Fewer Trinkets, More Time: Create A Valentine’s Day Resolution

Fewer Trinkets, More Time: Create A Valentine’s Day Resolution

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The people you love the most don’t really want or need roses, chocolates, or sparkly luxuries this Valentine’s Day. They want your attention and your time. Steve Cook says there’s a way to give it to them—and it starts with simplifying your stressful life.

Valentine’s Day 2021 is almost here and you know what that means: Time to carve an hour from your stressful schedule to make a (masked-up) run to the store or maybe do some quick online browsing for flowers, teddy bears, or chocolate for your spouse and kids. Done! You’ve proven your love once again, right?

If this scenario makes you feel a little empty, life and business coach Steve Cook says there’s a reason. Too many of us are substituting symbols and tokens of love for the real thing.

“Our loved ones don’t want more sparkly, frilly, sugary stuff for Valentine’s Day,” says Cook, author of Lifeonaire: An Uncommon Approach to Wealth, Success, and Prosperity (Lifeonaire Promotions, LLC, 2018, ISBN: 978-0-9863228-7-7, $14.99). “They want our time, our attention. They want us to be happy. They want real conversations that aren’t always cut short so we can rush off to some obligation. That’s what love looks like, or should. It’s not about gifts.”

To most of us, being able to spend big chunks of meaningful time with our loved ones sounds wonderful. It just doesn’t sound realistic. That’s because we’ve arranged our lives in a way that forces us to work ourselves to death to achieve “the American Dream.” (What’s more, when we are around our families we’re stressed out and grouchy.)

But Cook says we can change that. We can overhaul our lives in a way that allows us to start giving more deeply of ourselves to the people who really matter. One cornerstone of Cook’s path to prosperity is cutting life down to the basics. By cutting things we don’t need—the giant mortgage, the shiny new cars, the pricey data plans, the flashy gifts—we free up money to fund income-producing assets. And from there, everything gets better!

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