As I finish reading the book, The Happiness Manifesto, I reflect on how some simple things – that we often do by instinct – are so essential and universal to happiness.
Why add this to a money blog, you ask? For me, helping people with investing and wealth is never really about the money. Sure, I have a strangely analytical mind that revels in the discovery of facts and figures, especially as it relates to investments and planning. However, as I help people discover their goals and hold themselves accountable to living a RICH life [not to be confused with an affluent life] full of happiness and good choices, I see every day the power of being fully vested in one’s LIFE, rather than in one’s money.
Along those lines, then, I want to pass on the five universal principles for happiness, and how they may relate to your life with money.
1. CONNECT … with the people around you, with family, friends and neighbors.
Ellen Berscheid wrote, ” relationships constitute the single most important factor responsible for the survival of Homo sapiens.”
When we connect to our chosen families, those we deem important to our lives, those that we care about, we feed the essential social animal that we are. This nurtures us, allows us space to breathe and be ourselves and to feel an integral piece of the fabric of the universe.
With my clients, connection is the most important part of our work together. It is about trust. With many of my clients, as they tell me about their children, their dreams, the things that they struggle with and the accomplishments that they witness, we begin to create a space of hope, safety and mutual work that will benefit their lives. It sounds clichéd, perhaps, but they become friends. I see them in the grocery store, witness major events in their lives and help them to accomplish goals that they may have been uncertain about reaching. Most importantly, they know that I have their back. My life’s work is to guard their money with fierce care and the weapons of choice and knowledge. Together, we fight the dragons of the unknown.
Never think that the relationship with your advisor is irrelevant and unimportant as you make decisions. If you do not trust the person guiding you in decisions, perhaps you need a different knight to go into battle with.