You Are a Badass at Making Money

participating in.

---

Words also have an incredibly persuasive effect on us. Think about how
incredible it is when someone speaks directly to what you’re feeling or
thinking or fearing. The right words spoken at the right time can make you
feel recognized on a deep soul level, and can be so powerful as to inspire
entire nations of smart people to vote idiots into office or a whole
community to drink lethal Kool-Aid. So start paying attention and notice if
you’re repeatedly announcing how much you hate/fear/mistrust money via
language such as: I’m an idiot when it comes to money, I could never afford
that, I hate that rich bastard, etc. If you’re bad-mouthing money, you’re
gonna want to go ahead and knock that off.
THOUGHTS
Your thoughts inspire emotions that inspire action that forms your “reality.”
When I was little we lived next door to a family with a bunch of kids close
to my age. Their parents were German, and while I was playing at their
house one day a couple weeks before Christmas, they let me in on some
very valuable information. Apparently, not only were there presents to be
had under the tree on the twenty-fifth of December, but there was another
holiday they celebrated in Germany at the beginning of the month, called
Saint Nicholas’ Day, and if you left your shoe outside overnight, it would
be full of presents the next morning. Hello!
I immediately went home and picked out the biggest shoe I had, a clog,
waited nine million years for the rest of the day to go by and dinner to
finally be over so I could sneak outside and leave my clog right next to the
front door as instructed. As I lay in bed that night listening to my parents
clean the kitchen, my heart suddenly leapt out of my chest at the sound of
the front door opening and the dog being called. In a matter of moments my
name was being called too.
“Jennifer! Get your butt down here right now!” My mother was standing
at the bottom of the steps waving my clog over her head, demanding to
know how it ended up outside. I mumbled something about taking it off and

---

forgetting to bring it in, apologized, and slinked back upstairs with my
freezing-cold shoe. Great. Now I’d have to sneak out again after they went
to bed and risk getting in twice as much trouble. Yet as serious an offense as
it was—it was a brand-new clog on top of everything else—and as grave as
the repercussions would no doubt be, it was totally worth the risk.
Because . . . presents. The story ends with me getting no presents, obv,
getting busted again thanks to the stupid dog, who needed to be let out early
to pee, and being put on a full month of hamster-cage cleaning duty as well
as dishwasher-emptying duty, made all the worse by the glee it brought my
newly chore-free siblings.
We are creatures who are driven by emotion. When we’re all fired up,
we ain’t listening to nothing else, not wisdom and logic or fear and doubt.
Our emotions compel us to participate in staggering displays of both the
magnificent and the moronic: We will flip over parked cars in the street
when our team wins the World Cup, date people covered in red flags, spend
hundreds of dollars on a beautiful pair of shoes that don’t fit, risk a second
round of scolding from our parents for leaving our clogs outside, etc. We
will also accept an exciting new job that we’re “unqualified” for, overcome
our fear of flying to visit a friend in need, step onto a stage in front of
hundreds even though we’re terrified, go into the red to launch the business
of our dreams, etc. You cannot have an emotion without having a thought
first (e.g., We won! I love my friend! I wanna be my own boss!). When you
learn to master your mindset and focus on thoughts that elicit strong,
positive emotions, you wield your power to take crazy leaps of faith in spite
of your fears and your Little Prince trying to hold you back. It all starts with
your thoughts; they are the catalyst that brings on the shift that changes
what you believe and how you act.
To get a better idea of what I’m talking about, here’s a breakdown of
how your mindset works:
Your beliefs are driving the bus. They take you where you’re going
whether you’re paying attention or not.
Your thoughts are the tour guide, the person up front with the
microphone and the clipboard—she can lean over and yank the wheel, slam
on the brakes, step on the gas, flip the bus—she can do whatever, whenever
she wants. She usually works in harmony with your beliefs, but she has all
the veto power.

---

Your words are the assistant to your thoughts and beliefs. Your words
back them up, voice their opinions, anchor in their message, keep it real.
Your emotions are the fuel. They are ignited by your thoughts, and can
change your beliefs and the direction of your life. Without emotions, yer
going nowhere new and exciting.
Your actions build the road. They pave the path for your beliefs, but will
reroute should thoughts and emotions make a change of plans and decide
they want to stop at Dairy Queen or something.
When all these facets of your mind, body, and spirit are in alignment,
focused on the same desire, singing “Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the
Wall” as they merrily roll along, you can manifest all the riches you desire.
But if you’re thinking about how much you’d love to make an extra five
thousand dollars a month and how you have no idea how to do it, if you’re
feeling terrified and extremely doubtful, believing that people won’t take
you seriously (yourself included), if you’re saying out loud “I love money
and it comes to me easily” every morning in the mirror, and if you’re
making one sales call per day after which you give up and crack open a
beer, you ain’t gonna get very far.
All members of team mindset must be on the field bringing their A
game, yet it’s your thoughts, and I hate to play favorites here, that are the
biggest badasses of them all.
In order to get your thoughts working at their max potential, let’s take a
look at some of the most common beliefs about money that we often
unconsciously accept as the truth and blab away about all the livelong day.
Pay attention to which of these remind you of something you may have
heard yourself thinking or saying, because awareness is the first key step in
breaking the spell of your not-so-awesome financial “reality.”
Here’s the drill:
Become aware of what your limiting thoughts and beliefs are.
Question and investigate them.
Rewrite them.
Say it out loud and proud.
I’m going to do this for the first few so you can see how it works:
Unhelpful thought: Money can’t buy happiness.

---

Question: What makes me happy?
Answer: Hanging out with the people I love, grilled cheese sandwiches,