A lot of people these days are stressed out because of everything that’s been going on. Add financial struggles on top… and you have the perfect recipe for a mental breakdown.
For example, in the United States, almost half of adults (46.4 percent) will experience a mental illness during their lifetime, and that’s pre-Covid data.
Now, you might think that the best way to “fix” this or to avoid this risk altogether is to build your bank account.
The reasoning is simple. If you have enough money, there should be a lot less stress, right?
To a degree, that’s absolutely true. If you don’t have money, you may feel like you have no control over your life… which will lead to elevated stress levels, to put it mildly. Let’s be clear.
If you have no money, but bills keep piling up, the stress levels are not just “elevated,” the stress is debilitating and completely overwhelming.
So fixing your financial issues should be on top of your list, right?
Not necessarily.
I’d argue that there’s another type of “bank account” that we need to build first.
And no one has explained this better than Michael Maddaus, who, after an abusive alcoholic childhood and 24 arrests as a juvenile, turned his life around and built an extremely successful career as general thoracic surgeon. It all collapsed when Michael experienced stifling career burnout and addiction to painkillers. But he was able to turn his life around… again.
He advocates building a “resilience bank account,” which means you gradually build regular practices in your life that promote resilience and provide a fallback when life gets tough.
I’d argue that having a nice, fat “resilience bank account” will, first, reduce your stress no matter what your financial situation is, and second, over time, will help you take care of your “real” bank account, too.
The best part is, it’s not even that complicated to build that “resilience bank account”. You focus on sleep, nutrition, exercise, meditation, self-compassion, and gratitude, and you say no to things that are not aligned with your mission.
What that lets you do is have the energy and the mental bandwidth to deal with all the other issues in your life… which is more important now than ever.
To Your Success, Paul Hanson
P.S. Your mission, if you are truly passionate about it, is the over-arching motivation that you will need to build in order for discipline or will-power to be effective in your life. If this is something you need help with, then let me know and let's tackle your mission objective together.
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