The Game of Earning Money
How Focusing on Feeling Safe Reduces Money Stresses
I haven’t read this book, The Inheritance Games, but the title certainly caught my eye. Just looking at a synopsis, it concerns the main character having to solve puzzles and riddles to be awarded with an inheritance, and along the way, she is forced to navigate through a world of wealth and privilege, overcome others’ jealousy and skepticism, understand why she was given this inheritance, and figure out how to simply survive. Seeing both the name, and knowing a bit more about the plot, it reminds me very much of the struggles many people have in their relationship with money itself.
When one doesn’t have money, we are forced into a difficult game to actually earn it. We are asked to jump through hoops and solve riddles to become what a potential employer wants. Then we play games trying to earn more money to stay safe. Juggling competing priorities, trying to foresee and meet others’ needs, and mitigating potential jealousy and conflict with coworkers, it all is exhausting!
Then if you have money, you might question if you actually deserve it. Even if you don’t need the money, you might overwork yourself just to prove that you are worth the money you have! Then when people are resentful of how hard they have to work, they take it out on you, leaving you feeling like you can’t trust anyone.
What is the worst part about these games? You can’t quit the game. Your survival and access to things that make you happy depends on you playing. Then life is harder if you are dealt a bad hand, or if you make mistakes. It sucks.
While you can’t leave the game, there are ways to make it less stressful. Ever heard of the phrase, “work smarter, not harder”? Focus on earning money using your strengths. When you do this, you will spend less effort and see more success for your efforts. Then becoming more and more effective and efficient in whatever strengths you have will lead to getting ahead. In developing yourself, you gain confidence that the money is just a tool, and that the real value you own is yourself and what you have to offer the world. When you realize your own worth, you feel safer.
The other piece to happiness is not playing the game alone. All of us are stuck in this world where we need to earn money to survive, and even when success comes, we get fearful of it going away. When you build up a sense of support and community, you create safety. Plus, when you have connections and trust with others, you can help each other find spaces in the world to earn money using your strengths.
You might notice that both of those suggestions for happiness, in this game of money-earning, aim towards feeling safe. We earn money in order to feel safe, but if you can find other ways to feel safe, you won’t feel as anxious about how well you play the game. Your relationship with money becomes easier when you feel secure within yourself, and when you feel supported within your world.
(Thanks to Bookmans Mesa Entertainment Exchange, located at 1056 S. Country Club Dr., Mesa, AZ 85210, for setting up this book display that gave me a great starting point and metaphor for my thoughts)
