PART 1: Master Your Money Mindset

Foreign. This is Busy Getting Better, the podcast for women who are committed to prioritizing their own personal growth. I'm your host, Madison J. A mindset and money coach, a first generation wealth builder and a woman on a mission to help you master your finances and live your best life. Money is not all we are covering though, because in order to live your best life, you have to become your best self. So we are diving deep into all things personal development and bringing you the mindset set shifts, money tips and inspiration. You need to go out there, be bold and build the life you can't stop daydreaming about. It's time to get busy, babe. Busy getting better. What is up you guys? Welcome back to the podcast. Today is an exciting day because we are kicking off a three part series all about money. That is right, three episodes back to back here hitting on really what I have identified as three core pillars to money to transforming your relationship and your reality with money. Because here's the thing about money is it is predominantly viewed as something that is very logistics and spreadsheet and numbers and strategy. And while having a logistical plan for your money is absolutely important, there is so much more about money, so much more that goes into our relationship and shifting our relationship with money and shifting our financial reality than just the logistical plan. And so what I'm doing with this three part series is actually taking you behind the scenes and giving you a little bit of an inside scoop into three main pillars that I like to cover when it comes to money. These are the three different areas that I help my clients through. These are three different areas that I focus on when I time trying to make a shift with money. And really these are the three core areas. Like I think you really do need this holistic approach if you're looking to have long lasting results when you're talking about shifting your reality and shifting your perception about money. And so those three core areas are learning to master your money mindset, figuring out your finances and actually building a game plan for it. And third is how to utilize money to manifest your dream life. Because here's the thing about money is we're not just in it to have money. The purpose of money is to be able to utilize it as a tool to build our dream lives, to build the life that we want to live, to do the things that light us up, to do the things that bring us joy, to travel, to see the world, to have experiences, to do whatever it is that you want to do with money. And everybody's daydreaming about something different. Everybody has a different life that they want to be living. But the common denominator is that in order to do things, experience things, to have a level of peace and comfort in life, we do all need money. And so these three core pillars, again, this is what I live by. These are the three foundations that I implement into my own life, and these are the three areas that I focus on with my clients. And so I'm super excited to take you behind the scenes and if you're interested in learning more about this. Yeah, I just kind of wanted to give you a sneak peek of what it looks like inside of my conversations that I have with my clients and why I think we need a more holistic approach to money versus just hammering spreadsheets and trying to create budget without actually looking at these different areas. And so the very first place we're starting is pillar number one, which is learning to master your money mindset. Your money mindset is the foundation of your entire financial reality. And so what do I really mean when I say money mindset? I want to clarify what it actually means, like, what are we really talking about? So your money mindset refers to your attitudes, your beliefs, your emotions, and everything as it relates to money. And this influences your financial habits and your behaviors with money. And so your money mindset is going to greatly impact things like your financial success and your overall wellbeing. So if you have more of a positive money mindset, you are going to be in a state of abundance, you're going to attract more wealth, money is going to flow to you, you are going to be able to manage your finances with ease. You're going to be able to accomplish your financial goals with ease. And if you have more of a negative money mindset, you are likely going to lead down path of financial struggles and limitations and banging your head against the wall and just feeling like there's never enough and you're not where you want to be. And so there's kind of two major sides of the spectrum of money mindset and having a healthier money mindset. It really does involve getting to the root of what your beliefs and your attitudes towards money are. And what you want to be able to do is to start identifying what limiting beliefs you may have about money and how they might be holding you back. And. And if you are able to start identifying what your limiting beliefs are about money, then you are actually gonna be able to start shifting your mindset with money, because what you can do with any limiting belief in life is really start to Ask yourself some very important questions like why do I believe this? Where did this belief come from? Do I want to still have this belief? Do I still choose to believe that this is real for me? Because when you start to look at what your beliefs are about money, you can really start to have some healthy conversations about where those beliefs came from. And you can start to find ways to change your beliefs about money so that you can start to have a more abundant and a more prosperous and a more just wealthy life. And honestly, from my experience, when you are in flow with money, when you're able to shift your perspective to have a more positive money mindset about things, life feels easier, life feels more fun, life feels more exciting. Because