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SB - In Case You Have Burned Yourself Financially!
December 19, 2010
A bit of Sinburning - in case you have burned yourself financially!
As you might already have discovered – we at sinburning.org try to avoid preaching and always go for deeper explanations of human behavior and social occurrences rather that just to settle with true, but common-place arguments.
You can read that the causes of the recent financial calamities are greed and materialism, overconsumption and evil corporations, waste and negligence, losing our spiritual connection…
But instead of repeating all these relevant causes and sermonizing from a high level of moral purity, let’s just talk about values this month.
Basically, all our acts are based on our value-system. This is a complicated balance of virtues we move forward and move away from. Our values basically determine what decisions we make.
We always choose the option we think as right at the given time and situation – even if we feel that it might be wrong. As we usually do.
This is the case with “not so wise” financial decisions as well.
It might be worth rethinking our values about money, consumption, energy-usage, and financial security, especially in a tight or eye-opening economical situation, like now.
If while carefully examining your core values you discover that they are valid, positive, sustainable, and basically good, this process would give you immense energy to cope with the challenges you might face in the current economy.
But if you discover some discrepancies in your value system, if you find strong negative influences form the outer world or deep inconsistency – well, that is even better, because these findings might lead you to a much-needed personal growth and thus changed and better answers to your financial difficulties.
This discovery of “flaws in our core value-system” often comes with many “what if’s,” regrets, and guilt. This is just a normal part of the process.
How does Sinburning come into the picture here?
Well, just recently I myself went through my financial decisions using Sinburnig’s Seven Steps system (yes, my own) to examine some of my choices in my past.
As it turned out, financial miscalculations that hurt us today can be treated just the same way as sins and mistakes we committed against others – and need just the same approach to cure. Like in the following steps:
1. Realization of “devastating” decisions (probably bad investments, too much spending, carelessness…)
2. Getting the “mistake” out of your system (a written account for yourself on the bad decisions and an expressed desire to get over the associated guilt)
3. Sharing your confession (Internet forums, focus groups, Sinburning; but without revealing financial data, sums, or account numbers – please, protect yourself!)
4. Making amends (problem-solving financial acts, paying out credit cards, saving more, refinancing, extra income, you name it)
5. Learning from your mistake (activities you plan to do and things you plan to avoid in the future – and sticking to them)
6. Asking for help (educating yourself on finances, getting professional advice from real financial experts – sorry, this is not me…)
7. Forgiving yourself and moving on (Dwelling on the past does not help, even if you have to pay for it for years to come. Moving on most probably means not blaming yourself again and again, but still making those payments…)
Just a note: I think I do not even have to mention that the above set of personal opinions is NOT a financial advice or professional counsel.
It is simply the approach of us, Sinburners, to a specific situation, the global financial crisis - in order to cope with it.
After we clear guilt, self-blame, and anger from our way, we can really rethink our value-system and then make new preferences. Sticking to these new, renewed or – I hope in your case – simply just strengthened values gives us the virtues that we need in any situations in our life – money-related concerns included.
Does this mean that we have to concentrate on our virtues and spiritual growth – instead of “chasing money”? Practically speaking, yes. But the good news is that having a sound value-system set in a developed personality also brings enhanced personal and, consequently, financial stability.
As Socrates, one of the most important thinkers in human history, put it in his Apology (as recorded by Plato):
“I am persuading you all… not to take thought for your persons or properties, but first and mainly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man.”
I trust that Sinburning and the SSS Self-help method’s “extremely abbreviated financial edition” will be a good starting point for those virtues of yours to really shine.
Mike Solomon
Sinburning.org
Copyright © 2011 Sinburning.org, M. S. Solomon. All rights reserved.
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