Achieving Financial and Life Satisfaction
The word satisfaction describes a feeling of fulfillment or contentment. Its meaning is relative and often dependent on personal definitions of success as applied to specific areas of life.
The first step to evaluating your own life satisfaction is to think about what is most important to you. Be as candid as you can and disregard “messages”—from society, parents, partners, peers, or colleagues—that tell you what your priorities should be. This is a time to listen to your own heart. What do YOU value most, and what do YOU want to achieve in each area of your life? Whatever you identify will then become the basis for establishing your life goals.
The next step is to think about the role that money can play in helping you to achieve each life goal. Will having sufficient financial resources give you more options for realizing your goals? Will economic security give you more freedom to focus your time and attention on what is most important to you?
Answering these questions for yourself will help you to understand how money is integrated into all areas of your life. In fact, you will experience greater satisfaction when you can see a direct link between your financial goals and your life goals. You will also feel more motivated to make improvements in your money matters when you view your financial resources as tools to nurturing and sustaining what you value most in life.
In Caring for Your Soul in Matters of Money, Karen Ramsey wrote:
“In personal financial management, the place to begin is to adopt a realistic perspective. Money will only improve the quality of your life when it is used with clarity. Only when you learn to spend money in concert with your underlying values—things that you most deeply care about—will it become a tool for creating a more fulfilling life.”
Therefore, to achieve higher levels of financial and life satisfaction, your objective must be to clarify what is most important to YOU. Next, allow that understanding to guide your interactions with your financial advisor and to provide a framework for your financial goals.
Always remember that financial and life satisfaction evolve from a clear understanding of the nature and influence of your values. Your sense of well-being will multiply when you clarify your priorities and make financial and life decisions that nurture what is truly most important to you.
Reprinted by permission of Money Quotient, Inc.