I want to start by saying I am not saying saving money is a bad thing. I am saying that many times the coupon mentality becomes our life, and that is a bad thing. How many times do you scroll through coupons to save pennies? How many times do you sit there and spend hours trying to save a few dollars? I see people do this all the time. They will spend hours on the internet trying to find the savings, and it then becomes a high when they save. It becomes them and pours into other areas of their lives. What we focus on we become and when you focus on saving on everything it changes everything!
You may ask, how does it pour into other areas? You watch them, and they start having the coupon mentality when it comes to their dreams. Instead of saying I am all in, and I will do what it takes to get that dream, people with the coupon mentality will find every shortcut they can get because it has become a lifestyle.
There are no shortcuts in life and especially when it comes to your dreams. Your dreams are precious, and if you have a big one, it’s not happening overnight. God doesn’t want that because it will ruin you. How many times have you seen NFL players who went from rags to riches overnight and what usually happens? They end up bankrupt down the road.
The coupon mentality changes who you are. It makes you look at everything as saving. It can even pour into your relationships. Instead of waiting for the right person, you decide that you will just find someone to date and then work on changing them into the right person. That is not how it works. It’s much easier just to wait on God and find that right person instead of taking someone and changing them. I never understand that when people get so excited about someone they are dating then work on changing them into someone else.
Another part of the relationships is people feel that it is just too much work to communicate truly with each other, so they text and social media with people and think they are building that relationship and that’s just not true. Hearing someone’s voice just does something to you when you talk on the phone. Seeing someone face to face just does something to your soul as you get to know each other. Yes, usually technology is a good thing until it becomes your life and then it becomes a bad thing.
Another point goes back to your dreams, maybe you are making money but it’s not fast enough to you. You want to find ways to push the boundaries, and then you find yourself one day on American Greed. Watching that show is always interesting because almost all of the people that make the show had so much going for them. They had it all including ways to make millions a year but not only was that not enough but that wasn’t fast enough, so they cross the line for years until they get brought down!
So many areas of your life the coupon mentality can take over. You have to be very careful that it does not happen because once you get there it can destroy you. Looking through the eyes of the coupon mentality sees everything as scarcity even though we live in this abundant world!
Never allow scarcity to control your life. You can live the life you dream of if you put the work in it. You can have great relationships if you put the work in it. You can live a great life if you just see everything through abundant eyes instead of the coupon mentality!
Chris Benton