The Five Talent Series: Talent 1 Your Mental State Does Matter

Narrow Road

When deciding how to open this series it became clear that there were several different routes possible. If a person’s mental state related to their money and life in general are out of order, then all other potential advise will have a minimal impact on their bottom line. You see this with lottery winners who they themselves cannot navigate the mental barriers to money management. Let’s take a look at the 3 potential areas that impact our mental state, and break them down a little for the benefit of the community.

1.Don’t Worry Try To Be Contented

Life is much more than just money. I know, tell that to someone who is unable to make ends meet and you will be met with a scathing rebuttal. Even so we must not aim or focus on what we will eat, drink and how we look because our lives are more valuable than just the material elements that bring us comfort. I think the point to take away here is that we do not benefit from worrying, although it provides a mechanism to warn us of potential risks in certain circumstances. Look at nature and how the plants and animals go about their business of working and providing for their needs. We have been given a great resource in terms of our intellectual capacity to navigate the world, far beyond that of the other life that shares this planet with us. Worrying about tomorrow provides limited value and we should rather be focusing on solving the financial problems in front of us today. Anxiety is a natural response to stress and in the moment serves a very important role, but as Harvard Medical School stated in its Anxiety and physical illness publication “anxiety has been implicated in several chronic physical illnesses, including heart disease, chronic respiratory disorders, and gastrointestinal conditions”. My main point here is that starting off from a place of worry and anxiety will only make managing your money more complex, and are we not supposed to enjoy our lives and have fun while we accomplish our goal!

2.Working Hard While Hardly Working

Hard work establishes mental and physical fortitude so long as we do the work with a mindset of appreciation. Let me be as clear as possible when I state that your best wealth creation tool is your income, and hard work will only benefit your income over the long term. We all have this tendency to be lazy, but this will only exacerbate your income problem and stress level and is strongly correlated to poverty. If we diligently work and better ourselves in those areas that we blessed with competence in we will bring a great deal of wealth to our households and communities over the long term. I myself went through a period at the beginning of my early adult life where I would often have grand ideas and goals but very little patience to do the hard work to achieve them. Ultimately, I figured out through a few tough experiences that if I worked hard and toiled to build my talents in most circumstance I would reap financial abundance. I did not always reap huge materially rewards yet I always maintained this approach to work and it has kept me physically and mentally healthy and happy.

3.The Easy Way is Often the Wrong Way

As the title would suggest the concept of not cheating others and following good ethical conduct is not always the path of least resistance. The get rich quick industry targets individuals who desire greater prosperity but cannot or will no do the required work diligently to amass wealth. A person’s moral character in the pursuit of wealth accumulation will have a great impact on whether such fortunes are permanent or simply dissipate with a series of bad decisions. Dishonest money dwindles quickly while a person who accumulates wealth prudently and gradually will have a fortune for their grandchildren to enjoy. A business man should be more concerned with a good name and finding favor with those important relationships in his area of influence that simply fortune. By never misrepresenting yourself to others you build relationship capital which will vastly increase the trust and respect in your personal and business dealings. There is nothing more abhorrent and detestable that a financial planner or advisor who uses false weights and measures whilst providing advice. Sometime the right decision in our financial lives is the hardest and requires short term sacrifice. We must be willing to make such tough decisions to achieve our long term desires and goals, as short term sacrifice for a long term benefit is the foundation of all meaningful wealth creation.

Takeaway for Talent One

The main takeaway I would like to drill home is not to worry, work hard and make the hard and right choices for your future. Prepare yourself so that you may execute on a plan, but remember that if the plan gives you anxiety it is most likely too risky. If you feel it is too risky you must then either realign your future expectation to a lower risk lower reward or increase your tolerance of risk to achieve your desired outcome. Find your personal meaning in hard work and personal accountability for the outcomes in your life. We can define ourselves either as victims of circumstance or as beneficiaries of opportunities, I much prefer the latter. I may not have always worked in meaningful jobs, but I always saw my job as an opportunity or stepping stone to a more meaningful job. I always took it on myself to achieve my dream job in spite of obstacles and never expected any favor or handout. I have been passed up for promotion based on merit, politics and political correctness when I was in the corporate world, but I never held resentment, and simply used the banks to gather knowledge and technical expertise to further my career. Our mental state dictates how well we will manage the opportunities we are given and or successes and failures as investors. The better we can manage our mental state and follow some basic principles the more time and money will do their thing for us.