2. All About You
The majority of your world is stifled with stress, even when things are going well. High unemployment, negative news on the television, fear of financial lack, recessions, the economic outlook and rising prices threaten you with additional stress and anxiety as you watch your retirement savings and overall financial future slip into jeopardy. The reality is that money is often on the minds of most of us. In fact, money and work are two of the top sources of stress for almost 75 percent of the population, according to a Psychological Society study.
Your conscious mind is a remarkable thing, but there’s a whole other level of awareness that, when tapped, can greatly expand your abilities, and can allow you to achieve your goals in life. Follow these principles to learn how to access your subconscious mind. The more you learn about your mind and your thoughts the more you can enhance your life.
What Is the Subconscious Anyway?
The subconscious is the part of your consciousness that is not currently in your focal awareness. What made you throw that candy bar into your grocery cart as you stood in the checkout line? Underneath the layers of your critical thought, and the functions of your conscious or alert mind, lies a powerful awareness called the subconscious mind. Because there is a limit to the information that can be held in conscious focal awareness, a storehouse of your knowledge and prior experience is needed, and that is the subconscious. Your subconscious loves to do work while your body performs other tasks that are easy. Think about it. How many good ideas have you had while driving, in the shower, or sitting idle? When you are relaxed, yet slightly distracted, your mind is often at its best.
My own mindset was changed by focusing my subconscious on a certain issue. I started to see new angles and opportunities that I’ve never seen before.
The subconscious doesn’t judge, create, or work without you telling it what to do, think, or repeat. The subconscious believes whatever you tell it to believe. Is it okay to have that candy bar, or is that a no-no right now because of a diet? You can use different methods to develop your subconscious mind. Listening to your intuition or gut feelings, making predictions, and answering yes-or-no questions are a few techniques. These help to open the subconscious parts of your mind to you.
You must trust your subconscious, speak directly to it, and believe in its capability to completely change your life. You are the master of your world, thoughts, actions, emotions, and responses. Be careful what’s playing in the background of your life, whether it’s a television, radio, or others talking. This awareness is one way to protect your subconscious because your mind can absorb ideas that you do not necessarily need.
Pay attention to what’s happening around you, but refrain from getting caught up in doom-and-gloom hype that can lead to high levels of anxiety and bad decision making. Have you identified your personal, social money behaviors, messages, and images that shape the way you have viewed money in the past, as well as your current views? You have an opportunity to determine how you really feel about money and to explore why money is important to you. Avoid the tendency to overreact or to become passive. Remain calm and stay focused to identify your financial thoughts and make a plan. Take stock of your financial situation and what causes your poor thoughts.
Thought Question
Where does a positive money mentality come from, and what does it look like in your life?
How You Perceive Money
Have you ever thought about the way you perceive money? You might have grown up thinking money is hard to get, maybe hearing someone say, “Do you think money grows on trees?” It might have become for you this elusive commodity that slips through your fingers and doesn’t want to be captured. In reality, it’s waiting for you to get it, control it, tell it what to do, put it to work, and bring it the company it desires—because money loves to multiply.
When you are honest with yourself, you can admit that you might envy people who are millionaires—the way they live their lives, the things they own, or the way they enjoy life. All this might seem unattainable in your life. Or you tell yourself that it’s impossible for someone like you to get there, so you settle for mediocre instead of what you really should be striving for, which is greatness and financial security. Like it or not, money is important.
People approach the concept of money in many ways and with varied types of behaviors. The first type of people are those who see that the world has insufficient money for everyone. These people think that money is meant for the rich who take it all. People with this mindset usually choose a mediocre life.
The second type is those people who see that the world has too much money. It’s sufficient for everyone, and anybody can be wealthy. These people are people with a strong vision in life. They know they want to achieve big in life! I’m not saying that money brings happiness, but it will certainly make your bad times a little easier to deal with.
