Hi Sophie,
This step was about the $32K Brain Budget and Amazon.com.
This step started off with a new concept for me – Minoring in major issues, and majoring in minor issues, and accurately doing an audit of my financial life. Ugh….
What do I do with my discretionary income? Historically I haven’t had any respect for money. I give it and loan it and buy things I don’t need. I didn’t always… in college, I had to work to pay off my college bill. I was pretty careful with my money then, because I worked for it and I barely had enough. But on the flip side of that I worked so much I didn’t study very much. I’m not sure where this came from – my dad is really good with his money, and my mom has never had much and never cared to have much, but she is extremely responsible with what she has… In looking at this I think I am so careless it’s because of what came out in the 2nd Moneyroots – I don’t have much respect for what I do for the money I get. I have been working on that – I still have plenty of room for improvement, but I am doing a lot more to earn what I get, and it does make me feel better about myself… trying to get closer to doing all I can do.
But I never considered the idea of narrowing down to determine my actual discretionary income, and taking 30% of that to double-down on my brain… an actual investor mentality, to invest in my brain or my skills. I think there is a principle in ‘Double down on your brain, double down on your skills’ – because it would apply to every area, and no matter how much you make, the ratio shouldn’t change… – I guess the principle is to have an investor mentality to life.
Considering that our brains have the capacity to give us everything we want, it’s really a ‘no-brainer’ to invest in it, I just never considered it that way before.
In his chicken soup analogy, I have to admit I’m one that is cooking with only 2 ingredients, and everything else comes from outside of myself. I saw a principle in ‘Our job is to come up with new ingredients, and stir the ingredients in New ways’. To read, study, travel, take courses, be mentored, find out what works and use those things as new ingredients blended in with new ways – to me this is a whole new way to approach those things… rather than just reading a book because it’s interesting, just traveling for fun, just walking for exercise, to actually look at noticing and learning points or abilities or ideas that have worked for others and blending into my own type of ‘soup’ – why not? I just really never thought about putting those things together, it always seemed like they are there and I am here, and I never considered that they even COULD blend.
To me there is a principle in ‘Getting the investor mentality into your brain is a PROCESS.’ It’s so foreign to me, I can see that it would take time and effort to LOOK, to notice what ideas I could incorporate and blend, to see how any ideas of mine could blend – this would definitely not be a quick exercise, it would take time and practice, but it would be more than worth it to get good at it – it would completely expand the possibilities, in any area.
It’s interesting to think about this in the context of an economic model, where he pointed out that this is nothing new, that species have always fought over scarce resources… ALL species. It’s definitely true – I never thought of it that way. Or like you said in the session today, If diamonds were pebbles, they would have no value. It’s so true, and yet looking at this it seems like I’ve been surrounded by diamonds and didn’t know it, I thought they were just pebbles. So interesting.
I also saw a principle in ‘Money has the potential to rip your throat out, or to save your life.’ I see one here because this really would apply to every area of life… money seems to find its way into every area in one way or another. How can I use this tool to bring more good into my life? Without killing myself? It’s really a great question… looking at it this way really makes the ‘investor’ mentality more clear – looking at money in terms of ‘am I using this to bring more Good into my life’? Or, is this thing I’m buying going to be worth more later? Or anything at all for that matter? This is a whole new way of looking. It’s actually a whole new concept just to look at money as a TOOL.
Rather than investing in things that rust, rot and depreciate, can I use money to learn from people? I was amazed at the story about the guy who spent a million dollars on seminars, and even more hearing that Warren Buffet valued his Dale Carnegie speaking course over his Wharton degree… they almost, in my mind, coincide with taking a million dollars and breaking it down to $300 a day – could what he did actually be with my reach? It actually seems like it looking at it this way! But the big thing would be actually doing it, of course… .
He mentioned in this the value of the Carlton Sheets course… I actually bought that course in my 20’s, it was a LOT of money for me at the time… when I went for it and bought it, I totally felt like it was something I could do, within my reach. But when I got it and looked through it, it was so completely foreign to me, I immediately felt like it was out of reach… I could never get it. I see now that was my machine in play – convincing me I don’t measure up so I wouldn’t have to take responsibility for doing the work and putting myself out there and possibly failing… it made me the victim, ‘with my background this is so foreign to me, I just can’t’… ..excuses… I have used them my whole life, I’ve always had great reasons why I can’t’… I will have to sit with that, as I sit with this new way of looking at things… I would need to see it, allow it and not fight with it it try to wrestle it into ‘it’s not wrong’… actually that will be a great one to find new words for, to put more space there.
I may have gotten off-track there and went to Paris. ?? But I also thought there was a principle in ‘give give give, and people will give back.’ This is giving me a new way to look at my tight box where I protect myself and make everything wrong, to actually see what I can learn, what can I cut out, what can I invest in? Can I use money as a tool, to double down on my brain or my skills? This work I do with you is one of the only times in my entire life that I believe I am truly spending on something that is worthwhile. Pretty sad at my age, and that’s even with knowing I only actually get a fraction of each course! This one really gave me a lot to think about and a lot of new ways to look at things, this is another one I thought I might not resonate as much with in the beginning, that I got so much out of.
Jodie