The True Cost of Happiness: The Real Story Behind Managing Your Money

Chapter 2. A Little Awareness Goes a Long Way

Believe it or not, one of the most insightful discussions I've had about what makes Life Planning work was with Sally Kempton, meditation master and author of The Heart of Meditation (South Fallsburg, N.Y.: Siddha Yoga Publications, 2002).

The conversation came about because I was trying to get a clear answer of why the term awareness kept coming up in all of my discussions about the difference between Life Planning and traditional financial management. I would grill planners about why people are able to make such swift and lasting changes to their lives when they undertake this process. Time and time again, I would hear that it's the awareness of the issues behind their behavior that makes the difference. I turned to Ms. Kempton because the term awareness also consistently came up when I was doing research on different spiritual practices.

Part of the emphasis on awareness as a key component to financial planning made sense to me. Even I know that the first step in making any change is becoming aware that a change needs to be made. So why doesn't the awareness that smoking is bad for us make everybody quit? Why doesn't the awareness that obesity kills make everybody lose weight? What about awareness that credit card debt is akin to wearing cement shoes in the ocean when it comes to productive financial behavior?

Awareness alone was clearly not the answer, yet I knew this was the heart of the story. If I could define that magic moment where ...