Your journey to financial success begins with the motivation to make the changes you need.

If you’ve ever tried to lose weight and get in shape, you’ll know there are no instant solutions. As with any other big new life stage, you’ll need to be ready for changes to achieve your financial goals. You must allow yourself to dream, and be confident that your dreams can become reality.

The key to taking control of your finances is to make peace with the biggest mental obstacle – the money mistakes that you’ve made in the past. Fixating on these is what needlessly stops many of us from going forward.

Everyone makes mistakes and wastes money, but you can move on from this instead of getting stuck. The first step is to acknowledge them and forgive yourself. To do this, you can write your feelings down or even scream out loud if you need to. Getting your pent-up emotions out there is often therapeutic and will help you let go.

It’s a question of inner determination to succeed. Once you realize that the past is in the past, you’ll no longer need to judge or blame yourself for what has already happened, and can focus on the future. Just like with committing to exercise, you can buy all the fancy gear in the world, but if your heart isn’t in it, it won’t help you build up those muscles.

The next step is to learn the lessons from your mistakes and start changing your approach to money.

To identify those lessons, a good strategy is to pick up that pen and paper again and do some serious reflection. Note down all the wrong turns you’ve taken with money in your past, no matter how big or small. And then write about what you can learn from this and how you can do better in the future.

This will be your recipe for action. For example, if in the past you had a tendency to spend more than necessary on designer handbags and never got around to saving, you can decide to save $5 a week right now. Even if it’s a tiny amount, it’s the consistency of the action that will set you on the right track and help you believe that a different financial future is possible.

BOLA SOKUNBI is a Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI), investor, finance expert, speaker, podcaster, influencer, and the founder and CEO of Clever Girl Finance. She empowers women to achieve real wealth and live life on their own terms.

Source: https://www.blinkist.com/en/books/clever-girl-finance-en