The Need to Master Life and not just Finances

The Need to Master Life and not just Finances

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You may be wondering why the change in the blog site.  Or maybe not. 😛

But I will share with you anyway. 🙂

For the past few years, I’ve been writing more about Personal Finance and how we can improve in managing our finances from savings to investing to debts, etc.

But there is something inside nagging at me that I cannot just focus on this alone.

I felt the need to share what I have learned on other topics like leadership, productivity, challenging ourselves to be better, bolder and taking it a notch higher, providing feedback, importance of knowing Self before even trying to understand other people, Environment plays a big part in our lives but we hardly look at it (so far, I have only encountered this particular focus area in T. Harv Eker’s Life Makeover Coaching which I did a few years back) and the list goes on and on and on.

Hence, the birth of the new blog site: Master Your Life & Finances (Time to Thrive).

I often times call myself “The Reluctant Leader”  because I know that I need to study and equip myself on how to become a better Leader especially as I have not handled people as direct reports for a long time now.  If I have a choice I will want to stay as an individual contributor.  But if I got promoted to be a Manager I know that I will do a good job at it because I am invested in my people.

I also know it will a take a toll on me and my health because I can be too invested.  I need to prepare physically and mentally every time I do a 1 on 1 especially if I know it’s going to be a difficult conversation.

I would spend around 30 mins to think and write, especially if it’s a lot of feedback whether positive or negative because I have a tendency to forget so I want to make sure I capture them so that I can refer to the file as needed during the discussion.

Aside from being a “Reluctant Leader”, I am an extroverted introvert and I am a low “I” when it comes to DISC Profile so making small talk and talking to people really drains me.  Similarly, t was also a mental barrier for me to open myself up when I was starting my blog – like admitting I had no savings and I was buried in debt – because it was just not me, I prefer to keep my privacy.  But I had to focus on the greater good because I want people to learn from my experience versus going through the same pitfalls and mistakes, I was thinking it will help to shorten their learning curve.

Don’t get me wrong.  I like talking to people especially if I know that I am making a difference in their life or if I feel that I am adding value to them not just in the workplace but more importantly to the other aspects of their life.

When I talk to my team, I just don’t talk about metrics or KPIs but I also ask them about their ambition in life, assuming that money is not an issue what are they doing now?  Knowing this aspiration and their career plan plus the projects they are working on for the year, I will look at what development areas they need to focus on to achieve the goals this year but I also want to make sure I have the line of sight to look at development areas or training that they need to prepare them in achieving their dreams for the future.

I will challenge them to take on more projects if they want to be consultants in the future because we can learn the art of influence and persuasion through the projects.  When you have a new project, it requires selling and influencing and you need to see the value from your customer’s perspective so that you will get their buy in.

I will challenge them to take on a leadership role in the future, example for succession planning, a project or ECA that will be dealing with cross functional team if they want to have their own business in the future.

My thinking: If you don’t like to lead people in the company, it will be difficult when you have your own business that you need to work with a team.  It is better to use the corporate experience to gain skills and knowledge in managing people so that it will be easier when you already have your own business.

It gives me a different level of happiness and satisfaction when I see my team member changing for the better and proving to other people that he can do better and achieve the KPIs or acknowledging that he has a problem and he wants to change for the better.  It is not an easy process to change people because the first step is acceptance and together with it is the humility that you will not just acknowledge to yourself but you will also admit to another person.  When this is in place, the change will be gradual but will be evident for people he is close to or interacts with a lot.

So what’s my point?  Yes, I can continue to just focus on writing about Personal Finance in my blog but I know that it will not complete a person.

In my own definition, these are the aspects that make a person whole, that when one aspect changes for the better it will also influence the other aspect and vice versa.

Aspects that Make You Whole:

  • Health & Well-Being
  • Relationships
  • Finance
  • Career – Work or Business
  • Spiritual
  • Environment – Physical & Digital
  • Extracurricular Activities
  • Inner You – Emotional, Personality, Passion, Sense of Adventure, Your Own Story, Experiences, Skills, What Makes You You, What Makes You Unique, Your Strengths & Weaknesses or I prefer to call Improvement Areas, Your IT Factor

Normally, in the workplace, the Managers usually compartmentalize and only focus on career.  But if the other aspects of the person’s life is having issue it will also impact his career, sooner or later there will be some signs that there is an issue.

On a personal level, especially as I started my journey in financial literacy, I was focusing a great percentage of my time in Finance – studying and attending seminars and eventually writing a blog to capture and share my learnings.

But if you think about I Finance is only a small aspect of your life, though I definitely believe it is equally as important as the other aspects but sometimes we put so much focus and everything else is deprioritized or we totally lose the focus like buying unhealthy food or skipping team dinners and not building relationships with the teammates because we are just focusing on saving and minimizing our expenses.

That’s why there is a need to Master Life and Finance or all the aspects that will make you whole, they are all interlinked.  You cannot live with just one and without the other.

Advance Preview:  Sharing with you a glimpse of my work in progress reflection guide, using the 8 aspects as building blocks, which I am developing to help a friend and in turn she is helping me develop my life coaching skills outside of work.

12 thoughts on “The Need to Master Life and not just Finances

  1. I absolutely understand what you say. Aiming for financial independence is great but having an harmonious and fulfilling life is too! My line manager does the same, asking about our lives, what we want to do, what we aspire too, if we love what we’re doing… and it’s great

    1. Yes, we all feel good when our manager talks to us about our life and dreams outside of work especially when it is done with authenticity and sincerity 😀

  2. I am all for financial literacy but the ones I have talked to turn me off. These “advisers” should be more compassionate when advising their potential customers, and not be pushy about making a big sale.

    1. That is so true. It should be serve others with no hidden agenda and at some point the universe will conspire to give it back to you in some way or another and in a time that they will choose. Serve others with a genuine heart and the money will follow later 😀

  3. I think its great you decided to change it, change is good! Fnance is just apart of our life, not our whole life. we shouldn’t be completely focused on it.

    1. It is so true. Some people define success as being rich but what they don’t realize it’s lonely at the top so might as well bring along some other people in your journey to the top 😀
      Imagine travelling alone in Europe vs travelling with a group of successful people 😀

  4. I agree that we need to master both life and finance. Mastering life lets us focus on our goals and purpose and once those are defined, we can now plan our life and know our priorities, which would be critical in our finances.

    1. Thanks! 😀
      Sometimes some of our goals are there to give us a different level of happiness and satisfaction like helping a foundation or institution and then this will drive us to earn more so that we can give back more 😀

    1. Thanks! 😀
      It’s a journey not a destination – this is the reason why I want to share it because even if I am just 2 steps ahead of others then maybe the ones behind me can get some nuggets of wisdom from my sharing my story and learnings 😀

  5. I think fresh starts are always a good way to kickstart our plans and clarify our goals. I really enjoyed your transparent assessment of your own journey with mastery. Keep it up!

    1. Thanks Elizabeth! Yes, it is only with awareness and acceptance that we can move toward the path of mastery.
      Though we will never be perfect but at least we are improving bit by bit, day by day 🙂

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