let's be real, money is a major stressor. It's something like over 75% of people are going to be stressed about money in their life or at any given time. Over 75% of people are. And we know that stressors of money lead to divorce. It's one of the leading common things that people fight about in relationships. It's one of the most common things that people feel like they are behind on or they wish they had more of. And so being able to shift your relationship and shift your perspective on money is one of, I truly believe, one of the best things that you can do for yourself and your overall happiness and wellbeing in life. Because I genuinely believe that having a better relationship with money and being able to view money in a better light is a form of self care. Having plans for your money, having a better relationship, shifting your relationship with money to be more positive is a form of self care. Because we know money is a leading cause of stress. So if we can do something to start mitigating those levels of stress, have a better relationship with it, look at it with more of a positive light, have a plan for it, and be able to attack our life and attack our finances from a more abundant, prosperous point of view, your whole life is going to shift. Everything in your life is going to start becoming more abundant and more prosperous as well. And so shifting your relationship with money, shifting your perspective and your beliefs about money is absolutely one of the best things that you can do for yourself, for your overall well being, for your happiness, for your life, for your current self or your future self. All of the things I believe so much in this, and one thing I want to highlight is, you know, I mentioned rich poor mindset. Having a poor mindset is also the same as having a lax mindset or having a fixed mindset. I Know, we talk a lot about fixed mindsets and growth mindsets in the personal development world, and these are one in the same. So if you have a growth mindset, that means you have an abundant mindset, you have a rich mindset, if you have a lack mindset, a poor mindset, a fixed mindset, that is the other side of the spectrum. And when we are able to embody more of a growth mindset, more of a rich, abundant mindset, what we're really saying is that we believe in potential. We believe in opportunity for things to change. We believe that everything is teaching a lesson, right? If you have a growth mindset, it doesn't mean that hard things aren't going to happen. It doesn't mean you aren't going to be faced with challenges. When we're talking about having a growth mindset, it's all about your reaction and your perception of what is happening. So when you're focused on cultivating a growth mindset, it's really more so about thinking about what is this situation trying to teach me? What can I learn from this? How can this help me grow? How can maybe this immediate setback teach me something that is going to propel me even more forward in my life? What can I learn from this that I can apply to my life that can benefit me? That is having a growth mindset. And, and so when we apply that to money, to having a rich and abundant mindset, it's like, hey, I really choose to believe that everything's working out for me and money is always going to be there and I'm always going to find a solution to this problem and there's always going to be an excess of financial resources for me to be able to accomplish what I want to do. And I will get through this and I will figure this out. And this is just a chapter or just a phase in your life. And so I just want to mention that, like, it's not just about money, it's about having this perspective around everything. And it doesn't mean that you don't experience hardship. If you are somebody that identifies with a growth mindset, you are just looking for the opportunity for growth out of it. And when you're focused on fixed mindset, it's more of that victim mentality that we talk about where it's like, woe was me. Everything is always happening bad to me. Nothing ever goes right for me. I'm never going to get ahead. You know, I'm never going to have more money. I'm always going to be paycheck to paycheck. I'm always going to be living in debt. Things are always just. The world is against me. Like that's a fixed mentality, that is a poor or a lack mindset. And I hope you can see the difference of just operating in each of those minds how you might assume your life is going to look. Because here is something that I think is so important to understand about our beliefs. Our beliefs end up becoming self fulfilling prophecies. Our beliefs become our thoughts and then our thoughts become our actions and then our actions become the results that we have in this world. This is that idea of self fulfilling prophecies is no matter what you're thinking and you're telling yourself that is going to be how you show up in the world. And if you show up in this world as somebody who thinks that nothing ever goes their way and they're never going to get a raise in their job and they're always going to be behind on their bills and they're always going to be in debt, guess what? You are going to prove yourself right and that is going to become your self fulfilling prophecy. And so if you want to live a different life, the first place to start, the best place to start, the only place to start, is to switch your beliefs about yourself and what is possible for you. Instead of approaching the world from a place of lack, approach it from a place of abundance. You can view things as hey, you know, this is just a lesson I'm learning and I'm going to apply this to the next situation that I'm in and I'm going to learn and I'm going to grow from this. And so you just have to be able to shift the perspective. And this is where I know that saying is going around. It's very popular right now where it's like Dulu is the solulu. And I fully do believe this because what that is essentially saying