Life Is Like A Box Of ... Jigsaw Pieces

FINANCIAL PLANNERS – No client ever woke up and said…

‘You know what? I think what I need is a Lifestyle Financial Plan that visualises my ideal life and lifestyle and calculates the financials needed to achieve it.’

Instead, they think (periodically) about…

• Am I paying enough into my pension? 
• Should I be saving for the future? 
• Would I be OK financially if my partner died? 

Our job is to stop them from asking those small questions and instead start thinking about the widescreen cinematic version of, well, their life.

But the weird thing is, if you ask them what their ideal life and lifestyle looks like – they will often stare at you with a blank, yet faintly terrified expression, as if you’ve just asked them to explain quantum theory.

But if you ask them their thoughts on what they should be investing in, they’ll happily tell you their mumble jumble of thoughts and consciousness—all derived from a multitude of sources and then cooked up in their cauldron of a mind with a healthy dose of anxiety seasoning.

So why do we find it so easy to think about complex technical stuff that doesn’t matter, but so hard to think about the simple question of ‘What do you want your life to look like?’ 

The reason is perspective.

Technical questions are small and plentiful. You can fit lots and lots of them in your head until it’s positively bursting.

But thinking through what a great life looks like needs a stand-back cinematic view. It needs space to be laid out and thought through.

And you can’t do that in your mind if it’s already full of little technical questions, thoughts, and anxieties.

So, no matter how great a coach or a planner you are, if you don’t clear your client’s mind of the little stuff first, there’s no way you’ll be able to get them to see the bigger picture. 

Think about it like a jigsaw puzzle. 

Taking the lid off and showing your client that the box is full of little pieces is a start.

But you can’t do the puzzle in the box. It’s not big enough to be able to see the big picture. 

Instead, you have to tip it out on a tabletop and sort the pieces into groups and colours, straight edges, corners, and such like.

And if we do that with our client’s minds by helping them get it all out on the table, then we can start to sift and group.

And very quickly, the big picture starts to become clear.

And the more pieces you put in the easier it gets.

But it all starts by taking off the lid and tipping it on the table.

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