I love the tip jar at a local restaurant which says, “Afraid of Change? Leave it here.” It’s a common belief – that most people are afraid of change. And financial change can be scary.
I believe that most people desperately WANT change. After all, if you are not completely happy with the way your finances are, then by definition, you want something different. I think that what people are really afraid of is trying to change and FAILING. We’ve all had the experience of trying to make a change in our lives, or in ourselves, and failing. It’s no fun. And the more we want the change, the harder it can be when we feel we’ve failed. The status quo may be undesirable or unsatisfying but in many cases it’s better than the pain of wanting something badly and not getting it.
Sometimes people resist change because they are uncertain of how to go about it or what might occur if they DO change. This is fear of the unknown. It’s the concern that, while the status quo might not be that great, what if the alternative is worse?
People get over their fear of change when they feel that they have a reasonable chance of getting what they want. This is hope. Webster defines hope as “to desire with expectation of obtainment.” How do you get more hope? Well, you already have the desire. So you just need to increase your “expectation of obtainment.” You need to find a way that seems reasonably likely to get you what you want.
One purpose of GreenSherpa is to help people create and sustain financial change. GreenSherpa empowers people to make financial change because it offers a way to make a change and keep that change over time – it increases your expectation that you can reach your financial goals. How does it do that? For one, it makes it really easy to see where you are currently at financially. Increased clarity is often enough to motivate change. For another, GreenSherpa helps you create a plan for the future that you can stick with because the plan is flexible and allows you to make adjustments as your life situation or expenses change. Plus it keeps you accountable to the change you want to make by alerting you when you are off your plan. In future articles, I’ll discuss in more detail how GreenSherpa helps you accomplish these things.
In the meantime, give it a try and let us know what you think.
