How To Financially Succeed In 2022 | Top Financial Attitudes

Hey friend, happy new year! So, you probably have some pretty big hairy audacious financial goals for the coming year and today I want to talk about what is ACTUALLY required of you if you REALLY want to succeed with your money AND especially if you want to grab this year by its horns and start eliminating your debt.

And just so you don’t dismiss me as just another “fake financial guru” on YouTube, my perspective comes out of my own experience in 1) obliterating $174,000 of my own personal debt in 2.5 years AND more importantly 2) my experience in helping hundreds of our financial coaching students through their own debt elimination process.

So today, I want to talk about the 4 non-negotiable hallmarks of ALL of our most successful students and THEN walk through the pivotal first three steps of our coaching process, so you can benchmark yourself and see IF you actually have what it takes to cross the finish line to getting control of your money and working your way to debt-elimination and ultimately to financial independence..

And real quick, thanks for liking or disliking, subscribing and leaving a comment, or two or three sharing what you had for breakfast and what you plan on doing with your debt.

Introduction

So every week, I see dozens of new folks joining our private Facebook group answering the intake questions about why you want to join the group.

Most of the commentaries go something like this:

“I want to work on reducing my debt.”

“I want to be surrounded by like minded people.”

“I’m looking for tips and tricks on how to…”

“I want to get better at budgeting.”

And while these are all good and noble pursuits, I want to compare them to the 4 traits of most of my most successful private financial coaching students.

Our most successful financial coaching students look like this:

1. They Are “Sold Out”  

They’re passionate about changing their situation. They’re beyond “tips and tricks” and “trying things”, “hunting and pecking”, they are on fire, ready to go and willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. 

Many times they’ve tried just about every tip and trick under the sun and have finally come to the end of themselves.

And, MANY of our students come to us having been through financial coaching courses like Dave Ramsey’s FPU anywhere from 1-4 times and are STILL struggling.

By the time they get to us, they realize that there are some elements missing to their process and that DIY-ing it is just not going to work and so they’re “sold out” to doing whatever it takes to ACTUALLY get results.

2. They Are Totally Surrendered

 Normally because they’ve tried everything they can in terms of being a “consumer” of financial education products, they realize that there isn’t a “pill” you can take or a product you can buy to fix your situation as the “financial guru marketing industrial complex” would tell them.

They come to the realization that in order to affect real change, they’re going to have to change. And even though they may still be a little foggy on all the exact ways they need to change, they’re surrendered to the process of real and effectual discovery.

And even more than that, once they learn all the elements of the most effective process and the results they can get from it, they’re totally surrendered to it, not in a blind, cult-like adherence but more like a “I’ve done it all wrong in the past and I really want to learn how to do it right” kind of way.

3. They Are “Sponge-Like”.

 Because of their past lack of success both financially and in terms of financial education, they come to our content with a very absorptive mentality.

They are eager to explore the reasons for their past behaviors and to put in place systems and accountability that will all but force them to part with their former ways ALL for the purposes of making their money work for them instead of the other way around.

And so, they rigorously ask great questions and ponder how new ideas and principles can be applied to their situations to fast track them toward their goals.

4. They Show Up Every. Single. Day. 

 No matter whether it’s one of my YouTube Live budgeting sessions every Wednesday at 10am EST, one of our monthly group coaching sessions in our private coaching community or a 1:1 coaching session, they show up. 

Yes, they show up ready, pen and paper in hand, ready to pick up even one small nugget of wisdom, practice or insight that will help them close the distance between where they are and their financial goals.

They have an ongoing open mindedness to improving, even by as little as 1%, toward their financial goals.

So, these are the 4 non-negotiable traits of our most successful financial coaching students like our most recent graduate Jordan, who paid off just under $30,000 in debt in under 3 months earning less than $50k per year. 

Now, if that sounds impossible to you, it may be because you’re just not ready to do whatever it takes to free yourself like Jordan was.

The First 3 Steps

Okay, so now that you have an idea in your head as to the mindset of some of our most successful students, I want to 1) peel back the curtain on the 3 first steps of our financial coaching process and let YOU 2) determine your level of readiness to engage and sort of “self-assess” your likelihood of sticking with it.

After all, the ENTIRE goal of this exercise is to help you make a sober-minded assessment of the true cost of ACTUALLY addressing your financial situation and ultimately of eliminating your debt.

Sadly, many start but few finish. And the question is, “which will you be?”

