You Gotta Think Differently.

I was at a seminar tonight where a motivational speaker said two things that rocked me. They are not new concepts, they are not things that I don’t currently know and believe, nevertheless they were Ahha! moments for me.

1. People think “Broke”.
I have been reading Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill who talked about the very same concept, and of course the Law of Attraction teaches us that what we think it what we become, so again this wasn’t revolutionary.

Yet something about it was.

He (a multimillionaire, who over the past 20 years has built a massive financial empire), told the story of his first financial inspirational moment. He had gone to a financial/motivational meeting 20 years ago and the speaker had challenged the audience to train their minds to stop thinking “I’m broke”. He said that the simple act of tricking your brain to not focus on the “I’m broke” would change how you thought about yourself and your financial situation. So his challenge was to have everyone go home and get a $100 bill and put it in their wallet, folded in a very small piece and tucked away in a secret pocket, even if it was all the money you had. That way you ARE NEVER BROKE. You don’t spend it, but regardless of your situation you ALWAYS know should you need it, it’s there. So your no longer “Broke”. He pulled out of his wallet the very same $100 bill he had tucked away 20 years ago, and said “I’ve not been broke a day since”.

Think different

I got that.

Ding! Light bulb going off.

When you think you’re broke, you live like you are. You act like you are, and you tell people you are. If all you change in your life today is to STOP THAT, then you’re that much closer to never being broke again.

2. You gotta think differently. 
Not only about money, but especially about money. If you don’t think differently you will NEVER be any different. If you think you’re broke, broke is all you will ever be.

I thought about this very thing today when I worked out with my trainer Jerymaine.  This week we had three workouts, and by workouts I mean murder sessions! I was instructed to do 30 of some crazy butt lifting madness thing, to which my absolute belief was that my ability would take me to perhaps five. I gave Coach J the look of “your crazy and I hate your guts. Look at ME before you decide what, and how many of an exercise I’m capable of doing; before quietly sitting there as if you have all day for me to get to your desired number!” He still looked at me; as if he had all day for me to get to his desired number!

Then I thought, if his expectation, and complete belief is that I absolutely can achieve thirty, then perhaps I should start out thinking I can do thirty, rather then believing with all my heart that I can only do five. Maybe if I thought differently, I’d get a different result. *(Coach J this in no way means that you can up the number to 50 next time, if you do I’m blocking you from my blog! Just sayin!)

See how tricky this stuff is??? It comes at me everyday in so many different ways, even though it’s what I know, love and believe. It’s still so easy to go with our internal statuesque. There are major areas in my life where I feel I have really learned to teach my brain the “right thought process” and that kicks in automatically. But there are always new revelations of areas where I’m not applying what I know the way that I should.

The beautiful thing about it is that the more you know, the more aware you are. Awareness is the key to growth in my opinion. If your constantly aware of your thoughts, actions, attitude and behaviors then it’s so easy to do quick self-corrections. In training I was able to catch it almost instantly and change it, so the next set of 30 on the other leg I KNEW I could and would do it.

You can change your thinking, then you will change your results.

Sarah Centrella is the author of the book Hustle Believe Receive which teaches you how to apply the #HBRMethod to change your life and live your dream.

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