I love my 15 year-old Toyota Camry.  She has been the BEST - dependable, fun to drive, and is good looking for a gal her age!  But I’ve been taking her for granted and ignoring the signs that things were changing for her and she needed my attention.  As Malcolm Gladwell points out in his book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, small things matter and if we’re paying attention we can profit from noticing what’s happening.

My car is extremely important to me.  It is not simply transportation, but an integral part of my business and social life.  However, a lot of things lowered her on my priority list.  I was trying to save money, and my favoriteservice station changed management.  She began having more symptoms until, finally, she overheated and I had to have her towed.  Now I’m facing an expensive repair bill or buying a new car. Had I dealt with the small things earlier,I likely would have extended her life and, ironically, lowered my overall expenses.

If I’m neglecting something as important to me as my car, what are the other areas of my life where I’m not paying attention?  And as these little things mount up what will happen when they reach the tipping point?

Make the tipping point work in your favor:
= What little signs are you noticing that you’re out of balance? Nip them in the bud.  They’re easier to handle when they’re still little.
= What things are showing up that are positive? There are many freedoms at our age that we discount. Finding joy in today means letting go of the past.

If you’d like to find kindred spirits who aren’t willing to settle, who have decided to make these years the best of their lives, Soul Satisfaction would love to help. Either one-on-one or in a group, let’s tip things in YOUR favor.

Eleanor Roosevelt has become a favorite “mentor” of mine because she made such huge contributions to our country in the second half of her life.   During the Depression she brought the Whitehouse to the people on the streets increasing trust in government, advocated for mine workers and other laborers working in unsafe conditions, and helped found the United Nations.  She did these things by focusing on her desired outcomes and facing her fears.  One of my favorite quotes of hers is:

“We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face.”

Right now given our current economic situation we have a tremendous opportunity to “look fear in the face.”  We can do that starting wherever we notice we are most concerned.  Money is an easy place for me to start and perhaps for you.  Over the last year, thanks to Diane Gasal who has been a terrific financial management coach for me, I have made some real headway in dealing with stuck places around money.  My relationship  with money is still not where I intend to have it be, there are still areas of uncertainty and fear.

The awareness of those fears coupled with a realization that I along with many Americans am called to dig deep around what is working and what is not in our lives is motivating.

Credit cards have seemed like a real mixed blessing to me for a long time.  I have made real progress in paying them off.  However, it wasn’t until I heard my credit card interest rates would be going up significantly, without any provocation on my part, that I decided a new approach is required.  Take all of your credit cards out of circulation is the advice given.  I have taken some of my credit cards out of circulation.  And the ones I keep I will pay off monthly.  I will pay for what I get, or I will not get it.  In the meantime, I will put more into savings.  That will be the place I go to pay for larger expenses.

Barbara Stanny is one of several valuable resources for information on how to cultivate a more powerful relationship with money .   She is author of “Secrets of Six Figure Women” and “Overcoming Under-earning,”   and I heard her speak at the PSCA Regional Coaching Conference (February 2009).  That workshop and her free article on Developing a Respectful Relationship with Money may provide you, as it did me, with the added impetus and information to change.   One of the points Barbara makes is that credit cards often provide a false sense of financial capability.  Read her article and learn more.

What are your fears around money? 

What other resources will help you dig deep to address those fears?

What have you found has helped you face your money fears and move beyond them?

Note:  Even as I wrote this post, I could feel concern rise in me.  What about that next larger, unexpected expense?  Sure enough, last week my faithful printer expired.  Thanks to a colleague, I quickly found what sounds like an ideal replacement.  However, given my other expenses this month and depleted savings, I may not be buying the printer this month.