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TRANSCRIPT
DEVELOPING A MONEY MINDSET BY DR. SUSAN FAY
Smart Money Moves Financial InstituteM a s t e r i n g M o n e y
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DEVELOPING A MONEY MINDSET
Susan D. Fay, Ph.D. for
Smart Money Moves Financial Institute
Contents
Introduction
Why don’t people reach their financial goals?
It can’t be because of the lack of good information. There are countless books and seminars on saving, budgeting, and investment strategies. Even people who read books, attend seminars, and meet with financial experts often struggle to reach their financial goals.
So what tool are they missing?
They aren’t missing any tool. They just don’t know how to use the most powerful goal-‐setting and achievement tool that exists – their own mind. I have found that people who know how to put their brainpower to work gain control over their life – they’re in the drivers’ seat.
How would you like to be in the drivers’ seat on your journey toward financial success?
It’s not as hard as you might think. In fact, it’s often just a matter of knowing where you are now, where you want to go, and what obstacles you need to navigate around. When you have clear goals and you remove any limiting beliefs about money, you’ll be on your way to turning your financial dreams into reality.
My goal is to help you develop a new money mindset. Once you do, you’ll be able to achieve a level of financial and personal prosperity you didn’t think was possible. It worked for me. It can work for you.
The team at Smart Money Moves Financial Institute are dedicated to helping you succeed, not just financially, but in all areas of your life.
Happy travels,
Dr. Susan Fay
I Bel ieve…
Have you ever given much thought to what you believe about money?
I developed this course so that you can begin to discover what you believe. I show you how your beliefs affect your ability to achieve financial success. You may discover that negative or limiting beliefs have been holding you hostage and keeping you from realizing your dreams.
In this course, I arm you with some weapons to destroy limiting beliefs. Once you start using these weapons, you’ll break free of the invisible chains that have held you down. Once you are free, I’ll help you create a new set of positive beliefs. With your new money beliefs, you’ll be on your way to constructing the life you desire.
So what are beliefs and why do they matter?
Beliefs are just ideas or opinions. You have beliefs about everything, including yourself. Your mind uses beliefs to make up rules about who you are and what you’re capable of. All the decisions you make in your life are influenced by your beliefs.
Why don’t people share the same beliefs?
Because experiences create beliefs. Your beliefs are based on all the things that have happened to you during your entire life. You formed beliefs about money from listening to what your parents said about it. You formed other beliefs from watching what they did with money. You also developed beliefs from your own experiences with money. As you can see, your beliefs and current money habits are the result of many different experiences and people – even people you watched on TV or in the movies!
By the time you became an adult, you had a whole set of beliefs and money habits firmly in place. If you now struggle to make enough money, you have poor spending habits, or you just can’t seem to save, you’ve probably got some negative or limiting beliefs about money. If you’re unhappy about your current money situation, don’t worry. You can change your beliefs. Once you do, you’ll begin to see the results you want.
The first step to getting new results is to find out what beliefs may be causing problems. Some negative beliefs are easy to find because they’re in your conscious mind. To find them, just notice the thoughts you have and the things you say to others about money or your financial situation. Also notice what you say to yourself or hear silently in your head. This is called self-‐talk. You may find that your self-‐talk about money or your financial decisions is mostly positive or mostly negative. Your self-‐talk is a clue to what you believe.
Unfortunately, the majority of beliefs are deep in the subconscious mind. In other words, you’re not aware of them. Because you aren’t aware of them, they’re much harder to find. Subconscious beliefs are important because they control 90-‐95% of what you do.
Subconscious beliefs work like a computer software program. The software tells the computer what to do – your beliefs tell your brain what to do. If you want to change your habits or behaviors, you need to change the beliefs that run your brain’s software. For example, if you want to stop spending impulsively, you need to find and change the belief that’s responsible for that behavior.
If you find it difficult to stick to a budget, or you haven’t been able to reach financial goals, this is a clue that you have conscious or subconscious limiting beliefs about money. The exercises in this course are designed to help you become aware of these beliefs. One you know what they are, you can use a mental weapon to destroy them!
Exercise # 1:
1. Complete Randy Gages’ Prosperity IQ Test. What limiting or negative beliefs about money did you discover after taking this test?
2. List all of the conscious limiting beliefs you discovered. Use the Conscious and Subconscious Limiting Beliefs Form in the next section.
Randy Gage’s Prosperity IQ Test
These questions will reveal some of the unconscious limiting beliefs that are keeping you stuck, or limiting your potential for financial success.
1. Do you secretly fear that if you became wealthy, your friends and family won’t like you anymore?
Yes No
2. When you grew up, were you ever told: “We may not be rich but at least we are honest.”?
Yes No
3. Did your religious upbringing teach you that it is noble to sacrifice now and that you will get your reward in the afterlife?
