The following is an interview with my favorite financial mentor and coach, Todd Tresidder.
Todd: What happens to you when you open a closet that you have been meaning to clean forever or when you think about those tax files that remain unfiled? What's your self-talk? Jeanna: What a slacker! What a slob! Todd:That's exactly what most people say.
It's all negative self-talk.
And how does negative self-talk make you feel? Not good! Anything that is incomplete drains your energy.
It's not the undone thing that causes the pain; it's your attachment to it that causes the pain.
Even a fight between friends, where there is an unfinished conversation needing to happen, will drain your energy.
Imagine a thread from you to it, the undone thing.
You are connected to anything that is unfinished.
Wealth takes a lot of energy.
If you have lots of energy going out to all these unfinished things, you won't have energy to focus on creating wealth.
I don't buy off on that it's easy to create wealth.
It takes energy; focus and an in depth look at yourself and who you are.
I'm shooting for a deep sense of meaning and happiness in my life.
Jeanna: Why is it hard? Todd: I may have to push myself to go through some hard stuff emotionally, mentally.
Growth is not always easy.
It's hard work for me to sit down everyday to write.
Once I start, I get lost in it and I enjoy it.
It requires discipline to do the thing I need to do to get me where I want to go.
Jeanna: When you take an action that you know will support you in your goal, it gives you confidence.
When you don't take the action you start the self-negative talk, which is an instant confidence killer.
Todd: How you do the small things in your life is how you do the big things.
When I work out I'll make a goal of going forty minutes full out.
This is how I also take on the more important goals in my life.
I play full out.
When you develop patterns it gives you strength and power.
Imagine if you have a pattern of always failing or giving up.
What happens when you are into a twelve-year compounding investment and it goes into a slight downturn and you throw in the towel? You build character by building on the positive habits and patterns.
I keep questioning my current patterns.
I have a pattern in my house of making breakfast, then making phone calls and checking email and I don't get productive until 12pm.
I keep questioning if this is the smartest way for myself and my family to reach our goals.
And yes, it's complicated.
I have a family with each of our own goals.
Life is the art of practice like your audiotape, Jeanna.
You and Lance were right on in that tape.
Your habits determine your health and your wealth.
Jeanna: What is the best way to get the energy drains handled? Todd: Deal with it.
Find the biggest one, the hardest one, and handle it.
The one you most want to avoid.
Handle them one at a time.
Build your confidence.
It's a process.
The best way is to not let energy drains even happen.
Every time you see something you haven't dealt with, it's an energy drain.
If you have a stack of paper that you see, it calls to you every time you walk in the office.
There is a reason for handling unfinished business.
What do you want to achieve from life? What do you really want? Guess what? Every single thing that is an energy drain is keeping you from accomplishing what you want.
It takes energy to achieve goals, but you won't have it if it's sucked by unfinished business.
You can create a system to get taxes done.
Every month you take an action on it and come January, you'll be ready to hand over everything to your accountant and they'll be done on time.
This creates a positive force.
You've got to keep negative energy drains out.
Jeanna: Action is a good thing!