And by the way, all three of these documents are freely available in our “Free Guides & Printables” Library, link is in the video description below.

Step 1: Start With Why

 Now, if you’re multitasking, I want you to come back here with me for a second…

This may sound a little “fluffy” to you, but I can tell you that your response to these questions will ultimately determine your success or failure in this process.

Let’s walk through the questions.

Step 2: Everything I Owe

 This is part of what I call the “pre-budgeting” or financial organization step. This is where you log into your bank accounts, credit card accounts, loan statements, etc. and REALLY come clean about EVERYTHING you owe including, bills, expenses AND debts.

This step alone can be overwhelming to most of our students, and that’s where we implement a couple of micro strategies to help them manage the anxiety and complete the exercise successfully.

Step 3: The “Crappy First Draft” Budget

 No one is a born budgeter. I’ll say it again, no one is a born budgeter. It’s going to take you about 90 days to get good at it. It’s okay. It’s normal and we have to start somewhere.

And where we start is with the “crappy first draft”. If you’re a writer or ever had to write a term paper in high school or college, you’ll likely remember some form of this “bad first draft” or “crappy first draft” idea.

Setting the expectation that the only way to succeed with budgeting is to jettison perfectionism, dive into it, do a crappy first draft, then another, then another and in about 90 days, you’ll arrive at a place where you’re within an inch of being an expert.

I’ll leave a link in the description below for a free budgeting workshop that will help you get started.

Conclusion

Okay, now that I’ve shared the mindset of our most successful students AND the first few steps of our process, my question for you is: Are you sold out? Are you totally surrendered? Are you ready to be a sponge? Are you ready and willing to show up Every. Single. Day.? I hope so. Because I can honestly say that’s what it’s going to take IF you’re REALLY serious about getting control of your money and sacking your debt.

Remember how I mentioned earlier that if you stuck around I’d offer you a resource to help address overwhelm?

If you struggle with any of what I’ve talked about today and you constantly feel isolated about it, I’ve got some great news for you. It’s our private financial coaching community, ZeroDebt+ and we’ve opened it for new students for a limited time.

We only open it a couple of times a year, so make sure to click the link below and apply to join us.

Struggling Or Feeling Alone?

Join Our Private FB Group: Zero Debt Tribe

Now, if this decision process is something you struggle with and you constantly feel isolated about, I’ve got some great news for you and it’s free.

Our private Facebook group, ZeroDebtTribe. It’s a group of like minded people that are all somewhere along this P2P/debt-elimination/on their way to FI continuum. So click the image above and apply to join us. :)

How can ZeroDebtCoach help you? 4 ways...

1. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and click the notifications bell to make sure you get our new videos every week. 

2. Download one of our free personal finance guides. You’ll learn some of the exact strategies I teach my private coaching students on how to organize and optimize their finances, obliterate debt and move on to financial independence by starting and growing online businesses.

3. If you’re looking for a community of motivated and like-minded people, go ahead and get on the waitlist to join our private financial coaching community. We only open it for new students a couple of times a year, so make sure to get on the waitlist.

4. If you need some help right now because you’ve got a burning issue, you need a problem solved, you want to talk through a complex situation, click on the button below.

All that said, let's keep on building your financial acumen and make this your best year yet!

Thanks so much for reading and we’ll see you in the next video post!

Some Of My Most Popular Posts

100 Frugal Ways To Save Money And Get Out Of Debt

30 Day Debt-Elimination Quick-Start Challenge

Budgeting 101: How To Build A Budget (You Can Actually Stick To)

What To Do When You Can't Pay Your Bills - Dave Ramsey's "4 Walls"

18 Expenses You Should Obliterate From Your Budget

How To Start Budgeting When You're Terrible At It

8 Steps To Erase Debt - And Get Your Life Back

9 Things We Do To Save Money Like "The Millionaire Next Door"

7 Budgeting Mistakes We All Make (And How To Correct Them)

What Is Financial Coaching?

$43k Paid Off!

The 4 Most Popular Reasons People Seek Financial Coaching

When Is It Okay To Say "I Can't Afford It"

How To Get Your $1000 Emergency Fund - Fast!

12 Things We Don't Spend Money On

How To Be Financially Prepared For The Coming Recession

11 Irregular Expenses You Probably Forgot To Budget

4 Not-So-Obvious To Rewrite Your Budget Every Month

12 Things You Should Buy At The Dollar Store And 5 You Shouldn't