After Christmas and New Year’s Eve comes the real fun!
The end of January sees the deadline in the UK for self-assessment income tax forms. All over the country right now stressed out people are reviewing last tax year’s finances and figuring out what they owe to His Majesty’s government.
Income, expenditure, bank interest, capital gains.
It’s all a bit old school, don’t you think?
I hereby propose a new type of annual Life Centred Self Assessment.
The Life Path and the Money Path
In Money & Life work we examine 2 competing stories - the Money Path and the Life Path. The Money Path involves everything we do around getting, earning, saving, investing, spending, giving, asking for, and also ignoring … money. If we’re not careful, we spend life focused on the Money Path with the strange idea that once we get that sorted, we will then (‘one day’, ‘eventually’, ‘hopefully before I die’ etc) get to do what we really want in Life.
It's a dodgy promise that never actually delivers, because it continually takes numbers as a proxy for what we really want – which is life. And the result is we spend our life chasing numbers or trying to get the numbers ‘right’.
The Money Path idea arises from an Industrial-Linear mindset, arising strongly in the last hundred years of global capitalism, and emerging via enlightenment science and philosophy a few hundred years before then. It seems very real. But really it’s just a way of thinking we made up and keep sticking to.
The Life Path operates on a different logic. It reminds us that Life itself has self-organised on earth with coherence, creativity and intelligence for around 4.8 billion years. For most of that time money was not present, yet Life continued doing its thing – miraculously creating, evolving, flowing and surprising.
The Life Path story is NOT against money. Money is not considered a problem. But the Life Path story draws our attention to a deeper wisdom in the world, and also in ourselves and between us. It invites us to use money and numbers in support of LIFE, rather than the other way around. It offers a narrative based on trusting and following a deeper calling of our souls; our Selves.
We hear that deeper call whenever we pause, stay silent and listen well.
We also hear it when we are touched, inspired, and passionate in response to the world.
Dangers of fixating on the Money Path
Ecological, social and political problems arise when humans unconsciously place the Money Path at the centre of things. Today much Life is destroyed in the world through relentlessly pursuing such a logic – we destroy nature, other species, other people, and our own vitality too.
Mental health problems, meaningless work, frustration and the stifling of the soul arise when personally we put Money Path at the centre and assume Life will somehow work around that.
Our times urgently call for us to place Life at the very centre of things, and to create systems, structures, routines and roles that serve that.
So, would you like to try a new Life Centered Self Assessment form?
Of course you would.
I hereby declare today Life Centered Self-assessment day!
'Self' here refers to Carl Jung’s description of Self – the ultimate, wise, whole, integrated nature of your true being.
The assessment is a kind, gentle and humorous one. It supports more LIFE – greater system health, wholeness, vitality, creativity, flow and relationship.
The questions are below. They are much more cheerful than the HMRC (UK tax inspector) forms. The process is very short and will not take you long.
NB - all the questions are below. If you'd like to you can fill in your very own Life Centered Self Assessment form online here. I will then send you occasional reminders encouragement and prompts throughout the year to help you really stay focused on what brings you most alive.
Your Life Centered Self Assessment form
Reflection 1. When, where and why did you experience most LIFE* last year?
-> When, where and why did you feel most aligned with your own deeper Life Path?
-> When, where and why did you feel most connected to the Life Path of others?
-> When, where and why did you feel most in service of Human Life globally?
-> When, where and why did you feel most in service of Life on our Planet?
(*see above for definition of Life. Though you already know it really in your bones.)
Self Assessment
The current Life Centred Self Assessment tax rate is 20% (I just made that up – feel free to make it a bigger or smaller number).
Therefore, please reflect for a while on your answers to question 1.
-> What themes or patterns do you discern?
-> Who and what truly brings you LIFE?
-> What helps your LIFE support LIFE beyond you?
You are hereby formally requested this year to do 20% (at least) more of those things that bring you and others LIFE.
Signing your Life Centered Self Assessment
“I … [state your name] … this year will do at least 20% more of the things that bring me, those I love, others I am connected to, and the more-than-human world more LIFE” *
That’s it! Thank you for completing your Life Centred Self-Assessment return.
I wish you and all those you are connected to a happy year.
Tim
* If signatures or official commitments are not really your thing, you can also go and speak quietly to your favourite tree, river or bird, and promise them instead. They are all fully trained Life Centered advisors, and will be pleased to hear from you.
* And if you would like to sign your form online and receive encouragement and reminders through the year don't forget you can do that here.