Fate by design

Emma was finally sitting across from Thomas, at least one part of her day was going right. He was there in all of his signature all-black attire, the top button of his dress shirt casually undone, the shirt itself draping off him like a cascading silk curtain.

“So I heard from Jed that the bigwigs announced some pretty challenging targets for you guys?” Even Thomas’ velvety voice couldn’t make those sales targets seem more palatable.

Emma slumped a little in her chair. She’d been avoiding thinking about the new hurdles management handed down earlier today. “Yeah, they’re pretty specific and daunting,” she remarked.

Thomas’ dulcet tones continued, “From what Jed was saying, if you did what you did last year, you’ll be fine, and that will be easy with your extra skills, experience and the networks you’ve established.”  Thomas sounded exactly like Jed had earlier today, just more alluring. “From the way Jed tells it, he’s the one that needs to improve, Emma, not you.”

She felt aglow on the inside when Thomas made it sound like he thought she was already something special, like she didn’t need to prove anything to him. It made her let her guard down for what felt like the first time today.

“Trust Jed with the overshare,” Emma rolled her eyes, and Thomas smiled coyly as he took a sip of wine. “I suppose he told you that I checked my horoscope before coming out with you tonight too?”

Mid-swallow Thomas struggled to contain a grin, “You checked your horoscope to see if you should come out with me?” his smile beamed in disbelief at the thought.

“Did you check mine too?” he asked with more than a hint of cheekiness.

She couldn’t stop the pink flushing her face, she had to admit, “Well, I don’t know your star sign, so,” and her words trailed off and her gaze went towards the heavens.

Ever the opportunist, Thomas whipped out his smartphone and seemed engrossed in the screen. He looked across the table at Emma and shot her one of those delectable glances she’d adored from afar for so long.

“Well, it says here,” he said with more charm than she’d thought possible, “that I should inform any auspicious ladies I’m having dinner with, that external forces are not in control of her destiny,” he took a breath and continued on in that dreamy fashion, “and to let her know that any opportunities currently in front of her, are hers for the taking.”

He paused, set his phone down on the table and reached for her hand. There was a tingle upon her fingertips as he took her hand in his, and no break to his adoring gaze.

She averted her eyes in an attempt to mask her shortness of breath in the moment. “So,” she began “we should probably try to make that late movie then?”

“Only if we leave it up to the cashier to decide if we get to sit together,” he offered with a false demeanour. Emma laughed at his devil-may-care answer.

Unlearn principal – Belief

Knowing what you can control, and understating what you can’t, are a big part of managing your finances successfully. It’s also important to determine if what you’re trying to control really matters. Emma can’t control the sales targets her employers have introduced, but she can control her actions towards making the sales. Investors aren’t in control of markets, but they can control how or what they invest in, to ensure it suits their purpose. Allowing external influences like a performance regime, stockmarket performance (or even worse, the horoscope) to shape your own beliefs is handing over control of your situation to an unknown that won’t have your best interests at the forefront.  Unlearning your beliefs as to who is in control, and what you need to control can unlock your sense of self-power and achievement.

Reference:

Psychology references an individual’s ‘locus of control’ – entrepreneurs and generally successful people are more likely to have what’s known as an internal locus of control, where they believe that they can change their own situation; while people living closer to the poverty line are more likely to have an external locus of control, where they believe that outside events and situations are hard to manage or are external to their level of control.

Hammond, C (2016), Mind over Money.