Geneen Roth’s Lost and Found-Not Enough

This Should Be Enough

One of the truths about money is we make it up, literally. We print paper with different numbers on it and those numbers equal other pieces of paper with numbers on it.

In one workshop Roth had students give or accept money from each other. The very thought of doing that made my hands clench. I could not see myself giving my money to anyone. Would I ever have enough to give away?

We infuse money with ideas and beliefs. We don’t see our money as a symbol of the time spent earning it. We want our money to proliferate even if we don’t understand how investments work or the methodology clashes with our beliefs. The “bottom line” is how much we earned, not how we earned it.

But it’s only money. It’s only food.

I have money in several accounts and it is not enough. I have plenty of food in the refrigerator, freezer and pantry but I am going to buy more.

In conclusion, it is very, very hard to change habits that make up our identity. It is hard to take the action change requires. Given the difficulty why should we try?

Because, to quote Roth, “… the deeper cost is that by not examining the beliefs that hold our identity together, we are not taking our place inside ourselves or in the world; if we are keeping ourselves overweight to avoid being envied or spending money in ways that are unconscious and do not match what we truly value, we pay in pounds of our souls.”1
Whether you have problems with money, food or both this book is worth reading

Roth, Geneen. Lost And Found:: Unexpected Revelations About Food and Money Penguin Books 2011 (page 196)

Which one are you?