#131. 3 Ways to Stop with the Poverty Mindset

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Episode Transcription

Dr Marisa Lee Naismith  00:00

Hi. It’s Marissa Lee here. And I’m so excited to be sharing today solo round episode with you. Whether you’re a member of the voice community, or beyond your voice is your unique gift. And my mission, which has been inspired by my own personal and professional journey is to empower you to share your gift with others. Now is the time for you to discover your voice in life, develop a positive mindset, and become the best and most authentic version of yourself to create greater impact. Ultimately, you can take charge, and you can become the director of your own life. It’s time for you to live your best live. It’s time now, for a voice and beyond. So without further ado, let’s go to today’s episode.

Dr Marisa Lee Naismith  01:10

Money can be a very sensitive topic for many of us. But as we navigate the final six months of the year, now is the perfect time to check in on your mindset around money. If you find yourself constantly worrying about your financial situation, and you don’t know how to make a shift from being broke to an abundant lifestyle, then today’s episode is for you. I completely understand that there are many aspects around money that we absolutely can’t control that continue to put us under financial stress. So many of us are experiencing living costs that are on the increase, such as interest rates on mortgages, electricity prices, fuel costs, insurance rates, the cost of education and child care, medical expenses, and the list goes on and on. It feels as though we can’t catch a break. And we have no control over our financial situation. No one can deny these are a huge burden, enter these issues cause so many of us to lie awake at night, wondering how we are going to make it from one week to the next. So this economic downturn, and the unexpected expenses created by this downturn can definitely stand in the way of us achieving financial goals. But then there are many internal obstacles that can also stand in the way of our financial success. For example, this could be a lack of motivation. You may ask how can this be? How can you not be motivated to have more money, or to have that dream holiday or whatever it is that you’re after? Well, this is because some people don’t have a clear goal in sight. And this makes it really difficult to maintain that discipline and that desire and that focus that’s needed to stay on track. And to help you keep your eye on the prize. It’s so easy to procrastinate or to give up on an ambitious goal. If you don’t have the right incentives in place. It’s a great reminder that it’s important to set realistic and achievable goals. irrespective of the size of the goal. You must chunk them down into smaller goals and develop a reward system that will keep you motivated to stay on track. Another example of something that can prevent people from achieving their financial goals is the fear of failure. Don’t we all fear that we all fear failure. This fear around money can be even more paralyzing, and it leads people to avoiding taking any meaningful action towards their financial goals. This can be particularly true when it comes to an investment such as the share market or the property market where a perceived loss can feel far too great to be here. As you can see, from lack of motivation, or from a fear of failure, or to the economic downturn, it’s important to understand and address these obstacles in order to achieve your financial goals. You may be one of those people who says, Yes, I have educated myself around money. I work hard. I’m on a strict budget. I have a great job that pays well. But I’m still struggling financially. I’m sure we all know someone who earns a bucket load of money, who is constantly broke, and you wonder, What on earth do they spend their money on? The truth is that people who are stuck in a bad financial situation usually have limiting beliefs around money. In this episode, I’m going to share with you that this financial struggle may not be entirely your fault. Perhaps you have grown up in a family where there was a terrible negative narrative towards money, and you have unknowingly developed a poverty mindset. Or you may simply disrespect money without realizing it. Whatever it is, that is causing you to have an unhealthy relationship with money, we reveal how to recognize these limiting behaviors, and how you can create a healthier money mindset. Whether you want to generate more wealth, in order for you to live a life of abundance, or to serve your mission, or to improve the life of others. This episode is dedicated to helping you achieve a healthier money mindset. I want to start with a disclaimer, though, that some of this may be uncomfortable for you. But no matter what, I need you to be honest here when I asked some of these hard questions, because we are going to check in with your attitude towards money.

