As we move into the holiday season, it’s a good time for inward reflection. What have we accomplished this year? What do we still want to tackle? How are we doing in our relationships? Including those with ourselves, our family and friends and of course, our finances. What are you grateful for? Exploring gratitude can have a multifaceted impact on your life! When reflecting upon what you’re grateful for when it comes to your finances, you’ll likely think to yourself something like: ‘I’m so grateful I enjoy my job,’ or ‘I’m just thankful I’m able to cover my expenses and have a little extra left over for savings.’ But the more thought we put into the small details that we are thankful for, the more we realize we have, and that has a powerful impact on how we view what we ‘need’ or what we decide to spend on, amongst many other things. Gratitude can have a positive impact on our finances! Being grateful for what we have...
Can enhance delayed gratification
Cultivate contentment
Promote generosity
We’ve touched on the value of delayed gratification in a recent email - but we want to highlight that by being more in touch with what we’re grateful for can actually combat the feelings of instant gratification; meaning you’re less likely to make impulse purchases and think through what’s really valuable and worthwhile to you and your goals. Impulse purchases give us a ‘high’ if you will, but that pretty quickly subsides, and you’ll start chasing after another high - this can be pretty detrimental to our psyche and finances if we don’t keep it in check. You may find that in the time it takes to save up for a big purchase that you don’t really ‘need’ it anymore, maybe it was a fleeting ‘want’ or that you’ve found some other lower cost way to secure whatever item it was you were saving up for. Take for example, a beautiful coffee table you’ve had your eye on - do you need to purchase it brand new today with a big price tag, or can you hold out a while and find a more unique and likely more inexpensive one second hand? When we think about what we are appreciative of, happiness starts to bubble up inside of us, and it might even make you emotional! You might realize not all of what makes you happy is based on material things and you can make better financial decisions to make sure you’re happy in the long run, not just today.
Here are some tips on how to achieve your gratitude mindset ✍️ Jot it down Putting pen to paper for this sort of thing really helps create connection. Heck, jot it down on a fun sticky note and put it on your mirror or refrigerator so you are reminded of the beauty of the people, relationships and things you already have. And you can always keep adding to this list 🙂 🗣️ Speak Up A warm ‘thank you’ and smile to the person bagging your groceries, or a simple 'Great shoes!' to someone on the exercise bike next to you can go a long way! Trust us, not only will you feel a little lift of happiness, but so will they! As you learn to acknowledge what others do for you, you will be more inclined to look for the good in others and develop a greater capacity for gratitude and positive thinking. ✨Pick a Favorite I had a friend in school whose family would often have me over for dinner and every night, each family member would share their ‘favorite thing of the day.’ Sometimes it was as seemingly inconsequential as ‘my favorite thing about today is this green bean casserole’, but sometimes it was ‘my favorite thing about today was getting a 96% on the test I studied my tail off for!’ And while it might sound totally cheesy, this kind of exercise helps build connection and pluck out some good from every day even if it felt like a boring or even bad day. We hope that you’ll take us up on some of these exercises in gratitude - and we would love to hear updates if you start to see shifts in your life as a result; whether they be personal, financial, or both! We are grateful for you, Compass Financial Family, and are happy to connect if you have any questions on how to address your financial goals.
Hozzászólások