Our smartphones are a fantastic tool. I use it daily for so many things. It would be easy to say that my entire life is on my smartphone. Google is my first go to for answering questions and I always have instant access to it. The problem is, in life, there is not one tool the fits all. For most of us, myself included, my smartphone is my lifeline and I could not function without it. There is a fine line between a tool being helpful or a crutch. Let me share a story that happened to me today to highlight this.
Upon my commute back to my office from a meeting, I passed a car with its hazard lights on in the middle of an intersection. I decided to turn around and see if the individual would like some help. Upon approaching the car, the individual was a woman who was on her phone searching for help. I offered to push her car through the intersection so that she could reach the gas station across the street to safely wait for additional help. After making it through the intersection another individual stopped to help me push as well. This was appreciated because the little hill in the gas station's lot was a challenge. He proceeded to ask her what the problem was. Come to find out, she just ran out of gas. My immediate thought to myself was "why are you just sitting in your car on your phone when the solution to your problem is right across the street?" All she needed was her legs and a gas can to fix her problem. Total time for her fix would have only been ten minutes. My second thought to myself was, "why did I not ask her what the problem is?" I could have saved myself the trouble of pushing her across a busy intersection in dress shoes and slacks.
The point of this story is, do not get so caught up in your tools that you miss the solution right in front of your face. She was too focused on her phone as a way to solve her problem. I was too focused on my ability to push her car as a way to solve her problem. All she had to do is walk across the street and I just needed to ask her a question.
This principle is very important in life and especially with finances. If your financial problems have not been fixed, maybe you need a different tool. We can be that tool for you. Just contact us to start.