The New Normal
Whatever it is that you might be thinking, or might have thought in the past, it’s now time to toss out the old way of thinking and prepare your thought process to achieve financial success in what I like to call The New Normal. What’s The New Normal? Well, a shift has occurred in the world that has caused the economy to change. We’ve experienced multiple recessions that have caused many people to lose things they worked hard for: jobs, homes, savings, or the perception of security that kept them feeling comfortable. Although many people are waiting for things to blow over and go back to the way they used to be, the reality is that they won’t now, nor will they ever. You must adjust your vision, skill set, thought process, and mindset to do something different to achieve the financial success you desire.
Can You Really Reverse Negative Thoughts?
Now that you’ve recognized that negative/poor thoughts are affecting your financial life, the question is how can you reverse these thoughts? How can you change the money mindset that you’ve developed and that’s keeping you bound? How can you pick up the pieces and see past the “right now” to focus on what you believe to be possible? You must first create affirmation statements to help renew your mind and block negative thoughts. As you will recall, mine was, “I have the ability to create wealth in abundance; I am a wealth creator.”
Begin by putting your statement everywhere you’ll see it often...on the bathroom mirror, in the car, in your day planner, and at any other place where you look at least twice a day.
W.E.A.L.T.H. Affirmations
Here are some possible affirmation statements:
My financial abundance overflows today.
The presence of joy in my heart releases an abundance of good into my life.
I was destined to be prosperous. I have abundance to share and spare.
I fill my mind with the idea of abundance, and abundance manifests in all of my affairs.
I release all feelings of lack and limitation.
Today is rich with opportunities and I open my heart to receive them.
Money flows freely and abundantly into my life.
Wonderful things happen to me for I live with an attitude of gratitude.
I always have more money coming in than going out.
I allow myself to have more than I ever dreamed possible.
I am abundantly provided for as I follow my path.
I know my value; I honor my worth.
All the money I spend enriches society and comes back to me multiplied.
I am open to receive.
My money is a source of good for myself and others.
I am financially independent and free.
Just having the affirmation and seeing it daily isn’t enough. You must meditate on it each time you’re faced with a circumstance that will send your thoughts to that toxic place.
Nasty Negativity
Negativity often overwhelms you. It’s no surprise, based on the images and messages that you digest on a daily basis. You might feel obligated to eat the negativity that is being served, but afterward you feel disgust that you allowed all those negative thoughts of lack and defeat to get inside you. You can’t believe you ate the whole thing—one negative thought at a time—and now you’re so full of negativity that you can barely move.
Negative thoughts don’t just happen; they are there for a reason, and you need to follow the origin of the thought to discover why. The goal is to discover why you’re thinking a particular thought and where it came from. Embedded in each negative thought is an important lesson you must learn, and the sooner you learn it, the better off you will be. This doesn’t mean that after you do understand where it came from the negative thought will never appear again. However, you must practice the process of identifying the thought’s origin and replacing it to make this process a habit that you practice and use as needed. You must develop a permanent strategy that eliminates these negative thoughts from your mind. Each negative thought contains the seeds of its own destruction. If you listen to its message, you’re destined to fail. Problems remain problems until you discover their solution. It doesn’t matter if a problem surfaces a million times; after you know the solution, the problem loses it power because you know how to deal with it. If you have a problem making and managing money, you must get to the root of the problem and know exactly why this has become a problem. Is it that you have never learned or that you don’t have enough discipline? Or maybe it’s lack of opportunity. Whatever it is, you must understand the origin of your thoughts. If you haven’t learned, it’s time to get educated—and let the fact that you hadn’t learned it go because this is not time for dwelling on what didn’t happen. If your problem is discipline, you can use the following approach to begin building the willpower to reach your financial mandate to be a better manager and identify what you can do to increase your income.
Mind Changer
You can replace negative thoughts about money with healthy, safe thoughts about abundance and believe that you can have what you desire.
Do you often have negative thoughts going through your mind? This usually occurs because you haven’t formulated a plan of action to defeat them. Your mind lacks the security it seeks to be at peace when you aren’t at peace because of your negative financial thoughts.