Yes No
4. Did you, or do you, feel guilty when you started to earn more than your parents?
Yes No
5. Were you raised to fit in and not stand out?
Yes No
6. Did you grow up liking show like Dallas, Beverly Hillbillies, or Dynasty where rich people were always presented as unscrupulous and conniving, or pretentious and bumbling?
Yes No
7. Do you have chronic health problems that no doctor can figure out?
Yes No
8. Do you ever get jealous of people with expensive clothes, houses, and cars which may have subconsciously made you develop a “hate for the rich” mentality?
Yes No
9. On some level, do you think it is somehow noble, romantic, or spiritual to be poor?
Yes No
10. Did you ever end a negative relationship and then immediately replace it with a relationship just like the one you just ended?
Yes No
11. Have you sometimes used judgmental expressions like, “poor as a church mouse”, “filthy rich”, or “obscenely wealthy”?
Yes No
12. Have you ever made excuses for failure by saying things like: “You have to have money to make money” or “You have to know someone”?
Yes No
13. Do you relish being the underdog and fighting against the odds all the time?
Yes No
14. Is it possible that you are experiencing health challenges, financial challenges, or business failures in order to get sympathy and attention from those closest to you?
Yes No
15. Are you in a stable relationship, have enough money to meet your needs, and are basically healthy, but just feel that life is just passing you by?
Yes No
Scoring Your Prosperity IQ Test
Count up all your yes and no answers. Yes = ______ No = ______
If you answered No to 13-‐15 questions:
You have a strong prosperity consciousness and can pass this quiz along to someone else.
If you answered Yes to 3 or more questions:
You likely have issues of worthiness on a subconscious level.
You may be in a holding pattern, afraid to leave your comfort zone. You are not radically unhappy, but there is no passion or excitement in your life. You know something is missing, but you may not know what it is.
If you answered Yes to 5 or more questions:
You are likely in a stagnancy cycles and sometimes have advances, but experience set-‐backs. You are not really breaking through to the real success you desire or deserve.
If you answered Yes to 7 or more questions:
You are definitely headed on a downward track towards serious emotional, physical, and financial challenges. This is the victim cycle. It is imperative that you take immediate action to break the pattern and stop the failure cycle. This will involve uncovering limiting beliefs on a subconscious level and radically reprogramming them with positive ones.
What’s Your Money Story?
“The only thing keeping you from what you real ly want is the story you have for why you can’t have it .” ~ Tony Robbins
We all have a story. Actually, we all have many different stories. We use our stories as a way to tell people about us and our life. Our stories have different plots depending on the whether the subject is money, relationships, love, health, death, family, school, or career. We usually have the main character (us) acting out the role of hero or victim. Depending on the role we have decided to play, our stories are either uplifting or tragic.
What are your stories like?
What type of character do you normally play?
Do you have positive stories about some areas of your life and not others?
When you start thinking about your stories, you may soon realize that your beliefs play an important part in your story. You use your conscious and subconscious beliefs to make up stories about your life. Your beliefs determine what your character does and the decisions he or she makes. You, as the character, can only do what your beliefs allow – they are the writer and director.
But what if you’d like to play a different role…to play a character who does greater or more heroic things?
The good news is that you can fire the writer and director and take charge of these two jobs. As the writer, you can create a new character. As the director, you can decide what the character does. To do this, you need to change your beliefs about who you are and what you are capable of. Decide who you want to be and what you want to do. You can change your life by changing your story…it isn’t written in stone!
Take a few minutes to think about your money story so far. Is it a tragedy, a comedy of errors, or an inspiration to others?
Exercise: My Money Story
Write down a story about your current money situation. Then, write a new money story for yourself. Change the things you don’t like about your current story. Decide who you want to be and what you want to be doing with your money. Include as many details as possible so that it becomes real in your mind. Add more pages if you like. You can do this same exercise to change the story about any other area of your life as well. I included a Guide to Creating an Effective Story to help you.
My current money story:
My New Money Story:
To be continued…
Guide to Creating an Effective Story/Visualization
The best and most effective stories/visualizations are those that use all of the senses – sight, sound, taste, bodily feelings, and emotions. Use these steps as a guide to creating your new money story.
1. Write down your story Writing your story is a very important step because it helps your brain begin to construct new neural connections (new beliefs and new ways of thinking and acting). It also helps you begin to flex your imagination muscles.
2. Write your story in first person, as if it’s already happening.
3. Keep it positive – don’t include what you don’t want or what you are trying to avoid.
4. As you write, ask yourself the following questions:
• What do I see, hear, smell, taste, and feel (in my body)? • What emotions do I have knowing that I am living my dream? • What am I doing? • What do I have? • What do I think and how do I act? • What do I say to myself? • What do I hear others saying about me? • What do I believe about myself and money?
