GMR 134: How to Experience Positive Change In Your Finances
Change is difficult! Whether you are trying to improve your finances, lose weight, or anything else, it requires a certain level of discomfort, which none of us enjoy. The biggest obstacle to change is our emotions. Because of the way we feel influences our behavior, we must understand and adapt our feelings if we stand to achieve whatever we’re after. In this episode of GMR, we discuss the five stages people move through emotionally when changing their behavior to help you experience positive change in your finances and your life.
Show Notes
5 Stages People Move Through Emotionally When Changing Their Behaviors
Uninformed Optimism
Informed Pessimism
Valley of Despair
Informed Optimism
Success and Fulfillment
1. Uninformed Optimism
Pitfalls
You haven’t taken the time to think through the amount of work it will take to be successful, so you grab a quick budgeting app of software, you invest in an expensive course or education plan, but you don’t really think through how much time and energy it will take.
How Do I Get Through It
Take a step, research
Take a step, research
Take a step, research
Find a guru
Vision: Helps get you inspired.
2. Informed Pessimism
Pitfalls
This is where you begin really looking at your finances in a detailed way, which means you now see all the problems in your finances, the things you’ve ignored for a long time. Now you’re dealing with that pain. You’re also going to have to say “no” to some things you used to say “yes” to. So you’re experiencing new pain, and you might have just lost one of your coping mechanisms for your old pain.
Ignoring finances due to stress.
Overspending.
How Do I Get Through It
Write your vision down. Take time to think through in advance what you’re chasing long-term.
Embrace the fact that it will be hard.
Determine in advance how you’re going to react.
Determine in advance that you won’t quit.
Vision: Helps you to keep going.
3. Valley of Despair
Pitfalls
Staying here too long.
Quitting here.
Restarting the process of “uninformed optimism” by looking for another way that seems easier.
How Do I Get Through It
Accountability.
People in your corner who will support you and walk with you.
Stay connected to a source of motivation - Getting Money Right.
If it’s only your own mind trying to push through the Valley of Despair, you’re going to get bogged down and probably give up. You need outside voices to encourage you.
Some people will say you must focus only on your mental toughness, and this is partially true.
½ you ½ others
Vision: Helps you see beyond it.
4. Informed Optimism
Back in the position of positivity, starting to see the fruit of your work.
Have habits in place that make it easier to keep going.
Vision: Helps you to keep going.
5. Success and Fulfillment
Now when you face challenges you can look back at the history and know that you’re going to be ok. You have good processes in place and can more easily make adjustments and even see future problems ahead of time because you’re looking up to the future, not just focused on the daily grind.
Vision: Keeps you reaching higher and higher.
“This has to be a part of your identity, being a good steward. You have to take ownership of this. This is part of why we created Getting Money Right, to give people on-going access to good financial advice, so they can shift the way they think, and have this become part of their identity; taking ownership of their daily finances.”