Dr Marisa Lee Naismith  07:43

Do you have a poverty mindset? You may think this is a really strange question to ask. But are you one of those people who say, I really don’t care about money. But in actual fact, all you do is stress about the fact that you don’t ever seem to have any money ever. Is this you? Are you constantly broke? And are you losing sleep over this lack of money? Do you know your financial situation is directly aligned to your own self worth and how much you value yourself? So I’m going to ask you the hard question. What value do you place on your self worth? Do you believe you are not worthy, you are not worthy of having money in your life. Maybe this is not your fault. So many of us have to rewire our relationship with money. Because we have grown up in a family where there was just enough, only just enough to get by. So the language around money is that we only just need enough. We only just have to have enough. This is a terrible negative narrative that we have grown up with, and it can stay with us forever. And it can absolutely ruin our relationship with money. Are you guilty of saying I just want enough money to survive and not a cent more? Look, this kind of poverty mindset is not going to serve you and remember what you say will manifest in the future. Manifestation is a real thing. And there’s now science to back this up. If you have a terrible money mindset and you believe you are not worthy have an abundant life, money will not find its way to you, it will not arrive at your harbor. If you have a bad attitude around money, it is not going to come into your life. There is plenty for everyone. And you must believe that there is plenty of money for you to. But the work starts with you. I promise you, you can change your mindset around your worth, and money will flow into your life. All right, you may think this is a load of rubbish. But I can assure you, I’ve learned the lesson the hard way with this one. When I start to doubt my earning capacity, and my ability to pay my bills, guess what? I ended up going through financial struggles. When I worry about money, and the lack of this is usually when I get into money strife, when I trust in my ability to generate money to earn money, and I trust in my capacity, and in my skills, money flows into my life. When my husband and I lost everything through a bad business deal about 15 years ago, and we will living on the bones of our backsides struggling to pay rent, because we had lost our home. I didn’t say to myself, This is my worth. This is all that I am worthy of, I have no value. No, hell no, I did the opposite. I woke up every morning. And I told myself, I am way better than this. I am worth so much more than this. I am greater than this. This is not who I am, I am worth way more. And guess what? My whole life turned around. There was no way I was going to live day to day, sometimes even hour to hour when we received eviction notices. It made me fight tooth and nail. I didn’t know at the time, how I was going to make it out of that situation. But eventually, by having that mindset of greater self worth, it helped me unlock the ways. So wallowing in this lack. Having this poverty mindset is not going to serve you or your financial situation. So ask yourself, are you worth more?

Dr Marisa Lee Naismith  13:08

Money wasters hands up? Could it be that you are someone that wastes money, and wonders why you’re always broke? Can you tell me how much money you spend every week? Do you know what you spend your money on? Do you know how much things cost? Do you know how much you need to keep your head above water every week? If you don’t, then this is a form of disrespecting money. And if you disrespect money, it will disrespect you. In return. I’m telling you that money will avoid you like the plague. So let’s look at how you treat money. Here’s a simple test. I love this one. I want you to look in your wallet and tell me is that a hot mess? Is your money thrown in there? Or are your dollars organized in terms of value? Do you know how much you have in your wallet? Or is your money all scrunched up in that wallet of yours? Or worse still, your money has been thrown around in your bag or in your car. That is so disrespectful. I can tell by looking in someone’s wallet if they have a lousy attitude towards money. This also tells me if money flows easily to them. Let’s take this a step further. If you waste Money, and your house is cluttered with unwanted stuff, or you can never find anything because everything is thrown into the back of cupboards How can the mothership of money, find its way to you amidst all that clutter? I’m telling you, that money cannot find its way to your home, and it cannot sail into your harbor. If you live in clutter. Think about it. Think about your treatment of money, do you treat money as the enemy? I know that in my household as a child, we never spoke about money, politics, or religion. These were all taboo subjects. And I understand that money may be a sensitive topic, and some people don’t like talking about it. My parents believed that these three things were the very three things that started wars, and they weren’t completely wrong. But you can make money for the good of the world. And you can make a lot of money too, without having to backstab to lie, to cheat, to steal, or do something unscrupulous or to take from others. You can be ethical, and you can have good morals. If you have money. You can treat money in a respectful manner. And you don’t have to be in bed with the devil, if you have money, or if you are financially secure. That is a load of rubbish, please. And then there are some people who believe the only way money can be used respectfully, is to give it away to those in need. And that’s amazing, what a great way to think. But it’s all well and good to have such a well intentioned and noble view on money, you may be shocked to hear this. And that is, if you haven’t figured it out already, you can’t give away something that you don’t have, you have to have the very thing you want to give away to her. And that includes money. If you don’t earn the money, you can’t sustain the message. If you don’t have the money, you can’t give to those who you feel are in need of money. And you can’t help those you want to help including family and loved ones. You can’t reach out to others if you don’t have the means to reach out to them with and whether you want to admit this or not. And I know a part of you already knows that with more resources you can give to others on a greater scale. So maybe it’s time for you to check in on your level of respect for money.

