Why do you want more money? The person with one hundred bob wants another and another. Even the person with a billion shillings seems to want another billion. So we all want more, need more, desire more. That’s a fact. But why? In the Centonomy program we encourage people to investigate their motivations and this is the question that many people find very difficult. What do you want? Why do you want it? Everybody’s life journey is different and we are in different seasons at different periods of our lives. When you recognise where you are and what is important to you or what drives you at a particular point in time, you then find the motivation to do what you have to do. The motivations presented are in no particular order. Different people will priorities different things and plan differently so this is not a template. Today’s article is just to prompt you to think about why you want more money and in the process begin discovering what is important to you right now.
Firstly, it is to survive. This is the basic requirement we all have for money. To eat, drink ‘water’, go to school, find shelter and afford to dress ourselves. We have to cater for these before we can even think about other motivations for money. It’s the same way a house has to have foundations before the walls can go up. Survival means different things to different people so identify what is survival to you. Plan your money so that you can confirm if you are surviving (Click to Tweet this thought). If you discover that you are not, try to figure it out. Be creative. Get a second job, do a side hustle. Strategically work on increasing your income. But in all this, beware of the trap of survival.
Being completely stuck in survival, makes you constantly focus, think and work towards simply surviving. That is why the other motivations (getting a better house, better job, better life) are important. I have met so many people over time with so many opportunities surrounding them, but they barely see them because their mental foundation has become life is hard, let’s make ends meet etc. Survive and do what you need to do to survive, but leave space to move on. The other trap of survival is making the survival costs bigger. Others keep increasing their costs so no matter what they earn they are constantly hand to mouth. Remember we need shelter to survive but there is always going to be a more expensive place to rent.
Another habit most people have is enjoying the spoils. Once we sort the basics, we tend to look for how to spend. This is a big driver of why we want money. There are many things on this planet to enjoy. Here is one thing you should always remember. The world will never run out of things to spend money on (Click to Tweet this thought). Enjoying also has a trap. You can also get stuck here if you don’t identify what ‘enjoy’ means to you. There seems to be a standard that has been set that makes people feel inferior if they are not meeting that standard of enjoyment. People then find themselves working to the bone to enjoy according to someone else’s standard only to find that it did not have meaning to them. Forget what someone bought and posted on Instagram. What do you value? I’ll give you an example. My version of enjoy is to travel and will happily forgo many things to travel. If I had all those things and did not travel, I would not consider that I am enjoying. When you identify what you like, you are motivated to make it happen.
The other motivation we have for money is to grow. I personally just think human beings were built for growth. We naturally strive to achieve and that’s why we should not simply get stuck in the enjoy motivation. This is why the people we perceive to be so wealthy are still striving. The need for achievement does not go away. We need to be always testing our boundaries. It is important for all of us to identify what growth looks like for ourselves. This is why we need vision and we set goals. Growth is never where you are, it is where you are going (Click to Tweet this thought). Your career, your business, your family and of course your money. We do get a sense of achievement when we get into the right investments that grow our money.
We may want to grow financially for various reasons including being able to survive and enjoy even when we are not in full time work. Growth is good. The trap is when it converts to greed. I believe we are seeing far too many examples of greed around us. That is growth unchecked. Greed happens at the expense of others, even those trying to survive. Greed is insatiable. It is never enough. There is always more money to make. Greed happens when we are caught up trying to outdo others. Or when we don’t listen to caution, fact or even instinct telling us it is time to exit. We just think that the price will keep going up and up and up. Grow but beware of greed.
Finally, there is the motivation to give. Many people don’t allow this motivation in. Getting trapped in survival, enjoying or greed will not leave room to give. Giving opens the door to possibility. When you give you recognise you have, and you then tend to deal with money very differently (Click to Tweet this thought). In some way or form, all of us have been beneficiaries of somebody else’s giving whether it’s time, money, ideas, opening of doors etc. Pay it forward and give. It’s good for you and those around you. It keeps greed at bay because you understand that life is not all about you. There are more than enough places to give. The trap to avoid is the kind of giving that creates a dependency syndrome rather than empowering that person. Supporting an irresponsible lifestyle of a relative is not impactful giving.
Identifying your motivation(s) is an essential step in providing the right motion needed to make more money.
Waceke runs a program on Personal Financial Management & Wealth Creation. To sign up, email her at waceken@centonomy.com| Facebook/Centonomy |Twitter/ @Centonomy & @cekenduati or go to www.centonomy.com
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Quite inspiring