Worried About Money This Christmas? | Ep 111

People seem to forget if you change today, today will change your life. For a limited time only. For those of you enjoying the podcast, I'm offering a free coaching session. That's right, a free coaching session for those of you who want to improve in their performance or their business or their relationships or any other area where confidence is a key ingredient. Then on the Self Belief Chief site, on the podcast page, self belief.com podcast underneath the episodes, you'll be able to book your own coaching session for free with me or wherever you're listening to the podcast. In the description, there'll also be a link to be able to book your session. I look forward to speaking to you soon. And let's get on with the podcast. Let's be totally honest, this Christmas is going to be very, very different. The experience around Christmas is going to be something that is unusual to all of us in terms of the way we spend our time, in terms of the things that we do. The plans that we usually have in my family always spend Christmas Eve together. Well, this time round and that's the wider family this time around that's not going to be the case. And one of the things many people will be worrying about this Christmas is money, is finances, is affording presents, is actually what can they do as Christmas time when this year has been a very, very tough year. And so people will be worrying about money and they'll be worrying about how much money gets spent across December and what will happen in January, etc. And you know, will the world go back to normal? It's very stressful, very stressful. And part so much of our self worth is contained in terms of our is contained inside our financial situation. Huge amounts of our self worth is contained and our ability to what we can give other people in terms of what our finances allow us to do also affects our self worth. So I wanted to spend some time with you today to maybe just help you make a very, very small adjustment. A very, very small adjustment. And it's two things really that I wanted to mention. The first one is this. And I want you to think of a scenario. I want you to think of a scenario where you were around all the people you really love to be around that you really enjoy being around and just spending time with them and you're enjoying their company and how much. Now especially that we sort of recognize how valuable that is, how much we enjoy that more than ever. But maybe we took it for granted in, you know, in previous times. Now I want you to imagine that scenario. But I Want you to imagine that you got paid for that, that you're with all, with your family and friends and it's a regular thing and it's something you regularly get paid for. Now most of you will go, oh, my God, that's the most amazing thing ever. You got paid to spend time with your friends. And it would be. That would be a mad. Be amazing. The point of that analogy, I want to. Is the subtle change that. That maybe we'd only really know once we're in it. The subtle change that happens when you get paid for something, where would your focus and attention really be? Would it be on how valuable the people are that you're spending time with, or would it be about the fact that you're getting paid to be around them? I'll just say that again. I really want you to think about it. If you were getting paid to spend time with your friends and family, if part of that equation was you're getting paid, might you put less value actually on the people you're spending time with and more value on the fact that you're getting paid? That would be more of the focus. I think, for a lot of people, they would admit that actually, if that was a continual thing where they got paid to do that, it might well actually diminish the value of the time being spent with those people. And so it's a great thing, actually. Sometimes when there isn't a financial thing in place where you're getting paid to do something or finances are important, I'm not going to say otherwise. You know, a lot of studies prove that happiness increases up to about £50,000 and then after that it will slowly drop off. We're not all that far away from the sort of being in a less stressful situation, hopefully being in a happier situation. It's not like earning a million pounds is the only time people really become happy. It's not that much. But also that people who have a million pounds aren't significantly happier than people who have £50,000. The point I want to make amongst all of this is that we really appreciate time and value and it doesn't have to be about the money and the finances. In terms of how you give to people this Christmas, that actually when money's not involved, but we give ourselves, actually, we therefore appreciate it even more when money isn't connected, isn't involved. Money actually just allows us to take lots of shortcuts. Sometimes it makes life easier, but it also allows us to take shortcuts in terms of the thoughtfulness of presence or how much time we give away. Now we can send people a card. Now we can send personal present, and we don't actually have to do anything. When really this Christmas, what people will really, really, really need is human connection. This is what people will really want this Christmas more than any other year. This year will be less about the finances and it will be more about time. Now, depending on the usual makeup of your Christmas scenarios or situations, you know what, maybe you can't spend, maybe you can't be in the same room or face to face with that person this year