Perfectionism, Diet Culture and Money

1 Sept

Diet Culture

It not only messes up your relationship with yourself and your body but also your finances. This has been such a popular theme on Insta and Facebook so far because it is so incredibly, and heart-breakingly true. It might not be something that you'd ever put together before but it's something that's working insidiously, under the surface, to keep us all unstable.

I've got so much to say about this, including a deeper dive into what it actually is but I did a short series about it on the social media (which you can find starting here) which starts that process.

Today I Want to Talk Perfectionism.

It's actually on my mind because of a book - The Psychology of Money - which I’ve been enjoying (but it’s been a bit tainted over the weekend… More to come…).

The first chapter is about how you're not 'crazy'. Your money beliefs come 80% from your own experiences even if you 'know better'. Personal finance is presented as if there's some absolute truth out there - just do this and you will get this.

In reality the ideas which we're working with - stock markets, retirement, index funds etc.- are between a few decades and a couple of centuries old. Dogs were domesticated 10,000 years ago and we accept that they still retain some of their wild behaviours - what makes us think that we'll have adjusted to this new reality in just a matter of decades?

Financial Expertise

There are experts of course and I'm not rejecting that (in fact, I think the rejection of expertise is a great travesty of our time to be honest). People that know the financial markets intimately, that know the instruments and tools and how to use them, the history, the politics, the psychology, the mathematics and one of the biggest, oldest and well known factors in all of this is human behaviour.

But your average person, even one who is 'good with money' and has built some comfortable wealth, can't really know much more than the rest of us. They've simply harnessed what knowledge they do have, cultivated some more, made some good decisions and they've made it work.

The Secret Is Out There

I think there are a lot of us, I was certainly one, sat on the side-lines thinking there was some secret knowledge out there. And because I didn't know it all, well then I couldn't even begin to access even the beginnings, there was just no point. The people that had it had it, and I didn't.

That's perfectionism right there.

The Link With Diet Culture

How similar does that sound to - 'well I've had a chocolate bar now so I might as well eat the rest of the packet and start the diet on Monday?'. Or ‘my knees won't let me start coach to 5K so let me just sit on the sofa instead?’

Looking at that now, from the outside, it's obvious that these people could start somewhere else. Probably should start somewhere else. They could share the rest of the packet with their mates, maybe enjoy another themselves, have a nice cup of tea and relax into the rest of their evening rather than panic scoffing and then restricting. Or Mx. Arthritic Knees over there (hello, I feel you!), they could be searching seated yoga on Youtube or maybe have a little pootle in the garden.

Diet culture tells us this isn't good enough, if it's not 100% then it might as well be 0%.

I reject that and I reject sitting on the financial side-lines.

Moral Perfectionism

I think there's something to be said here too about the moral and ethical objections to wealth creation within a capitalist system. However I want the blogs to spark something in you, a thought to take forward into the day, rather than overwhelm you with everything I've ever thought about morals and money so let me save that for another day.

Just know that there is a lot to say!

Isn’t this juicy?? Can you see why I’m obsessed?!

Love Eleanor. xxx

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Eleanor Burke