Seducer or slavemaster?

WHEN I first met money, it came to me on a sultry, moonlit night and it kissed my fingertips and whispered sweet nothings into my ears.

It romanced me and enticed me with promises of fine champagne, delicious caviar, glittering diamonds and exotic sports cars. It embraced me, caressed me, teased me and entranced me.

It stoked the passionate embers of desire awake inside of me. Money seduced me in the most passionate and intimate ways. It was exciting, generous, loving, charming and attractive. 

We dined together, drank fine wines, we travelled to the furthest corners of the earth and lived a life of luxury and limitlessness. We were so close that there was no room for anything to come between us. 

We ignited each other and it was the most romantic, passionate and memorable time of my life.

But later money showed me its darker side. It was possessive and always wanted more of me, more from me. It was needy and demanding and never seemed to be satisfied with what it had.

It felt desperate and lonely most of the time and seemed to be insatiable in its need to be attended to, leaving little time for much else. It required endless amounts of validation and appreciation, but gave little of these in return. 

It was sometimes a little ruthless, oftentimes selfish, perhaps even a little arrogant, always wanting its own way. It took away my freedom through its fear and insecurity. It tormented me and kept me prisoner, because it did not want to lose me. Sometimes it even punished and tortured me.

Money had become my master and I was its prisoner. It made me sweat and toil in the hot salt mines. Day in and day out, doing the same thing over and over, with little time for passion or play. 

No time to think. No time to breathe. No time to live. No way out. No joy. No light. No love. No air. It had me in its clutches and would not let me go. I had sold my soul and I was lost.

Money is a double-edged sword, a two-sided coin, and a mirror with many faces. How we as individuals experience it, relate to it and engage with it is in truth more a reflection of aspects of our own personal character, identity, personality, attitudes, values and belief systems than anything else.

What if how much money we did or did not have was merely an expression of who we really are? 

What if money reflected back to us the degree of our individual clarity of purpose and commitment to living this every day, the level of our ability to identify and meet real needs or wants or to offer a unique skill, capability or competence? 

What if it summed up the extent of our belief in ourselves, the degree of our wisdom applied in decision making, the amount of openness and readiness to receive, and ultimately our personal sense of deservingness and worth?

If this were the case, wouldn't it be useful to ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I frequently deny my needs or overindulge on unnecessary impulse purchases?

• How much is enough to take care of my needs and further my personal goals?

• What am I really working for or towards, and why?

• How much am I really worth and why am I worth that?

• Who would I need to be to become a magnet for wealth?
  

When coloured paper and metal coins were introduced as financial instruments, this gave human beings a physical mechanism to objectify, label, measure, assess, compare and weigh up wealth.

But often we mistake this tangible external measure as a true reflection of our own value that informs our personal sense of self worth, ie the belief that we are only worthy if we are wealthy.

Beyond the paper on which it is printed or the coins on which numbers are embossed, money in its most basic form is actually just one measure of our ability to attract and harness life force, direct our own personal creative energy consciously and constructively and then bring this into form materially or commercially.

 - Fin24

* Jacqueline Allschwang is an inspirational and transformational NLP coach and facilitator and owns Inspire Transformations. She is the latest guest columnist taking part in Fin24's Women's Month campaign celebrating women in business.

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