A Cloud of Unknowns

I had an interesting discussion with clients this week about a budget. We had discussed how we sometimes are more comfortable leaving certain things in a kind of cloud of unknowns around us than bringing it into reality to deal with.

With money, how many of us have gone weeks, months, or years letting our expenses live in our heads? What about letting the thoughts of what an emergency expense would do to our delicate equilibrium of life? Sometimes it is even easier not to think about the good things we want to do because we may be afraid to see how it may not be possible beforehand.

This may be a comfortable place for a while, but in the end it is unhelpful. Bringing those unknowns out of that cloud and into reality gives you something to look at and attack. Something that is in front of you to deal with instead of living rent free in your head.

Imagine that you are deathly afraid of rattlesnakes. For years you worry about what would happen if you encountered a rattlesnake in your garage. The very thought gives you shivers and intense fear. You never want to actually encounter that reptile in that place.

Now, imagine that one day you find a rattlesnake in your garage! There it is, physically present in the place you were afraid to see it. Except now, you can do something about it! Whether you encourage it to live elsewhere or get a shovel to relieve it of it's head, you have options to resolve the situation. Once you have dealt with the issue, now your fear is less because you have shown you can deal with the situation in reality.

I encourage you to take the same tact with your spending and budget going forward. If something is worrying you about spending or cost, bring it into reality by naming it in your budget. Give it a dollar value. Give purpose to some of your income to taking care it.

Eventually, you may find you have less of a cloud of fear around your money and budget, and more of a spirit of power and accomplishment.

Would that be worth facing the fear?