Episode #14- Raise Your Financial and Life Standards

Wealth Decisions Podcast Transcript for Episode #14- Raise Your Financial and Life Standards

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

James Clear said in his book Atomic Habits that true behavior change is identity change.

You and I can act ourselves into a new identity by behaving in a specific way.

You can act your way into believing something different about yourself.

He goes on to say that every time you take an action, you're giving your mind evidence that you're a new person, a different kind of person.

In today's episode, we're going to be talking about raising your personal financial and life standards.

A standard is the thing that we have become OK with.

It's the thing that we have learned to tolerate in our lives, and it's what you consider to be kind of your norm.

You know, right now, you have a standard that has put you in the position that you are, whether it be with your finances, whether it be with your health habits, or the quality of your relationship or marriage.

So how do you view yourself?

How do you view your current financial situation?

How do you view your current health?

In order to raise your standards, you have to change your identity and view yourself as someone that can live up to that new standard.

In order to change our standards, we have to somehow bust through some of those limiting beliefs that I talked about in previous episodes.

In his book, Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt, he defines limiting beliefs as a misunderstanding of the present that short changes our future.

In episode 10, I talked about knowing your money values, and episode number 11, I talked about identifying some of your money blocks.

And a lot of the issues we have around money comes down to the standards we have set for ourselves around money.

And this goes for our personal relationships as well as our health.

So one thing to know about standards is that whatever standard we have in place for our life, our finances, our relationships is the thing that will happen.

We don't always get what we want or desire, but we will always typically get our standard.

You and I are where we are today because of our standards.

It's because of what we tolerate in our life, whether it be with our finances or our relationships.

And the only way to experience a different life than what we're currently experiencing right now is to find a way to raise our standards.

So how can you change or raise your standards to live this richer life that you hope?

The first step, and this may sound odd, the first step is to become basically disgusted with your current standard.

You know, in order to raise your standard, you have to become disgusted with your current situation, whether it's your financial situation, your relationship, your health, whatever that is.

You have to be disgusted enough to say to yourself, enough is enough for lasting change.

You need to change your standard for yourself, not just for a period of time, but to create a new identity for yourself.

And now you see yourself as more successful or you see yourself with more wealth or you see yourself a better relationship partner, whatever that is.

It's when you turn your shoulds and your coulds in your woods into musts.

Most of us do our shoulds when they're convenient, when it's comfortable, when it may be as easy or goes our way.

I remember one of my tennis coaches back in high school.

He used to say an expression every time he'd hear us say, I should have gone up to the net more or I should have been more patient or shouldn't have tried to hit that winner.

He'd say, if you have a handful of crap in one hand and a handful of should have, could have and would have in another, which way is more?

Well, the crap because should have, could have and would have don't add up to crap.

I chose not to swear in this episode because I do flag this as child friendly.

So but the question is, if something is a must, not for other people, but a must for ourselves, we find a way to get it done.

You know, our current physique is a reflection of our current physical standard.

You know, most of us desire to be in better shape or have more energy or have a better physique.

But it shows up in our rituals.

You know, our current financial situation is a result of our money or wealth standard.

We all want more money or wealth, but maybe we're just not as committed as much as we should be with some type of must.

We're not doing the things necessary to reach our long term goals.

You know, most of us set standards according to our environment.

You know, if we're around people that don't take care of ourselves, we eventually lower our standards.

If you're ever in a relationship with someone that's not fit and healthy and doesn't believe in working out, you might lower your standards by being around that person.

What you practice in private is something that you'll be rewarded with in public.

Your current income is a result of a standard.

It's not the industry that you're in or the economy.

It's the standard that you have set for yourself in the financial department.

Step two is to change your identity.

In order to raise your standards, you have to change the way you kind of view yourself.

Our self-perception might be shaped from feedback from our parents or friends or teachers growing up, like I talked about in previous episodes.

Some of those things shaped the way we are and created this identity we have for ourselves.

The truth is, we can't consistently act in a manner that is inconsistent with how we view ourselves.

Why is it that someone can say, I want to get in shape in 2023, and for a while they do.

However, something happens over time.

They go back to their old ways and maybe get discouraged.

Well, the answer is they didn't change their identity.

They didn't change the way they saw themselves.

They still saw themselves as a person who was not fit or didn't exercise or ate the wrong foods.

Instead, you have to view yourself as someone who exercises and eats the right foods and change your environment and be around people that are active and doing the same things.

The same goes with financial standards.

