Things I've Learned Vol. 002
This week has had quite the theme of money surrounding it. I’m not sure what’s in the air but I’ve been thinking constantly about the green goods that makes the world go round. So, with that being said, most of the things I’ve learned this week revolve around just that. I’ve been thinking more and more about how I’m going to make more, the steps I’m going to take to get there, what I’m going to do when I have it, and so on. This has mainly all come about because I picked up the book You Are A Badass At Making Money by Jen Sincero which has so quickly changed my perspective on making money—I’m even reading it a second time over again. So saying I would recommend giving it a read is a bit of an understatement. Here are some of the key things I’ve learned so far in my first read.
Money Isn’t The Root Of All Evil: I think many people have this belief, I mean, it’s literally a thing that people say. I thought I believed this also to be true, and I still feel like Capitalism has such negative effects on our psyches and society (and the fact that so many people are suffering while others are stupid rich is so frustrating), HOWEVER, I think this saying only rings true if the owner of the riches is also evil. Basically, reading this book has made me realize I have some negative feelings towards money that I need to let go of, because if I keep having these negative feelings about money, I’ll keep blocking money from coming my way. It’s hard to break these beliefs I’ve had for literally my whole life, but you have to start somewhere—right? Also, I know that if I had more money to give, I would give it. I would donate to Plan Parenthood and give my money to people who are running for office that I believed in, but I can’t really do that right now considering I’m still paying off my student loans and spend most of what I make in a month. Sad, I know.
Manifestation Has More Power Than You Think: Ever since my mom read the book The Secret, I’ve gotten an ear full about how positive thoughts have such a profound effect on your life, so I’m no newbie at it. However, I feel like I do lack the consistency one needs in order to actually manifest situations into reality. So, what this book has taught me so far is that I need to make time (and space) for these manifesting thoughts to occur. I’ve been trying to do this by setting an alarm every night before I go to bed to remind myself to meditate (and think about how amazing it would be to make more money).
Money Can Equal Happiness—And That’s Not A Bad Thing: I think a lot of people think that money can’t buy you happiness, which I do think it’s partially true. For example, if you’re already not feeling so great about life, regardless of your money situation, then stumble upon $100,000 you might be happy for a month but then that would fade shortly after. However, if most of your stress is coming from your lack of money, then stumbling upon $100,000 might actually make you really really happy! You can maybe pay off that loan that’s been keeping you up at night, buy that new computer you’ve been needing or treat yourself to a massage once a month to help you relax—the list can really go on. Basically, what I’ve learned is that you have to separate your beliefs of money from what society thinks about money because sometimes we don’t notice how much the ideology of society seeps into our everyday thinking (which, ahem, this can obviously be said for MANY other things besides our views of money, but we can talk about that some other time). Anyway—my main takeaway is that if money makes you happy, you shouldn’t feel dirty or weird about it. End of story.
Surrounding Yourself With Nice Things Makes You Feel Better: I feel like I talked about this already but I’ve been really trying to cut back on buying things for myself, but after reading this book I’ve realized that that’s dumb. Money is meant to be spent, as long as you spend it responsibly. If buying some new things for my apartment is going to make me happy, then why should I stop myself from doing that? Or if buying some new clothes will make me feel better about myself, then why should I not do it? Basically, I’m slowly coming to terms with the fact that it’s okay to buy myself things that make me happy—sounds kind of ridiculous, I know, but I think the more I surround myself with nicer things, the better and more confident I will then feel, which will then in turn lead to more self-worth which will THEN (finally) lead to me making more money. Obviously, more will go into it besides me buying nicer things, but I think starting with building myself up will be phase 1 because like I said earlier, you have to start somewhere.
If you haven’t read You Are A Badass At Making Money, I would totally recommend it. I’m not sure if I totally agree with just about everything she says, but that’s just the inherent New School Graduate in me—what can I say!
Anyway, I’m definitely still in my beginning stages of figuring out what I want to do with my career, but this book has been such a good motivator to start thinking about it more and figure it out. The last thing I want is to look back in five years and regret not going after something I really wanted to do because I was scared of going broke, failing or just getting out of my comfort zone. Also, on top of that, it’s made me want to talk about money more! So maybe look out for other posts about it (???). We shall see!