Want to Be Wealthy? Three Truthful Strategies that Can Help
Our attitude toward truth has an enormous impact on creating wealth in our lives. What does facing truth have to do with wealth? If you are a “truth-seeker” you are far more likely to be wealthy. Why? Because you challenge limiting beliefs that hold most others back from becoming rich. You see reality instead of myth.
My mom used to say, “ignorance is bliss”. Likely because she didn’t want to acknowledge the truth of an unruly teenager who was constantly breaking the rules in her house. I can relate now that I have my own teenager. That strategy is far more comfortable.
Clearly, I am my mother’s daughter. I go down this road all the time. I lie to myself. But it’s okay; my mom did it. And you do too. Everyone does, according to psychologists.
A Little Self-Belief Goes a Long Way
As self-made millionaire Steve Siebold wrote after studying millionaires for years, “It wasn’t the lack of desire that held the masses back from getting wealthy, but the lack of belief in their own ability to make it happen.” The truth is, you can be wealthy. But it can require facing uncomfortable truths about yourself.
If you want to develop a wealthy mindset, start by examining how you engage with reality. Here are three strategies for using the truth to make you wealthy:
Strategy #1: Accept that Eventually You Will Need to Endure the Pain of the Truth
It’s tough to face a reality like “I’m not saving enough to quit my mind-numbing job” or “I have no idea where my money goes”. It’s even harder acknowledging “Someday, I will die” or admitting you have no idea when that day will be, and no plan for your wealth when it happens. The hardest one of all (and one I sometimes struggle with) is, “I don’t know who I want to be with my money”. This can be a painful truth to admit.
Good news! No pain, no change. Just being willing to admit one of these to yourself is the first step in finding true wealth. You are forgiven for living in the bliss of ignorance for a while. I don’t know a single person alive who doesn’t live in money LaLa Land temporarily. But now you know it, and have permission to change it.
Strategy #2: Love and Support Gives Us Grace to Tolerate Difficult Realities
A lot of us don’t want to hear the truth from others. Their words are like a hammer that pounds against a glass window of self-defenses; one blow and the whole structure will crumble. Sometimes the truth has to creep up on us slowly in order not to break us. And sometimes other people don’t know the speed at which they need to give us the truth so it doesn’t destroy our self-esteem, our mental health, or our hope.
How can we use this knowledge to help us become wealthy? It has less to do with financial strategies and more to do with forming healthy relationships.
Form partnerships – with your spouse, trusted advisors, friends, a life coach, or therapist. They can help you be financially vulnerable. They can also point out when you are being too hard on yourself or overly frugal instead of generous.
Marinate yourself in truth tellers. You’ll become more self-aware when you are deceiving yourself about money. Seek out people who gently nudge you in another direction when you say “I can totally afford that!” (when it is obvious you can’t). Or can push back when you say “I am not cheap, just frugal”. (LOL no you are cheap, my friend).
Proverbs proclaim that wounds from a friend can be trusted. Truth delivered with loving kindness helps us through the pain of the truth. As Oscar Wilde once said, “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.”
Strategy #3: Be Sensitive to the Differences Between Truth and Untruth
Bank tellers are trained to detect counterfeit money in part because they handle the real thing for hours and hours. When they see or touch a fake, they know something is amiss.
The truth may not come as a sudden “a-ha” moment of insight. It may be found in the unexplainable feeling we get when we know we are being lied to, or we are lying to ourselves (but not ready to admit it). It may be found through an intuition of sorts that we can’t explain. These emotions and thoughts are mirrors reflecting the truth. And we should honor their reflection. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you squeamish.
Change Your Relationship with the Truth
It’s time to get cozy with the truth. Snuggle up on the sofa with it in your sweats and let it know and be known by you completely. They say that honesty is the best policy, and when it comes to your financial story and how you truly perceive this, that couldn’t be closer to the, well, truth.
Perhaps you are ready to start on the path to wealth. My challenge to you is to escape the norms of a life lived within your comfort zone. Get in touch or make an appointment today to start losing your illusions and finding true wealth.
