Who do you identify as? What is your persona?

We think of our identity as just who we are. But what if it’s not helping you become who God sees? What if it’s not helping you become who you want to be? What if how you see yourself is not doing you justice?

Have you ever been showing friends pictures from your amazing vacation to the mountains and heard yourself saying, “Yeah, it was so beautiful; the pictures don’t even do it justice”? Your experience of the beauty could not be captured in a 2-dimensional photo.

I ask you again. What if how you see yourself is not doing you justice? How do you know how you see yourself is accurate? What is accurate? It’s all just perception, right?

I used to see myself as a spender. My husband was the saver and I was the spender and that’s just the way it was. Or was that just the way I made it (unconsciously, of course)?

When I saw myself as a spender, I felt deprived when I didn’t spend. I felt restricted when I couldn’t spend. And when I felt deprived or restricted, I had strong urges to spend, I felt the lack very strongly, I resisted the urge until I could resist no more, then I would go on a spending binge. What happened as a result? I proved that I was a spender.

When my husband saw himself as a saver, he felt empowered and proud and secure. When he felt secure, he managed our money well, he didn’t enjoy spending, he avoided shopping, he set a budget for himself and followed through. What happened as a result? He proved that he was a saver.

It shouldn’t be surprising then that I spent more than I saved and he saved more than he spent. When I identified myself as “the spender”, I became this persona. When he identified himself as “the saver”, he became that persona.

I recently learned about CEO Charlie. It’s a pretty cool story. He purposely created the persona of a successful music mogul managing successful artists as who he wanted to become. He actually practiced thinking and doing and having what his persona would think, have and do. It was like he was playing the part of this persona. He did this until he became his persona. He later created a new persona, Rocket Charlie, a marathon runner and despite being severely overweight at the time, he became a marathon runner who ended up getting a deal with Nike. Our brain is very powerful and there is science to back up the saying I’m sure you’ve heard “Whatever you can believe, you can achieve.”

I’ve been working on my money mindset and examining the thinking that caused me to be a spender. I recently noticed that I no longer feel the same about spending. I don’t enjoy spending money any more. I don’t enjoy buying stuff like I used to. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I no longer see myself as a “spender”.

How do you see yourself?  Even more importantly, how do you want to see yourself?

#SaverOrSpender #JillTheMoneyCoach #ChristianMoneyCoach #CreateYourself #WhoDoYouWantToBe