Imagining a bigger, better life that is made easier because of the security and safety net of wealth is a dream lots of people share. And why not? Having money to take care of everyday stresses seems like fun. But how do you build wealth and, more importantly, hold onto it?
The great news is that building wealth is possible, as long as you take some strategic steps to make it happen.
By this I don’t mean just dreaming about it and sticking pretty pictures up on a vision board (although that can help set your intentions). To genuinely build wealth and, more importantly, hold on to it, you need to have focus and consistency in your thoughts and actions. My tips below will help you change your mindset and take the small, but necessary, steps to get you moving on your wealth-building journey.
1. Abundance is an energy
The biggest breakthrough you can have around money, even though it may feel difficult or perhaps infuriating to try and get your head around at first, is that money is an energy.
Quit thinking about it as bits of paper and pieces of metal that you need to somehow figure out how to grasp onto. Start to understand that, quite literally, he or she who FEELS wealthy, and genuinely feels the potential availability of that associated abundance – financial and otherwise – will also start to notice this reflected in his or her physical reality. True story. It’s not airy-fairy BS. It’s honesty.
You can repair, nurture and protect your relationship with your finances, in the same way you can (and should) work on improving your relationship with the people who matter most in your life.
If you understand that having positive personal relationships with people can be built on you displaying positive attitudes to those around you, you’re now only a mental hop, skip and jump away from appreciating that your friendship with money can also be developed and improved. And the next logical step to consider? If you want to actively build wealth – tangible, sustainable wealth – there are steps you can take to help you reach that goal. Attitudes shape energy. So, to enjoy a wealth-building energy, it’s time to change your attitude.
2. Understanding money bingeing and other sabotaging behaviours
Bingeing with money, similar to bingeing with alcohol or food, is more often than not a way of seeking to regain control in a life where control feels lost. If you’re out of alignment and going off the rails, it’s natural for your finances to swerve off the tracks too.
One main reason behind that connection is the way so many people use spending money as a quick fix and Band-Aid solution – a way to fast-track a pleasure injection of instant gratification. Feeling down? Here’s something new and expensive to make you feel good…
We’ve all done it at times, I’m sure. But when that fix-it spending becomes a bad habit – and sometimes even an addiction – it’s a way that people push down their anxiety and fears for the thrill of a short-lived smile. And that’s not healthy or sustainable.
The way out of this is THROUGH: through understanding what it is you’re actually seeking in those moments. What areas in your life are you not listening to intuition, operating in integrity, or being genuinely guided by your own values? Where are you simply not taking time to breathe, to be, to pause in your busy life?
All of these things, if not attended to, can result in ‘acting out’ with something like binge spending. Binge spending and other sabotaging money behaviours can also be a result of programmed beliefs about not being worthy of money, or money being bad or wrong. There’s more on that to follow, but what matters most right now is that you recognise and understand the feelings behind your bad spending habits. It’s the first step towards positive change – for life.
3. Purposeful spending and investing
It’s important to realise that there’s nothing wrong or bad with spending, and you certainly don’t need to feel guilty. Even if what you’re spending on is something that’s just for fun or indulgence.
What you do need is to make the critical distinction about spending with alignment to your values and goals. Does the spending truly expand your horizons? Do you feel GENUINELY good about this and does it elevate you in some way?
When you can honestly say that your spending does provide a sense of deep satisfaction and the knowledge that you’re making a positive choice for your own true enjoyment, as opposed to a quick fix, you can feel better about your spending. For example, investing in self-care such as something that will actively improve your physical or mental health is a more meaningful way to spend money than just buying a pair of expensive shoes you might feel good about now, but guilty about immediately after.
When it comes to investment choices, follow the same thinking. Are you acting from fear or desperation, or do you feel informed, proud of yourself and in alignment with your values and money goals? Taking time to research and consider your spending choices is always recommended and can be enough to put some space between deciding whether it is a need or a want – and how much value it’s adding to your life.
Read this too: 7 traits that lead to bad investment decisions (and how to avoid them)
4. Start now
You’re good enough and ready enough now.
