Page 64 - Workbook2E

Your Financial Stress Profile—Evaluations Stressor No. 12 Maintaining Your Possessions from page 44
Everyone’s lives are filled with things, and often your identity is tied to the things you own. Their condition or state of repair is directly related to the state of our mind, spirit, body, emotions, and finances and our level of stress. Your esteem may even be directly proportional to your value and conditions of your belongings. Consider these recommendations based on the results of Your Financial Stress Profile questionnaire.
You currently feel little stress from the way you maintain your possessions.
You know the value of taking good care of your possessions. However, you may feel stress when others fail to behave like you. When tools, toys, or other belongings are left unattended, abused, or exposed to the elements, you may feel stress.
Show others by your good example the value of main- taining possessions. Consider whether or not you should loan your things to people who may not show them the care you
do. Give careful instructions about your expectations for your belongings before releasing them to the use of others.
Be aware, good repair and maintenance are not an end in themselves, but only a means to an end. Your life belongs to you, not to your possessions. Don’t allow them to own you by going to excess in your attitudes about their maintenance and repair.
Take good care of your body. It’s your most valuable possession.
You currently feel moderate stress from the way you maintain your possessions.
Taking care of possessions
only after problems arise can
be a source of stress to you.
Your stress level rises in a crisis situation if a belonging you have come to rely on fails to give you the service you’ve expected.
Take prompt action to correct problems. Remember, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Lower repair bills through awareness and resolve to take better care of your hard-earned possessions. Plan regular service dates for your car. Keep your gas tank filled and a record of it’s maintenance.
Establish family rules for maintaining tools, equipment, toys, etc. Assign care of joint possessions to specific people in your family or business.
Routinely inventory the condition of your possessions. Awareness will help you in moving you to take action.
You currently feel consider- able stress from the way you maintain your possessions.
Your answers suggest you may feel you don’t take enough care of your possessions. It is a big source of stress, because it may reflect on how you feel about yourself, take care of yourself, and your self-worth.
Practice keeping a clean car. Clean it out each time you return home. Wash it regularly. Keep a notebook of maintenance repairs, expenses, and mileage.
Beginning with a single possession, such as your car, will help you in think about the care and maintenance of your other belongings.
Put your possessions away
after you use them; it’s easier
to hang up your clothes now than later. Uncared for things become misplaced, damaged, or forgotten about.
Create an inventory of your possessions. What items are well enough maintained to leave you with a good feeling about them and yourself?
60 Workbook 2: Improve Your Financial Life