Money, Responsibility and how we live

Money’s a big topic for many of us, we either have enough, not enough or in some case too much.  And many are out to have / get as much as they can.  But what’s the impetus behind that?  And have we perhaps completely mis-understood money?
 
Many would say money makes the world go round and it does, it’s a tool for us to use, and a way to work with each other in trade.  It’s far easier for me to give my local shop money rather than say some vegetables from my garden in exchange!  And yet what exactly does money represent?  Isn’t money really about energy, and how we expend it?  And isn’t it about how we live in a way that takes responsibility for that?  So the question then becomes, can we live in a way that takes responsibility for that money?  And are we honest enough about where we are with money?  And doesn’t this completely change our attitudes towards it?
 
I’ve lived with debt over a lot of my life, I’ve been clever with it, always paying it back and never defaulting, but I wasn’t truly taking responsibility.  How I handled my money reflected how I felt about life.  So for example I worked hard, but I let money slip through my fingers.  I didn’t value what I had done with my work and more importantly I didn’t value me and my time.  And yet I borrowed money to go traveling as I felt I deserved a break, but I hadn’t built a life which prepared for that, in my day to day living, in the way I might have done if I’d saved and looked at how I was day to day.  So while the traveling was enjoyable, I came back to a mountain of debt and I had to build my life and work up over time to allow me to pay it off.  It took over 4 years for me to do so and I did.
 
Now as I work with money I have more of an understanding that it requires building of how I am on a day-by-day basis in how I live.  And yes while it would be lovely to have that fairy godmother bestow money on me, would it work - if I were not living in a way that could support having that money.  I now understand that it wouldn’t.  It sounds odd doesn’t it, but ever notice that many lottery winners, even after winning vast sums end up loosing it all.  Why, there are a myriad of reasons, but the main one appears to be that you need to know how to handle money, and doing so, involves building up a life and a way of living that embraces the responsibility of money.
 
Money is energy and there are no short cuts, you can’t jump from a to b with it, it requires that you walk each step, in your way and your time.  Imagine a baby running before they walk, it’s the same here. 
 
And yet we live in a culture where debt is actively encouraged, where it’s about instant gratification and the thing is, it doesn’t gratify us long.  And perhaps the most pertinent question at that moment might be, do you need it, and why exactly are you buying it!!  And then to cap it all we end up paying for it for a long time.  We seem to live in a society where we want to have it all and take that short cut no matter what without truly considering the consequences.  And despite what we might think in our cleverness we do pay, in money, stress and anxiousness. 
 
Really it’s a plague and its not just affecting individuals, on a macro level it’s affecting companies and countries. What if we came back to being and living in a simpler one, one that honoured money, honoured us all with it.
 
For me it started simple, looking at what I did with it, and reviewing it after  - what could it be for you?  Whatever it is as you will learn your way with money, and learn that it’s merely an outplay, of how you live with you – isn’t that awesome.