My grandmother was a very frugal woman who often told me “if you will mind your pennies your dollars will mind themselves.” I hope to share here some of her wisdom and the wisdom of others I have learned over the years

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Achieving Goals and Debt Freedom with the Power of Positive Thinking



A few days ago someone on the Dave_Ramsey_Debt_Beaters@yahoogroups.com list, posted basically the idea that you should just go for it and try something new.  A very good thought.  After all of us on that list hadn’t “gone for it” we wouldn’t be here becoming debt free.

That same night as I listened to coast to coast on the free intune radio on my phone via pillow speakers I realized their subject for the evening went hand in hand with what had been posted, TMMO and all our attitudes on that plan.

The speaker was very interesting he went into various studies that had been on the power of positive thinking, thinking he would disprove the theory entirely.  Only he found that it did work instead.

He cited many instances of the sugar pill as a control group theory, but he went past that and discussed how not only can we improve our situation with positive thinking and prayer (which is positive thinking when you think about it) but how we can hold ourselves back with negative, or the lack of thinking.

The example he cited of that was the hard working hotel and office housekeeping staffs all across the nation.  He pointed out that in reality most of them worked hard and burned far more calories than most people do on a daily basis.  But a study showed that as a whole they seldom lost weight when obtaining this type of work.  Further study showed that it was because  they thought of it as a “job” not exercise and therefore with that mental mindset, even though they were burning more calories than they previously had they didn’t lose weight.

To prove this they did a study where the control group was told nothing of the theory, but the other group was.  The control group lost zero weight, where the informed group lost considerable weight doing the exact same jobs. 

It is kind of the same with following the TMMO.  It is not a new concept.  Dr says that himself “exact same advice as grandma…”, but some people never achieve being debt free and living like no one else, because they are just “doing the job” and they see every tiny set back as a complete failure on their part.  While others see the goal, see the day to day accomplishments, the pennies saved here and there that soon mount up to dollars saved and they achieve it.

He said this concept works on all aspects of our lives.  We should feel good about what we do accomplish each day and tell ourselves this on a daily basis, be positive, not negative.

His suggestions was each day when you lay in bed for those first few golden moments between sleep and being fully away and at it for the day, and again just as you are falling asleep you should tell yourself something positive and repeat it twenty times.

An example” I am a list maker I set 12 goals for myself a day.  Most days I don’t reach all 12 goals because life happens, but then the world won’t end if I don’t accomplish them.  In fact I often get frustrated I don’t get more accomplished.  So I am trying his positive thinking theory. 

So now each morning I say “I did better on my goals yesterday than I’ve been doing” and at night I say “I did better on my goals today than I’ve been doing.”  And guess what I am.  I also repeat this on and off all day, along with “I am burning extra calories by doing this and I will lose weight.”  I’ve only been doing this a short while, so no noticeable weight loss yet, but it can’t hurt to be positive about losing weight now can it?

So I challenge you to be positive about yourself, and achieve your dreams.  Our totally debt free dream is very nearly a reality because we were positive we could do it and you can too.

Jan who is the official Pollyanna of the Dave Ramsey group on yahoogroups.com in OK