Motivation Monday | Raising your financial thermostat

On the topic of financial abundance, I believe there is one thing I didn't mention that is critical to the type of outcome you achieve.  This thing is what causes some lottery winners to squander their winnings and return to their previous financial situation.  It also causes people like Donald Trump, to loose everything and yet return to their status of multi-millionaire within a few years.  I'm referring to our financial thermostat and mindset.

We talked a little about increasing our financial thermostat in this post. Think of it like your thermostat at home.  It's set to turn on the air conditioning or heat when the room reaches a certain temperature.  The same hold true for income levels.  If some of us were to come into a large sum of money quickly, we might make hasty decisions, spend unwisely and find ourselves back to our old financial levels or worse off (think celebrities and professional athletes).  One of the sure ways to ensure your financial abundance continues to rise is to increase the threshold of your internal financial mindset. And the best way to do that is to learn about your financial blueprint.  What are your beliefs about money? Did you parents think that people with money are bad?  Do you see money as easy to attract or something you will never experience at the level you want?  Keep paying attention to your"flinch" which tells you a lot about your subconscious money beliefs.

For example,  I am a saver by nature.  There's nothing more gratifying to me that knowing that I have an emergency fund/safety net.  If an unexpected situation arises, I feel good knowing that I don't have to panic.  On the one hand this is a good way of thinking.  But I also realize that I'm very risk averse which keeps me from reaching the level of financial I desire.  If I were to receive a $10,000 check today. I would probably put it directly into my savings account.  Again, that's not a bad thing but what if I were to invested into avenues that created larger gains & passive income.  My financial thermostat keeps me from turning that $10,000 into $100,000.  If I were to have $150,000 cash in the bank, I'd feel incredibly good. Someone else, with $100,000 in the bank might panic because they once maintained several millions of dollars in liquid assets and is on the verge of loosing it all.

That's just one example, there are others with limiting beliefs that keep them from taking on promotions that greatly increase their income.  Some can't imagine themselves having $10,000 in the bank so they spend any extra money left after expenses are paid.  Then there are the beliefs that money is abundant and easy to create.  No belief is right or wrong, they just create different outcomes.  Chances are, if you aren't where you'd like to be financially, your  beliefs/mindset are a major factor. Why?  Because are beliefs drive our actions.  It's unavoidable.

Now that we know this, She should practice the following if we want to raise our financial thermostat.
+1.  Be aware of your limited thinking. As you identify them, think of new ways to reframe your mindset.  For example, if I receive a small bonus check, instead of immediately putting into my savings, I can ask myself, what other ways can I leverage this money for bigger gains.
+ 2.  Throw yourself out of your comfort zone and into the zone where you want to be.  By being exposed to that new way of thinking, you will experience a mind shift.

I remember talking to my brother years ago asking him what would he do if he earned $10,000 a month. At the time, this was way outside of his realm of thinking.  His answer was something to the effect of "I don't need that much money. It's too much (that was his flinch by the way).  That way of thinking caused his actions to align with "I don't want to make too much money."  Years later he becomes a banker at a major bank. Suddenly, he's servicing real people who earn well over that amount of money on a monthly basis.  He grows more comfortable with the idea of abundance and begins to align with it.  His actions shift to align with his new way of thinking and his financial rewards increase accordingly.  I don't have the same luxury of shaking hands and getting face advice like my brother does, so I do the next best thing, I learn from those who've done it and written books about it. I check out videos on YouTube from people who share their stories.  My goal is to shift my thinking to align more like those who are experiencing the outcomes I desire.

I see this as a journey, just like everything else we do.  You may not wake up tomorrow with a new set of lasting beliefs about your current & future financial situation, but you can begin the shift that leads you into a new direction.