5. Add as many details as possible to your story – make it seem real!
6. Make sure your story makes you feel great when you read it.
7. Close your eyes and tell yourself this new story as often as possible. (You are trying to
rewire your brain for the new you!). You may want to record your story and listen to it at night and/or in the morning. This is when your brain is most open to change.
8. Practice! With practice, your imagination muscles will improve.
9. Have fun!
10. If you want, schedule a session with Dr. Susan Fay. She can help you develop a great
money story.
Uncovering Your Money Beliefs
Now that you have taken Randy Gage’s Prosperity IQ Test and written down your money story, you have some clues to your conscious and subconscious beliefs about money. What positive beliefs did you discover? What negative beliefs did you discover?
Step 1: List these beliefs on the form titled: My Conscious and Subconscious Money Beliefs.
For each negative belief you listed, think of something positive to change it to. Write this down on the form. For example, if you say, “I make stupid financial decisions”, replace this with a new statement like “I will make smart financial decisions”.
Step 2: Fill out the form titled: My New Money Beliefs.
This form is designed to help you find out what beliefs will help you reach your financial goals.
To reach a goal, you first need to have a clear idea of what you want. Write that down.
Next, write down why you want to reach this goal. This should be a positive reason, not something that you don’t want or something you’re trying to avoid. A positive why is something like, “I want to provide for my family”. A negative why is something like, “I no longer want to worry about how I will pay my bills”.
Now, think about what you would need to believe about money for your goal to become a reality. Write that down.
Finally, come up with some positive things you’ll say to yourself about your goal and your ability to achieve it. This is self-‐talk. You can even think of
things you’ll say to others. This step helps your brain get on board with your new beliefs.
My Conscious and Subconscious Money Beliefs
My Posit ive Money Beliefs
I often say or think the following positive things about money and/or my financial situation:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
My Negative Money Beliefs
I often say or think the following positive things about money and/or my financial situation:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
8. 9. 10.
New Money Belief Statements
I will replace each of my negative money statements with the following positive ones:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
My New Beliefs
This form will help you become clear about your financial goals and what new money beliefs will help you achieve it. Do this for each of your goals.
What I want:
My WHY (reason) for this new belief:
Belief(s) I need to achieve what I want:
Self-‐Talk for my new belief(s):
(Positive things I will say to myself and others to reinforce my new belief.)
Creating a Mental Arsenal: Weapons to Combat Limiting Beliefs
By now, you have started to discover what you believe about money. Before we fill your mental arsenal with weapons (ways) to get rid of any limiting beliefs, let’s look at how beliefs work. The important thing to know is that beliefs determine what you think, the emotions you have, and the things you do. To see how this works, take a look at the diagram below.
Your conscious or unconscious beliefs create thoughts. As you can see, thoughts cause you to feel a certain way. It is the feeling that the thought creates that makes you decide to do something.
Thoughts, feelings (emotions), and behaviors are connected to each other. The good news is that if you change what you are thinking, you change both your emotion and your response. In other words, if you change in any one of them, the other two change.
Because beliefs make up your thoughts, changing your money beliefs will change what you do and how you feel. Successful people know how to think, feel, and act to get the results they want. Determine how you need to think, feel, and act to be successful. Then, do it! It may take some practice before you get good, but just keep working on it.
Take a look at the new money story you wrote. Your goal is to create a new successful character. What should your new character think? What should your new character feel? How should your new character behave?
Now that you understand how beliefs work, take some time to think about your conscious self-‐talk and the excuses you’ve been making for not reaching your financial goals. Successful people don’t make excuses…they take action!
Fill out the form titled: My Excuses. Think about the things you say to yourself and others to justify not meeting your financial goals. Write them down. In the future, if you hear yourself starting to make an excuse, STOP!
As you work on changing your limiting beliefs, think about why it is important to change. Your Why determines how motivated you’ll be to make the necessary changes. Make sure that when you think about your why, it makes you feel great. Remember that your emotions determine what actions you take. If your Why is negative, your motivation will soon fizzle out.
The next step in making lasting changes in your life is to destroy the beliefs that have kept you from achieving your goals. In the following section, I give you 12 weapons to destroy limiting beliefs. Experiment with these to see which one(s) work best for you.
Please contact me if you get stuck or need help. I want you to succeed! Be patient with yourself as you start to make changes. Remember that many of the mental weapons take practice before you get good at them. Your brain needs practice and repetition to rewire itself for the new you. It needs to know you are serious or it will revert back to its old ways!
My Excuses
Fill out this form if you have made excuses for not achieving a financial goal or not getting ahead financially.