As ridiculous as it seems, if you step outside of the situation and look at it rationally – and that means removing emotion – one of the reasons so many adults never reach their financial goals, or start to feel good about money, is simply that they don’t start making small steps, NOW.
Yes, yes, yes, you should have started 5, 10, 20 years ago. But you didn’t. So start now, or else you will be lamenting another few years have gone by yet again next time you read an article like this in the future…
It is not logical to hold off on taking small steps to save, invest and make conscious, mindful choices with your spending because some part of you feels unworthy. So let’s say bye-bye to that idea and just get things happening. Worthiness is a choice. In this very moment, you really can start to act like a person who feels positive about your relationship with money and your ability to build wealth.
After all, what is the alternative? When it comes to thinking positively, there is definitely no harm in trying.
5. Start small
Don’t let the fact that you can’t save or invest BIG, or start to buy things your heart desires, stop you from making gradual adjustments to build wealth and align your behaviour towards money.
As with anything in life, achieving huge results – the kind most people wouldn’t even dare to dream of – only starts with small actions that are taken consistently.
What if you made an 0.01 per cent adjustment each day in your actions around money, as well as in your thinking? The numbers don’t lie and change will obviously be made. Now imagine growing the percentage increments bit by bit – and you will make a difference to your life in the long-term.
6. Create an environment of wealth
When you are wealthy, and feel a greater freedom with your finances, what will be different in your life, in your environment, and within you?
One of the fastest ways to shift results, in any area of your life, is to ‘hack’ the environment. Put simply, this means you create an internal and physical environment representing what will be true when you are ‘there’.
Doing this allows you to naturally start to adjust your thinking, the way you see yourself and the world, and, in turn, your actions. It’s kind of similar to how, if you started to hang out with only fit and healthy people, you’d naturally start to adjust your eating and movement habits. It wouldn’t necessarily feel hard – it would just happen.
This doesn’t mean you have to spend up and ‘act rich’ to build wealth! Rather, it’s about asking yourself what smaller things you can start with – many of which may cost nothing – that allow you to feel abundant and proud of yourself.
More on this: How to make your wealth last a lifetime
7. Rewire your mind and program new beliefs
Did you know you can rewire your mind, and program in new beliefs? Your current reality, and the way you think about money (and also perhaps the way money thinks about you!), is simply a reflection of what you believe and what you perceive as ‘fact’.
Well – what if you simply changed your perception of fact? Imagine what a person who is free around money thinks, feels and believes.
Take 10 minutes each morning to practice writing out these new beliefs. Ask yourself what your day would look like if you really believed. Trust that this small focus each day really can shift your inner state over time, and, ultimately, shift your reality and build wealth.
8. Drop the story
We all have hurts and grievances to do with money. Areas where we feel ashamed of our actions – and, at times in our lives, we are all guilty of beating ourselves up for not doing ‘better’. But how is this guilt actually serving your progress?
Singing a tired old tune of what you could have done differently is certainly not going to help you build wealth by seeing yourself as abundant, or free. It’s time to make a decision. When you shift your mindset to be FORWARD-focused, you write a new story for yourself – and your future potential.
This might help: How to reduce your money anxiety
9. Watch your words
Changing mindset is a great start and what should come next is minding your language.
When you begin to pay attention to words and expressions you use over and over again when you talk about money, or what ‘normal’ looks like in your life, you can start to pick up on ways you can change your words to no longer express things being ‘just the way things are’.
Language is powerful and your words really do create your reality – in fact they are one of the most impressive tools at your disposal for wiring your brain!
Next time you are about to speak negatively about your future relationship with finances and, instead, ask ‘what would I say if I believed I was great with money?’. The next important question is: ‘what action might I take?’.
10. You are more powerful than you think!
Finally, remember that you are more powerful than you think. You do have the ability to change your thinking, your beliefs, your energy, your emotions, and also your actions.
No, it might not happen overnight. But it definitely won’t happen by continuing to not take SOME sort of action. So start today. Start small. And start with determination and the knowledge that you are 100% worthy of a GREAT relationship with money. Whatever changes you do decide to make, committing to not quitting is critical. Consistency matters – and things will change is you keep at it.
This article was written by Katrina Ruth for www.kochiesbusinessbuilders.com.au.
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