shoved down our throat on social media. If we don't then build a hate relationship with money because of pure disappointment. Because we're constantly told you can do this if you only do that, then it doesn't happen. 

I've actually had people give me feedback lately that they physically feel sick. Like they actually feel ill about their finances. And other people have said it's just not their jam. It's just not their favorite thing. And I get it because I don't read, I can't stand reading words, so that's not my favorite thing, and I'm sure there's a long list of other things that are not comfortable with and things that I would much prefer to outsource and some things I do outsource for that very reason. So, from these conversations, I just want everyone to realize it's okay.

Let's identify how we feel about money and just be open and honest and have an open mind and know that it can change. It doesn't have to be the way it is, and it may not always be that we can't control the universe and we certainly can't control sometimes how we feel. So, I don't want you to beat yourself up. But just have that knowledge in your mind to know where you sit with the finances and if it's not your jam, that's okay. There are plenty of people in this world that can help you. I'm certainly one of them, and I hope that this episode has certainly brought some value to you to think about your relationship with money.