notice when discomfort arises from spending
This weekend, Roman and I were down in Orlando, Florida, for the Puma National Invitational for his AAU team.
It wasn’t the weekend we had hoped for as they suffered their first defeat of the Puma Circuit early in bracket play and didn’t make it to the championship, but that disappointment isn’t the point of today’s Note.
I noticed a bit of discomfort about the money being spent on the trip, and while we were down in Orlando.
I don’t usually feel discomfort when it comes to our finances, which I believe is because, for the most part, our spending aligns with my authentic life – it’s aligned with our life and financial plan. And while there were aspects of the trip that are aligned with our goals (time with Roman and supporting his basketball dreams), the trip also conflicted with parts of our plan.
First, the trip interfered with our annual trip to New Buffalo, Michigan. We had to cancel our trip this year because Puma informed us that players needed to be ready to play beginning Thursday at 8:00 AM. This meant Roman and I needed to fly down on Wednesday, instead of Thursday, which was our initial plan. We’ve been to New Buffalo each summer for the last six years, and it is one of our favorite weeks of the year as a family; we already had to cut the trip short to what was supposed to be two nights, and with the tournament schedule changes, we ended up with zero.
To make this missed trip even worse, when the schedule for Roman’s games was released, his first game wasn’t until 11:00 on Friday morning.
Second, the trip and all its associated expenses were not inexpensive. We could have taken a nice family vacation and spent time together instead of being part of and having the travel budget go towards hotels, parking, admission to the games, etc.
Third, and final, I know that the tournament was nothing more than a money grab. It was all business for Puma. And this was obvious by the first two teams we played—they had a combined record of 0-24 during the circuit, and we won each game by 50 points (the second was stopped with eight minutes left in the game).
There were no college scouts there. There was no exposure there. There was nothing to be gained for Roman’s development and progress towards his long-term goals by being there. It was really just an excuse for him and his teammates to hang out and play a few games–we could have done that back home.
Now, despite the low energy of the note so far, seeing Roman hang out with his teammates, whom he doesn’t get to see outside of AAU, was fulfilling–it makes me happy to see him (and my entire family) happy.
There were some lessons to be taken away from the loss that ended his tournament earlier than we had hoped, and gratitude that his tailbone injury, which took him out of the game, wasn’t more severe–Roman had to learn to find the silver lining and also learn how to be a cheerleader when you want to go back into the game, but physically can’t.
I don’t regret making the trip, but I would have much rather allocated those dollars towards a family experience that we could have all participated in together. That is a higher priority in my authentic life than an AAU tournament that has no real long-term impact on Roman’s development and career. Because of this conflict in priorities, I felt some discomfort about spending money.
I’m thankful to have put my Self in a position where I can afford to make that trip and experience that discomfort and have it just be that–discomfort.
Discomfort when spending can be a sign that your spending is misaligned with your authentic life.
Had we spent the same amount of money, or even more, on our New Buffalo trip this summer I would not have had the same discomfort because it would have been fully aligned with my authentic life.
Discomfort isn’t necessarily good or bad–it’s just a signal to interpret and understand why you are feeling it. When you feel it, especially with allocating your money, pay attention and see if you need to adjust where you are spending your money.
See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,
JC
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