Lesson 1: Our Environment
Learning Objective
Create an internal and external environment that supports our wealth & well-being
Our mindset is often the biggest contributor or detractor to our feelings of abundance, happiness, joy and success. Our internal and external environments exceedingly impact our state of mind, our beliefs, habits and actions – which in turn impacts our happiness and ultimately our success when it comes to wealth and abundance.
Our internal environment is how we think and what we say to ourselves on a daily basis.
We’ve already explored the importance of our internal environment when we discussed money beliefs, our locus of control and the importance of a growth mindset when it comes to wealth. These are all elements of a mindful wealth practice that can help us create a more conscious, intentional relationship and to create more awareness with money.
Watch the Self-Talk
Our self-talk is an important contributor to our internal environment and in creating a mindset to create wealth.
The thing with our self-talk is that we’re programming ourselves for positive or negative statements to be true. It’s amazing how just a few words can have such a huge impact on our attitude to wealth.
When we start to notice our own negative self-talk we can instead transform it into positive statements, which will help to change our subconscious thought patterns. It’s a way to reprogram our subconscious and create a healthier mindset.
Our new habits and behaviours with wealth won’t stick unless we’re supporting ourselves.
Positive self-talk is often called an affirmation.
It’s a statement about ourselves and our situation – phrased in the present tense – stated as already being true.
Affirmations work, as they have the ability to reprogram our mind to believe the positive concept. This is because the mind has difficulty knowing the difference between what is real and what is fantasy.
An example of our negative self-talk, which could be impacting our wealth, is when we tell ourselves that we’re not good with money. We can switch this to I’m learning how to manage money or, I’m getting better at managing my money.
Mindful Exercise: See if you can you identify with any of these examples of negative self-talk with regards to your money or financial situation. Reflect on your current relationship with money and see how you finish these sentences…
I really should…
I can’t….
I’ll try…
It’s impossible…
I can’t afford…
I’ll never…
I’m no good at….
It’s too late…
If you find yourself being able to finish these sentences, see if you can then turn them from a negative to a positive.
Here are some examples of how some simple word switches change negatives to positives.
| From Negative Self Talk | To Positive Affirmation |
|---|---|
| I really should I really should save more |
I will save more I am going to save more |
| I can’t I can’t afford that |
I can afford it, I choose not to spend on it |
| I’ll try I’ll try to save more money |
I’m going to save more money I am saving more money |
| It’s impossible It’s impossible to make ends meet |
It is possible to make ends meet I am making ends meet |
| We can’t afford that We can’t afford that new car |
A new car isn’t a priority right now Paying off debt is my priority, not a new car |
| I’d like to do it, but I’d like to learn how to manage my money better |
I’m going to manage my money better I am learning to manage my money better |
| I’ll never I’m never going to be financially free |
Financial freedom takes action, one-step at a time. It’s a slow journey but it is worthwhile |
| I’m no good at I’m bad with money |
I have control over my behaviour and my wealth I am good with money |
| It’s too late It’s too late for me to start now |
It’s never too late to begin I can start now |
There are four steps to creating and using affirmations:
- Identify our negative self-talk and beliefs.
- Create affirmations and turn our statements from negative to positives.
- Make it visible, display the affirmation where you see it often and repeat it.
- Begin using the new affirmations.
*The third step is important, in order for us to integrate a new mindset, we must try and keep our affirmations visible. It might be in our wallet, on the bathroom mirror, as a screen saver, or on the fridge, you choose. By having it somewhere visible we are reminded to repeat it often which gives our subconscious more change of integrating this new positive self-talk.
Mindful Exercise: Write Three Affirmation Cards
Examples:
I have learned from my past financial mistakes
I’m working towards financial freedom
I’m working towards being debt free
I spend less than I earn.
I make conscious and mindful money decisions.
Our External Environment
Our external environment includes the people we associate with, and what we pay attention to in our environment that influences us. One of the most important elements in our financial success is who we regularly spend time with.
Mindful Question/Reflection:
Are the people I choose to surround myself with a positive or negative influence on my mindset and my wealth?
“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
– Jim Rohn
Who we spend time with can elevate us as much as it can bring us down.
People around us affect our way of thinking, our self-esteem, and our decisions – of course, we are all our own person – but there is a lot of research to suggest that we’re more affected by our environment than we realize.
We can either surround ourselves with people and influences who want to support us working towards our goals and dreams, or not, by surrounding ourselves with people who are negative or unsupportive will result in undermining our confidence and willpower.
When we are encouraged and supported by those around us, we’re more likely to stick to our plan, goals.
Mindful Question/Reflection: Think of five adult people in your life that you spend the most time with; what is their relationship like with money?
Who do you follow on social media? Do their attitudes, beliefs and behaviours and ultimately their lives reflect your values and ideals?
What feelings arise when you look at their posts? It’s good to be inspired, but watch out for feelings of jealousy or resentment. If you have these feelings, ask yourself why?
What is it about them that you are jealous of?
What do they have that you don’t?
Is what they have, what you really want, or just a perception?
Society, The Media and Other Role Models
It can be hard to stay on track and focussed on our own plans and goals when we are constantly surrounded by messages that may contradict what we are working towards. In fact, these influences play a key role in directing our lives and our decisions, we must be mindful of the impact they have in our lives.
The people we follow on social media may be acting as role models and influencing our mindset, beliefs and decisions. It’s important that we screen these influences and ensure they are positive and align with our own values. The same is true for our friends, family and colleagues, who influence our habits, beliefs and behaviours which we can often take on as our own, this is often done subconsciously – we’re often not even aware of it.
Mindful Question/Reflection: Can you list some positive role models / influences that you could adopt for your journey to mindful wealth?
When choosing role models we can ask ourselves:
Why do I admire them?
What qualities and behaviours or habits of theirs could I adopt as my own?
We need to identify and carefully select the role models for our journey to abundance in life; choose the kinds of qualities and habits that we’d like to develop or have more of in our lives.
We can consciously choose the people we admire and use them to help us shape our ideal Self.
