Metaphors are a great way to help people gain new understanding by drawing a parallel with something already familiar. I love metaphors and use them all the time in my coaching work. I'm usually coming up with them in the moment, so sometimes I go a little off the beaten path. Here are some metaphors I've thrown out just this week. Note: it's only Wednesday.
Developing a new financial management practice is like sculpting a figure from stone. You don't jump right in and chisel out the finer details of the face. First you grab a hammer and just whack that stone to try to get a rough shape. After that you refine. But first you're just taking whacks with a hammer. It's not supposed to be perfect.
Money is a neutral energy source. How we direct it reflects our own inner meaning.
A money crisis can bring attention to financial behavior that's been limiting you for years. It's like that compressed disk in your back. Your range of motion has been curtailed for so long you don't even remember what it's like to move freely. This process is like going to the chiropractor. We're going to adjust some things so the behavior will unlock and release.
Our biases and distortions around money are uniquely personal, sort of like your own individual glasses prescription. You may be a +2, the person next to you a +1.25. But this is the distortion each of you brings to how you perceive a financial situation, and with awareness you can learn to correct for it just like you can get corrective lenses.
You say that you have two options right now: to sink or swim. I suggest we add a third: to float. Let's just take moment to pause and gather information before we decide what needs to be done about it. We're just going to float here on the surface, noticing all the parts of the landscape, and take it all in before we feel we have to do anything.
