How Financial Structure Can Help You Be More Present

Recently, I had an experience that perfectly illustrates what being distracted, and not present, looks like. I had been sitting on the floor playing with my two year old twins with my phone in my pocket. Normally, I have my phone put away when I am home, specifically so that I can spend quality time with them. But for some reason it was still in my pocket and buzzed with a text message. Out of reflex I pulled it out and headed down the mobile device rabbit hole as I moved from responding to that text message to my email inbox. And then, literally out of nowhere, a plastic sippy cup of milk smacked me in the temple! Not truly out of nowhere, but out of the hand of my daughter who gave a giggle and responded with “Hi Daddy” when I looked up. Talk about getting smacked in the face with the realization that I had been doing exactly the opposite of what I wanted to do in that moment. Rather than being engaged and present with my kids, I was sucked into my phone.

We all have times when we are consumed with things that distract us from what we want to be doing and there is no shortage of objects and other people clamoring for our attention. But by adopting rules like leaving your phone in a basket when you walk in the door (as I should have) or delegating and automating financial tasks, you can decrease your distracted time.

Part of our work for clients is to help take on a good amount of the mental weight around their financial lives. So for instance, instead of having to remember to manually write a check or transfer money each month, we help clients make use of payroll deductions or automated transfers. We help clients understand what the tradeoffs are when spending money, or deciding when and how much to work, or whether to pick one opportunity over another. In addition to making better decisions, there is also an inherent value of clarity around decision making. By being clear about their options, our clients are able to eliminate the draining second-guessing that happens when making a decision about money with limited or incomplete information. One of my favorite rules around finances is to deal with an issue once, rather than waiting and having to reconsider the issue again at a later time. We help our clients get to those decisions points quickly, with better information, and then take on the implementation.

So the next time that you feel like you aren’t being fully present, take a look at the problem and try to offload some of the draining tasks that are weighing you down. If you are a client of ours or would like to be, we would love to help take some more of the financial weight off your shoulders!

Not a client of Destiny Capital? Let us begin helping you become more present in your life.

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