From chapter one...
Small or Sacred.
I notice this everywhere.
At the coffee shop.
At the checkout counter.
In conversations people think are about money, but aren’t.
Life is about size.
You are either shrinking into your small or stretching into your sacred.
There’s no third option. There’s no neutral gear.
Most people don’t know they’re choosing a direction.
They think they’re being sensible.
Small feels sensible.
Small checks the bank balance.
Small looks before it leaps.
Often without seeing anything at all.
Small waits for permission, resisting the urge to play.
Small asks, “Can I?”
And that question sounds
innocent.
Responsible. Adult.
But notice what it presupposes.
It assumes the answer lives outside of you.
In the
account. In the numbers. In the past.
Small considers what’s possible based on history.
The angle of argument.
That’s the trap.
Sacred moves silently.
Sacred explores possibility.
Sacred doesn’t ignore the bank balance. It just doesn’t bow to it.
Sacred asks a
different question.
“How can I?”
That question opens space. Movement. Curiosity.
Small closes. Sacred opens.
Small says,
“Given what I make, this is what I can do.”
Sacred says, “Given who I am, what else, what more, is possible now?”
One contracts. One creates.
And here’s the thing most
people miss.
Shrinking into your small is what almost everybody, almost everywhere, has been trained to do.
Parents. Teachers. Financial advice columns. Well-meaning friends.
Spend less than what you make. Stay within your means. Be realistic.
That becomes your story.
And your story becomes your strategy.
Not just about money.
About life.
You start basing what you do on the size of what you've made.
Instead of the size of who you are.
You don’t even notice when it happens. It feels like
maturity.
But it’s actually a quiet collapse.
Because once the balance decides what’s possible, the future is always smaller than the past.
Sacred doesn’t do that.
Sacred doesn’t pretend it knows how. It just refuses to shrink.
Sacred stretches.
Not recklessly. Not foolishly.
Honestly.
Sacred knows The Secret.
That money responds. Life responds. "Reality" responds.
Not to caution. But to the posture of possibility.
This isn’t about being
irresponsible. It’s about being honest.
Honest about what you’re living from.
If your first move is always to check, calculate, and constrain, you’re not being wise. You’re being small.
And small has
consequences.
Small slows you down. Small starves creativity. Small teaches you to negotiate with your own desires. Then negate them.
Small argues. Small defends. Small denies.
Sacred does the
opposite.
Sacred invites movement. Sacred invites sacred solutions. Sacred invites help you couldn’t see while you were shrinking.
That’s why this isn’t a money book.
Money just exposes this faster
than most things.
Because money doesn’t lie. It mirrors. Money is the mirror.
Money shows you, immediately, whether you live from small or from sacred.
So here’s the noticing for this chapter.
Not homework. Not effort.
Just noticing.
The next time you’re about to decide something and your instinct is to check the balance first, pause.
Stop and be still.
Ask yourself, "Am I shrinking, or am I stretching?"
Am I asking, “Can I?”
Or am I willing to explore, “How can I?”
That single shift will tell you more about your relationship with money than any spreadsheet ever could.
And once you see it, you won’t unsee it.
That’s where we begin.
Thank you for reading this lovely little sneak peek into The Money Mirror.
Want more, let us know.
Coming Sooon!
Mr Twenty Twenty and Victoria
PS: You can find our books here: https://MrTwentyTwenty.com/books
PPS: I'd love to know how this touched you. If you have a moment, hit reply and let me
know!
