Your mind is powerful. When I was young, my two front teeth had an extremely visible big brown circular shape on each of them. I learnt how to smile without showing my teeth. I’m sure you can imagine that I got a pretty good amount of unwanted attention. I heard their comments and I started to internalize the idea that I was ugly.

Even after they could cap my two front teeth in my teens, I trained my mind to reinforce those negative thoughts. It wasn’t until my late 20’s that I really started to remove and replace those negative thoughts with positive ones. It took a lot of work. The mind can be incredibly destructive, and that same power can be incredibly constructive as well. It’s your choice.

In the book Think and Grow Rich, I believe Napoleon Hill has great lessons for us all. There are so many amazing quotes from successful people about the human mind. 

1. Change your thoughts and change the world.

2. Gandhi said “A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes”

Here’s a question for you. If you realized how powerful your thoughts were…. Would you ever think of a negative one again?

The money mindset gets our mind in the right state to make better financial decisions to be successful. We all want to feel we’re special, and we don’t want to worry about money. I don’t think anyone wants to grow up and be poor and a failure. Realizing what your internal recording is becomes a big part of understanding yourself and understanding what is possible. It’s a fantastic first step. 

But, without desire, those powerful thoughts have no fuel to become reality. There is a story about Socrates teaching a young man about wisdom. He leads this young man down to the stream and into the water. Once there, Socrates surprises him by holding his head underwater until he turns a bit blue. After being let go, Socrates was asked why he was trying to kill him. He explained that he clearly let the young man up, which showed he wasn’t trying to end his life. Then, Socrates asked the young man what was the one thing he wanted when he was about to drown. He said “Air”. Socrates replied, “when your desire to acquire wisdom is the same as your desire was for “air”, you will then be successful”. So, do you have the desire to reach your goals?

Most things that are truly worthwhile, require time and faith. Faith is trust or confidence in someone or something. For me, it was hard to have faith in what could be when I couldn’t see myself reaching the success I wanted in my life. I didn’t have a role model who could help me through it or believe what was possible.

When I joined Ernst & Young immediately following college, we had a project to write a letter to ourselves 3 years into the future. It was supposed to include details about our career, how we envisioned our lives changing, as well as comments about how ignorant we felt as first year staff. The information would then help to remind ourselves to treat the new first year staff with kindness until they learnt how to perform their job well.

I misplaced the letter during a move, but found it 5 years after it was written. It was really insightful. First, I told myself some witty comments about people I worked with that I hadn’t thought of for years. It was funny, but off script. Then, I read reminders to treat the first year staff with kindness since they didn’t know anything right out of college. But, the one thing that is still so crystal clear had to do with belief. I dreamed up how wildly successful I was going to be. My salary was going to be the gauge. I imagined the most outrageous salary I could. It was going to be 60% higher three years into the future. However, in reality, my salary after three years shot up by more than 100%. That moment started to re-shape my reality and belief of what was really possible. 

I didn’t have the faith, but I had the desire which helped. Plus, I had specialized knowledge in accounting and finance, which opened doors for me.

The creative imagination was a little slower to come to me. But, with some practice, I started to realize that was possible too.

Could you do one small exercise each day this week? Think about one positive thought or action. Maybe write all seven down before the week starts. And, use one each day. They don’t have to be financial. Maybe you’re going to smile one extra time at the barista. Or, you’re going to be kind to someone who needs it this week. See how the week will start to feel different. A year or so ago, I committed to doing one kind act a day for a month. It felt great. When done, I was exhausted, but also exhilarated. Positive thinking feels really good. It’s simple and will help with other thoughts you’re trying to internalize.

I can tell you that having faith and being positive is much better than being negative and believing in no hope. 

I’ll leave you with that. Thanks for listening and I’ll see you again next week for more Money with Mak & G.