Planning a Money Philosophy

Choose what you believe about money—and how you want to create value.

If you wanted to make more money, would your first thought be that you'd have to work more hours?

That answer tells you something about your money philosophy.

Most people I talk to connect money with time. They think earning more requires giving more hours, and that puts a limit on what they believe they can create.

I want to offer you a different philosophy: value creates money, and your mind creates value.

Instead of simply accepting the beliefs you inherited about earning, you can examine them and decide what you want to believe on purpose.

Take time out of the equation

Even when you're paid by the hour, the person paying you isn't buying an hour of your existence. They're paying for the value you create during that hour.

That distinction matters. If you believe time creates money, your life can become a series of hours you need to get through in order to receive cash.

If you believe value creates money, you begin asking a different question: how can I create more value?

Could you make the same amount in half the time? In one-tenth of the time? Could you make ten times as much in the same amount of time?

If your brain immediately says no, notice the belief underneath that answer. It may be insisting your income is limited by the number of hours you have.

When you remove that constraint and focus on value, you open your mind to a different level of possibility. In this philosophy, there is no limit to the value you can create, the money you can make, or how fast you can make it.

Your mind is your most valuable asset

If value creates money, where does value come from?

I believe it comes from our minds. We think of ideas, create solutions, and offer things other people value. In that way, our minds create money.

I learned an important distinction from watching my mother. She inherited money when she was young and focused on taking care of it and growing it. Alongside that was a fear of losing it.

As a child, I knew I didn't want to feel dependent on money to take care of me. My mother also deliberately taught me not to rely on another person to provide for me.

Those two lessons led me toward depending on myself and my ability to create value.

Someone could take away money I'd saved or things I'd bought. I would still have my mind and the ability to create again. That is why I consider my mind my most important asset.

Invest in the asset that creates value

When I had money to invest, I often invested in my mind. I studied, read, got coaching, and worked on the thoughts I was practicing.

I paid attention to what I believed and how I used my thinking. That work helped me create value for my clients.

Ask yourself how you would live differently if you truly believed your mind was your most valuable asset.

What would you put into it? What would you teach it? What would you ask it to focus on? How would you care for it?

That question gives you a different place to begin than searching for the job, investment, niche, or person that will finally deliver money to you.

You can develop the mind that creates value.

Make contribution the focus

My primary focus is taking care of my mind and using it to create value for other people. Money is the byproduct.

Creating value is connecting, exciting, and satisfying. It asks us to grow and contribute.

Trying to get money while skipping the value is a different experience. That puts you in scarcity and misses the reason someone would pay in the first place.

You can want to help people and welcome the money created through that help. You don't have to dismiss money as unimportant to prove that your contribution matters.

Money can buy your time back

We often think time creates money. I want you to consider the reverse: money can create time.

You can hire someone to clean your house, assist in your business, or take care of projects. Then you can spend your time where you create more value.

In my business, coaching and teaching are areas where I believe I can create tremendous value. When I was spending much of my time managing the company, I could see the difference between the value I created there and what I could create through coaching.

Money gave me the ability to consider hiring support so I could spend more time in my strongest work.

This isn't about doing everything yourself or proving how many hours you can work. It's about recognizing where your mind can create the most value and using your resources to support that.

Start where you are

You may think creating more value in your current job won't immediately earn you more money.

I want you to look beyond that immediate exchange. You're teaching your brain how to create more value and how to perform at the top of its capacity. The return may not come through that particular job, but you're developing the asset you take with you.

Tell your mind how you want it to think and how you want to show up. At the end of the day, ask whether you created the most value you could.

Ideas, thoughts, and attitudes are where this work begins. Your thoughts create your feelings, which drive your actions and results.

Don't inherit a money philosophy without examining it. Write down what you believe about time, earning, value, and your ability to create.

Then consider the philosophy I'm offering: your mind creates value, value creates money, and money can buy back your time.

Decide what you want to believe and start living it on purpose.