Want to get a sneak peek at the kind of deep work you’ll dive into on your relationship with money in Financial Freedom 1? Here’s a sample lesson. Got questions about how the course is structured and why it’s different from other financial courses? Check out the FAQ here.
Lesson 1.2 The Emotional Content of Money: Your Money Scripts
“We all have an identifiable, though largely unconscious and unexamined, relationship with money that shapes our experience of life and our deepest feelings of ourselves and others. Whether you count your change in dollars, yen, rupees, or drachmas, money is one of the central, linchpin issues in all of our lives. It is in mine, and it is a central issue for everyone I’ve ever met, no matter how much or how little money they have.” - Lynne Twist, The Soul of Money
What if money wasn’t your real problem? What if your real problem was your relationship with money?
Money is emotional. The unconscious beliefs and thoughts we have about money far outweigh the conscious ones. These hidden assumptions about money often control us and how we live our lives. Those beliefs, thoughts, and assumptions are not “true” in any real sense. They are ideas given to us from our families and from living in a capitalist, consumerist society. If we grew up and lived elsewhere, we’d have different ideas about money.
So much about how we deal with money is how we FEEL about money. Unconscious beliefs about money deeply influence how we live in the world. What are YOUR “money scripts”? Read What Did Your Parents REALLY Teach You About Money? (It Might Surprise You).
Your first writing assignment is to respond to these writing prompts. But first clear your mind and make mental space for the assignment. The deeper you go, the more you’ll get out of it.
1. What were the first messages you got about money? Because of them, how many of the four “money scripts” do you have? How have they affected you and how you run your life up to now?
2. If you were in a long-term relationship with money (and you are), how would you describe it? What would money say to you? What would you say to money? What does a healthy relationship with money look like?
3. What is wealth?
The stories we tell ourselves about money are more important than money itself. As you go through this course, always think through the story you tell. How much has that story been controlling you? See this couple’s story here.
(Bonus for those of you who co-mingle finances with a life partner: money can be a primary source of tension in your relationship; money stress is one of the major reasons people split up, especially if you have different money scripts. Read Navigating the Financial Side of a Relationship.)
Change the script, and you change your future.
PROMPTS:
1-3. Give the answers to those three questions, above
4. What’s the new story you want to tell about yourself?