In the previous weeks, you were asked to lay out the reasons why Financial Freedom is so important to you as well as what your vision of being Financially Free really looked like.  In this week’s lesson, the goal is to build our motivation towards change. 

While you likely are motivated from completing the previous week’s exercises, the goal here is to add to the foundation for positive change in our lives.  

This article is part of our 52 Week Financial Freedom Journey.  The goal is to take you through the ins and outs of becoming financially free.   You will begin to answer pertinent questions for yourself that will allow you to lay the foundations for years to come.  We have everything from learning your limiting beliefs around money to setting up a rock solid budget.  

Welcome to the journey!  Upward and onward to Financial Freedom!

Three Ways To Build Motivation

While there are a multitude of ways to build motivation, today we’ll take a look at three specific ways to build motivation: 

1. Engage with Positive, Motivating Materials
2. Repeat Affirmations to Rewire Your Mind
3. Track Your Accomplishments and Review Regularly

#1 – Engage with Positive, Motivating Materials

The very first way that we will be exploring the path of building our motivation is to watch, listen, and read positive and motivating materials.  

I want you to take a moment to think through a typical day for you in regards to the media you consume.  What do you listen to a majority of the time?  Is it music?  Podcasts?  Youtube or Netflix shows?

Now let’s go one level deeper – what is the content of the materials you listen to?  Is it gossip?  Is it lifting you and others up?  Is it biased politically (which typically paints the ‘other side’ as the problem)?

Do the quick math and see how much of the materials you listen to benefits you in a positive manner and how much impacts you in a negative manner.  Be rigorously honest with yourself during this process.  

The goal here is not to beat ourselves up but to acknowledge what information and material is going into our brain.  The more positive we can make our world, the better off we will be for doing so.  

Here are some of my favorite sources of positive motivation: 

• Motiversity on Youtube
• The Mindset Mentor Podcast
• The Motivated Mind Podcast
• Anything by Tony Robbins
• Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich  

I personally spend the majority of my day dialed into as much positive motivation as possible.  This is because I find that it helps to set my mind on the best course forward, which in turn helps me to be super-focused and motivated towards living the best day imaginable in pursuit of my goals.  

One thing to note – while it is important to improve our motivation in the area of finances, I find that it’s best to address a wide-range of positivity instead of narrowly focusing on one area.  This is because I believe in the law of synergy; that if we improve one area of our lives, the rest will grow and follow suit naturally.  

So when we’re looking to add to our motivational and positive materials, it’s ok if it’s not specifically finance related.  So long as we’re working towards improving our mindset in a positive direction, every area of our lives will grow, finances included.  

#2 – Repeat Affirmations to Rewire Your Mind

The second great way to put our mindset on a more positive path is to do daily affirmations.  I find that these have been very helpful in my own life, especially when it comes to areas where I have struggled and sought to improve.  

Now, for some reason, I have always been confident with money.  I knew that I could manage it well, I knew I was knowledgeable about it, and I possessed a seemingly natural confidence in this area of my life.  

Was I born with this mentality?  There is certainly some argument to be made that my mind is analytical and geared towards understanding numeric concepts. However, there were some steps along the journey which helped solidify my understanding and confidence with money.  

It started with having a father who was very money and business-savvy.  At an early age, he instilled in me the belief that if I worked hard and managed my money well, I would be a success.  Specifically in the area of business and money, I was raised with the belief that I could do anything that I put my mind to.  

I am forever thankful for this positive affirmation in this area of my life.  In looking back on it, it amazes me that this same type of process is not repeated in other areas of life.  Imagine how great life would be (mine and others) if we were affirmed that we could succeed, that we are beautiful, and that we are someone with infinite worth?  

No matter where you are at, no matter how you have been raised, or how others have taught you to believe in yourself, you can make a change right here, right now.  All it takes is a little willingness, consistency, and pushing through the disbelief until it turns into belief.  

As in the previous section, we do not have to limit these affirmations to money.  Synergy can and will work its magic so long as we are working to improve our overall mindsets. Though if you are looking to build confidence in this particular area, it is highly recommended to find some money affirmations to include in your life.  

