It's Time to Grow up America

As I was listening to Barack Obama's inauguration speech, and as I read it again today, the main theme I heard was his call for us as Americans to grow up. He reminded us of the scripture that said it is time to put away childish things. I could not agree more. That's exactly what Financial Health Solutions' services and products are all about - growing up emotionally, so we can grow healthily, financially.

President Obama said, "Today I say to you the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America - they will be met." This is exactly what I ask of my coaching clients when I work with them. I ask them to meet the reality of their financial situation, by telling the truth about it. In that meeting, ironically, there is freedom and release. When we are in financial crisis, we tend to think that by denying, hiding, covering and avoiding our situation we elude it somehow. We try to free ourselves from it by running from it. But that behavior is exactly what shackles the financial crisis to us. As we meet our financial crisis, we meet our liberation from it.

One thing I hear often used as an excuse to buy what someone can't afford is ... 'I deserve it'. This is a childish attitude. Of course, we all deserve the finest things in life. We all deserve to feel pampered, nourished and excited about the purchases we make with our money. However, having or experiencing things that you can buy with money is not a matter of deservability. It is a matter of affordability and responsibility. Growing up financially, requires us to be honest with ourselves about what we can afford. It requires us to be responsible with our money because that is a sign of respecting yourself and your life. It also gives us the opportunity to meet our authentic self - who we are, with or without money and with or without financial success. In meeting our authentic self, we stop placing false value on things we can't afford. We stop the childish belief that buying things give us worth and value. And in that same meeting of our authentic self, in that same moment, we discover where our unending worth and value truly lies.