“The Inner Mastery of Money” from Sounds True
“The Inner Mastery of Money”
Source: Sounds True + Spencer Sherman (Listen: 1 hr 3 min)
Contributor: Selena Garcia
“What if I have enough right now? To me, that's a liberating idea, and it's one that we can start to practice.” - Spencer Sherman
“I love financial stress,” said no one ever. Chances are you know someone stressing over money and/or has an unhealthy relationship with money. Maybe you’re one of those people. If you feel you may be valuing “stuff” more than you’d like or feel your self-worth equals your net worth, this is for you.
Tami Simon starts this conversation with Spencer Sherman by asking, “What keeps us from having a healthy relationship with money?” They talk about how to deal with envy, cultivating stability during a down cycle, how our childhood beliefs may be impacting every aspect of our money and business life, and what to do if you’re in a state of financial fear.
“Spencer was named one of the top wealth advisors in the United States. He founded a sustainable financial firm with Buddhist values, and he has an MBA from Wharton Business School.” While there are Buddhist values intertwined, it’s not the driver.
Sounds True offers the full transcript, but listening is always recommended if you can.
“When we're always on that hamster wheel of wanting something to be different, wanting more, there's a stress with that.” - Spencer Sherman
Note: Time stamps excluded given Sounds True offers the full transcript.
Spencer: "I like the metaphor of the iceberg. On the tip of the iceberg, what we see represents all the ordinary things with money that we often think about, like bills and taxes and investments and insurance and credit cards and mortgages and houses. All that's in the top half of the iceberg, and then there's the submerged part of the iceberg, and that's where our fixed beliefs with money and our fear lies, and that's what I've discovered really drives the bus with money."
Spencer: "I think all of us have that sense that there's not enough. I mean, we live in a culture that's all about more. John Rockefeller, the world's first billionaire in 1916, his definition of enough was 'just a little bit more.'… if he's saying that 'enough is a little bit more,' then we know it's not about accumulating; it's not about getting to a number. Although I will say, and I've been very clear about this, that our basic needs need to be satisfied of food, shelter, health care, basic education, all of that. Literally, someone doesn't have enough if they don't have those things satisfied, and that puts us into a huge place of stress."
Spencer: "It's this realization that we're never going to get to enough by wanting more, and that the way to enough is to start appreciating and meeting what you have, start living in this present moment because 'enough' also brings us into the future. Like someday I'll have—when this happens, or when I have this much money, then I'll be in a place of equanimity. Then I'll be able to relax. I'm saying, and I think John Rockefeller was saying, you're not going to get there. It's time to just recognize that you need to start practicing being … Taking on this practice of 'enough right now.'"
Spencer: "It's the recognition of the stress that not having enough produces, that when we're always on that hamster wheel of wanting something to be different, wanting more, there's a stress with that. I think, when that stress gets to be intense enough, we wake up and say, 'what are the other options? If nobody is getting to this place of enough, not even the billionaires, then what if I just start to experience that I have enough money, enough time, enough friends, enough skills, enough brain power? What if I have enough right now?' To me, that's a liberating idea, and it's one that we can start to practice."
Spencer: "When we're in that really terrified place, we might have a belief like 'it's over, I'm never going to be successful. This is the way life is going to be. I was handed bad cards around money.' The first thing we'll do is…
FOR THE FULL PODCAST, LISTEN HERE. (1 hr, 3 min)
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