Dr Marisa Lee Naismith  18:13

Then there are those who don’t want to spend money because they are so so tight. We have a name for those people here in Australia, which I won’t share with you. But for the sake of political correctness, let’s just call these people Scrooges, or mean old misers? These are the people who count every penny to the point where they are penny pinchers, these people will drive three days to grab a bargain. That will save them 50 cents. But in actual fact, it’s cost them $20 In fuel to get there. This too, is a terrible way to live, because you are not trusting your earning capacity. You may think something important, like investing in your own personal or professional development is frivolous, and expensive. Do you not believe in the power of investing in new and your future? And this can create more money in your life. Do not believe that you have the capacity to make a return on that money. I am so sorry to say this broke mentality makes you broker you need to invest in yourself to get a return. The greater the investment, the greater the return. So don’t be a tightwad. In all fairness, when it comes to that poor financial mindset, one of the greatest misconceptions people tell themselves is money. money is hard to obtain. This is probably one of the most common beliefs about money that’s neatly captured by the same we’ve all heard, money doesn’t grow on trees. If you believe the idea that making money is challenging, then it will be. But some people believe that they can’t make it. So they hang on to what they have for dear life. And there are so many missed opportunities. When this happens. Sometimes we have to borrow money to invest money to make money. I have a property portfolio. And if I told you my debt level, you would most likely freak out. But I’ve had to borrow the money to invest the money in properties that over the years had more than doubled in value. And guess what, if the going gets tough, I can just sell one of the properties. I’m in the financial situation I’m in now through education, and that education has been through investment in me. Earlier, I shared with you that my husband and I lost everything, including our family home about 15 years ago. And when I say everything, I mean everything. Most people don’t know that about us. Because if you look at our lifestyle, now, it’s really impossible to believe this happened. Everything was turned around, by me spending whatever money I had on financial education. I learned about money, how money works, the share market, how to buy and sell for a profit on Amazon, developing a money mindset, how to do property deals, how to flip homes, how to invest in the USA property market, and the list goes on. I have done so many courses. And this has given me the opportunity to learn to generate that income that I generate. Now. It has taught me how to build a property portfolio from nothing that is now worth millions of dollars. All of this has come from education, and not by being stingy in my learning. And I believed that every cent spent on this learning was for my future well, and I deserved it. I understand that we’re in the midst of this economic downturn. And it can often lead to job losses and reduced wages making it difficult for people to meet their most basic financial needs. And it’s important to protect ourselves against these events. It’s also important to build an emergency fund that will provide a cushion in case of unforeseen circumstances. But in the meantime, whatever you do, be sure to invest on those things that will help you generate more wealth in your future, such as your education around money.

Dr Marisa Lee Naismith  23:44

I understand that we can become really overwhelmed with this poverty and scarcity mindset. But believe me when I say it’s only a mindset, there is no shame in having money. So stop with this kind of poverty mindset. It is okay to want to have money. This immense money shame stops you from living and being creative and it stops you serving others. Many creative people in my industry believe that creativity comes from pain. But creativity also needs abundance to flourish. When people have this terrible relationship with money. It is preventing them from doing all the things that are important to them whether they want to believe it or not. You have to believe that there is enough money in the universe for all of us to enjoy. There are enough financial resources for all of us to live the life of our dreams and When you’re in a poverty mindset, you can’t see it for looking. You don’t even recognize opportunities to generate money even when they’re staring at you straight in your face. The truth is that you can experience better, you can live better, and you can experience something extraordinary. Your quality of life is better without the stress of worrying about money. If you don’t make the money, you can’t have the lifestyle. So stop with the poverty mindset. There is nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to wanting to make more money. Money is a tool for freedom to live your best life. The time to make change in your mindset is right now. If you have an unhealthy relationship with money, now is the time to make those changes. Now is the most important time now more than ever, create a healthier mindset around money. Stop putting off your dreams. One thing COVID has taught us is there are no guarantees in life. Life is really unpredictable. So don’t quit. Don’t delay and don’t get distracted. Stay true to what it is that you want. Set the intention and achieve the goal. It’s time to protect your financial dreams. Take care of your financial goals. treat them the way you bored a member of your family. Don’t make your money goals homeless, you can achieve anything. So stop living life in the wings. It’s time to take center stage. You are worthy, you are worth the effort. Always have been and always will be. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of voice and beyond. I hope you enjoyed it as now is an important time for you to invest in your own self care, personal growth and education. Use every day as an opportunity to learn and to grow so you can show up feeling empowered and ready to live your best life. If you know someone who will also be inspired by this episode, please be sure to copy and paste the link and share it with them. Or share it on social media and use the hashtag a voice and beyond. I promise you I am committed to bringing you more inspiration and conversations just like this one every week. And if you would like to help me please rate and review this podcast and cheer me on by clicking the subscribe button on Apple podcast right now. I would also love to know what it is that you most enjoyed about this episode and what was your biggest takeaway? Please take care and I look forward to your company next time on the next episode of a voice and beyond.