The Power of Positive Thinking in Financial Planning

I remember a situation where one of my male friends was doing business with a female client. This was a very nice looking lady and she was gifted by nature in a big way in the right places. Over her fullness she wore a sweatshirt that said, “If you think you can, you can”. The little devil on my buddy’s left shoulder told him it meant one thing. Rather than listen to the little devil my pal knew that this gal was a very positive thinker. She believed that if you thought you could do something or be something in life, then the rest was automatic. So, seeing as how my friend knew this, the little angel on my buddy’s right shoulder won the day with pure positive thoughts.

Thinking you can is not as easy as it sounds. It is particularly hard on those days when you just don’t feel like getting out of bed much less taking on the world with a positive attitude. Getting you up, keeping yourself up, and getting and keeping others up is a major industry. There are daily meditations. People have routines so that they are up and going before they have time to let themselves get caught in the vortex of negative thoughts. People have rituals to get them up and going in a positive frame of mind. People have their faiths to give them direction and keep them believing in their God and in themselves and humanity. There are thousands of books and one in particular that stresses the “Power of "Positive Thinking.”

You can learn from your mistakes. You can even learn vicariously through other people’s mistakes. Through Part II of the book we are looking at many mistakes that can be made and then how to do things right. This is the core problem that people have. They know they are not succeeding. They want to do it right. But they just do not know how. There are lots of books on the nuts and bolts of how to budget and manage and invest. The hardest part is to get through the mental and emotional part of just doing it.

First, you have to recognize that you have a problem. The problem can take many forms. Financial consultants are confronted constantly with people who do not know that they have a problem. They simply are not aware that their balance sheet is in negative territory or they are in denial that it is. Sometimes there is a developmental block. There is a common thread amongst clients of counsellors for people in the 35 to 45 year age group that they are just ready to face reality until that age. Up to that point they just do not seem to be capable of understanding that their failure in life’s endeavours is largely due to their inability to identify and take care of their emotional package. They get wound up, strung out, stressed, frustrated and angry and need to be trained how to manage these normal emotions.

Some of the ones who are not aware of personal finance problems are too busy with careers. Because their career is successful, they are either too busy to know they are not managing their own finances properly or they just assume that their personal finances are also successful. Bill Clinton had his own personal spin on just such a situation.

“I made a C in Joe White’s microeconomics class the first semester. Professor White also taught macroeconomics second semester, and I got an A in that class. I suppose both grades were harbingers, since as President I did a good job with the nation’s economy and a poor job with my personal economic situation, at least until I left the White House.”

It can happen right at the top so if your personal finances need to be rethought you are not alone and in fact you are in good company. Just because you are good at your business or career does not mean you are good at your personal finances. That is undoubtedly why there are separate life goal categories for Career goals and Personal Finance goals. That also means you need separate Career and Personal Home Finance strategies for success.

There are some incredible rationalizations for why people choose not to address their problems with personal finance. There is the Lemming rationalization. “Everybody else is in the same mess.” I am with your mother on this one, “Just because they jump off a cliff doesn’t mean you have to.” There are those who just ignore the problem. However, with personal finances, if you ignore them long enough, the problems tend to come to you in the form of collection mail and phone calls. There is the juvenile, “I can’t”. This one is particularly good because it is so ambiguous. What can’t you do? Do you mean you can’t live your lifestyle on what you make? In this case you have to make more money or change your lifestyle to fit your income. Does it mean you can’t design a budget? There is lots of help in people and books for this one so this is just an excuse. Does it mean that it is too complicated for you? The answer here would be to follow the first rule of business. It is the Keep It Simple Stupid or the KISS rule. It is used by a lot of very simple, smart and very successful people.

Don’t make excuses. Visualize taking control of your situation and structuring it for improvement.

“IF YOU THINK YOU CAN…YOU CAN”

You have the power. Let go of the negative and release yourself to exercise your will power over your personal finances and your life plan. You deserve success.