There’s a Lifespan to the choices we make!
These wise words are from Teresa Romain of Access Abundance, which she has allowed me to share with you.
(and there’s a special offer for us all at the end).
There’s a Lifespan to the choices we make!
If you were to plant a tomato seed in the soil, you wouldn’t expect to come back the next day and see a full-grown tomato plant laden with red tomatoes.
Yet many of us (myself included!) often hope to see immediate or close-to-immediate results as soon as we start taking “abundance actions” or practicing new, more “abundant” behavior.
I find that this is especially true when it comes to money.
But that’s not the way things work - especially in the physical world. That’s because there’s a lifespan to the consequences or results of all of the previous (maybe less than abundant) choices you’ve made and actions you’ve taken.
Consider the example of someone - we’ll call her Joan - who decided, at the beginning of this New Year, to begin living within her means so that she can finally begin saving and investing money for her future. Joan’s take-home pay each month is $2,800.
She starts tracking all of the money she spends. As a result, she stops going out to eat as much as she usually does. She brings her lunch with her to work four out of five days. She resists her temptation to go on a shopping spree after a particularly stressful week.
She makes all of these changes and more. Yet, at the end of the month, she has no money left over for savings or investing.
It appears as if she has nothing to show for all the changes she made.
Why?
For the simple reason that for the previous 6 months or 12 months or 3 years (or 20 years!), Joan has NOT lived within her means. If she has been making $2,800 each month, she has been spending $3,800 or more!
The choices she has made in her past to live beyond her means - and the debt that has resulted - have a lifespan of their own.
So - despite the fact that she is making a different choice and living within her means - that doesn’t mean that she will immediately see the benefits of that new choice because she still has to deal with the debt she now has as a consequence of her previous choices.
She makes $2,800 each month… but let’s say that $900 of that goes for debt payments each month. Even if she starts living within her means today, that doesn’t mean that the debt will immediately go away or that she will have money “left over” each month to save for the future.
What it may mean instead is that she makes $2800 and spends $2800 (including her debt payments) until such point in time that some or all of her debt is paid off.
And that, my friend, is actually PROGRESS!
The problem is that Joan might not see or recognize her progress because she doesn’t have any money to save or invest!
And, not seeing that she has “anything to show” for her new “live within her means” behavior, there’s a good chance she might stop taking those new, more abundant actions! Instead of continuing to live within her means for the time it takes to handle the consequences of her previous decisions, she could wind up incurring even more debt - thereby prolonging her scarcity and financial indebtedness!
This process - of completing the lifespan of your previous, “less than abundant” choices and behavior - is a necessary part of the process of accessing abundance (financially and in all areas of our lives).
It’s a stage that requires commitment, consistency, discipline and patience (all of which are qualities of abundance). It’s a stage that requires you to focus on and celebrate the PROGRESS you’re making rather than “what’s not yet happening”.
The process of accessing greater levels of abundance in your life requires you to shift the way you think, the choices you make and the actions you take! But making those shifts on your part does not guarantee similar shifts (at least not at first) in terms of your results!
But the new results WILL come… provided you remember to celebrate your progress along the way!
Here’s to you, your progress AND your abundance!
Enjoy your day!
Teresa Romain
President & Founder
*Access Abundance
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