1024 | The Arena in Which Greed and Generosity...

In this episode of Behavior Gap Radio, Carl talks about the profound influence of money on our lives through a poignant quote from John Armstrong's book, "How to Worry Less About Money." Reflecting on the multifaceted nature of our relationship with money, Carl shares how it shapes our identity, attitudes toward others, and even societal dynamics. He challenges conventional notions of money as mere spreadsheets and calculators, highlighting its role in evoking feelings of anxiety, desire, and power. In this episode, Carl invites listeners to reconsider their perspectives on money and its broader implications on personal and societal well-being.

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What is Behavior Gap Radio?

Greetings, Carl here.

This podcast is super simple, it's me wandering through the world noticing things about how to align my use of capital (time and money) with what is actually important to me.

-Carl

Carl: 00:00

Greetings. This is Carl. You're listening to behavior up radio. I just wanna share a quote with you real quick today. It's it's kind of a long quote.

Carl: 00:08

It's from this great little book called how to worry less about money. It's by John the book's by John John Armstrong, and so is this quote. How to worry less about money? You can find it, well, wherever you buy books, but it's a a school of life book. I've loved all the work that the school of life does.

Carl: 00:26

So here's the quote. The theme of money is so deep and pervasive in our lives. One's relationship with money is lifelong. It colors one sense of identity. It shapes one's attitude to other people.

Carl: 00:43

It connects and splits generations. Money is the arena in which greed and generosity are played out, in which wisdom is exercised and folly committed. Freedom, desire, power, status, work, possession. These huge ideas that rule life are enacted almost always in and around money. Come on.

Carl: 01:20

Can you I mean and you thought we were talking about spreadsheets and calculators here. Right? Freedom, desire, power, status, work, possession. These huge ideas that rule life are enacted almost always in and around money. It shapes your identity, your attitude toward other people.

Carl: 01:42

I love this. Money is the arena in which greed and generosity are played out. But but that last line, freedom, desire, power, status, work, possession, these are really big ideas. Right? And what John Armstrong is pointing to is the place in which they almost always are enacted is money.

Carl: 02:03

I have started in my public speaking engagements and workshops that I do. I've started putting up a a simple up on the screen. It's a black background with a white dollar symbol written on it in my handwriting. Big white dollar symbol. And I just ask people, what's the first thing?

Carl: 02:21

And often these are rooms full of financial professionals, people with, you know, stereotypically people with, pocket protectors and calculators and spreadsheets. Right? I asked them I put that picture of the money symbol, the dollar sign up there, and I say, what's the first thing that pops into your head? And almost universally well, sorry. Yeah.

Carl: 02:45

Almost universally, the answers I get are feelings. People will say things like anxiety, worry. They'll say things like freedom, desire, power, status, work, possessions, excitement, you know, energy. Nobody almost nobody says, you know, a store of value or a means of exchange or something you keep in a bank almost nobody says that I mean occasionally And remember the population, these are generally people in finance, like, financial professionals. And when I give talks to the public, it's even more pronounced.

Carl: 03:30

Things like anxiety that comes up all the time. Fear comes up all the time. Opportunity comes up a lot. That is what we're dealing with when we deal with money. That's why this is so important.

Carl: 03:53

Understand. I believe that there's a rift and I could I'll do another episode about it, but I think there's a I think we are split personality, but I think it's on a spiritual level That this disconnect we have between this thing we refer to as money and how we really feel and and the value we deliver in the world and our self esteem and our self worth. This disconnect, I believe, has caused a huge rift, and I think that rift is the result of sorry. The result of that rift is so much of what we see in the world. Right here John Armstrong says the arena in which greed and generosity are played out in which wisdom is exercised and fully committed I would even point to you know if we're talking about greed we can quickly get to fights legal battles wars right so all that means is man let's start thinking about it a little bit more clearly.

Carl: 05:01

What is this thing money? How does it play out in our lives? What's important to us? Because it's a problem as John Armstrong says because the theme of money is so deep and pervasive in our lives. Cheers my friends.