A friend said to me recently, “Life is like a kaleidoscope – always changing. Sometimes it is us that turns the kaleidoscope and sometimes it is someone else.” And I thought to myself – with the current financial meltdown it sure feels like the Kaleidoscope is turning big time – and I kind of liked the beauty and the shapes of the old pattern. But the pattern has indeed shifted and it behooves us to learn to find the beauty in the new emerging pattern. If you are ready to engage in this adventure during these uncertain times I would like to offer you a question that may help you to focus your search for new answers and landmarks: “How much is enough?”

Getting Through The First Shock

When a financial disaster strikes (to include the current economic meltdown but also any other financial shock such as those triggered by divorce or natural disasters) - and the world as we knew it falls apart - our first reaction is typically shock and disbelief, and our perspective narrows to our immediate needs. Whether it is objectively true or not, we often feel that we are in “survival mode” and the question of “How much is enough?” is usually focused around whatever we consider to be our most basic and pressing needs: “Do I have enough to keep myself and my family fed, clothed, sheltered? Can I pay my rent, keep my kids in schools, pay for medical care,” etc. These are certainly legitimate needs and deserve your attention. But in the process of working to get them met you have a unique opportunity to choose “how” you will get them met and “who” you want to be in the process, and to redefine what “having enough” really means going forward. Even those who feel that their world has not been deeply touched by the current economic crisis appear to have been caught up in, and inspired by, an almost universal new and deeper examination of “How much is enough?”

The Bigger Questions

So what really is enough for you? And how do you go about defining it? One of the biggest problems with trying to answer this question is that it begs a second question, “Enough for what?” - and it is easy to get stuck at this point. I would like to offer you one possible answer to the “Enough for what?” question that, instead of being a dead end, may lead the way to a deeper inquiry:

• “How much is enough? Whatever it takes for you to feel free.”

And it is the deeper inquiry into exactly what freedom means and feels like to you that can help you uncover the key landmarks that you want to orient on as the landscape shifts. Here are just a few possibilities (gathered from others) of what freedom might mean to you:

• Freedom to focus on what is most important to you without needless distractions.


• Freedom from fear.


• Freedom to honor and bring into the world your unique skills and abilities.


• Freedom to be who you are at the deepest core level.


• Freedom to live with grace and ease.


• Freedom to be able to make the contribution you want to make in the world without doubt or compromise.

Asking what it takes for you to feel “free” means not only asking what you want to “have” (e.g., money and possessions), but who you want to be as a person and what values you want to honor and orient your life around (e.g., adventure, creativity, connection, contribution). And once you have the answers to these core questions then the rest becomes easier - creating strategies and plans on how best to get there.

In Summary

Everything that happens (regardless of how challenging it may seem in the present moment) brings new possibilities into play. And if you seize the opportunity to redefine for yourself “How Much is Enough” in the larger context of “Whatever it takes for me to feel free” perhaps you will come to love the new shapes and patterns that the kaleidoscope brings into focus, and feel more ready for the next turn of the wheel.

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