Letter Writing Exercise to Money
One of the best books I read last year was You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth by Jen Sincero.
It stood out to me because it made me look at my relationship with money. I had never thought about money in terms of having a relationship with it. Money was just this thing that I didn’t like to think about because I associated it with feelings of stress and anxiety.
“If you ain’t got any money, it’s because if you treated the people in your life with the same regard you treat money, you’d be dining on a Thanksgiving dinner for one…”
Jen Sincero, You Are a Badass at Making Money
Sincero suggests a letter writing exercise in the book to help us gain perspective on our thoughts, feelings, and limiting beliefs about money.
“One of the best ways to find out how you truly feel about money is to write a letter to it as if it were a person.”
Jen Sincero, You Are a Badass at Making Money
So, I wrote a letter to money. I wrote it in a stream of consciousness manner, just put thoughts to paper. Here it is mostly in its entirety – I did omit some bits.
Letter writing exercise: Write a letter to money as though it were a person
Dear Money,
I can’t stand to be without you. It actually pisses me off that you’re not around. I am so fucking sick and tired of how I feel when you’re not around. You have a presence in my life but, frankly, I want more of you. I feel like my life would be so much better with you in it. We’d have so much fun together. With your support, I feel like so many more opportunities would open up.
I fucking want to live a life of freedom and with you by my side that can happen. So why aren’t you in my life? Am I pushing you away? What am I afraid of?
For sure, my life as I know it would look different. I’d be a different person too, in a way. In order to have you in my life, I feel like I’d have to become a different person. That’s kinda scary.
At the same time, I feel like I don’t have the discipline and the drive to have you in my life. I’d have to work hard, and I don’t feel like I have what it takes.
Maybe my perception of having you in my life is flawed. I feel like the only way to get you in my life is to earn you through exhausting, energy-sucking work. The prospect of that does not motivate me. It makes me not want to try. Yeah, frankly, I’m lazy. Truth be told, I want you to be easy. I don’t want to do things that don’t fill me with enthusiasm and joy in order to have you in my life. I don’t want to do anything soul-sucking.
I want you to enhance and complement my time here. Having you around all the time would put my mind at ease – at least in terms of financial responsibilities. And I’d be able to improve my quality of life. I don’t want to continue living just to make sure I can meet my monthly expenses and monitor how much I have left for meeting friends.
How about being able to take a vacation regularly? I don’t want to have to save up for it and think about making the amount back. How about having enough of you to take care of me no matter what I may need or want you for? I need you for emergencies. I need you to go out on the town with friends. I need you to take vacations. I want you to take care of my mom.
I’m sick of the stress, anxiety, and worry I experience because I don’t have more of you in my life. I realize that I don’t have to stress or feel anxious and worry. I realize I’m choosing to do so. I don’t have to feel these things about you. I’m choosing to.
Right now, my perception of you isn’t very good. I would love to improve the relationship I have with you. I’d love to be able to feel calm when you come up. I’d love to feel grateful when I think of you. The negativity, fear, and frustration is coming from a place of lack. I’m sorry. I’ll work on seeing you in a better light. I’ll work on appreciating you even when I think you’re not around. I know you’re there – I just can’t see you yet. I’ll work on seeing that you have my back. I’ll work on treating you better.
You don’t have to change. I do. I can’t wait to have you in my life all the time. I’ll be good to you. I’ll tell people about you – how you changed my life for the better, how you provide options, opportunities, and freedom.