Recently two of my favorite bloggers – Steve Pavlina and Trent Hamm of The Simple Dollar -  had a disagreement about the nature of, and uses for, money. It started when Steve wrote a post suggesting that if you want to increase the amount of money you make, you should begin to act as if you already have access to that money. He gave the following example:

Make a list of other changes you’ll implement as more money begins to flow into your life, such as upgrading your computer, overhauling your wardrobe, taking a nice vacation, or buying more organic produce. Imagine that those things are becoming part of your daily routine. Implement those changes when you can afford to.

Trent took this advice as the height of irresponsible money management. He argues that taking steps like that will only lead to lifestyle inflation that will leave you in the same shape that you started out with:

If your salary doubled tomorrow, what is the first thing you’d do? In Pavlina’s world – and in far too many people’s world – the first response is to head out and start buying stuff.

There’s one big problem with that, though. As soon as you start buying more expensive stuff and settle into a more expensive life pattern, your “standard” expenses go up. You now require more money than you did before to maintain your basic lifestyle.

I took notice of this disagreement for one reason – both of the arguments here are correct. What makes them interesting is that they represent two completely different mindsets with respect to money. In Trent Hamm’s world, each person has access to a certain amount of money. That amount may be quite high, but is certainly not infinite. Because of that, it’s not good to keep inflating your lifestyle with each pay raise. It’s important to save money and plan for times when you might not have access to as much.

In Steve Pavlina’s view, money is just another manifestation of energy, emotion and human thought. There is no limit on how much can be made available. While saving money isn’t bad, it won’t be necessary if you keep manisfesting more through a combination of thought, intention and action.

Because these two people approach this aspect of life in completely different ways, they come to completely different conclusions about how to act in certain situations. This is a perfect illustration that mindset is a fundamental driver of human behavior.

Mindset Makes All the Difference

When many people try to create change, they attempt to do so from the outside in. For example, if someone wants to lose weight, he or she usually starts by changing his or her diet, or exercising, or both. While these are important steps to take, there is one other step that is at least as important: he or she has to stop thinking like a overweight person and start thinking like a helathy person. Many people never make that transition.

Do you wonder why so many people lose weight and then just gain it all back – and more – again?

If the underlying mindset does not change, the recently slimmed down person will just go back to the same patterns of thinking and the behavior that results from that. They will continue to get the same results they’ve always had. This not only applies to weight loss, but to every other behavior change you can imagine.

By way of another example, I have struggled for years to become one of those super-efficient early risers that are so popular out in the personal development blogosphere. I’ve gone through periods of getting up at 5:00am to meditate, or 5:30 to get a quick workout in, or 5:45 to try to beat the traffic to work.

It never lasts. Within a couple of weeks (or seconds), I find myself pushing back the alarm, or hitting the snooze button, or coming up with some excuse.

The problem is I haven’t started to think of myself as an early riser. I’m still a person that enjoys sleep more than efficiency.

Does That Visualization Stuff Actually Work?

The good news is that there are ways to transform your mindset and help your positive changes take hold. Some of the techniques seem a bit difficult to me. For example, I’ve never been able to get into self-hypnosis. One thing I’ve found helpful in my own life is the use of deliberate visualization.

As I mentioned in my post about Positive Thinking Day, I’m not a natural optimist. However, I decided several years ago that life is more fun when viewed through an optimistic lens. I set about to become more positive about life and used a lot of visualization techniques in the process. For example, I will actually set aside time to visualize something that I plan to do in the near future – things like going to the beach or seeing friends – and visualize myself having a good experience. I will imagine myself smiling and laughing and generally enjoying myself.

9 times out of 10, I have a good time after one of these sessions. I’ve established the mindset that the activity will be enjoyable, so it is. If instead I go to a party, get together (or meeting, hmmm) with the mindset that it will be a chore, it usually is. If you’re a natural optimist this may seem obvious, but it took me years to figure out!

The same types of visualization techniques can work for many behavior changes. To pick on our person trying to lose weight, in addition to their diet and exercise, I would prescribe 10 minutes a day of thinking about their new, slim body and their healthy lifestyle and habits. After enough time (and it could take months) they will begin seeing themself as a slim person, even if their external reality hasn’t quite caught up yet. Their is a big mental difference between being a slim person trapped in an overweight body and an unhealthy, overweight person who happens to be slim. In time, all things revert to their conditioned state.

No matter what change you would like to make, take 10 minutes right now to visualize the situation as you want it to be. Then take deliberate action toward that. The combination of the two techniques will move you farther in the direction of your dreams in no time!

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