Have you seen the latest fitness craze?
It’s a mirror.
Actually, they call it “The Mirror.” This $1500 piece of technology combines video and live feedback technology to provide the experience of a one-on-one trainer in your home…only she’s really just in your mirror.
It’s actually kind of spooky. There you are, standing in front of your mirror in all your boxer short glory and a perky (if somewhat ghostly looking) instructor smiles back at you and says, “Good morning, Fred! Ready for your workout?”
As you look at the mirror, you see yourself and you see the instructor at the same time. The not so subtle promise is that you are not only seeing the reality of yourself today but are also seeing the possibility of yourself tomorrow.
The implication is that you are seeing the YOU of the future…if you use The Mirror.
Your money is like a mirror – both the old kind of mirror and the new, smart kind.
When you look at your old-school money-mirror, it gives you at least a partial biography of who you are and what’s in your past. It can’t tell the whole story, but it tells a great deal.
Your collection of debts, savings, retirement savings, stuff you own…all of it represents the present you’ve built along the way in your past. It’s all very biographical.
For many of us, that could be a bit discouraging.
But when you look at your new, smart money-mirror, it can give you a glimpse of your future…a future based on what you’re doing today. That could obviously be good news or bad news – that all depends on you.
I hope you understand the profound power in all of this.
When you focus on who you are today, it can be discouraging. Maybe you’ve made a few mistakes in the past. Maybe the past has dealt you some difficult circumstances…perhaps none of which are your fault. But you still have to live with those circumstances today. The financial life you see when you look in the old-school mirror is made up entirely of your past, fair or unfair as that may seem.
So, if staring endlessly into the old-school money mirror is simply a recipe for further discouragement, let me suggest a different strategy – get a different mirror…a new-school, smart money-mirror.
This kind of mirror acknowledges your past, in fact, it knows you’ve got to build from that. But while the past is acknowledged, it is no longer the focus – your future is.
A smart money-mirror shows you the possibilities that can be in your tomorrow, based on changing the things you do today. It isn’t naively unrealistic, but it is relentlessly optimistic. It doesn’t offer promises, only possibilities. But it also gives you a clear roadmap to follow to get there.
This new-style, smart money-mirror I’m talking about it a financial plan. It deals with the realities of who you are and where you are today, but it also gives you a clear picture and a path to the person and place you want to be one day.
Old-school mirrors are OK. They show us the past. And what can you do with the past? Learn from it.
But a new-school smart mirror, the kind with future possibilities built in, has a clear focus on your tomorrows. What can you do with a clearer vision of your future?
Lean into it. Lean into those habits and practices that are creating the future you’re going to one day call your present.
What mirror are you looking at?
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