We are living in a stressful world: stress comes from all
directions - health, work, relationships, and, above all,
money. Financial stress is responsible for other stress
factors in life. For example, if you have a hard time
making both ends meet, most probably you have frequent
arguments with your spouse over how much money to spend,
what to spend on, and when to spend. Financial strive is
the root cause of many breakups and divorces. If you are
financially strained, you may not have full health
insurance coverage, and any major medical bill incurred due
to medical emergency will put more strain and stress on
your finance.
Stress is an underlying cause of diseases and disorders.
Stress ages an individual hard and fast.
To overcome your financial stress, you must begin with your
core values in life, which should have little to do with
money. However, your core values in life affect your
financial priorities and your financial decisions.
Therefore, your core values must not be compromised under
any circumstance, because any compromise will generate
conflict and undue stress in your life. To illustrate, if
you value your health, compromising it with poor eating
habits will only create disharmony in your health.
One of the most important core values in life is integrity.
Life is all about living - it comes with some hard work and
simple integrity. Integrity is an important personal value
that has nothing to do with money. Integrity is an
important value that God has bestowed upon each of us, and
its availability is the choice of an individual. This
important personal value can influence your own value of
money. Essentially, it is the value of what life has to
offer, not the value of things purchased with money.
If integrity is an important value in your life, that value
will be reflected in your attitude towards your financial
success and financial priorities, and hence your financial
decisions.
You will do all you can, and do it. You will make the
commitment to do it. You will become more flexible to
change in order to make it happen. You will acknowledge
that you can do it in spite of the difficulties. Integrity
makes money become a means to an end, but not an end
itself. Integrity puts your focus on efforts, rather than
on results. This takes away much of your financial stress.
Financial stress is often caused by financial problems,
which are inevitable. Don't spend time on reacting to a
financial problem: reacting would only exacerbate the
stress. Integrity will make you seek a solution to any
financial problem you may encounter. You will not leave it
to chance, nor will you ignore it. You will do everything
you can to solve the problem. For example, if you find
yourself in debt, you will not ignore it. Instead, you will
have a plan, a budget, and a roadmap to get yourself out of
debt. Integrity alleviates your financial stress.
Because of integrity, you value money, not because it can
buy you things you may not need, but because you can use
money to help others who are in need. Because money has a
value, you will spend less, and save more, and thus the
financial stress due to overshooting the budget can be
avoided.
What is the real value of money to you?
If your financial priorities are based on accumulation of
wealth, then all your financial decisions and priorities
will be based on that flawed value system, which inevitably
will lead to financial stress down the road.
Changing yourself - especially your attitude towards the
value of money - can take the financial stress out of your
life.
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Stephen Lau is a researcher and writer. He has published
several books, including "No Miracle Cures" on natural
healing; "How to Teach Children to Read" on activities and
games to teach children reading skills; and "Blueprint for
Success in Affiliate Business."
The author has also created many websites on health, eating
disorders, mental depression, golf, and smart money
management. For more information, go to:
http://www.stephenlau.name
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