Whose Playbook are You Using?

You are more financially literate than you know.

I would argue that you have learned invaluable lessons about life, people, and money through life experience. These experiences have shaped the way you view and interact with the world around you. Those experiences have caused you, subconsciously, to create a financial playbook filled with thoughts, emotions, and outcomes that justify your unsuspecting reliance upon it.

This financial playbook has helped you navigate the environment and systems you currently or once knew. But I have to ask, do you feel confident that your current playbook has enough of the right plays to be victorious in the life you are trying to create and sustain?

Bill Belichick, arguably one of the greatest coaches in NFL history, changes his playbook and personnel every week. He does not allow past accomplishments to lull him into believing that yesterday is the best indicator of future successes. The New England Patriot's secret sauce over the past decade is that they are willing to reassess their playbook for the immediate challenge: Don't hate the player, or the coach in this instance, hate the game.

When is the last time you assessed your financial playbook?

Where did it come from?

Why did you commit to it?

Is the playbook that once helped you thrive now have you holding on by a thread trying to survive?

If the latter question resonates with you, there is nothing wrong with your old playbook. You need to update it so that you can thrive in the future opportunities you hope for and the new challenges you will face while on the way.

Financial awareness is one of the first steps to financial well-being. We all have blind spots; however, we will never know they exist if we do not study our playbook and ask the following question:

Does what I currently know align with where I am trying to go?