What have you found to be the most important quality or skill for reaching your goals? For being successful in life or business?

My answer to this question: Resilience.

Resilience to keep going in the face of fear and adversity.
Resilience to come back from “failure.”
Resilience to bounce-back every time there’s a challenge (because there will be many).

Resilience is much more than taking action. It’s a mindset.

A person with a resilient mindset doesn’t say, “I can’t,” they say, “I’m going to figure out how.”

They don’t say, “I can’t afford that,” instead, they get to work on strategies to find or create the money.

A resilient person doesn’t focus on “Being broke,” they focus on their goals and what they are doing to bring those goals into existence.

Recently, I’ve been hearing a lot of broke mindset talk and I’ve seen the connection to resilience and growth mindset… those who get what they desire in life are usually both resilient + possess a growth, or wealth mindset…. Here’s what I mean….

I have about 10 conversations a week with people who are interested in business coaching or attending the upcoming summer retreat. About 95% of the conversations go something like…

Me: “Based on what you shared, and your stated goal to move through this plateau in your life, and create a strategy to grow into the next level of your dream, and grow your income, it sounds like this retreat providing transformational personal development and goal-strategy coaching is the right solution to help you bust through your plateau, is that accurate?”

Prospective client: “YES! That’s 100% accurate, this is exactly what I want and need.”

Me: “Great, the investment to get started is XYZ.”

Prospective client: “Oh, I can’t afford that. I don’t have money/ I’m broke.”

Here’s the thing, most of us don’t have gobs of money sitting around. Particularly, heart-centered powerhouses like you who are striving to better your life…. You’ve worked for it. Nothing was handed to you on a silver platter.

Throughout my life, I’ve invested thousands of dollars, “I didn’t have.” And how? I prioritized, I walked through fear, and shifted mindset around money. I invested in my future self. I strategized. I made plans and took action on those plans to continue creating the income. None of that would have been possible without a resilient WEALTH mindset.

I realize this can be risky ground for some people; I’m not suggesting to borrow out against every credit card to keep investing in yourself if you aren’t making any money, but I am saying, you can choose to stay broke or you can choose to create wealth, and I’m not talking about just “money.”

Your vision of wealth is for you to decide. It may be making enough money to provide you freedom and flexibility in choice: the choice to work 3 days a week vs. 5 or 6. The choice to send your children to daycare or not. The choice to buy organic food. The choice to travel more.

But, in order to have that choice, it does require a baseline level of wealth, and if you grew up like me, without actual money in hand, then that baseline has to be created, and it starts with a wealth mindset.

When people say they can’t afford something, what they are really saying is:

• “I don’t prioritize this, right now.” (which hey, sometimes that’s ok! It’s about being intentional and knowing what you truly prioritize!)
• “I don’t want this badly enough.”
• “I don’t believe in myself.”
• “I don’t believe I’m worthy.”

The challenge is that most people stop with the false belief that they “can’t afford it.” But in reality, with many of the things you desire, you can’t afford NOT to have it/invest in it.

Don’t allow that false belief to stop you in your growth tracks!

If you are struggling with a “broke” mindset, but desire to be more resilient and create more “wealth,” here are 3 strategies to help you achieve that:

1: Not all Investments are Equal, so Don’t Weigh Them as Equal

Consider if the investment has a future payout. “How can investing in THIS make me more money later on?” Or, “how valuable is this investment to my quality of life?” Have you desired to go back to college classes, always thought about a personal development retreat, hiring a business coach, a fitness coach, etc.?

Weigh out how important and impactful that investment is to your quality of life.

Maybe you want to buy the $50k car over the $25k car because the $50k car is luxury everything and while that may be super nice to have….  Let’s say you’ve also been struggling with your health for years and would benefit from dropping 15 pounds and getting your nutrition under control, but you’ve been saying, “I can’t afford to invest in that.” It’s important to weigh out how the investment in a fitness coach and nutritionist could payout for a lifetime, versus a car that depreciates. Could it be true that the car can wait, but your health cannot?

Ask yourself:
What can wait? And what cannot?
Are you putting your dreams on hold?
Can they really wait?

What’s the cost of that? What is it costing you by not pursuing XYZ goal/dream?
By letting important repairs go on your home?
What is it costing you to ignore your health?

Exercise:
Make a list
Take a moment now, and make a list of several things that come top of mind that you’d really like to do/have/invest in, but have been holding back for “lack of money.”

Now, prioritize that list.

For the items that are waiting, what is it costing you to put that at the bottom of the list?
Maybe you are deprioritizing a family vacation you’ve always desired, but, maybe that cost of not enjoying this time with your kids at a certain age is too high of a cost, and that family vaca needs to be prioritized higher.

What can truly wait, and what cannot or should not?

This is your choice to prioritize this list based on what YOU truly desire (don’t worry about how you’re going to pay for it, you are going to create that).

2: Use Language that Supports Wealth + Growth

Changing your language impacts your thought process, and ultimately improves your mindset. Your mindset allows you to be resilient and continue moving forward (or, it prevents you from being resilient!). Results require action, and action requires the right mindset, this is why mindset is so critical!

Review your list of items you’d like to buy or invest in. Rather than saying, “I can’t afford that,” take pause, and ask yourself:

• • • “How can I strategize to create the money for that?”  
    • “Where can I shift funds to create space for this?”
    • “How can I create the money?”
    • “How can I generate revenue right now to create funds for this?”

Write out the plan of how you will shift/create funds in order to invest in your priority items. Make a plan for how you will create the funds for the items that are lower on the list, but still very important. Write out how you will create the wealth, and by what date. Claim it. Commit to it. Your dreams are important and they matter now, not someday.

Now here’s what’s funny about this exercise: when you start taking a hard look at your finances, you may realize where you can actually find and create funds for other things you truly want.  

3: Create a Plan and Take Action

Act on your new language and strategy. You’ve just outlined several things you desire. You weighed out and prioritized which are most important, and which will pay out future dividends.

You’ve also engaged a wealth mindset and outlined strategies for creating the money to invest in what you want (or you’ve negotiated how that investment will payout in the future).

What’s your very next step needed to take action on getting what you want? What can you do right now, to take action on the strategy you created?

If a broke mindset is controlling your life with excuses and lies, you have the ability to change it, by recognizing the pattern and taking action on strategies to intentionally engage a wealth mindset.

Wealth just doesn’t happen for many people. Wealth is created, by those who are resilient, with wealth mindsets!

Where do you have room for growth by becoming more resilient and creating greater wealth in your life?

If you have room for growth by the way of your email inbox, I share bite-sized transformations like these once per week. You can sign up for these weekly transformations, and if you don’t like them, you can unsubscribe anytime. Promise.