Money Tips » Instant Motivation

If sorting out your money was easy, you'd have done it already. So here's a cool way to make sure you last the distance.

There are two ways you can get yourself motivated. You can dangle a carrot in front of your nose and really big up the pleasure you'll get from making a change. Or you can find a big enough stick to beat yourself with and when it hurts enough you'll be motivated to move away from the pain. To get really truly on fire with motivation, you need a fierce combo of both.

Towards/Pleasure
This is the really shiny and engaging stuff, the reason to get out of bed in the morning, the reason to endure temporary discomfort because of the massive rewards at the end of it, the dream lifestyle, the being able to sleep at night, the idea of future riches and millionaire status, all the cool things you can buy and do with money.
Next, you need to set 'leverage.' Leverage means: associating enormous pain with carrying on with the behaviour that got you into money trouble in the first place. And associating huge pleasure with changing your behaviour and doing everything it takes to get on top of your cash and be truly financially intelligent. You can do that, can't you? Course you can.
Here are some top leverage tips to get you started. Nobody knows your own mind like you do, so feel free to  adapt and build on them to create totally individual ultra-motivation.

Towards/Pleasure Motivation: Coaching Tips
1. Future Pace – think of any good financial habits you have. Now project them 20 years into the future – what good things and results will you get if you keep on going? How will your life be different when you get to where you want to be?

2. Make it mean something: Have you ever stopped and thought about what money really means to you? To you wealth can mean security, peace of mind, choice, self-expression. It can cushion you against life's darker side and give you freedom – both freedom to, and freedom from. With money, you don't have to put up with as much – it gives you options. As Groucho Marx said: 'Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike nearly everything, money is handy!' Money can of course also mean more tangible things: your own business, own home, posh cars and foreign holidays, luxuries and good times. Ultimately only you can tune into the particular frequency of Radio 'What's-in-it-for-me?' in a way that really whets your appetite. One financial freedom-hunter put it like this: "I want to be free to travel the world and live the lifestyle I love, and I want this to happen while I'm young. I want to simply be free, to have control over my life and my time, not owe it to anyone. I want money to work for me, not the other way round". So what's your version? What makes the journey of sorting your money feel important and worthwhile to you – what's the compelling and energizing future dream you want to move towards?

3. Tick Things Off. A bit like a Blue Peter Totaliser:  create a graph or a list of debts broken down into units of £100 (or whatever) and deliberately fill them in or cross them off as you pay them off. For creative visualization, create a picture or slogan which sums up your ultimate goal and carry it with you/stick it on the bathroom mirror/car dashboard/your screensaver at work – create a dream board, cutting out pictures of how you want things to be – and look at it every day.

4. Get support, use your friends. Get a money buddy. Better still, get yourself a mentor. You're not alone – you're not naked in a room full of people who are dressed, you've done difficult things before and sorting out your money is way easier, and so worth it for the freedom, possibility, peace of mind and unleashing of your potential you get at the end of it. Go and talk on the discussion forum boards and find out how not alone you are. There are people in the world who've been in far more shit with money than you could ever be, and have successfully got themselves out of it. Find them, talk to them, get inspiration and crafty tips from them. You don't have to reinvent the wheel here. In turn, pass on what you know and support other people.

5. Big up the small stuff: If you get a bit impatient or dispirited, remind yourself that every little action you take is moving you a step closer towards a better life. The process may take months or years, but with each payment you're getting closer to becoming debt free and then rich, and you'll be free to pay yourself more and more and enjoy what money brings you.

6. Cultivate daydreams. Give yourself permission to dream big and tell yourself that you can have it all. Visualise yourself earning the kind of money you need to reach your goals. Write it down, read it, talk about it, think about it – lots. Form a mental picture and make it bigger and brighter – bring it to life and feel the way you would if it was happening right now. Imagine what your future self (who's made it) would say to your current self (who's starting out on the journey). If this stuff interests you, Kikass Coaching will be right up your street: check it out!

7. What do you love? What do you like doing? What counts as treat for you? Have a think about this now. Doing what you're passionate about is a great way of finding business opportunities and ways to generate more cash, because it's work that seems like play and less of an effort. This'll be useful in the Close The Gap 'Increase Income' section. Next, look at what would be a low-cost way of rewarding yourself for those moments when working on your money can seem like a never-ending slog. Create "mini-carrots" for yourself to keep you going. And then pick an ultimate juicy prize to look forward to when you hit a major milestone like clearing ALL your debt or making your first £500 in your investment fund.

Away From/Pain motivation: Coaching Tips
1. Future Pace – think of any bad financial habits you have. Now project them 20 years into the future – what's going to happen if you keep on going without getting a grip and changing?  What will your life be like? Try to feel how you will feel if that's all you've got in 20 years time.  If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got.

2. Make it real by using discomfort. Do something radical like ripping up a £20 note or leaving it on the street in order to bring home the reality of those even-more-expensive bank/credit card charges you waste every month. The pain will shock you into taking control.

3. Get angry. Do you want to be a sitting duck, a punter just waiting to be sold more stuff to, by the Matrix of commercial consumption? Or would you rather have choice? The System trades on your weakness. Those huge financial profits are fuelled by human error. Big  companies expect you to behave a certain way, to be too lazy to change, too ignorant of the real costs of buying their products. They don't want you to think before you buy things - because if enough people get out of debt, they'd go out of business! Shine a light on that bogeyman and show yourself just how small and beatable and do-able it actually is. Don't be a victim of this system – get wise to its wiles and break free while you still can.

4. Visualise your worse-case scenario: Visualise yourself getting into debt you can never get out of, never being able to leave home and stop renting and live independently, being unable to support yourself, being ill and lonely and too poor to do anything about it…now make that picture bigger and brighter so it really brings it home to your subconscious mind what the future will be like unless you change.

5. Understand the pain of debt. It's often only when you get debt-free that you realise what a pressure cooker feeling you've been struggling under when your money doesn't belong to you. Debt saps your power, choice, freedom and energy. It takes years and years and years to pay off (unless you get clever about it, as the plans on this site direct). It feels like a heavy burden and like a trap – because it is. You're trapped into needing more stuff, that promotion, the good opinion of some boss or company or organisation. Even the things you buy to relieve the pain of debt and work stress end up plumping up your credit card balance. Debt is a hole – stop digging immediately.

6. Find your Dark Side: Call to your mind all those negative emotions commonly surrounding money – fear, anxiety, overwhelm, shame, anger, worry, frustration, insecurity, stress – never being able to fully 100% enjoy yourself because those little debt-gremlins keep nagging away at you and you're always worrying about how you'll pay for what you're supposed to be enjoying. It's a half-life. You deserve a full one. And nobody can change your situation but you. What would it be like to change that?

And with that lovely thought, it's time now for you to go and indulge in your favourite chocolate bar and then head straight back to the top of this section for the Towards/Pleasure bit to revitalise your enthusiasm. Or if you're feeling particularly traumatised, go and post in the forum for some support and cheerleading…
Use these ideas to build enough pain to motivate you to overcome your fears and procrastination to take the action you need to get out of debt and take charge of your financial future. Remember you also need to know what you're heading towards so make sure you've also built a 'dream bank' of pleasure to move towards…