Answer This Before Setting Your Financial Goals

I’m a big fan of goal setting, vision boards, the law of attraction and taking focused actions in order to get where I want to be.  These things have worked wonders for me.

It’s not magic, and I don’t feel that I’m “lucky.”  I don’t really believe in luck.

I’m sure many of you are thinking about what you’d like to do better this year.  You probably want to:

1. Make more money

2. Have less debt

3. Save more, take a vacation, buy a Louis Vuitton, whatever.

Before you set financial goals this year, ask yourself how you REALLY feel about having money.

I took a self-evaluation by a company called Lifebook a while back.  Lifebook is a really cool company that you should check out.  They help people live their best lives.  Their offering starts with an evaluation that examines 12 areas of your life.

After I took my evaluation, Lifebook sent me a 90-minute financial workshop led by the founder of the company.  It brought up some really interesting questions that I recommend you think about before you set your financial goals for 2012.

What do YOU believe about money and wealth?

Let’s back up and start with a founding principle of “the law of attraction.”  Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts determine your actions, and your actions become your reality.

Beliefs -> Thoughts -> Actions -> Reality

We can all choose our beliefs regardless of how we’ve been programmed.  Are your beliefs empowering you?

According to the founder of Lifebook, if you believe money is the root of all evil, you will always sabotage yourself from being financially successful.  If you believe people with money are evil, snobby, selfish, unhappy, self-righteous or shallow why in the world would you ever want to become anything like them?!  Or, if you believe that all people with money are just “lucky” or born into it, you’ll probably never take actions that will get you into a significantly better financial situation because you don’t believe wealth applies to normal people like you.  You’ve already told yourself you’re undeserving before you even started.

You may not have realized it, but your beliefs about wealth may be stopping you from advancing your current financial situation.

Most of us have been taught, “money can’t buy happiness.”  I disagree.  Well, kind of.

Money can’t buy happiness in itself from the store, but money buys us flexibility, education, basic needs, stability, small joys, ways out of emergencies, and experiences which all give us opportunity to make the world a better place.

According to the workshop, “prosperity wipes out human suffering.” It makes sense.

If you feel undeserving of financial freedom and security, consider just a few of the ways that NOT having money affects peoples’ lives:

• Often times it means no health insurance.
• It could mean anxiety and depression over unpaid bills, which may lead to substance abuse or even suicide.
• It probably means fewer opportunities for your children and living in neighborhoods that aren’t as safe.
• Not having money means not being able to help other family and community members who need it.

In many situations, not having money doesn’t bring anything good or happy!  So why are so many of us afraid of having lots of money?  Why do you think so many of us feel we “don’t deserve it”?

Here are some other notes I took on the workshop worth pondering:

• Money flows to those who treat it well and away from those who don’t.  Nurturing, honoring & respecting money will make it grow.  Squandering it on what you want at that moment is abuse, money won’t stick around those who abuse it, just like a relationship.
• Money is an effect, not a cause.  The cause is creating value for those around you.  If you want to earn more money, add more value.  Learn more skills, improve your work habits, etc.  The way to enrich yourself is to enrich the lives of those around you.
• The mastery of money is the mastery of service.  The more I serve others, the more I will attract money into my life.
• Money expands who you already are.  “Sports don’t build character, they reveal character,” says Vince Lombardi. Money is the same way: it reveals who you are and expands it.  If you’re already a happy person, more money will make you happier because it’s expanding who you already are.  If you’re an asshole, well, according to this theory money will only make that problem worse because you were always an ass.

Before you set your goals, ask yourself the following questions and write down your answers:

• What you really want to achieve financially this year?
• Do you feel you deserve it?
• How will your life improve and the lives of others around you improve if you achieve your goals?
• Do you really believe you can achieve this?
• WHY do you want to achieve it?  What will happen if you don’t?
• What specific actions do you need to take to get there?

Good luck and cheers to a year full of health, wealth and happiness.

Nicole