I say (have said) the following things to justify my lack of financial success:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Excuses are similar to negative self-‐talk. Create a list of new positive things you’ll tell yourself. Anytime you hear yourself making an excuse, replace it with one of these new statements:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Weapons for Your Mental Arsenal
Weapon 1: Mental Imagery/Visualization
This is where you get to use your new money story. As you read it, imagine what it’s like to be the new successful you. Make sure your story has lots of detail. Don’t forget to add a strong positive emotion. Feel what it is like to live your new story. Tel l yourself and others your story to reinforce it in your mind. You can even record your story and listen to it before you go to bed. Hearing your own voice will make your story become more real.
Imagery/Visualization is a scientifically proven way to rewire your brain for a new belief, feeling, habit, or behavior. You can refer to the Guide to Creating an Effective Story/Visualization for help.
Weapon 2: Act “As If”
Act “As If” you’re someone who is financially successful. Watch people who are successful and notice what they say, how they walk, how they talk, what they believe (think), and what they do.
Change your posture, change the way you dress, change how you think about money. All of these are conscious decisions. These actions tell your brain that you’re serious!
Weapon 3: Posit ive Self-‐Talk
Notice what you say to yourself, either out loud or in your head. If a negative thought comes up, tell yourself “STOP” and change the thought to a positive one.
Make a list of negative things you say and then write down positive statements to replace them. Be patient! This takes practice, persistence, and dedication.
Refer to the My Conscious and Unconscious Money Beliefs, My Excuses, and My New Beliefs forms for help.
Weapon 4: Change Your Emotions
If you have anxiety, depression, fear, or some other awful feeling when you think about money, stop and determine what thought or behavior you had just before you started to feel bad.
Remember that thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are connected to each other. Change one and you change the other two!
Weapon 5: Change Your Behaviors
Determine what money behaviors you want to change. Without changing anything about what you do, just start to become aware of how you handle money. Pretend you’re watching someone else and see how they act.
Ask yourself these questions: What triggers me to spend money? What makes me buy things that aren’t in my budget? What feelings do I have when I make good or bad money decisions?
Look for the thought or emotion that led to the behavior. Remember that thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are connected to each other. Change one and you change the other two.
Weapon 6: Change Beliefs/Thoughts
Notice what thoughts you have about money. These are clues to your beliefs. Notice how your thoughts/beliefs create what happens to you. Pay attention to what you think and the results you get. See what you do or think to create a certain outcome. When you begin to develop this type of awareness, you can then decide whether to continue the behavior or stop it. This takes some practice. Just keep at it!
Refer to Weapon 3. Remember that thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are connected.
Weapon 7: Focus
Make sure you focus on what you want. Don’t put your focus on what you don’t want or what you want to avoid.
You can tell if you’re focusing on what you don’t want because you’ll have a bad feeling. Worrying, anxiety, and depression are clues that you’re focusing on what you don’t want, or what you want to avoid.
If you find yourself focusing on what you don’t want, go back to the Weapon 2 and/or tell yourself “STOP” and change your thoughts.
Weapon 8: Awareness
Notice:
Notice when you think about money where your thoughts lead you. Do you feel anxious or scared, or confident and happy?
Notice if you try to get attention or sympathy from others by saying negative things about your money situation.
Notice how you feel when you make good or bad money decisions.
Notice what triggers you to have negative thoughts, feelings, or behaviors when it comes to money.
Notice what you are doing, not what is happening to you.
Notice if you turn to things such as alcohol, drugs, or bad behaviors as a way to deal with uncomfortable feelings or thoughts about money.
Weapon 9: Take Action
An important characteristic of successful people is that they take action. They don’t wait for things to fall into their lap. Develop an action plan to meet your goals. Use with Weapon 7. Take my class on goal-‐setting and budgeting strategies.
Focus on what you want. When you focus your mind on what you want, you begin to see possibilities that you didn’t notice before. You begin to think of new ideas and resources you can use to make your goal a reality.
Weapon 10: Support/Education
Find people who think the way you want to think. Join a money group and/or attend class to learn more about money. Hang out with people who are financially successful. Find a mentor or work with a financial advisor.
Find someone who will support you in your goals. This person should be someone who’ll hold you accountable for your actions.
The worst thing you can do is hang around with people who have the “woe is me” attitude when it comes to money. You can easily recognize these people because all they want to talk about is how hard it is to make money, etc. They can bring you down and give you an excuse for not trying. Remember, your life is a reflection of the people you hang out with!
Weapon 11: Work with a Professional
NLP, hypnosis, financial coaches, and other professionals can help you if you get stuck.
Weapon 12: Have Fun!
If you make these exercises a game or an interesting experiment, you’ll have fun exploring and changing your limiting beliefs.
To schedule an appointment, or for information on additional classes offered by Dr. Susan Fay, contact her at:
Health and Peak Performance Institute, LLC 1864 Woodmoor Dr. #212 Monument, CO 80132 [email protected]
(303) 829-‐2689