Financial Success And Prosperity is an Inside Job

It’s amazing to reflect back on how life was for me many years ago: I was newly married, I quit a secure job and took an adventurous two-month honeymoon in New Zealand and came back to a beautiful new home in a gorgeous part of Montana with thousands upon thousands of dollars of credit card debt!

I found myself incredibly freaked out when I arrived back home with my new husband.  I desperately wanted to discover wealth building secrets so that I could not only take practical financial steps but so I could attract wealth and money as well.

During the start up phase of my private coaching practice I decided to take up a side job of landscaping gardens (i.e., read between the lines — I had acquired a part-time job as professional weeder for my mother-in-law of all things!).  I would wake up in the morning and wonder if were even possible to have a successful career as a business owner and get out of the crazy debt mess that we had created.

And we did – but it didn’t happen over night. There were times when we felt like the proverbial fish out of water.  There were many times my husband and I felt discouraged and disheartened.

I see clients in my private practice with the familiar sense of overwhelm that I had experienced.  They feel stressed because they are burdened with student loans and credit card debt and back-taxes.  Others are living paycheck to paycheck with multiple overdrafts on their bank accounts.  Still others are searching for more meaning, purpose and direction in their lives as they embark on new careers.

Many people experience the voice of fear and doubt in their head – yet in spite of this, they persevere. After building a successful career and climbing out of credit card debt I now realize that a big part of my/our success was in “doing the inner work.”

In order to win in life we must be willing to do the inner work.  Success isn’t just about achieving a specific desired outcome.  It’s about shifting our mindsets so that we achieve our desired outcome.   This applies to any struggle or challenge that you’re having – not just the financial challenges.

In order to achieve your desired goal you need to:

1. Get determined. I see people all the time who lack determination. They talk the good talk but they really don’t want to take action and do something about their situation.  What they really want is to vent and complain.  And then there are others who have the burning drive and conviction and you just know that they’re going to “make it” in spite of the many obstacles they encounter.

It’s the inner drive that keeps them going when the going get tough, when the bills pile up, and there’s not enough money coming in.  It’s the inner determination that keeps them pushing until they’ve transformed their failures and struggles into successes.

2. Allow yourself to be a beginner. This is such a tough one for many of us.  When we’re learning a new behavior (like balancing our checkbooks, tracking how we spent money, creating a spending plan, having Financial Dates with our partners, getting rid of debt or embarking on a new career) we forget to allow ourselves to be a beginner.  We expect ourselves to do it perfectly and then act surprised and get discouraged when we fail.

You’ve got to be patient with yourself.  It’s like the metaphor of learning how to ride a bike for the first time.  It feels awkward at first.  Remember to be gentle – you’re not suppose to know what you’re doing!

You will fail at times.  And you know what?  That’s okay – Expect it! All you need to do is stay the course until your old limiting behaviors have developed into strong, powerful habits.

3. Have a faith. It’s okay to get discouraged from time to time, but in the end you must find a way to access faith and belief in your ability to turn your situation around. If you’re frustrated and depressed all you’ll see is a dismal, gray future.

If you’re able to shift your thinking from “I’m stuck and I’ll always be stuck,” to “Anything’s possible.  It’s happened for others and it can happened for me as well,” then you’ll access new insights and creative solutions that you couldn’t have seen from your negative state of mind.

If you do nothing else but implement these three inner success steps you will succeed eventually!  Because financial success really is an inside job.