Here are some great ways that I do affirmations in my own life: 

• Written Affirmations
• Live the Life You Love (Youtube)
• Jason Stephenson (Youtube)

#3 – Track Your Accomplishments and Review Regularly

Another great way that we’ll discuss is to track your progress towards your accomplishments.  By doing so, we can see where we’ve been, where we’re at, and where we are going.  

I remember that when I first started to invest in stocks that paid dividends, I questioned the idea that it would work.  I had conviction, but when I looked at my account, and saw that I had only $566.30 in yearly dividend income, it was easy to be dismayed.  

Fast-forward to 2020, where the MoneyByRamey.com dividend portfolio currently pays me $6500+ in yearly dividend income. It’s been a crazy journey and certainly not easy to get to this level, but it has been achieved by adopting a brick-by-brick mindset towards goal achievement and tracking my progress along the way.  

Now, as we’ve talked about in previous lessons, tracking our accomplishments can be a tricky thing.  If we have high-level goals, tracking progress against those goals can, at times, be disheartening.  This is because we may not see the type of progress we need to keep us motivated.  

That is why it is so important to set up our daily systems to ensure that we are accomplishing them on a daily basis.  This all feeds into the idea that I fell in love with in college called Kaizen.  

Kaizen: Continuous Improvement

Kaizen is a concept born out of post WWII Japan where managers and workers were tasked with the idea of making small, incremental improvements each and every day.  By doing this, they were able to accomplish very large improvements over time.  

We can apply the same principle in our own lives.  Rather than focus on the BHAG (big, hairy, audacious goal) of losing 20 pounds, set up a daily system of doing 20 pushups each morning or taking the flight of stairs up to work.  If we simply focus on these small systems, it will eventually add up to a total life transformation

When it comes to the financial realm, we can do the same thing.  For instance, in regards to dividends, my goal is to achieve $50,000 in passive dividend income per year.  I am a long ways off from that goal, so to focus simply on the $50,000 would be challenging to see progress.  

So I make sure that I set yearly goals, which I break down into monthly goals, which I then break down into daily systems.  Then I make sure to track the progress from there.  I do not really even focus on the $50,000, I focus on executing my systems and seeing my yearly income grow.  

This is how real, positive progress is made – by celebrating and acknowledging the small successes on the way towards large, great goals.  This is the “Brick by Brick” mentality necessary to crush our life goals.  

WEEKLY FOCUS

In this week’s lesson, I want you to key in on a few really important areas in regards to motivation.  Make sure you keep a journal of some type, ask yourself the following questions and write down your answers: 

1. What kind of content do I consume?  Look to create a % breakout.  
2. What % of the content is positive?  What % is negative?  Take a real and honest look at what is in your life.  
3. Is what you are consuming in line with the results that you want to get in your life?  For instance, on a scale of 1-10 (1 being the worst, 10 being the best), where are you at in various areas of your life – financial, relationship, health, spiritual, career, etc.  If you have anything less than 8/9/10, it is time to take a real hard look at how to improve through motivational exercises.  
4. Be on the lookout for any podcasts, youtube channels, reading or other materials that will positively benefit your life today.  Have the goal of adding one new resource per week that will positively benefit your life.  

Note: I have listed some materials that have benefited my life above.  Feel free to use them if they work for you but if not, be sure to discover your own motivational materials! 

Disclosure: I am/we are long $AAPL $ADM $BG $BGS $BP $BUD $CALM $CAT $CLX $CMI $COF $CSCO $DAL $DFS $F $FAST $GD $GE $GT $HBI $IBM $INGR $INTC $IRM $JNJ $JPM $KHC $KMB $KO $KSS $LHX $LUMN $MMM $MSFT $NWL $O $PEP $PFE $PG $SBUX $SJM $SPTN $STX $SYY $T $TSN $UL $UPS $WFC $WPC $WRK $WY $XOM

Disclaimer:(1) All the information above is not a recommendation for or against any investment vehicle or money management strategy. It should not be construed as advice and each individual that invests needs to take up any decision with the utmost care and diligence. Please seek the advice of a competent business professional before making any financial decision.

(2) This website may contain affiliate links. My goal is to continue to provide you free content and to do so, I may market affiliates from time-to-time. I would appreciate you supporting the sponsors of MoneyByRamey.com as they keep me in business!

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