“But what if I need it…” and What to Ask Instead to Create Your Clutterfree Life.
Have you ever considered the way you think about money?
Or better yet why how you think about money is directly impacting your ability to create space in your home and your life?
Talking about money can be taboo.
So rather than really paying attention to the way we think and talk about money, we ignore it.
It can be so easy to see our money circumstances as “just the way it is” rather than questioning whether or not our financial circumstances can be changed.
We spent years living paycheck to paycheck.
And then as Joe got promoted at work and I graduated school and got a job, our financial income changed.
Yet the funny thing is that even though our income actually increased, we continued to feel like we were living paycheck to paycheck.
No matter how much or little money we made, we always felt like it just wasn’t quite enough.
The lack mentality.
It comes from this place that money is scarce. There’s only so much to go around.
This way of thinking doesn’t automatically change as your income changes. And still this way of thinking ultimately shapes the way we act and how we perceive the world.
What I’ve found is this scarcity mentality can keep you holding onto things because of the fear of not having someday in the future.Â
Maybe you can relate to what so many of my clients have felt about that worry if they got rid of something and then need it someday in the future.
That feeling that someday you might be without.
It’s easy to get caught up in this feeling which is why I see it so often.
Yet what if that worry is the very reason you’re feeling stuck in the clutter? What if it’s the very reason you always feel like you’re living paycheck to paycheck?Â
This idea of “what if I need it in the future” could often have “and I wouldn’t be able to get it/have it” phrase on the end.
It’s not a matter of whether or not you think you’ll use it in the future that keeps you from letting an item go, but rather a matter of if you need it in the future you wouldn’t be able to access it.
Can you tell me, is it easier to receive something if you have your hands closed or open?
From my experience, the mentality of “will I have what I need in the future” is the very thing keeping you from receiving that which you desire.
So what if you started asking different questions?
What if instead of asking the “what if I need this in the future,” you started asking questions like…
- “if I needed this in the future, would there be another way for me to get it,”
- “would I be able to borrow this from someone,”
- “could I purchase it again if I needed,”
- “when I need this in the future, will I even remember I have it”
I know it may seem simple. These subtle little shifts in the way you ask questions. Yet a mentor of mine frequently says…”the quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions you’re asking.”
So what would it look like for you if you started asking some different questions?
What would it look like if instead of worrying about “if” you’ll have something in the future when you need it (lack/scarcity mindset), you started to ask questions with the assumption that life is abundant, you could be resourceful, and that there’s more than enough available?
What you focus on grows and you see more of inside your life. Your brain literally filters out that which it doesn’t think is important or that which is incongruent with your current way of thinking. So where is your attention and focus right now?
Is it on the fact that you might not have enough in the future or that your life is abundant?
I was 30 something years old before I got my very first tattoo. I’d always wanted one but could never really think of what I would want so permanently. Yet as I started removing the excess clutter in my life, focusing in on the things that mattered most, and realizing that what I focus on really creates my life, I realized there was ONE thing I wanted to be permanently reminded of going forward.
So my sister-in-law went with me to get my very first tattoo as she was visiting from Chicago. The word “abundant” is inscribed on my forearm as that daily reminder that no matter what my bank account looks like or what our circumstances look like, I am truly abundant in so many ways.
This focus has allowed me to open up my hands that were so tightly gripping my clutter and my money.
What I’ve learned, is that this shift…the shift to letting go and opening those ends, is the very shift that opens up you to receive.
So my question for you today…
what questions have you been asking? And are those questions getting you the results you desire in life?
If no, then what would it look like for you to start asking different questions?