is like, hey, I'm going to choose to believe that the best possible outcome is going to be my possible outcome. And I am just going to live in this state of quote unquote delusion that everything is just going to work out for me. Because here's the thing is what? Isn't that just a more fun way to live life? Wouldn't you rather carry yourself through the world just assuming that everything is going to go right? Because here's the thing about living in a lack mindset and a poor mindset. You're doing the same thing. You're walking through life with assumptions and those assumptions are just Negative assumptions. Those assumptions are just things that you don't actually want to happen to yourself. So instead of carrying those through life and choosing to believe that that is your truth and that is your reality, and the switch you need to make is to switch to living in the land of delusion. That everything is going to work out for you for the best, that everything that you are working towards is going to come to fruition. That everything that you want can be yours if you just make the right actions. And in order to make the right actions, you've got to have the beliefs first. And so there is this quote from Gandhi that I feel like is just perfectly summarizing what I'm talking about here. And it says, your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny. Wow. So all of that, if we're boiling it down, your beliefs end up becoming your destiny. So that means if you want to change your destiny, if you want to change your reality, if you want to live a different life, if you want to have a different relationship with money, you first gotta shift your beliefs about money and what is possible for yourself. Because your thoughts are going to be running on repeat in your mind. Your thoughts are going to just constantly be getting integrated into your brain and into your subconscious mind as truth. And that is what's happened to you already up until this point. The beliefs that you have are because you have repetitively thought the same thoughts about what is possible for money and what your financial reality looks like and how it's always going to look. That's what you've done. But the good news is, is that you can change the thoughts that you're thinking to change your beliefs about what is possible for yourself. So that you then start showing up differently in the world. You start making different choices, you start having different actions, you build different habits, and then those habits are going to form your future. So it all starts with your beliefs. It all starts with the thoughts that you have. And that is why money mindset is so important. This is why you can't just go into a logistical plan with your finances and think that the logic is going to change your future. You can't just go in and be like, cool, I'm gonna go stick to this budget, or I'm gonna go start putting my money into these investments. If you haven't shifted your beliefs about what you think is possible for yourself, if you don't think that you're somebody that can Stick to a budget, you're not gonna stick to to it. If you're not somebody who thinks that you can live in a life of abundance, you're not going to do it. If you're not somebody who thinks that you are wealthy and that you deserve wealth, that you are not going to go build the plan and stick to the investment strategy and wait. Because here's the thing about wealth is it does not happen overnight. Wealth is the long game. Wealth is what you do because you want to live a different life decades from now. Obviously, there's all these crazy stories online of, like, the overnight rich successes, but that's not really the reality for most people. This is the long game. It's about adopting the habits and becoming the version of yourself that is living in wealth. And that all starts, all starts with what you believe about money and what you believe to be possible for yourself. And so this is why this is the very first place to start. If you want to make any major shifts with your reality with money, this is where you've got to start. You've got to get clear on what your beliefs are about money. Some really common, limiting beliefs that people have about money. I'm gonna break down the top five for you, and I would love for you to just really check yourself and see if you resonate with any of these. When I'm walking through these are these things that you think, and then really ask yourself, where did these beliefs come from? When did you first start to think that this was true? And then ask yourself, is this true? Is there proof out there that maybe this isn't true? And maybe this is just something I have thought for so long, but when I actually go out and try and find evidence that the opposite is true or the opposite is possible, like there's equal, if not more evidence that that reality could be true for me as well. I want you to think about that. Okay, so one of the top five limiting beliefs, Number one, money is the root of all evil, or rich people are bad. How often is this narrative shared with us in movies and in media that rich people are slimy, that in order to become rich or to become wealthy, you have to do something bad. You got to screw someone over, you got to take advantage of people. You've got to not care what other people think. Like all these negative beliefs about how people became rich. And if you are someone that grows up not surrounded by rich people, it's probably pretty easy to believe that because now you're just like, oh, well, that's why I'M not rich because I'm a good person. So it's a way to protect yourself from it. But what happens when you actually start to meet really rich people and wealthy people and people that live in an abundant mindset? From my experience, they're actually really nice people. They're usually go givers, they're usually people that care a lot. They're usually people that are finding a way to provide value into society. And