We live in a world full of information on how to find financial success, enough information that everyone should be able to reach their full financial potential. It’s the truth staring all of us in the face, but that only a few can clearly see. That’s because 95% of people are missing the crucial first ingredient in the recipe for success – cultivating the right mindset.
A Tale of Two Minds
There are two general mindsets – scarcity and abundance. Not only is a scarcity mindset the most common one, but it’s also a common denominator among those who never reach their full financial potential. This mindset gives you the illusion that you never have enough. It leads you to believe you can’t afford to practice the good habits that inch you closer to financial success. You settle in thinking that you can’t achieve more than where you are, and accept that your dreams will never become a reality. It’s the curtain that hides that truth staring you in the face.
A scarcity mindset makes you think “I can’t do that.” An abundance mindset makes you think “How can I do that?” This pivotal phrase is the first step in pulling back the curtain. Unlike scarcity, an abundance mindset helps you view every situation you encounter as an opportunity for success. You understand that if you continue those good habits that foster success, you will eventually achieve your goals and then some. This is how you break through the glass ceiling between what is and what could be. It’s how you make your dreams a reality and live the life you want. It’s how you put yourself in a position of control over your destiny, and become the CEO of your financial life.
How to do Something Isn’t Doing it
You can easily find the answers for financial success. I educate my clients every day on how to reach their full financial potential, I give them the answers. But what many people lack is understanding that the answer is only the how to. And the how to is only information, it’s just the steps to follow for financial success. It isn’t applying that information to help you live the life you want.
This simple fact is the reason you will fail again and again, no matter how many books you read, talk shows you listen to or articles you collect. Knowing how to find financial success is only one piece of the puzzle, and not necessarily the most important one. The other, and more important, piece is applying those how tos in a way that inches you closer to success. In other words, how you do the how to is more important than the how to itself.
I’ll say it again – how you do the how to is more important than the how to itself.
3 Reasons Why You Should Value Mind Over Money
This leads us to my central message – reaching your full financial potential is impossible until you learn to value mind over money. Here are three reasons why:
1. Success starts with your mindset. The human psyche is linear – your attitude creates your actions, creates your results, creates your life. Therefore, you may think all you need is an attitude adjustment. But that’s still not enough. What creates your attitude? Your mindset – your mindset creates your philosophy, creates your attitude, creates your actions, creates your results, creates your life. A scarcity mindset means you will live and behave accordingly. An abundance mindset means you will live and behave accordingly.
2. Success means doing what others won’t. Financial success, or success in any area of your life, is simple – do the little things that breed good habits consistently. Even the little things that seem insignificant. What’s difficult is actually doing the things that push you closer to success. They’re easy to do, and just as easy not to do. So, you have to change your priorities, the way you go about your daily life in general. You have to change your mindset, the way you think about the decisions you make. Successful people are willing to do what others are not willing to do.
3. Success means mastering the mundane. Those who succeed understand the difference between success and failure lies in the choices you make every day. Simple, positive actions, repeated over and over, that push you toward success. Or simple errors in judgement, repeated over and over, dragging you down toward failure. And again, doing what it takes to be successful isn’t difficult – there’s nothing difficult about mastering the mundane. Saving an extra $100 a month isn’t going to make you rich overnight. But that positive action, compounded and growing over time, will. You must simply make the conscious effort to view your life through the lens of abundance, and be willing to consistently do the things that others are not.
Why Does it Matter to You?
Benjamin Franklin once said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” I would amend this to say, “An investment in your personal growth and development pays the best interest.”
If you were to ask me if I would rather have a million dollars in the bank or a million-dollar mindset, I would opt for the million-dollar mindset all day long. Sure, it would be great to have a million dollars, but it’s even better to be worth a million dollars. If you start your journey toward financial success with a million-dollar mindset, it won’t be long before you’ve reached your full financial potential. But if you don’t have the right mindset, all the money in the world can’t guarantee your ability to succeed. This is because how much money you have and your level of personal development share a symbiotic relationship. They are constantly working to balance each other out. If your net worth doesn’t match your personal development, it will shrink back down to where your development limits it. But, if you’re always challenging yourself to grow, working on your personal development, then your net worth will rise to catch up with it. You can either become as small as the balance in your bank account, or as big as your greatest dream.
As someone who has spent more than a decade educating, guiding, and counseling people to reach their full financial potential, I can tell you that not everyone is inherently wired to succeed. But that doesn’t mean you should be tossed to the side. Your future can still be a successful one, you can still live the life you want to live. You just need to cultivate the right mindset.
