297 | You Get What You Believe

Learning about people making less than me who were better off financially was a critical turning point for my finances.

Seeing the things they had achieved helped me to believe that my husband and I could do the same things.

When you build your belief that your goals are possible, you take action and make progress toward achieving them.

In this episode, let’s talk about how your belief impacts your action and ultimate outcomes and how to build your belief to achieve your financial goals.

• • the relationship between your belief and your goals
  • two exercises to build your belief in your ability to achieve your goals
  • finding people who made less than me and were better off financially
  • a non-money example of the effect of belief vs. lack of belief
  • believing that your goals are possible

• Need help with your finances? Schedule a consultation here

You’re listening to Personal Finance for Lawyers. I’m Rho Thomas, and as a busy wife, mom, and former Biglaw associate, I know all too well the tension between the culture of the legal profession and pretty much everything else you want to do in life. That’s why each week, I’m bringing you the information and tools you need to improve your money mindset and manage your money to create true wealth. Because ultimately, it’s not about the money. It’s about the freedom and flexibility the money affords.

Hey friend. Welcome back to the show.

Today we are talking about the importance of what you believe is possible in your life. Often, we live our lives believing that things are impossible for us. So we see other people doing things, and we discount it. We believe it’s possible for them, but not for us, and we focus on all the reasons why whatever the thing is won’t work out for us.

The issue is that is such a detriment to our ability to achieve the things we want in life, including financial goals. Because when you don’t believe that something is possible, when you think that it’s impossible, you’re never going to take steps to try to achieve it. You won’t want to waste your time.

And so one of the most important things I do with my clients is I help them to believe that the things that they want to do, the goals that they have, all that kind of stuff around their finances, are possible. Because if there’s a possibility that this could happen, then it’s easier to follow through with the actions that you need to take, and you’re not going to give up as easily.

One of the ways that I teach them to build their belief is by looking for evidence that supports the things they want to do. So looking for all the reasons that it’s possible that they can do it. So why is it possible that you can pay off your debt? Why is it possible that you can build wealth? Why is it possible that you can get your savings to a certain amount, or whatever it is that you want to do? Like whatever the goal is for you, why is that possible? And let’s look at all the reasons, all the evidence, because that builds your belief.

It might be shaky at first. You might have a little bit of a hard time figuring out or coming up with reasons, but over time, as you keep asking yourself that over and over again, you start to pull out more and more reasons, and that helps you to build your belief.

Another way that you can build your belief is by looking at examples of other people who’ve done the thing that you want to do. So I like to look at people who are similar to me, or even people who aren’t like me, who have done things that I want to do, because them doing it is evidence that it’s possible for me too.

So I’ve talked many times before about how I came across people who were making less than my husband and me, but who had more money than us. Seeing those people completely shifted my belief in what was possible for us. It helped me to believe that it was possible for us to have money, for us to build wealth. Because I’m seeing all these people who’ve done it, and they did it on lower incomes.

One of the stories that I always tell is this couple who were teachers. They wanted for one of them to be able to stay home with their kids once they started their family, and so they paid their house off. They bought this house. They both were working at the time. They paid the house off so that once they started having kids, one of them was able to stay home because they were able to cover the rest of their expenses on just one of their salaries.

So seeing those kinds of examples helped me to believe that we could do it. If they can do it, we can do it right. That’s an illustration of what I mean about the importance of your belief. Because initially I didn’t see those stories, and so I just thought, you go to work and you make money and you pay your bills and you come home, and that’s it. But when you see those examples, you see people doing other stuff, then you see what’s possible for yourself.

If you don’t believe, then you never make moves to move forward. You never take the action that you need to take to get the thing done in the first place. But if you believe it’s possible, you believe it’s something you can do. It’s something that’s important to you and it feels attainable, then you’re going to keep going, you’re going to keep pushing forward and keep doing the things you need to do to achieve that thing, versus if it feels impossible, you either never get started in the first place, or you never really try, like you don’t put in full effort so you don’t get full results.

Let’s look at an example outside of the realm of money. Let’s say there’s a kid who believes that it’s possible for them to play in the NBA, right? They’re already playing ball at their school. They’ve got all this talent, all that stuff, and so they take time, they practice, they get coaches, they practice their shots, they learn plays, they watch film, all the stuff that people do when they’re preparing for the NBA, right? Because it’s something they believe is possible. They take the actions that will help them to make that possibility a reality.

On the other hand, let’s look at me, who doesn’t believe it’s possible at all. Like I barely played basketball. I did a few things, like a few clinics and stuff like that growing up, but I was never on a basketball team. I didn’t play very much at all. I have zero belief that I could play in the NBA. Or the WNBA. I’m not putting in the time and the effort and the money and all of that to achieve that goal because, aside from the fact that I don’t care about that, I’m not interested in that goal, I don’t think it’s possible, even if I was so, if I were put in that time and effort and the money, it would feel like a waste, that would feel unproductive for me to do.

But that is exactly what happens with people with their money journey. They don’t believe it’s possible to pay off their debt or manage their money better, or build their savings or build wealth, and so the idea of doing things to move toward those goals feels like a waste of time. I’m here to tell you, though it is 100% possible for you. It’s not a waste of time. It’s something that you can do, that you will see the results from if you just move forward and do it.

But the point in all of this is you get what you believe. So believe that your financial goals are possible for you. Believe that you can do the things that you want to do. And when you believe those things, and it’s a goal that is truly important to you, you will inevitably take action to make it happen. All right, so that is it for this week’s episode. If you need help with building your belief and getting on track with your financial goals, head to rhothomas.com/call and schedule your consultation.

Please take a second and subscribe to the show and leave a review if you have not done so, both of those things help this information to get in the hands of more lawyers. The podcast players push episodes that are more highly rated, podcasts that are more highly rated, so that helps, and as always, I appreciate your support.

As we close out, friend, I pray that you take the information you learn here, apply it in your life, and open up to the realization that wealth is available to you. As you do that consistently, week after week, you’ll continue to take steps to take back control of your time, build wealth, and live the life of freedom and choice you deserve. Talk to you later.