obviously there's going to be caveats. Obviously there's shady rich people, but also there is a lot of shady poor people too. Money is not the common denominator on if you are going to be a good or a bad person. I think we've all probably heard the saying or the approach that money just makes you more of who you are. And so money does not equate evil. I'm here to tell you that if that's your belief, I want you to question it because I don't think it's true. And so that is one of the common things that holds people back. And again, it's a protective state. If you believe that rich people are bad people, you are holding yourself back from being one of them because you don't identify with being a bad person. Okay, number two, I am not good with money. No. This is like the epitome of what we talked about, self fulfilling prophecies. If you think you are not good with money, if you are like, ugh, I always end up in debt. I'm never ahead. I wish I was further ahead in my life. I'm this age so this means I should have this, but I don't. I'm not here because I suck at money. I never learned about money. I don't have any of these habits, like whatever it is, guess what? If you keep telling yourself that you are never going to be good with money, you cannot continue to tell yourself that you're bad with money because you're just going to keep making shitty decisions and just be like, ah, yeah, this is how I've always been. I've never been good with money. It's like, okay, well you keep telling yourself that you're going to be right. Right? And this is something that I think deserves a lot of conversation because here's the big thing about money. Nobody really gets taught this stuff. This is not common information in the majority of our household. You know, there are, I think, a lot of people that are doing really great things now in a form of financial education, especially for kids. And you know, as you're growing up. But I would be saying that most of us are in a similar boat where we didn't really grow up understanding how money worked. And so think about any skill you have in life. If you never learned how to do it, how could you be good at it? If you were never taught how to ride a bike as a kid, and then you get on the bike as an adult and you fall over, you're going to be like, oh, I'm terrible at riding bikes. Was like, no, you just didn't learn. You weren't taught these skills. You haven't had a chance to apply them and to fall into, take off the training wheels and to learn how to break appropriately. Like, you haven't learned the skills of money. And so it's not that you are not good with money. It's that you just haven't taken the time to learn and get educated and how to effectively manage your money, what you should be doing with it, and give yourself a chance to learn, to grow, to make mistakes. Nobody, absolutely nobody is perfect with money. Honestly, the people that have amassed the most amounts of wealth, have taken the most amount of risk and have made mistakes along the way, that is part of the journey. So you are only going to continue to be bad with money if you tell yourself this and you don't take the steps to learn more about money and learn and grow and apply and evolve and continue to move forward. Okay, number three, there is never enough money to go around. This is a belief that is deeply rooted in scarcity. And this is something that could come up from things that you witness or are told as a kid. Right. Really common sayings like, hey, money doesn't grow on trees. Money's hard to come by. No, we can't afford that right now. I don't know if we're going to be able to pay, you know, the bills next month or whatever it is things that you're experiencing as you're growing up. You might adopt this belief that there is never enough money to go around. But here's the funny thing about money. Money is kind of this, like, elusive source of currency. Especially since COVID I feel like this has become very, very prevalent when we look at how money is talked about in the news and in society. What did we do when we needed to prop up the economy? The government just went out and printed more money. They just were like, we need more of this. I'm going to go ahead and just print some money out and make more money. Because here's the thing, especially since Richard Nixon was In office, they stopped backing money by gold, so it's no longer backed by the gold standard, meaning that money used to have the equivalent. If you had 100 bucks of cash, you had, you know, $100 worth of gold in the bank. Best way to think about it now, there is no rule the government's just out here printing money. Money is just like flying off the shelves. They are just pulling it out of thin air. There is in fact an infinite source of money. Money is always there for you. Money can always be found when you need it. And so being able to look at where your belief came from of why there is never enough money and really ask yourself again, is this true? Is there really not ever enough money? Or maybe have I just not found sources find me? Have I not chose to believe that there is an infinite and abundant source of money and that money is always going to find me? So this is a really big one. And again, really rooted in that lack, that scarcity mindset that there's never enough money to go around. And if you have this belief, you might constantly be living paycheck to paycheck, you might just be barely getting by every single month. Or on the flip side of that, you might be just hoarding money. Maybe you are just having extra money and you were just stashing it under your couch cushion. I don't know, do people do that anymore? Or keeping it in a savings account is really the more modern day way to look at that approach, I guess. But just keeping it and storing it and not spending it and not investing it and not putting it into areas that are going to benefit and elevate and move you forward in life. So you could have kind of two