These debilitating thoughts can become powerful as they circle the tracks in your mind. The more you focus on these thoughts, the more momentum you give them, and the stronger they become, making it harder to stop these endless cycles of thoughts. But, if you replace these with positive thoughts, you can steer yourself upward and away from negative thoughts and results. It’s similar to a basketball team that has been on a winning streak and eliminating every opponent in their path. It builds confidence and intimidates the competition. The more games the team wins, the stronger it becomes. The momentum and success rate is due to the energy the players use to reign in their minds and stay away from negative thoughts.
No Plan
For years I found myself unable to defeat the thoughts of never climbing out of my financial hole, not making what I needed to rebuild or make ends meet for that fact. It was 2009 and the writing was on the wall. The mortgage industry had shifted; I had begun creating affordable housing programs with the Atlanta Development Authority for the then Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. We were using bonds to create a pool of funds to provide assistance to people who wanted to move into the city. After successfully leveraging more than $50 million in bonds, I began to get the feeling that it was time for me to go. I knew it was time to venture out on my own and take a leap of faith. This was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, and I often tell people it was like jumping off a building and not seeing the net below or knowing how to fly. I decided to take the leap and create my own consulting firm to do some of the housing work I had already been doing. Several people told me they wanted to work with me, and I felt confident that it was the right time. As soon as I did take that leap and walked away, I was on my own, ready to take over the world. But there was one thing I had forgotten. I didn’t have what I now call a financial success plan. In my mind I had a plan, but it really wasn’t a formal, written plan. I hadn’t listed my financial goals and milestones. I hadn’t solidified contracts. Nor did I have a strategy to get the contracts to ensure that income would be flowing into the business. Here I was now, in a world in which it was literally sink or swim, without a plan.
It wasn’t long before I had used all my savings and had taken a huge chunk out of my retirement account because it was taking longer than I thought it would to get up and running. If I would have had a plan, I could have reduced the time and heartache caused by venturing out into the world of business without it. When I developed my plan, things began to shift. It took the guessing out of business—well, at least the part I could control. I created a plan for my personal finances as well. I knew exactly what I needed to make my household run efficiently, what I needed to save, what to re-invest, and where any gaps or surpluses were. Because I took the guesswork out, this was one less thing I had to worry or even think about. I could focus on what was important because it’s much harder to manage having nothing than it is to have something to manage. My plan was helping to give me the resources to manage. I had learned to be disciplined enough to create a strategy and stick to it. Now my life was about to change.
Why Discipline?
Discipline is used in modeling character and for teaching self-control and acceptable behavior, such as teaching children to wash their hands before meals. Washing hands before meals is a particular pattern of behavior, and children are disciplined to adopt that pattern. Are you adopting new patterns or even controlling the ones you have? Do you have the discipline to manage your money and not make purchases that don’t help you reach your goals? You must create a pattern that becomes second nature. You must become the master of your thoughts and use them as your motivation instead of letting them be a deterrent.
The phrase “to discipline” often carries a negative connotation. This is because of the need to maintain order—that is, ensuring instructions are carried out. Order is often regulated through punishment. But discipline can provide many benefits when it’s the key to achieving what you want in life. Discipline, in that context, is used as the assertion of willpower over base desires and is usually understood to be synonymous with self-control. Because self-control places you in the driver seat, it’s desirable and up to you to make sure you have what discipline you need to reach your thought destination. It’s time to tell yourself what you should be thinking, or, in other words, produce and direct the show rather than being a spectator of your own mind.
The Process of Disciplining Thoughts
This simple idea was first given to me while I was at an entrepreneurship conference in Atlanta where I live. A popular magazine was hosting the conference at a downtown hotel. As I sat at the bar in the plush hotel, I began speaking with a gentleman sitting next to me. I’m always interested in meeting new people and potentially making a new connection or learning something new.
“How are you enjoying the conference?” I asked.
