Getting rid of debt and obtaining financial freedom starts with freeing your mind from the bondage of your money story and your familial money pattern.

• Money Story: What you tell yourself about your money.
• Familial Money Pattern: The way that your family has dealt with money over GENERATIONS.
• Money Relationship: How you personally relate to money
• Money Response: The initial reaction that you feel when you think about your money situation.

I will further explain each of these in subsequent blog post so let’s keep going…

What’s the predominate money thought running around in your head?

Is it this: Never enough….

Is it this: I Will Always Struggle….

Or is it this?: I have everything that I need and more…

One thing that I have learned the hard way is that financial empowerment and freedom don’t come from miraculously getting a lump sum of money- they come from making up your mind to have financial empowerment and freedom in the first place. The money tends to come AFTER the mental shift.

Let me explain:

If your financial freedom is based on the mindset that “I must get this much money to pay down my debt”, your physiological response will be stress, anxiety, depression and more stress; mental and physical conditions that deplete the body of the critical creative energy needed  (amongst creating other dangerous health related-conditions) to EFFECTIVELY problem solve so that you can ACTUALLY live a financially peaceful, free and empowered life.

When you cannot objectively view your problems, you will be hard pressed to solve them.

The long and short of my premise is that in order to get financially free, you have to make up your mind to get free. Once you make up your mind, you will automatically start taking the necessary steps and making the best decisions that support your DECISION to get free.

So how do you start the process of getting free?  By Being. And Doing.

Being: Make a decision to AFFIRM your financial abundance on an incessant basis.  Write affirmations to yourself on post it notes and post them everywhere that you will see them.  Say it until you believe it in the core of your being.

Practical Action Steps: This may seem a little bit out of order…but its not, because if you are in financial hell, (i.e debt and some more crap), you are probably engaging in Panic Spending and a whole bunch of worrying.   To bring some instant peace right now:

(1) Take stock. You owe what you owe and your credit is what it is. Make a decision to get out of debt and do the work to clean up your credit.  Identify your financial priorities and put yourself on a spending plan.

(2) Remember this: If you ain’t got it- you can’t pay it.  If you’re already late, you’re late. These words are cold comfort but let’s get real: it’s water under the bridge and it’s really a waste of your time and energy to worry about it. Instead of worrying, channel your energy into figuring out your plan to get yourself back to financial rights. Helplessness begets more helplessness.

(3) “Panic Bill Paying: i.e. the first bill collector that calls gets the loot.  Instead (if you don’t have any immediate and pressing- they are gonna cut the lights off type bill payments), when you get some resources, let the money sit in your account. Let it marinate, let it charge, bless it, thank it, look at the big number print it out to remind yourself that you are abundant in that moment. Allow yourself time for gratitude. As a matter of fact, every payday print out the online statement and post it somewhere.  If you are un-or underemployed, every time you get a little bit of money, do the same thing. Let it marinate.

Next, prioritize your bill payments and spending.  What comes first? Roof over you and your family’s head, food on the table, transportation to work, pocket money, electricity, heat, hot water. Make sure your physiological comforts are taken care of because this will help alleviate the stress.

(4) Prioritize and negotiate your debt: It’s the monkey slinging poo at your face. Debt is annoying but can be dealt with. When it comes to credit card debt, my new rule of thumb is to negotiate, settle and move on. Let me repeat: Negotiate, Settle and Move On.  In collections?  Negotiate, Settle and Move On.  (BUT, before you pay one red-cent- make sure the creditor sends you a letter with the terms, including REMOVAL of the collection account and a “Paid as Agreed” rating).

(5) Change your Money Response: I keep repeating this but its true (Thank You Dave Ramsey): You owe what you owe and If your late, your late. This is not going to change overnight unless you win the lotto and the likelihood that the money you need will drop from magical ethers without a huge shift in your Money Story is slim.  HOWVER! When you begin to put into practice the things that I mentioned above such as changing your inner dialogue, charging your money and expressing gratitude for every cent that you do have, you will set yourself up to attract solutions and resources. This may include cash money to pay, the debt collector that is willing to negotiate or a change in terms that is favorable to helping you pay down and get rid of the debt.

Next Post…….Defining our Terms: Money Relationships, Money Story, Money Pattern and Money Response.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 18th, 2011 at 4:45 am and is filed under Financial Coaching, FinancialFreedomSeries, Fiscally Fit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.