Vickie's Viewpoint

For decades, we Americans have focused on the basic belief that MORE = HAPPINESS. People everywhere say, “If we could only get more, we’d be so much happier. A bigger house, closets of designer clothes, dining out every night, and giving our kids everything we didn’t have. All these things would make life better, right? We’ll have the American dream!”

It didn’t work. The more we got, the more we wanted. We started buying based on the assumption that in the future, everything goes up. Real estate values grow, our incomes rise, the stock market steadily climbs, and we have an endless ability to get more credit when ever we want it.

What we didn’t realize is with every purchase we were hurting ourselves far more than helping. We added more stress, stretched too thin, sold ourselves out. We lied to ourselves and everyone else that we could afford these things. We convinced ourselves not only that we deserved these things, but that we needed them. All the while, we kept adding more and more unbearable unhappiness.

Thank goodness that’s ending in this current economic crisis. We get a chance to get ourselves back, to become self-dependent and really be happy. This is our chance to become better people, enjoy simple things, and learn how to appreciate what we have instead of stressing about our inability to get even more.

Contact Vickie Champion for a complimentary coaching and consulting session.

There is no doubt in my mind, we are going through the most challenging financial situation we have ever gone through in our lives and it’s not even close to the bottom.

The reason our financial situation will get a lot worse before it gets better is because we’re trying to solve it the wrong way. It’s not about money at all, the financial crisis is only the results of a belief most of us have that we gain at other people’s expense. Think about it – why are there so many reports of mortgages going into foreclosures and people being forced to declare Chapter 7? Everyone was looking for a short term gain. Lenders thought they could profit at other’s expense, and the lendees thought they could beat the system.

No matter how hard they try, the government can’t bail us out of this gigantic mess because it’s founded on the SAME belief. In order for someone to gain, others will have to pay for it.

Until we change our basic belief back to how can we all profit, we will continue digging ourselves into a deeper hole. When we consider this seriously, credit and interest rates will balance out, jobs and health care will no longer be cut, and America’s free market will get back on track. For this paradigm to shift the right way, as a society, we must reclaim values such as “treat others how you want to be treated.”

Contact Vickie Champion for a complimentary coaching and consulting session.