A Spirit of Fear
Here in Texas, the big political battle of the day is the Republican Gubernatorial Republican Primary between U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and incumbent Governor Rick Perry. The ads used by both parties insult my intelligence. Just so you know where I’m coming from, here’s one from the Senator:
F.E.A.R.
Whether it’s a political attack ad that lacks substance, or the 24-hour news network constantly trying to hook you into a story, this trend of negativity isn’t going anywhere soon. Why? Because fear sells. Fear gets ratings.
Motivational speaker Tony Robbins often said that FEAR is an acronym for “False Evidence Appearing Real.” Once consumed by F.E.A.R., it leads you to make irrational choices, including in your financial life. Here’s an examples of F.E.A.R.
Instance of F.E.A.R. — “I’m driving a 3 year-0ld minivan and have two kids. I need a new van — I mean, I just couldn’t imagine being stuck on the side of the road with a broken down old car! Besides, this new minivan has more safety features. You don’t want our children to be in danger, do you?”
Reality – You rarely drive outside the city limits in the kid-toter. Your minivan has plenty of room and is reasonably reliable. Breaking down and needing a tow truck is not the end of the world, nor is it scary, especially with cell phones available to call for help. There is no way the new minivan is THAT much safer to justify the extra cost. Getting a brand new minivan with brand new payments upwards of $500-$600/month, just to avoid an off-chance instance of breaking down? Illogical. Don’t let F.E.A.R. dupe you into a financial hole that will take 36-72 months to pay off.
Beating F.E.A.R. Into Submission
For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. ~ 2 Timothy 1:7 (NLT)
F.E.A.R. so easily creeps into our consciousness. How to we counter it? Well God and the Apostle Paul are pretty good authorities, and they say the opposite of fear is power, love, and self-discipline. Work on identifying when someone is playing on your fears. Identification of F.E.A.R. is empowering. It allows you to compare it to your judgment and self-discipline to see how this F.E.A.R. should apply to your financial life. When you have a financial plan (self-discipline), you will be empowered to make the right decisions by those habits, rather than reacting to F.E.A.R.
Application
Can you identify any instances of F.E.A.R. in your life? What self-disciplines have you used to overcome these F.E.A.R.s?? Meantime, early voting ends today — I’m off to go vote.
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Thanks for justifying me NOT getting a cell phone and in turn an unnecessary bill. I mean we have a house phone, and I’m home 90% of the day with kids, and if I DO breakdown in my 5 minute trip to the grocery store or encounter an emergency, EVERYONE else has a cell phone.
Maybe when the kids are older and I need to reached while they are school or the like, I will revisit my choice. But right now, I ENJOY being out of contact if I ever get out of the house ALONE:)
SAHM, CFO — wow, that’s a FANTASTIC example. Most people wouldn’t be willing to cut their phone, especially when the iPhone has the “Words With Friends” app (my own personal vice LOL)! If you truly needed one for emergencies, you could get a temp one with a limited amount of purchased minutes, rather than coughing up $50-$100/month for “emergencies”. I’m very impressed.
Good to see a SAHM commenting first on this topic — I thought my F.E.A.R. example might offend the SAHMs out there. Honestly, it was the first example that came to my head!
Thanks for your comment – look forward to more!
Jason – I’m driving a 6 year old minivan with 3 kids…The mom in your example is living the high life. So I am in no way offended, just jealous of fake mom
LOL – well I had to use a bit of hyperbole to make my point. For what it’s worth, I’m driving a 10yr old car that will hit 200k miles on this tank of gas.
P.S. – I just saw your website. Triplets?!? I guess you can check ‘children’ off the life-list with one fell swoop, eh?
I got sick of it and just turned off the TV to be honest… oh, and then I bought a ticket to Hawaii, lol.
But seriously I just check economist.com and maybe once a week cnn for basic news. Other than that I read timeless content or talk with people I respect, especially via networking with bloggers such as yourself.
One thing I was fearful of a few years back was global warming. The idea I still think should be fully examined, but it was pointless to fear it in my life because I couldn’t do anything to change it at that given time (in college). At the moment I adapted by living small and continuing to read more about it. We’re adaptable creatures and we’ll always find a way is what I’m learning.
I’m rambling a bit now, but basically I’ve learned that fear doesn’t benefit me at all so I tend to tune it out.
Is there anything in particular that year fear quite a bit?
Ryan, great comment.
There’s nothing I fear that is irrational, at least that I can think of. Like you, once you can identify your F.E.A.R.s, you can tune it out.
Identifying F.E.A.R.s helps to not make rash decisions, and keep you level-headed. Case in point with global warming – it is our job as humans to do what we can to conserve our natural resources, but now we know that recent global warming research was fudged by scientists to push a political agenda. Does that mean that it doesn’t exist? Not necessarily, but either way we have a responsibility to continue to learn and practice conservation. You don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
@Jason
Oh no, no,no Jason – “one fell swoop” would have been much too easy and smart. Three pregnancies, that’s 3 kids in less than years! NOT recommended.
Whoa, “Irish” triplets. Nice!