Since last month, I enrolled into a program on Positive Intelligence.
It is a game changing one for mental health and fitness. We are constantly bombarded by external noise and expectations from others, even from ourselves. Recognizing what is holding you back and understanding your true powers is the hallmark of the program.
There are three steps to the whole process
- Catch your Saboteurs (these are Judge, and 2-3 of your own unique ones)
- Energize your Sage Brain (through self love and empathy)
- Use your Sage Powers (Empathize, Explore, Innovate, Navigate, and Activate)
The concept is something like this.
First, you recognize that you have lot of judgements about yourself, others and circumstances. Then you identify your strongest accomplice saboteurs – for me, they were Avoider and Restless.
Second, you reverse the saboteurs by practicing deliberate self love, knowing yourself deeply and connecting to your true self.
Third, through consistent practice of PQ Reps (micro meditation) and connecting to higher sage powers like Empathize, Explore, Innovate, Navigate, and Activate, you get fully aligned to your true self and increase your mental fitness.
How do all of these relate to your finances?
When you think of your finances or any financial decision, you think through your left brain.
At least, you think you should do that. It is all about numbers, analysis and studying the trends.
But in reality, 95% of our financial decisions are emotional, victims of our inner judge, and driven by the same accomplice saboteurs like Avoider, Restless, Stickler, Victim.
Think about a person who invests in S&P 500 after reading the long term benefits of indexing. Few months down the road, as the markets take a downward turn, he panics and sells his investments. – Restless saboteur.
I have worked with clients who had procrastinated for years to even do the basic financial step of paying themselves first, saving outside of their business, opening their Roth IRA. What else is this, if not the Avoider saboteur?
And the ubiquitous judge is always there – we think we need to be smarter, need to predict the economy, track every expense, invest to get the best return.
When the truth is that your money reflects who you are at the core.
If you are independent minded, you will believe in the velocity of money.
If you are a controller, you will probably (not everyone) be tight fisted about money.
Legendary investors like Warren Buffet have one thing – extreme emotional control.
He manages his money (and his investors) with true sage powers – Innovate, Explore, Empathize (read his letters to the CEOs of his companies).
There is a lot of right brain activity in what seems to be fully analytical, logical in money matters.
How can you be in your sage mode when dealing with money?
My four step process is designed to explore this journey for you, while keeping the numbers game so that you do not think it is only abstract.
Financial Reboot
The first step as in the Positive Intelligence is to know yourself and what is holding you back (saboteurs). Catching these is essential to shift to a mental state that you want to be in.
When I do the Financial Reboot stage with my clients, we look at qualitative and quantitative parts of their finances. It is like catching your money saboteurs and judgement that a very long money story (childhood) may be telling you.
- SWOT analysis – This is about finding the strengths, what weaknesses or money story is hiding opportunities, and what threats do you perceive to your money.
- Ratio analysis – Quantitative analysis of your finances – debt to equity ratio, expense coverage, savings ratio etc. This makes you more grounded to the reality and math.
This stage tells you what you need to focus on (think accomplice saboteurs).
- Tendency to take on more debt and not having control of expenses
- Afraid to make big financial decisions like buying a home or investing
Financial Plan
Self love is an essential part of the Positive Intelligence program. It shifts the fears, judge and other saboteurs towards sage powers of Empathize, Explore, Innovate, Navigate, and Activate.
What is self love in finances? No, I am not talking about love for money, that would be counterproductive.
I am talking about connecting to your vision of life, your goals in the next 5-10-15 years and what impact those goals will have in your life when achieved.
Just like the Reboot stage, there are two steps to this – right brain and left brain.
The right brain is your vision and impact of the goals in your life.
The left brain is the calculation and formulating each goal in a SMART format.
Financial Flow
Once you know your SMART goal parameters, you have a monthly target to save/invest this money towards your goals.
You will also need an emotional intelligence to stick to the plan and keep your Restless and Controller saboteurs at bay.
The way you do this is through automation, plan ahead budgets which are easy to maintain.
This practice of working on your finances just 15 mins per week will keep your plan steady.
Compare this to the daily PQ practice of just a few minutes to develop your sage powers.
Financial Growth
The final step is working more on your finances as a CEO.
At this step, you will use your money sage powers to the fullest.
You will look at your financial growth (and life) with a mindset that is visionary.
Investing with emotional maturity is a big part of this step since it requires you to take a very long term view, whether it is for your retirement plans, real estate or building a business that you will love to run till your last breath.
Conclusion
Financial Decisions are complex and human mind is not so cold or rational to take the mathematically best decision.
So, developing a positive intelligence mindset which tunes to your true self and keeps your judgement at bay, is the best state to be in when it comes to your money matters.
If you are interested in this Positive Intelligence program, please send an email to info@startyourfinancesright.com and I will connect you to the person who runs this program.
The Log House 