One of my goals for 2017 is to improve my message about how I communicate about money and personal finances. For the past 10 years (yes a decade, I’ve been doing this that long!) I’ve been talking about the mechanics or the “how” of money. I’ve finally come to understand that there is a missing piece to that information. In my new course Taming Your Finances & Saving $5,000 in the Process, we really dig into how your mindset impacts where you are financially & what to do about it.
I truly believe that unless you have your thoughts, your mindset & your beliefs about money (& your self-worth) in alignment with what it is you want, reaching your goals is going to be very difficult because the two tie together so closely. We’ll be digging into that more over 2017 and I can’t wait to talk to you about that more! 
Today I’m excited because I get to share a book with you that discusses this very thing! I spent some time with Leanne Jacobs, author of Beautiful Money: The 4 – Week Total Wealth Makeover talking about her book and what it means to create beautiful money. I could have spent all day talking to Leanne because her message is right in alignment with my message for this year. (Listen to the full interview here or keep reading to find out more about her book, Beautiful Money.)
My conversation with Leanne touches on all of this, here are some of the topics you will find in this interview:
- How our relationship with money is a projection of our internal relationship to ourselves
- Respecting money – why it’s important and some habits that wealthy women have in common
- The difference between creating wealth & chasing money
- Clearing out clutter in your space, your car & your mind & why it’s so important to create Beautiful Money
- How what you say impacts your experience in life. Words like “I hope”and “I’m trying” aren’t going to get you anywhere!
- Good & bad debt – what they mean to someone creating Beautiful Money (this is NOT the same as what you hear from mainstream personal finance)
- Why you don’t have to struggle to get what you want
- The Beautiful Money Math formula and how it will get you to your goal sooner rather than later
Interested in learning more about Leanne’s book, Beautiful Money? Here’s an excerpt from the book. I think this will resonate with you as you read through the wealth disconnect and how your habits shape your reality:
The Wealth Disconnect
Ditch negative habits and incorporate positive habits with this exercise
It can be shocking to realize that we’re spending our life doing things we don’t like, worrying about things that aren’t important, or imploding from stress . . . just by being too busy! I call this the Wealth Disconnect.
- People don’t spend enough time identifying the few essentials that will create more success and wealth
- People spend too much time working harder trying to manage chaos
- People spend more money, are less effective and more likely to burn out when their schedules are jammed
- People spend most of their time worrying about or feeling afraid of events and situations that will likely never happen
- People let others’ opinions influence their decisions
- People are starved of personal and financial leverage by being attached to their work and jobs 24/7
Does this resonate? It did for me. The truth is that our societal norms—which value long nights at the office, being attached to email 24/7, and making work our first priority—are exactly opposite of what creates harmonious and sustainable wealth. That’s why I call it a ‘disconnect’.
By reorganizing our schedule and prioritizing the work that actually creates returns, we can generate more income, create better results, and no longer waste our energy and time on tasks that don’t matter.
Generating wealth and creating Beautiful Money is a daily practice. When I work with individual clients, it can be easy for me to see why someone isn’t achieving their next level of financial greatness. Most of the time, it’s because their daily habits and activities work in opposition to their desired goals. The most obvious is someone who wants to save more, but continually uses shopping to release emotional tension or someone who claims to value health but eats fast food or drinks alcohol several times a week.
The fact is, we are all distractible and can all fall victim to addictive habits when life gets crazy and when we forget to prioritize ourselves.
Want to know my greatest secret? You have to learn not to care so much…about what people think of you. I was watching an episode of The Good Wife (yes…I do manage to get some downtime now) and the character Alicia shared that failure was her greatest blessing. The exhaustion and emotional toll associated with it resulted in her caring less. Although the spin was not a positive one, I could relate to this so much in my own life.
If you are stubbornly holding on to habits and ways that are not serving you, the universe will eventually crush you into fine wine. Disappointing people and learning to care less what other people thought of me were two areas where I had to be crushed into a fine Malbec. But it was worth it.
To help get you started, I’m going to share a delicious exercise that allows us to ditch the old habits that are no longer serving us while simultaneously learning how to incorporate new habits that tweak our lifestyle and our ability to create wealth for the better.
Take out a sheet of paper. Write down any old habits that aren’t serving you anymore and move you away from achieving your financial freedom. Be super honest because you don’t have to show this to anyone. What habits do you have that you hide from others? What habits wouldn’t you want to share with the world? What habits don’t feel right in your body? In the past, clients have written down things like, “I want to stop eating junk food,” and “I want to stop checking email before bed.” Any habits that are not healthy or aligned with where you want to go, and that no longer serve you should be on that piece of paper. Next, practice observing what you just wrote on that piece of paper as an observer (like someone else did it). This will help you to shift from judging yourself harshly. If a friend came to you in confidence and shared these habits, would you shame her? Then don’t shame yourself!
Now destroy that piece of paper. Burn it. Throw it in the ocean. Toss it in the wind. Rip it up. Shred it into a million pieces with a scissors. Whatever feels right to you. Breathe. Take a moment to listen to an inspiring song, mediate, or simply sit calmly for a few minutes.
Take out another piece of paper. Write down all the new habits that you’d like to incorporate daily. Try to fill up that entire piece of paper. Like you did with your freedom dates, don’t worry about how you are going to get there or actually start incorporating these new habits. Just write everything down. When you’re done, pick a habit or two that really speaks to you, a habit which will help you to feel abundant, aligned, healthy, and true to yourself. Highlight these one or two habits and post your paper somewhere in your home where you will see it often (bathroom mirror, fridge, office, bedroom, etc). Make a point to do that habit (or two) each and every day for as long as you’re reading this book. Remember, don’t be hard on yourself if you can’t do whatever that new habit is each and every day. If you need accountability, ask a partner or a friend to remind you why you’ve chosen this habit to start changing your life. (Or you can set a reminder on your phone to practice it daily, whatever works better for you.) Remember, creating Beautiful Money is all about creating momentum and gracefully propelling your life into a higher state of abundance and joy.
Excerpted with permission from BEAUTIFUL MONEY: The 4-Week Total Wealth Makeover by Leanne Jacobs, MBA. © 2017 by Leanne Jacobs. TarcherPerigee, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.
You can listen to the full interview with Leanne Jacobs, author of Beautiful Money here. We spent about an hour chatting there are a lot of great tips inside our conversation. I hope you enjoy listening to this as much as I enjoyed talking to Leanne! If you haven’t read her book yet, make sure to grab a copy. I think you’ll love her message and approach to money!
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