Giving Thanks Is the First Step

One of the most interesting parts of my job is hearing what people believe money will do for them. Some see it as a tool. Others quietly hope it will give them something deeper, like safety or certainty about the future. It makes sense. Life feels unpredictable, and money feels like something we can control. Some of us have lived out seasons where not having enough truly made us less safe.

And yet, when we expect money to create emotional security, we set it up to do a job it cannot handle.

I spend most of my days thinking about the tactics — convert this to Roth, add more insurance, increase savings by a few percent. These things matter, but they don’t get to the heart of why money affects us so much. I ask people what money means to them, but I rarely pause to ask what it feels like, because I’m usually buried in the math.

If you consult the wisdom literature throughout history, you’ll find the same message repeated across traditions: money isn’t the answer we’re actually searching for. We “know” it won’t make us happy. We hear it all the time. Yet we still want to reach the point where we find out for ourselves. “It didn’t work for them, sure, but it just might work for me.”

But what I’ve found is that the longing underneath our relationship with money doesn’t come from getting more. It comes from noticing what is already here. Gratitude ends up giving us the very thing we hoped money would provide.

It turns out that being grateful for what you have is the distant sound calling you back. Like a smell that returns you to childhood. Before advertising. Before screens. Back to a moment where you simply existed.

Take a moment. Look around. Feel the clothes on your skin. Look at the names at the top of your text messages. You have what you need right now. Isn’t that wonderful? Someone thought of you today. Your lungs are keeping you alive without you asking them to.

We are entering a season filled with sales and consumption. But if you can take thirty seconds to say, “I’m thankful for _____,” out loud, your mind, your body, and slowly your relationship with money will begin to heal.

This is the first step.

Give thanks.