Your Emotional Budget

I do not have an offi­cial bud­get, and I have never bal­anced a check­book in my life. I use an intu­itive approach to how much I spend and what per­cent­age goes where. It is effi­cient and I do not hold peo­ple up in a check­out line fill­ing out a check­book reg­is­ter. In fact, I usu­ally use cash for every­thing except for what I have to mail. It is quick, effi­cient, and leaves no com­puter trail.

Your emo­tional bud­get is more impor­tant than your finan­cial one. Where and how you spend your ener­gies deter­mines more than mere money. It has to do with how you feel day to day. It also has much to do with your des­tiny. In short, where do your emo­tional ener­gies end up? Are they cast to the wind or are they invested?

Here is what I have found in terms of emo­tional bud­get: “Pop” news is a drain. Hand-wringing about things over which you have no direct con­trol is a waste of time and energy. Antic­i­pa­tion. Regret. Guilt. Para­noia. Fear. Ego. Hate. The list can be quite lengthy. Emo­tions cre­ate or drain the poten­tial for more emo­tional energy. Neg­a­tiv­ity makes about as much sense as wak­ing up each morn­ing and using hun­dred dol­lar bills to start the morn­ing fire in your fireplace.

I read a lit­tle bit of the news. I lis­ten to peo­ple and their prob­lems — to a point. Most impor­tantly, I go about what I do with a sense of pos­i­tive expec­ta­tion. I laugh a lot (which fills the emo­tional gas tank).

You will dis­cover that wor­ry­ing about how you look has dimin­ish­ing returns. The same is true for any sen­tence that has the word “worry” in it. Hope is a lit­tle bet­ter deal. Love tops the charts in terms of an energy that has an end­less sup­ply. Com­par­isons and envy are a waste. Check the emo­tional rec­om­men­da­tions of the Ser­mon on the Mount and see if you are a lit­tle less tired by putting them into practice.

Some peo­ple act like they have never been human before. Hey! You do not have an inex­haustible emo­tional bank account! This human thing means being smart, shrewd, and gen­er­ous at the same time. Respect your emo­tional lim­i­ta­tions while you learn new ways of find­ing the emo­tional “pearls of great price.”