or with those people this year, but give them time, reach out to them, whether it's a phone call, speak to them, video or whatever it is that you might be able to arrange and make those plans in advance that actually, okay, this year we can't do this, maybe on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day or Boxy Day, whatever, that. Make sure that people feel my warmth and connection. And actually, maybe I can make something or create something. It doesn't have to have any monetary value, but I want to show them how much I care this year, how much I've missed them this year by being more thoughtful. Rather than just allowing finances to prove something or take over something or just allow us to do something a bit simpler. Give people time and thoughtfulness. Because that's what we've all needed this year, really, isn't it? If you think about, at the end of the day, we miss being around people, we miss being connected to people, we miss the warmth, we miss the love. This year, if you ask people what they really wanted, that's what they want. So what are the ways we can do that? Well, actually, sometimes money clouds all of that. So this year, in terms of that financial side of it, actually think of how thoughtful can I be? How can I give, how can I show my love, how can I show my affection and make this Christmas a really special one? And rather than feeling like this Christmas being different is a problem, that maybe being different this year is something beautiful. The other thing is if there's. If you do feel a sense of stress around money, and I understand they're the very real, very real consequences of stress around the financial situation. A really, really simple thing. It's not going to make a radical difference to your life, but a really simple thing in terms of how we feel about money. Because with money, it's such an emotional thing because when we spend it, we don't actually appreciate that we're spending it as much as we could. And when we receive it, we kind of don't necessarily appreciate it in the way we could. But when we're having to give money away or, you know, spend it on things we don't want to spend it on, or, you know, or money's not coming in quick enough. Oh, the emotional intensity is through the roof. The stress is through the roof. So a really simple trick that is done in Eastern culture, which is when you spend money and when you receive money, you say arigata, that you give a sense of thanks and appreciation, that you have money to spend and that you are in a position to receive money. And if you consistently do that, the meaning associated with money will slowly begin to change. That at times it will be difficult, but that we really value and appreciate when we spend it, when we receive it more than we already do. That actually we take a moment to be thankful, to say arigata. In a moment, you disconnect from the world. You're thankful that you can do that, and you actually are active in doing that. Not just a kind of a casual thought, but you say it out loud that you act in that way. And over the coming months, it can start to just gradually change the feeling around money and the more positive feeling we have around money, which if we keep doing that, then there's a great positive association with money, then actually it starts to encourage other things as well. It starts to reduce the stress around that. Because part of the stress of money is what we associate money with. We associate money or a lack of money with a feeling of, you know, it's not having enough money at the end of the month, or I can't do this, or I can't do that, or I can't support my family, all these sorts of things. We need to create a new association, a new meaning of the value that we can give. When we do have those opportunities to spend money in the right ways and receive money, say arigata. It's a really small thing. It's not going to radically change anything. But if you find a way of doing that consistently, that can make a huge, huge difference. The main thing is, though, that at Christmas this year, we need to create that sense of love and connection and warmth more than we've ever done before. This Christmas is going to be different. It is. It doesn't necessarily have to be worse. I want you to have a think about how we can go above and beyond. Because aside from the amazing feeling you'll give other people, when we want more love in life, sometimes the easiest way to feel love is just to give it. You can still feel love when you give it, but you get a whole new sense of sensation, new sensation. And you get a huge amount of fulfillment in, in terms of when we're really thoughtful and provide more value and people will be even more appreciative than they've ever been. And I really think, and I truly, really believe this, that if we take that time to show people how much we care and give them time, give them warmth, give them love, that will be the best gift that people can get this year. Maybe aside from your 10 year old child or something like that, who wants that new toy or whatever. But these are just a few things we can do to make this Christmas just a bit more special for you, but even more so, a bit more special for the people you care about. My name is David Holman. If you change today, today will change your life. So enjoy the rest of your day, enjoy the rest of your life and I'll see you on the next episode.

Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You, you love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn Ads, go to libsynads. Com, that's L, I, B S Y N Ads. Com. Today.