different outcomes of having that belief. If you think there's never enough money to go around and you come into money, you might just really want to hold on to it and never let go of it. And that's not a good way to approach your money either, because money wants to be in flow, money wants to grow, money wants to move. And so if you're just keeping it and hoarding it in one place, thinking that like, oh, gotta hold onto it, that is definitely more of an unhealthy approach to money as well. Okay, number four, I will never get out of debt. This is another again, they're all self fulfilling prophecies. But I feel like this one especially is like you can just get in a hamster wheel of debt of just like paying off your credit cards and maxing out another credit card, getting this debt paid off taking on more debt and just having this assumption that living in debt, living in constant debt is normal. Now here's what I want to say about debt. Debt can be very beneficial for you. Debt. Obviously, if you're taking on debt, it can help you accomplish things. A lot of people take on debt to buy homes, to buy new cars, to go to college, to do whatever you want. There's so many opportunities for us to get in debt nowadays and this could be good, it could be helping us. But being in consumer debt, being buried in credit card debt debt, constantly feeling like you have this weight of all these payments that you owe does not have to be your norm. But if you constantly live in a world where you think that everybody is just buried indebted all the time, and that's just the normal way to live, you're constantly going to be in debt because you're not looking at a reality which is very common for people to not be in debt, to find themselves in a place where they are not making monthly payments to a new car or to a new home or to credit cards every single month. And they're able to start putting their money towards other things. And so thinking that you are never going to get out of debt can also show up as, oh, well, screw it, I'm already in all this debt. What is this next credit card swipe going to do to me? It doesn't really matter. I'm going to be in debt for forever. What the heck is the fricking point of trying to get out of debt anyway? And this can be again, really a negative point of view because then you're constantly going to be in debt. And if you're constantly buried in debt, you absolutely are limiting yourself from being able to grow wealth and being able to experience a sense of freedom. And so I just want to say, if you are in debt, it's very common to be in debt. It's not necessarily that it is a bad thing. I just want you to know that there is a path out of it. There is a world, there is a reality that you can live in that is debt free. It absolutely is possible. You just need to build the plan and be able to shift your mindset and be able to get out of it. And as somebody who has spent over a decade in debt and became debt free, I can tell you it definitely feels different. I can breathe a little bit easier, I can take bigger risks. I can do things like go all in on my business and leave my job because I'm not strapped to these Other payments, I'm able to control where my money goes a little bit more. And so that is something that is absolutely possible for you if you want to get out of it. But consistently telling yourself, ugh, I'm never going to get out of it again, you are just going to continue to prove yourself right. And this is a very common belief that people have it you, especially if they are at the bottom of a mountain, just staring up at it, trying to figure out how to get out of it. So I've been there. I feel you. There is a path. You can do it. I promise, you can get there. You can get out of debt. Okay. And number five, this is probably my favorite one to talk about. I don't know why this is such a hot topic. People get so bothered by this topic of conversation and this limiting belief is that money does not buy happiness. And so let's dive into this for a second. Money in itself, just holding on, holding large sums of cash is not going to bring you happiness. But that's not the purpose of what we're talking about here. Money does buy happiness in the form of security, stability, options, freedom. There are so many things that provide us happiness that money is the tool that we need to use in order to get it. Because guess what? We are not in a barter and trade system anymore in the world. Like that is so far gone. And at that point, that would have been your form of money that you still needed to get by. So when we're talking about money, we need money for basic needs. We need money to keep a roof over your head, to keep your electricity on, to keep food on the table, like baseline survival, stuff you need money for. And if you want to live above survival and you want to live in abundance and you want to live in joy and happiness and expansion and opportunity, guess what? You're going to need money for that too. The trips you want to go on, the clothes that you want to wear that are going to help you embody your best self, the experiences that you want to have, the memories that you want to make, the future that you want to provide for your children and for your family, all that stuff needs money. And so it's not like the dollar bill itself is not providing you happiness. And I also do believe that spending money aimlessly on materialistic things are not going to fill the void that you're trying to fill a void with. So I can get behind that. But I think if that's your perspective of money, if you think that money is just to go out and buy material things. And that's why you think money doesn't buy happiness. You're using money in the wrong way. Money should be helping you fulfill your life's dreams. It should be helping you experience the world, because guess what, we just have one life. And I believe that everybody is here to experience life to the fullest, to do the things that light