“Well it’s my 20th time at one of these and I still enjoy it,” he replied. He went on to explain that he and the owner of the publication that created the conference had grown up in business together, so he was always there to support. I learned that we had something in common because we were both from where I was raised, Detroit, Michigan. His name was Bill, and he was a high-ranking executive with a large car manufacturer in Michigan as well as a frequent White House visitor and consultant. In essence, he was a Power Broker, meaning he was a go-to guy who was very connected and could make things happen. As we continued talking, the conversation shifted as it normally does at this point to finances and the economy. It’s always interesting for me to hear different perspectives and potentially learn something new. Bill began by asking me a question that would change my life.
He turned and looked at me and said, “Did you know that at the Harvard School of Divinity they focus on discipline of thought before doctrine?”
I was intrigued. If this were true, then Harvard realized that no matter what you’re planting, you must first prepare the soil. Or, in this case, it’s the mind’s soil that must be prepared to receive, retain, and apply the information that could potentially change lives. I don’t think Bill realized what that simple statement did for me. It literally turned the concept of financial literacy upside down for me. I was eager to see how I could integrate this fascinating concept into my teachings. It didn’t take me long at all. It was almost like I could hear the word “wealth” being whispered in my ear. But as fast as I heard the word, I also heard it as the phrase: “Wisdom to Establish Assets & Leverage The Harvest.” It happened just like that. Excited, I sat down with a pen and a pad and the concept was born.
Preparing Your Mind
By thinking debilitating thoughts constantly and dwelling on them, you are providing such thoughts the power they need to expand. The more you feed your negative thoughts and ideas, the more they grow, and the more power they gain. The same is also true for your positive thoughts. Therefore, your goal should be to increase the positive thoughts and decrease or eliminate your negative ones. Sounds simple when you see it in writing, but if you’ve ever tried to change, you know it’s one of the hardest things for most people to achieve. Although it’s hard, it’s not impossible. With some intentional action you can take control of your thoughts and ultimately your financial life.
Here is a list and explanation of the defensive steps needed to take control and discipline your thoughts, to defeat them, and take a step closer to financial success:
1. Identify it—You must identify your competition before you can even think about achieving success.
2. Face it—Take a deep breath and become aware of what you are dealing with, and set a course of action of how to confront each trigger that causes the negative or poor thoughts.
3. Record it—In sports, a game log keeps track of the wins, losses, dates the games were played, as well as player statistics.
4. Replace it—Replace each tired or foul thought with something positive. Affirmations and positive thoughts enable you to begin the process of changing your mind to focus on thoughts that can benefit your life.
5. Practice it—Persistence pays and repetition builds habits.
To make this process work, each step must be applied to each thought. Defense wins games, and positive thoughts are the genesis to achieving the financial success you seek. You must be willing to submit to the defensive process if you truly want to change your life.
Thought Question
What do you think about most as it relates to your personal finances? How have these thoughts affected your life?
Brain Invasion
When something is invaded it has been taken over and occupied, and the control has been turned over to a more powerful force. My question for you is, are you ready to hand over your thoughts and your mind to the powerful force called positivity? You are living in unprecedented times when the act of thinking and the thoughts you create have become more important than ever. You can’t solely base your thoughts on what you see. Instead you must see beyond what’s in front of you. It’s “time out” for living on default or autopilot. The model, or lack of model, that was in place in the past for financial success is not what it used to be. Many opportunities are now masked as adversities that you see as obstacles instead of stepping stones, mainly because your mind doesn’t see them as such. You are one of many visual people; you have a mental photo album. The snapshots in your mind often associate the pictures you see now with those negative realities from your past. Without new positive realities to replace those old images, you find yourself clinging to the examples of your past. You find yourself following the same blueprint or roadmap that was created during another time in history and is no longer effective.
Mind Changer
You become what you think about most.
Thought Tip
Another positive thinking technique is to visualize your future success. There are some people who think about their failure, even before starting a project, but that should be avoided at all cost. When you have planned what you want to achieve, visualize how you would like to see yourself.