Improving your financial life requires more than just goal setting and planning.
Another new year is upon us.
This is the time of year where we begin to reflect on the past year, set plans and make goals for the next. Inevitably, improving finances, will make the list of resolutions again this year for many Americans. Whether paying down debt, changing your spending habits, growing your savings, or learning to invest in real estate or the stock market, the reality remains that 99 million people will write down money as a part of their goals list again this year.[1]
For many people, it seems as though these money topics return to the resolutions list every year. Many people try to start budgets, download new financial apps to help with organization, or even seek the help of a financial professional (which is always recommended) to achieve their goals. But typically after a few months, the excitement and vigor for achieving those goals dims, as “normal life” begins to set in.
In the scriptures it states, “death and life is in the power of the tongue.” Meaning, with our words, we have the ability to change a situation, either for the better or worse. Whether an individual believes in God or not, is irrelevant in this case, because the universal law of attraction and laws of manifestation, both support the same thought. Because of this, we must pay close attention to the words we speak to ourselves and to others; they have more of an impact on our lives than we think.
This is especially true when it comes to our financial life. The language we use to talk about money, will often determine our success financially. So to greatly improve our financial life, we must also improve our financial language.
These are the four phrases to remove from your vocabulary to improve your financial life next year.
“I don’t have time”
One of the greatest excuses we tell ourselves is that we don’t have time. Considering we all have the same 24 hours in a day, we all have the same amount of time. What we really are saying when we use this phrase is, “that is not my priority.” People tend to give time and attention to the things that are most important in their lives. So subconsciously, using this phrase when referring to a financial topic, we are telling ourselves that it’s not important. Sayings like, “I don’t have time to budget,” “I don’t have time to start a side business,” or “ I don’t have time research about that investment.” Are keeping your financial life as a lesser priority than other areas.
The solution: Start asking yourself the question, “how can I make time?” How can I make time to budget? How can I make time to create another stream of income for my family? How can I make time to review my finances on a weekly basis? This will cause your brain to go to work finding the answer to achieve that goal!
“I can’t afford it”
This is another common phrase people use often, without realizing its impact on their financial life. Robert Kiyosaki, the author of the book Rich Dad Poor Dad, says this statement has kept many people poor without them knowing.
Again, subconsciously by saying this, you’re telling yourself that the thing you want, you can’t have… and whatever you tell yourself consistently, your mind will go to work proving you right.
The solution: Instead of saying you can’t afford it, begin to ask yourself, “how can I afford it?” This question will open your mind to allow you to see opportunities and possibilities to make it happen, rather than reinforcing that it won’t. As the well known performance coach, Tony Robbins says, the quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions we ask ourselves. This is true for the quality of our financial life as well.
“Passive Income”
While passive income is definitely a real thing, and a noble goal for many to reach towards, the way most people think about passive income is not ideal. In fact, people that frequently use the term passive income and chase it as the holy grail, hurt their chances to obtain said income.
During the past decade, many people in our society began to associate passive income with “lazy income.” The term began to correlate with easy money, that one doesn’t have to work hard for. People that have adopted that understanding, will likely never achieve their goal, because “easy money” doesn’t exist.
The solution: To fix our delusional definition, we must remove the phrase from our vocabulary, and realize that we must work hard for every dollar. Then once we earn our money, the goal should be to make our money work harder for us, than we did to attain it. Passive income shouldn’t be looked at as “easy income,” but instead viewed as putting your money to work for you, to earn more.
“When things settle down”
We all know that procrastination is the thief of time, so anytime we use phrases that allow us to put things off for the future, it’s robbing us of our time. This happens to be one of those very phrases that is rooted in procrastination. For anyone that has lived a bit knows that life doesn’t really slow down, or settle down.
The saying, “you’re either in a storm, coming out of a storm, or going into a storm,” is very true of life. There will never be the perfect time to do anything. It’ll never be a perfect time to thoroughly dig into your finances and make changes. It’ll never be the right time to open a business, or begin to invest and save for retirement. So by saying this, we begin to give into the idea that there is a better time in the future to work on our goals.
The solution: Start now! Don’t put things off for tomorrow that can be done today. Saving, investing, and growing our income are aspects of our financial life that we can begin to change immediately.
For this new year, if we want to achieve our goals, and see our financial lives change, then we must make an effort to change our financial language. The way we talk, and the vocabulary we use, will have a direct effect on our financial outcomes. So make sure your words propel you forward in your financial life, and not hinder you from achieving everything you want in the new year.
[1] https://wallethub.com/credit-cards#survey
Originally Posted on Medium