you up, the things that you think about that get you in excited. Like, that's what you should be utilizing money for, to grow, to evolve, to just see the world, to live whatever life you're trying to live. And obviously that vision looks different for every single one of us. And that's what's so wonderful, is that money can do an endless amount of things. Money also is a really big way for us to provide back to our communities, to invest in causes that we care about, to further insights and research into topics that help help health, that help happiness. Like all of these different things, money is a source, it's a tool that is utilized for endless amount of potential. And so if you are viewing money as just a tool to go out and buy materialistic things, I think it's because you haven't truly understood, like, what your direction in life is, what some values are that you want to put money into. Because I agree, if you are just trying to fill a void and you're spending money on materialistic things, that's very different than what I'm talking about talking about. And I think that if you have this belief, this limiting belief that money doesn't buy happiness, it's to protect yourself from not having money. You're able to look at things and say, like, oh, well, I don't need money. Like, I can be happy. And can you be happy without money? Yeah. I'm not saying you can't, but money elevates money, expands our opportunity. Money gives us potential. Also, a really big motivator for helping women be more secure with their finances is so that you can go out and do what you need to do to be your happiest self. You can move out of a situation that is not where you need to be, leave a toxic relationship, move and leave an abusive person, leave a job that's not filling you up. Like all of these things, money provides you option. The amount of people that I talk to that are just stuck, that are just trapped in a situation because of money. That's what I'm talking about. You get out of that situation, you start to heal yourself. You start to move your life in the direction that you want to move it into that is going to provide you happiness. And so when people have the belief that money doesn't buy happiness, I think we're just talking about it wrong. I think we're looking at it in the wrong light. And you're not aligning money with the values and with the potential of what it can do for your life and how it can make you happier. And so this is a really big one. If people just aren't prioritizing money because they say it can't buy happiness, then I just think that there is something else there, there's another, there's something else holding you back from not wanting to go after that money and not thinking that it can't change your life. And also if you're again, back to the original one, if you're thinking that you know you can't have money or that money doesn't buy happiness, these are all protecting you from not acquiring more money. And so those are the top five limiting beliefs that I see that people commonly have about money. And I just want to circle back to talk about, you know, if these are the beliefs that you're having about money, how these all end up becoming that self fulfilling prophecy. And so if you are resonating with these or if your mind is just wandering and you're like, oh my God, I don't know if these are my limiting beliefs, but these sure might be be really take a pause and figure out where they came from and start to ask yourself if you want to continue to believe these things and then figure out what the reverse of that belief is and start to really find proof and start to embody that as your truth. And just know that having limiting beliefs about money in identifying what yours are is the very first step to shifting your entire financial reality. So if you're sitting here feeling like crap, I'm kind of annoyed because I do have these. Or you know, these are really resonating with me. Great, now we have a place to start. Now we know where we're at so we can know where we want to go. So this again, step one is really figuring out your limiting beliefs so we can start to shift your beliefs, your attitudes, your emotions about money and start to move in a really positive direction. I could talk, talk endlessly about this topic. I obviously feel very passionate about the power of your mind. And shifting your beliefs and shifting your mindset is again the first place to start, the most important place to start. And I'm really excited to dive into once we've found our limiting beliefs. And once we've started to shift our mindset around money, step two is all right now. Now we're in a place where we can start to attack our finances with a plan. We can start to look at where we're at and where we want to go from a place of excitement, from a place of opportunity and an opportunity for growth. And that is going to take us into part two of this money series, which is all about figuring out your finances and how to start building a path to wealth. So I hope you'll join me on part two next week called Figuring out yout Finances. And please, if anything resonates with this, again, one of my favorite topics to talk about DM me. I'd love to hear if you resonate with any of these limiting beliefs. If you've identified and you've worked through any limiting beliefs on your own journey, I'd love to hear that as well. And I will see you guys next time on the next episode. Bye. Hey, before you go, I just want to go ahead and say thank you for spending a little bit of your time with me today. And also congratulations for finding a chunk of time to carve out and focus on you and moving the needle and becoming a better version of yourself. If there is anybody that you think could benefit from this podcast, please share it with a friend, share it with a family member. Feel free to share it on your socials and help me spread the word about busy getting better. Thank you so much and I will see you on the next episode.