How often do you freak out about money? **Hand Raised!!**
That was me pretty much my entire life. But in this episode of the Imperfection with Intention podcast, I’m going over the ways I’ve improved my money mindset and why I don’t freak out anymore.
listen to the episode here
… or listen on your favorite podcast app!
reframe your relationship with money
Past baggage is REAL! Especially when it comes to your relationship with money.
Were you taught growing up that money is scarce or the only way to get it is to work hard for it? Or that money makes people evil? Or have you built a belief that you’re not good with money?
Limiting beliefs about money (or any area of our lives) are learned when we’re young. Most of the time, these beliefs learned in childhood aren’t true (even if they reeeeally feel true) and it takes time to break.
Step 1 to improve your money mindset: Recognize your relationship with and your beliefs about money. Remember, your beliefs aren’t facts and they can change in time.
Gandhi said it best…
“Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, Your words become your actions, Your actions become your habits, Your habits become your values, Your values become your destiny.”
Gandi
Money is a Just by-product of your actions.
Money is not a predetermined destiny. Yes, some people are born into money, but that doesn’t mean someone born into poverty can’t acquire it. You aren’t a tree, you can move!
“Always remember, money is a servant; you are the master.”
Bob Proctor
Compare your situation to others
A quick google search led me to startling facts about poverty. Nearly 3 billion people live on less than 2.50 a day. That’s about $75 a month.
Reading this from DoSomething.org was a HUGE reality check. Even typing this now makes me grateful for the life I live.
Now, I know (from experience) that thinking about things like this can seem annoying. You might be thinking, “Thanks for the guilt trip, Monica! I guess I can’t want more for my life“. And if this is you then keep reading!
You CAN have more and not feel selfish and you deserve the type of life you want!
I listed this because you need to bring yourself back to reality. It’s easy to let our minds run off with “Ugh… my life sucks” (I’ve done it!) when in reality, you’ve got a life BILLIONS of people would kill for.
Attract what you want with your new money mindset
Two big takeaways here: Gratitude and Law of Attraction.
law of attraction
You’ve probably heard the phrase “Like attracts Like”. That’s the foundation of Law of Attraction.
When you start to focus on something, you’ll naturally see it almost everywhere. You have the power to manifest whatever you want into your life, as long as you believe you can and if you focus on it.
Reticular Activating System
Have you ever had a bad morning and kept going through your day focusing on everything that sucked. Then more and more bad shit kept happening? Like a real “When it rains it pours” day? That’s no coincidence! When you keep thinking about everything that’s going wrong, your brain picks up on that and subconsciously finds other things wrong to point out.
The awesome part is that you can retrain your brain for the opposite! So, if you focus on the good in your life, it’ll be easier for your brain to pick up on it.
This is a real thing that happens in your brain called the Reticular Activating System. There’s A LOT that goes into this, but the important part is that your brain has a TON of info that floods in. So, in order not to constantly overwhelm you, it needs a way to filter unnecessary info out. That filter is the reticular activating system.
When you focus on all of what you do have instead of what you don’t, then your brain starts to filter out all the thoughts about what you don’t have. It’ll be too busy focusing on finding all the good stuff!
How do you focus on all the good? … GRatitude, baby!
You’ve heard it before, “Be grateful for what you have”. It sounds obvious, especially when you read poverty facts. But somehow, we can still get to a point of focusing on what’s missing in life.
There’s where implementing a daily gratitude practice is important. For me, I have a gratitude journal I write in every single night.
In the past, I would try and fail at gratitude journaling and make it wayyy more complicated than it needed to be. But then I implemented a new gratitude journal that actually works, and it’s made all the difference in the world.
Review what you want daily
You can’t go where you want to go if you don’t have a destination set
create a vision for your life
I mention in almost every episode about how having a vision is SOOOO important. I truly believe that if don’t have a road map, you’ll end up somewhere you didn’t want to go.
I have an episode that breaks down exactly how to create a vision and how to take steps each month to achieve your vision, so make sure to check those out!
remind yourself daily of your vision
Is your vision to be debt-free? Do you wish to have enough money to take your family on vacation? Whatever your vision is, bring it into physical existence.
For me, I write down my vision every morning and look at my vision board every day. The key to improving your money mindset is by taking steps to make your vision of what money can bring to life.
Have physical reminders of it everywhere! Put pictures in your wallet, write it on your bathroom mirror with a dry erase marker, create a vision board. The possibilities are endless.
Trying to save money right now? Reframe your current money mindset
You may be thinking that it’s great to set a vision for what you want in the future, but you’re not sure what to do about your current life. Rest assured, just because you’re working towards something you want, doesn’t mean you need to feel lack right now!
I struggled with this when I stepped down from my career. I made less than half of what I was originally making and I felt like a failure. I couldn’t go out to eat as much, I stayed home all the time. I felt cheap and like I was wasting my life being boring.
That’s when I knew I needed to change my outlook about making less money. So I went through all the ways I was saving money and if I enjoyed it or not.
For example, I bought groceries and cooked at home, but HATED doing it. I knew I needed to change how I felt about it, so I bought healthy ingredients and started to learn to cook. But I still needed to make cooking more attractive so I’d enjoy it. Then I thought about all the reasons why I liked eating at restaurants. Besides being easier, I liked that I could have quality time with my husband when we ate. I knew I needed to do. I started cooking with my husband so we still had that quality time together.
I talk more about different ways to do that in this post here.
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what about you?
I hope this episode helps you improve your money mindset! I’d love to know what you thought. DM me on Instagram and let me know!
Did you hear the part where I talked about my FREE core values journal? This journal will uncover what drives you and makes you unique. The next time you caught between a rock and a hard place, use this journal to find your most important values so you can make decisions confidently!
xo,
Monica
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