The Clever Peach

Tackling Negative Consequences – Week 3 of Money Mindset Bootcamp

Take yourself back to this past winter – January 1st specifically. It’s a new year with new ideas of setting your New Year’s resolution goals. Weight loss, healthier eating, working less, changing jobs, working on self-discovery, getting out of debt….the list is endless. We vow to get it right this year! Then reality sets in and we look at how many of us have actually made it to these goals for 2017? Like me, there are so many people that started out with good intentions but things just started to fizzle out.

Most of us just assume we haven’t reached our goals because of a lack of willpower or dedication, but have you ever considered that you may have unacknowledged FEARS surrounding about what could happen if your goal came true?

In Week 3 of the Money Mindset Bootcamp, Denise Duffield-Thomas has us tackling this very concept.

What if NOT reaching your goals isn’t actually having lousy willpower but FEAR?? (By the way, you can start at the beginning and checking Week 1 here).

Knowing your worst fears, no matter how ridiculous you may think they sound can be quite powerful. As in Week 2 where Denise DT has us identify our mental money blocks and release them from our minds, hereto we can first recognize and release these fears to get one step closer to removing more obstacles in our way to our First Class Life.

But how do we identify these fears?

First we make a list of our goals.

These goals could be anything from increasing your income to a specific figure, buying your dream house, expanding your existing business – anything. Take some time to make this list and remember that there is no goal to far-fetched to be written down.

My List of Goals:

* Financial freedom – make six figures as an online entrepreneur
* Time freedom – work when I want
* Location freedom – work where I want and travel where I want

My List of Negative Consequences (what is the worst that could happen if you reached your goals?)

* Financial freedom negative consequence – I will make six figures and still not be happy; I won’t be motivated anymore when I am rich and my business will fail.
* Time freedom negative consequence – I will not work when I should and my business will fail.
* Location freedom negative consequence – I will not be social enough working from home and miss interacting with people face to face in an office which will make me depressed. Being depressed will make my business fail.

As Denise DT says, write down whatever you think, no matter how ridiculous it may sound.

Let’s Clear the Negativity

Now that we have written our list of goals and included what possible negative consequences could occur if we reached these goals, we need to clear these negative thoughts from our mind. Look at each negative consequence that you have discovered and decide if that block is true.

Let’s look at one of my negative consequences as an example:

” If I make six figures, I won’t be motivated to work anymore and my business will fail “

Is this statement true?

Lack of motivation has come into play before with projects that weren’t essential to our families survival and is definitely a fear that I have while considering getting out of my desk job. So in a sense, this thought could definitely be true. My one fear is that I won’t be motivated to work hard if I become rich because I won’t need to work hard anymore.

How do I tackle this fear?

What plan could I put in place to ensure this negative consequence doesn’t actually occur?

I could make a 90 day schedule revolving around work and leisure, setting goals in both areas to keep focused on what is important to our family lifestyle. I would then revisit this schedule every 90 days and make any adjustments for the next 90 day cycle.

Can I do more?

What areas of my fear and more specifically, my plan, could I research more to help eliminate some of the worry?

Deciding on a specific entrepreneurial online business would be my first step (how am I going to bring in an income). Once that first step checked off my list, I would move on to specific planning of the business and then implementation stage.

Lastly, I need to ask myself “Do I really want this goal?”

After going through each negative consequence for each of your goals, it really is possible that you may find that you can take one or two completely off your list.

For me – yes, I really do want to succeed at this goal!

The main objective of Week 3 was to understand that not reaching your goals in the past may have actually been out of fear and that these fears need to be recognized before we can clear them from our thoughts – its a different way of looking at goals that before Week 3, I had never considered. I am sure that I’m not alone with seeing this concept for the first time and I encourage you to set some time aside to walk through this exercise to see what pops up.

Don’t forget to leave me a comment on what A-HA moments came to light for you.