If you hang around people that are successful, I truly believe in Jim Rohn's philosophy that you become the average of the five people you hang around the most.

You look at your top five friends, I bet you're all right around the same income level, have the same savings and investment goals, and maybe even live in the same type of house or drive similar cars.

Because success breeds success, and when you hang around successful people, those people bleed off into your standards, and you see it's possible to be more successful, and being around people that are successful will also force you to want to become successful too.

You know, have you ever wondered why the rich get richer and the poor tend to get poorer?

It all comes down to what is called the success cycle, and it looks at standards.

When you look at someone that has standards, they know they have potential, they take action on that potential, they get results, then it creates more belief, and that leads to more potential, and more and more action, and more and more results, and leads to more belief.

And that cycle keeps feeding on itself, or you continue to create more and more potential and create more and more better action to get better results, and then more belief, and that cycle keeps going, and the momentum becomes unstoppable.

All because someone developed a standard for where they want to be, with their income, with their wealth, with their relationships, with their health.

Step number three for raising your standards is to model what works.

Find someone else doing well, and model yourself after them.

Study the wealthy, read some books, on wealth principles, and create wealthy habits.

Get things done because there are absolute musts.

You must get to the next level with your finances.

You must get in better shape.

You must figure out how you're going to repair your marriage.

Whatever that becomes down to, change those shoulds, coulds and woulds into musts, and model what works.

Find someone that you can model your relationship after.

Find someone you can model your wealth plan after.

And this goes back to surrounding yourself with successful people.

You know, the people directly around you shape who you are.

They shape your future.

I remember hearing a quote that said, show me your friends and I'll show you your future.

Your friends are like an elevator.

They either take you up or down, but they don't let you stay where you are.

And step four is to create a financial and life plan.

You know, what are you willing to do and what are you willing to sacrifice to get the things that you want in regards to your finances, in your relationships and in your health?

When it comes to your life, I have a philosophy that I talked about last week called the MADE.

Life philosophy.

There's a worksheet on my website that I'll have a link to that you can download that just looks at creating a life with more meaning.

It talks about accomplishment and focuses on making a difference and creating experiences.

But when it comes to your money, you have to have a written plan for your money.

And that starts with having a budget.

No one accidentally wins at anything.

If you want to build more wealth, you have to plan for it.

You have to budget and you have to pay yourself first and live below your means.

When it comes to having a financial plan, you have to also make sure that you get out or stay out of debt.

According to Dave Ramsey, the only good debt is paid off debt.

I don't agree with everything Dave Ramsey says, but one of the most powerful wealth building tools is your income.

When you spend your whole life sending loan payments to banks and credit card companies, you end up with less money to save and invest for your future.

The third step in creating a financial plan is to figure out what you can save.

I would suggest saving at least 10 percent if you want financial independence, 15 percent or more, and if you want financial freedom, 20 to 25 percent of your income needs to be saved to create financial freedom.

According to the National Study of Millionaires, three out of four millionaires said that regular, consistent investing over a long period of time is the reason for their success.

They don't get distracted by market swings or trendy stocks or get rich quick schemes.

They just have a predetermined amount that they pay themselves first and invest that for the future.

So in summary, to change your financial and life standards, you first have to become disgusted with your current standard.

You have to say enough is enough.

Number two, you have to find a way to change your identity, change the way you view yourself each day and turn your shoulds, coulds and woulds into musts.

And number three, model what works.

Find someone else doing well and model yourself after them.

Study the wealthy, create wealthy habits, and then create a financial plan, a written plan for your money, which includes a budget, making sure that you get out and stay out of debt, live on less than you make, pay yourself first at least 10 to 15 percent of your income.

And if you do that over time, month by month, decade after decade, you'll have a really nice nest egg and the opportunity to live a richer life.

And that's it for today's episode.

Raise your personal financial and life standards.

And if you like this episode, please rate the episode, make some comments and hit the notification bell to get updated on future Wealth Decision Podcasts.

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My goal with the Wealth Decisions Podcast is to reach over 100,000 people by the end of the year in the Twin Cities and beyond, so that people can make better wealth decisions to live a richer life.

If you like to schedule a discovery call with me, you can go to my website at momentouswealthadvisors.com and I'll spend some time to get to know you a little bit and find out if I might be able to steer you in the right direction or help you with your financial future.

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify


-Brian D. Muller, AAMS® Founder, Wealth Advisor

Momentous Wealth Advisors in a fee-only fiduciary advisory firm

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