No More Drama: Have More Time, Save More Money, Be More Happy

18 Jul No More Drama: Have More Time, Save More Money, Be More Happy

No more drama! Have more time, save more money. Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash.

No More Drama: Have More Time, Save More Money, Be More Happy

Have you noticed that you need everything to be Very Important?

I certainly have, in both my personal life and my fundraising work.

Summer is a great time to notice what you are growing in your garden:

• Do you like eating it? Because you are growing it and you should like what you grow in your work and personal “gardens.”
• If it’s a surprise: does it taste good?  Eat lots and grow more next year.
• If you don’t like it, it’s a weed. Pull it up!
• I’m putting us all on notice: Pull up drama weeds! Let’s stop growing drama. This post is meant to help. If you have questions about details, please ask me! If I blog in response to your question, you get a free half-hour of coaching or consulting.

What it Costs You

If we stop drama, life is not only simpler. We will have more time, save more money, and be more happy. Our fundraising will be easier. Our organizations and projects will go more smoothly.

In Social: Why Our Brains are Wired to Connect, Matthew D. “Lieberman observes that simply

having a friend you see on most days gives the equivalent happiness boost of earning an additional $100,000 of income each year.

He also says that “seeing your neighbors on a regular basis gives as much happiness as an extra $50,000.”

Less drama in your life increases your number of friends.

This bumps up your experiential income.*

How to Remove It

1. Assume: if you are seeing it, you are growing it. (Hardest first. Try trusting me on this.)
2. Picture the ways life could be simpler–less dramatic–for you and/or your organization or project.
3. Face all you’d have to give up in order to have life be simpler.
4. Start giving it up. Allow it to be hard at first. Be willing to notice where you are creating drama and making life harder. Just noticing will help a lot of it change very quickly.
5. Get used to things becoming simpler. It takes practice.

*My phrase. Do you like it? Quote me! Your experiential income is how wealthy you feel–your abundance.

Note: The quotes about Lieberman’s findings come from Arthur C. Brooks’s book Love Your Enemies (2019), pages 34-35. Lieberman’s numbers are in his book on page 247.