In my book, Overcoming Underearning, there’s a story about a snail climbing a cherry tree in the middle of winter. A beetle looks down, spies the snail slowly inching up the frozen bark, and cries out, “There ain’t no cherries up here.”
Unfazed, the snail replies, “There will be by the time I get there.”
That little snail offers us a potent formula for financial success. Think big. Act small. And, no matter what, never, ever stop until you attain your goal.
The idea is that if you do something everyday, no matter how small, no matter how brief, you will eventually arrive at your destination.
But it’s not just the practical, external steps that matter. The inner work is a critical factor.
So many of us have been mindlessly operating on unconscious programs that were installed in our heads early in life, mostly by observing our parents.
But it’s not our family’s patterns, per se, that determine our habits. It’s the unconscious decisions we made about them.
Like the two sisters—one was a drunk, the other a teetotaler. When asked why they turned out the way they did, both had the same response, “Because my parents were alcoholics.”
That’s exactly what happens for us. We spend our lives imitating or rebelling against what we witnessed growing up.
To achieve financial success, you may need to uncover those early decisions you made about yourself and money.
These decisions, when left unchallenged, turn into deep-seated beliefs. Consequently, you routinely make choices consistent with those beliefs, forming hardwired habits that determine where you are today.
The outer work, when coupled with the inner work, allows you to respond differently than you normally would. When you consistently take small steps every day towards your goal, you’ll transform your old habits into new behaviors. This is how you rewire for financial success.
And these new behaviors, that once felt so awkward, will become such an integral part of your life, that when ignored, you feel something is missing.
That’s when you’ll know your brain’s been rewired. Actions that felt uncomfortable in the beginning eventually become even more uncomfortable not to do.
Can you think of a behavior you learned as a child that is no longer serving you? Leave me a comment below.
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