.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
I believe wisdom is your best resource. I love to talk about changing your mentality when it comes to money, and most often that is focused on how we can achieve more in life. But wisdom says there is a balance. We want to be our very best and achieve the most we are able to. We also need to do what is necessary which sometimes means waiting, pulling back, and placing limits. Those don't sound like prosperity. But if we are going to be the best we can and achieve the most we are able to, then we can't build that on a bad foundation.
Would you give more to someone who was abusing what they had? Abundance and prosperity start with what you currently have. Be faithful with that and then grow. The taller the building the deeper the foundation needs to be.
How do you check if your foundation is solid?
So. Easy.
Ready to check?
See if you are living within your means.
Bam.
You have to live within your means. If you can't master that you can not progress to the next level.
It's totally more fun to think about building a bigger business and creating vision boards of dream vacations and fancy cars but let's talk about the first step. Without the wobbly first steps you can't learn to run. If you are studying everything you can about increase, but you are in debt and run out of money every month then you are studying the wrong thing. You missed the step about figuring out how to manage what you've got. Go back. Do not pass go, do not collect $200 (and if do collect it, use it to pay down your debt). When you are stuck in the endless cycle of never enough, ideas about an abundance mentality are enticing. But if you want an abundance mentality to pull you out of bad spending habits or poor financial disciple then you will soon find it to be a dead end road.
Do you need to learn more money management ideas or do you need to open yourself up to more abundance ideas. Try these two stories on for size and see which one you identify with....
Sarah feels like she already has an abundance mentality. When she spends money she doesn't worry about it because she thinks she will just make more, it always works out anyway. Sarah has no system of saving money so she actually doesn't have any savings. Because she doesn't check in on her money, she just spends until she is alerted to a problem. The credit card is declined, she gets an overdraft fee, or she comes up short on paying her bills. She tends to buy it now and worry about the consequences later. Her friends think she has it all together and that she is doing quite well financially. But if they saw her personal bank statements she would be embarrassed.
Anne is making consistent progress in her business. She would like to make bigger leaps instead of growing inch by inch. She has a system of saving money and is continually growing her savings account. She has paid off most if not all of her debt and is confident in her money management abilities. She thinks before she hits the buy button or before she purchases an item she may not really need. She would like to multiple her efforts in making money instead of just spending more time working for more money. She thinks people might be surprised if they saw her bank statements because she is doing even better than she lets on.
If you identify more with the Sarah, I encourage you to follow Dave Ramsey's plan of financial freedom or someone else you admire that will help guide your money management skills. There are plenty of books out there as well.
If you see yourself in Anne, then it's time to really focus on changing your mentality towards abundance. You have already learned to manage your money. Not it's time to multiple yourself.
Abundance thinking is a multiplication of wealth. If you continue with poor money management then adding abundance mentality will only give you more money to mess up.
Pink block: You must master what you have before you multiple the problem.
Remember, as T. Harv Eker says, "Money makes you more of what you already are." There is no escaping this fact. If you find yourself with an increase of money, you will also find yourself with an increase in the same issues you currently have. Don't avoid your current issues by trying to get more money to cover them up. It doesn't work like that. Money does not cover. Money puts a magnifying glass on you. So take an honest look. Do you want to magnify what you are currently doing with money? If not, go back to the basics and practice managing what you have. Because to whom much is given, much is expected.
Unlock your financial potential today.