Episode 1125: Getting Comfortable with Discomfort about Loss and Gain of Money

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,125 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:08] Brian Steele: I'm Brian Steele, author of the kingdom field guide, and I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world. How by using your time, your talent and your treasure to live out your calling.

[00:00:24] Discovering how to seek first God's kingdom is key. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer,

[00:00:38] Scott Maderer: because what's happened is your status quo is good at. That you're wanting to keep it. And yet the truth is that you could have something much more beneficial, much better, much more in tune with who you are and what you're meant to be on the other side. But to get there, you have to overcome that fear.[00:01:00]

[00:01:00] You have to overcome that discomfort. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast, who will learn to invest in yourself.

[00:01:22] Invest in. And develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:29] And today's episode about investing in others through stewarding your treasures. I talk with you about how we often have a fear of the loss of money. Also share how we also often have a fear of the gain that money will bring as well, and how this leads us to often living and comfortable misses. Instead of actually making the change we need to, as we talk about stewarding your treasures, wouldn't it be great.

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[00:02:21] Fear of loss is one of those things that I think in some ways is probably one of the most largest and most common dreads that all of us have. When you're facing a choice, perhaps like leaving a job, you have that fear of not leaving because you'll lose your passion. You'll lose your energy.

[00:02:43] You'll lose maybe even something that you're standing up. But you also have a fear of losing financial security. People worry about investing money because if they do, they might lose the money. They worry about investing in a business or taking a risk in [00:03:00] some way because of how that will cost them.

[00:03:03] That they'll lose that money. You can also put it in other contexts, like relationships and friendships and other things, but we often have an aversion to law. Economist talk about loss aversion as a big factor in financial decision-making it turns out that when they study it, people are actually more avoidant of losing money.

[00:03:26] Then they are attracted by the idea of gaining money. It's in fact, it works out to be about twice as powerful. This idea that we would not be able to keep the money that we already have. This fear of loss turns out to be a massive fear for most people. And because of that, we end up making irrational decisions sometimes because we're afraid of losing things.

[00:03:57] We, we buy things we don't need, [00:04:00] because for instance, maybe we've bought a Groupon or paid into something or we buy something because the sales is going to end soon, even though it's not actually an item that we want, we will buy something because it's the last one there, even though it may not be something that's exactly what we want, because if it's the last one, someone else might buy it.

[00:04:22] In fact, if you think about. That's actually something that marketers use is a way of helping force us into buying decisions that aren't always in our best interest. I've seen people advertise something like a PDF of a book with scarcity. There's only a hundred copies left. It's a PDF. You can copy it as many times as you want to.

[00:04:46] And yet subconsciously that gives us this fear of missing out. We often turn down opportunities that could be rewarding because we're afraid about losing something else that we've already [00:05:00] got, even though that opportunity might lead to something even better. When we recognize this fear, when we recognize that it so often leads to irrational thoughts and behaviors, we actually can to begin to ask ourselves some questions.

[00:05:17] What am I scared of losing? Am I really seeing the bigger picture? The whole picture? What else? What am I missing? What other information do I have and look at the underlying motivations. Are you worried about growing? Are you worried about protecting what you already have and recognize that you can run through the feeling of how would it feel if I've already lost that and get comfortable with that feeling?

[00:05:46] Even though you haven't lost it yet. The other fear that I think have happens is people fear the gain when it comes to money as well. Because the opposite of this fear of losing what [00:06:00] I already have is how, if I gain more of something, how will this change me? How will this make me different in some way, how will.

[00:06:13] Make me able to not be who I already am. We're worried about how getting more will also change us. And I've talked before about how often, what happens with money when you gain more of it as it magnifies more of who you already are. But then that's a fear too, because what if, who I am is not actually who I want to be.

[00:06:36] Similarly, you've got to ask those same sorts of questions about loss, but ask them about the gain of money as well. Am I looking at the big picture? Am I looking at the whole picture? Do I really understand what it means and what it would look like to gain more? Have I already set up my life in a way that multiplying it would actually be beneficial.

[00:06:58] Because what ends up [00:07:00] happening for a lot of us is because we're not intentional about these choices, because we don't take ownership of these sorts of decisions. We end up living in comfortable misery. Think about the following things and think about how many of these statements actually apply to how you feel today.

[00:07:19] I'm counting the months or years until I retire. I hate my job, but I love my. My job is bound to get better. If I just keep hanging in there, I'm really worried that my position may be eliminated. I've lost interest in the work, but I really come here because I love the people, others know the caliber of my work, and I don't have to prove myself the chances of actually finding a job that I like are almost non-execs.

[00:07:52] When friends talk about their new career or their new job. I wish I had the courage to make a change [00:08:00] as well. Changing careers is too risky. Staying where I am is safer. I doubt I could find something equivalent to what I have here somewhere else. I would rather swim with sharks than start a job, sir. I tend to focus on the negatives of career change rather than looking at the positives or the potential.

[00:08:25] My family and friends think I'm in the catbird seat. They tell me I'd be crazy to ever leave this job work. Isn't meant to be satisfying after all. That's why they call it. If you checked off one or two of those statements, you're probably just having a bad day, but if you begin to check off a lot of them, you're probably stuck in that idea of comfortable misery because what's happened is your status quo is good enough that you're wanting to keep it.

[00:08:58] And yet the truth is. [00:09:00] That you could have something much more beneficial, much better, much more in tune with who you are and what you're meant to be on the other side. But to get there, you have to overcome that fear. You have to overcome that discomfort and you have to get comfortable with making a leap or making an experiment or doing something else changing and doing something new and going in a new direction is what you need to do.

[00:09:29] But you're stuck because you're comfortable in that misery where you are today. And what you need to do is begin to make a plan, make an idea, find out how can I make a transition from being comfortable, where I am today to being where I really am called to be tomorrow. Thanks for this.

[00:09:51] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast, as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to [00:10:00] not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you like this episode on the stewardship of treasurer. You can sign up for our treasures tips by going to inspired stewardship.com/treasures or text in the U S 4 4 2 2 2 treasures tips.

[00:10:29] And we'll send you five weeks of our best tips on stewarding your treasures until next time. Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.