Finding ways to remain calm and focused when chaos abounds is a challenge. I practice every day with varying degrees of success. What I have found is that the practice itself provides comfort. It is something to anchor me as I tread carefully in this uncertain world.
Taking time to reflect on the year helps me to see through the haze of current events and crises of the moment.
I am a planner by nature. Once the immediate shock of an unfolding disaster became clear, I needed to do some real-time planning and preparing. It was in this moment that I realized my plan was not as tight as it should be. As the coming days and weeks unfold, my community will be facing loss, grief, coming together and rebuilding. I hope that as we do this difficult work, we will all take steps to ensure we stay safe, care for each other and get ourselves as prepared as we can for the next challenge.
In my role as a mother, I have spent extra hours stocking the pantry, wiping down surfaces, planting a vegetable garden and filling up our medicine cabinet with all the nutritional and herbal remedies I know to help my family build our immune systems, combat stress, get good sleep and fight off illness should it strike. These activities help me maintain a small sense of control in a time of intense uncertainty. In my role as a financial planner, I find myself working with clients to do the same thing: focus on what you can control.
Just like making dinner for a hungry family, planning for your financial future requires flexibility and creativity. Begin with where you are and what you have. Map out where you want to go. Design plans A, B and C to help you get there with grace as you find some ingredients missing from time to time. Who knows, those last minute substitutions could be the makings of a wonderful new recipe.
Gardening and financial planning have a few things in common. In developing a financial plan, it is important to lay the groundwork, build a strong foundation, tend it along the way and try not to skip any steps. Also like gardening, if mistakes are made, or things get neglected, there are ways to bring things around.
