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If you are going to achieve anything, you need to believe you can do it. Henry Ford once famously said that “people who believe they can do something and people who believe they can’t are both right”, and although that isn’t 100% correct – it is close enough.
There are self-help books out there that will tell you that all you need to do is believe in the impossible, and the impossible will come true.
That’s not us. That’s not you. Instead, all we want you to do is believe in the possible, and this will make the possible come true.
Yes you can. Say it to yourself. “I can be a millionaire”.
Say it again a bit stronger.
Here’s a true story. A long time ago, I had got on a plane and travelled thousands of miles from my home to Singapore, where I needed to get a job before running out of money. I had an interview for a job, but needed it so much, that I had become a little nervous.
I was staying in Chinatown in Singapore, in the cheapest place available (yes, it was actually $7 a day for bed and breakfast!), and all around there were still all the old traditional medicine shops that sold bizarre teas, and had walls stacked full of jars of mushrooms, fungi, seeds, flowers, and who knows what. It didn’t look like medicine; it looked more like magic.
Perhaps that’s what I was thinking about when I walked past one on the way to this desperate interview. I thought maybe they would have some magic that would help me get the job, so I went in.
The manager of the shop looked at me and knew immediately that I didn’t know what I was doing there, so asked if he could help me. I couldn’t ask for a magic potion that would get me the job, but I thought of the next best thing. I told him I was going for a job interview, and asked if he had anything that could make me more confident.
I was very lucky he and his other customers didn’t laugh me out of the shop, and perhaps I was even luckier that he didn’t sell me some concoction that did nothing for confidence to just take my money.
And he was right. I needed to be more confident. I needed to tell myself I could do this, that I could pass the interview and do the job.
I did, and although the job only lasted a couple of months, it taught me the importance of telling myself I can tell myself to do things.
Why should you do this?
If you find it easy today to save and invest $7 a day (then save more!) there may be days when it is harder. There could be lots of reasons why it could get harder. You might feel pressured to spend more. Other people might not understand why you are saving so much and might want you to stop. You might feel lazy or tired or convince yourself you need a holiday that will spend all your savings. You might not have the money.
At times like those you will need to really, really believe you are able to continue when it is much harder. Your belief muscles will need to be really strong to push the doubts that naturally come up when times are tough. You’ll need to have built those belief muscles during the easier times.
If you think about it, you never get to be really good at things without practising. Runners go for training runs all the time so that when it gets tough, they have the physical and mental muscles to push through. They can’t just turn on their self-belief when they need it. They need to practise believing when things are easier.
It’s the same with saving. You need to practise saving so you get better at it, and you need to practise believing in your ability to save so that when times are tougher, you still believe.
Talking positively to yourself, telling yourself you can do the things you need to do, is 100% free. Find a mantra you want to repeat to yourself, and then it shouldn’t cost a penny or cent to say it every single day.
Of course, there are books, meditation apps, courses, and even retreats that will charge you a lot of money to do the same thing, but in the end, it will be you telling yourself that you can do it. That should be free, and you can learn to do it for free.
When you want to save $7 a day, free stuff is good. Free stuff that makes you stronger to get more free stuff is better!
The only way to do it is to practice, and the only time to start is now. Write down these sentences somewhere you will see them every day, or save this image on your phone as a lock screen.
Say these things to yourself as often as you can, as regularly as you can, and as energetically and emotionally as you can.
Featured in the FINANCIAL TIMES, and the DAILY TELEGRAPH, our MISSION is to help create millions of millionaires. We want people all over the world to use our simple tools to save emergency funds, turn those into investment plans and create the habit that will help enrich their lives.
If you’re interested in financial literacy, please also look at our new project www.maiawards.org