Māori Millionaire

Chapter 3

Mental wealth: building a richer mindset

Mindset

Kotahi tonu te hiringa i kake ai a Tāne ki Tikitiki-o-

Rangi, ko te hiringa i te mahara.

There is but one power that allowed Tāne to ascend to the

uppermost heavens, and that is the power of the mind.

Your mindset is foundational in building wealth. With an aligned mindset, we can then focus on the strategy.

We must change our mind before we can change our actions. Money is a resource to buy the things we truly desire in life, things that really bring value to your world.

Where you spend your money will give life to the investment. For example, when I was vaping, I was investing in poor lung health, addiction and instant gratification.

When reflecting on the financial decisions I was making at that point, I realised that the decisions were not leading to the life that I wanted. There was a misalignment of values.

I valued health, wealth, freedom — but I spent my money on takeaways, vaping, alcohol and all things fun. When you don’t have much money, this is when it is most important to invest in things that provide you with as much value as possible, and move you closer to your goals.

For example, my goals are to continue to improve my health, increase my income and achieve more fun in my life. So I spend my money on a gym membership, on healthy food, and on coaches and mentors that are helping me to increase my income and achieve more balance.

Managing money is kind of like managing weight — it’s a lifelong process and not one that you can ever tick off your to-do list. Despite this, it does get easier to do over time.

Many people use the word ‘budgeting’ for their money plan, but I’m very mindful of the words I use. The power of your words has a bigger impact than you’d realise.

I prefer to use ‘money plan’.

A ‘budget’ is disempowering, it makes me feel like I’m always tight on cash, whereas a ‘money plan’ makes me feel like I’m being organised, I’m being proactive with my money.

A money plan is important because this gives you conscious awareness of your incomings, outgoings and where and how you can improve.

Doing an audit of your past spending will help inform you about your spending habits. If they’re not in alignment with your dream life, this will give you helpful information about where you can alter your spending habits.

But it’s not always this easy. In fact, I’ve worked with many people who would like to reduce their spending, say on clothes shopping, but they consistently go against their desires. This is the thing with money, it’s not always enough to have an intention to do something — we need to fully embody the desire. We do this through our mindset.

Your mind is incredibly powerful.

One of my favourite poems is Walter D. Wintle’s ‘Thinking’, which

appears in Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill:

If you think you are beaten, you are

If you think you dare not, you don’t,

If you like to win, but you think you can’t

It is almost certain you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost

For out of the world we find,

Success begins with a fellow’s will

It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are

You’ve got to think high to rise,

You’ve got to be sure of yourself before

You can ever win a prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go

To the stronger or faster man,

But soon or late the man who wins

Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!

This is why it’s so hard for so many people to improve their habits — in health, money, life. Because our mindsets aren’t geared towards it.

One in three New Zealand adults is obese. Many people understand that a calorie deficit causes weight loss — yet many are still struggling.

More and more businesses are going bankrupt, despite everyone knowing that to increase your cashflow, you need to create more sales.

The reality is that despite things seeming simple, actually doing them is much harder.

One of my clients had an addiction to shopping. She was making five figures a month, and even so, she was using debt to manage her spending habit. After working with me to address the root cause of her spending, she was able to create a change in her behaviour.

She never felt enough — since being a child, she always felt less than. Shopping filled a void for her — something that needed to be addressed in order to create change. So I taught her how to start feeling like she was enough (because she is, and so are you).

After practising daily habits like journalling, affirmations, using a vision board and refraining from instant gratification, she was able to become stronger and more confident — which allowed her to reduce her shopping, and eventually manage her spending very well.

Real change is deeper than a strategy. Strategies don’t work unless your mind is geared towards them. This is why I coach people to harness their minds so that they may truly change their habits.

Without the right mindset, the best strategy in the world won’t work. Your mind is the one that controls everything, but your hands won’t move without the mind. Once your mindset is set, some of the strategies we can implement will truly work.

Your subconscious mind holds the beliefs and thoughts created in your early childhood that can end up ruling your life if you don’t address them. Studies vary, but many say that at least 90 per cent of the time, your subconscious mind is running the show, leaving 10 per cent or less where your conscious mind is actually making decisions. This means that for most of the time, our mind is living in the past, making decisions based on old results, past traumas — keeping us stuck in the same cycles, over and over again.

Some people have subconscious beliefs that are blocking their true potential. For example many people subconsciously fear suc- cess. This sounds absolutely ridiculous, but hear me out:

If you were to suddenly start making $20k per month, do you think your family would look at you differently? Would their expectations of you change?

If you were to purchase a house today, in cash, what do you think people would think of you?

If you won the lottery today, are there any people you wouldn’t want to know about this?

When I first started making five figures a month, I had many subconscious beliefs come up — I feared how the people I had known my whole life would think of me. Would they change how they perceived me? Would they expect more?

What if I suddenly lost my income? What would happen then?

These subconscious beliefs were barriers to scaling to five figures a month, something I consciously desired, but subconsciously was terrified of.

Rewiring your subconscious mind to believe things that are in alignment with your higher self and not your past can be extremely difficult — something I’ve worked very hard to be able to do within my own life. As I’ve said, I used to have beliefs that supported the idea that money is limited and that with hard work I’ll achieve wealth. In my past, money has been limited. But to change my money story, I needed to change the beliefs I have about money. Instead of the thoughts above, I now have the following beliefs:

‘Money loves me more than I love money.’ ‘Money flows to me effortlessly and easily.’

‘The more I serve people, the more I automate revenue, the more money I make.’

If hard work is the difference between having money and not, then why are so many hard workers not rich?

To help my clients to see the beliefs they have about money, the causes and how to change these, I take them through a money mindset audit, which I learnt about from Glowbyteesh Coaching. You can do it yourself here:

MONEY MINDSET AUDIT

Where attention goes, energy flows. Focus on abundance and prosperity and this is what you will receive! Your mind has the potential to completely change your life, if you’re willing to harness its power. By rewiring your subconscious mind using techniques I’ve shared in this chapter, you’re going to build neutrality to your goals, reducing your resistance to them. Alongside aligned action towards your goals, it will only be a matter of time before your goals become reality.