Uncensored Money Season Five: What if We Applied an Olympians Training Mindset to Our Finances.

Melissa Browne: Ex-Accountant, Ex-Financial Advisor, Ex-Working Till I Drop, Now Serial Entrepreneur & Author, Financial Wellness Advocate, Living a Life by Design | 12/08/2024

 

Show Notes

Like the entirety of the world, Mel and Lawsie have spent the past few weeks with their eyes glued on the Olympics. Watching these extraordinary athletes, has made them ask the question, What if we applied a high performing mindset to our finances?

In this episode of Uncensored Money, Mel and Lawsie talk about eight things we can learn from elite athletes and apply to our finances. From the power of goal setting to a great coaching team, tune in to find out what tips we can take from our Olympians.

Books and resources mentioned in this episode

• My Financial Adulting Plan

If you're on insta, come play over at @MelBrowne.Money and make sure you’re signed up to Mel's Money Musings for more tips, tricks and ideas on how to best work with your money.

Finally, if you love this episode please make sure you subscribe and leave us a review.

Transcript

Mel: Hey everyone. I'm Mel Browne. I'm an ex-accountant and ex-financial advisor, so I have the theory, but I also have the life experience. I'm now financially independent in my own right after coming back from less than nothing in my early thirties. I want this podcast to be like a chat with your girlfriends about money. My aim is to help you discover why you're behaving the way you are with money, to suggest new ways you might behave that are a better fit for you, and to increase your financial literacy and financial confidence. I hope it inspires challenges, educates and empowers you with how you do money. So let's get into it. Welcome to Uncensored Money.

Mel: So today we wanna talk about money and high performing particularly because I don't know about you, but Lawsie and I have been binge watching the Olympics. Everything from Jess Fox who the bald sexy man is over or has been over 'cause he'll be back now. Yay. By the time you listen to this, but has been over supporting that team for 12 weeks to the Italian swimming team. Let's be honest, all women are supporting them. Thank you so much <laugh> to Simone Biles to Noah Lyles and so many more other freaking athletes. But what I thought when I was watching it is not how to become an Olympic athlete or a high performing athlete. Lawsie, I think you and I can both acknowledge that's not gonna happen.

Lawsie: Wouldn't happen with all the coaching in the world it's never gonna happen.

Mel: See there are some circumstances where it doesn't matter what you believe, it's simply not gonna happen. But what I wanted to do is ask the question, what would it mean to apply a high performing mindset to our finances? And so what I did is I went and looked at, okay, what do so many of these athletes talk about doing? And I've broken it up to eight different things. It doesn't mean that this is the eight that all of the athletes do, but it certainly seemed like commonalities between most of the athletes when they talked about what it meant for them to achieve what they did or what it meant for them to be high performing. These are the eight things that regularly would be drawn out. So Law-dog, let's jump in with number one, which I don't think is gonna be any surprise whatsoever. And that is the power of goals.

Lawsie: Wow, that's profound isn't it?

Mel: I, know, I mean there's no athlete that's there. Just decided six months ago, you know what, maybe I'll go to the Olympics. Like this was a goal that they had to have had at the very least 12 months ago, more likely four years ago or even more likely eight or 12 years ago, that they've pinned somewhere that has meant that they could get up at some ridiculous time and exercise that they said no to the chocolate that they really wanted or that second dessert or they said no to going out with friends and family and birthday parties and so on because this was more important than those other things that might distract them. Your goal obviously is not gonna be the Olympics, but too many people will come to Lawsie and I say, how much do you think I should start saving? Or do you think I should pay down my debt first before I invest?

Mel: Or do you think? And our response is always, well it depends. What do you want? And too few people I think have asked that question. And again, it's not just the power of goals, it's the power of your goals. 'cause It can't be your friend's goals or the goals that your family wants for you or society wants for you. You are not going to do the work that you need to achieve what you want and be high performing unless you are excited about those goals. And it's interesting Lawsie and I just had a conversation prior to this where Lawsie said like What do you still wanna do? Like we, it's interesting how often that comes up laie where we are constantly questioning actually are they still our goals? Are they still my goals? Are they still your goals? So it's the power of goals and revisiting them regularly and saying, no, that's still important to me. Yes I still wanna do that. Okay, let's then keep going. What does that mean? What does that mean for tomorrow? What does that mean for the next seven days, for the next 30 days, for the next 90 days? But I truly believe it has to start there.

Lawsie: Yeah, I think so too. And I think there's also that thing of the power of revisiting your goals too is making sure that they are still the right thing for you to be working towards. Like you're not a, tree

Mel: Because they can change

Lawsie: You can up and you can move and you can change <laugh> like

Mel: So profound.

Lawsie: Of the two of us, I would be the one that would be most guilty of. But I said I'm doing that and that's the goal. But even strangely, I have changed the goals along the way of things that I'm working towards. But the key thing there is still actually having the goal that you're working towards. So you're taking active steps to achieve it. And yes, if you change your pivot as I roll my eyes at that word along the way like that is actually okay as well. Like I think we've seen some of the Olympians already where their, their goal was to get to the Olympics and I was reading one of the guys in the athletics team, I think it was in the decathlon and he is like, love that I've achieved this goal but I'm not coming back for another one.

Mel: Like it's yeah, you know I've done it

Lawsie: And you know, whereas there's others, we've seen them, they're ones that have been up to their like fifth Olympics. I just go, wow, I cannot imagine backing up for that four year cycle every time. Whereas for this guy it was obviously his goal was to do the Olympics but he is also gone and now I'll be working onto something else. Like they don't have to keep going to the point that they're no longer competitive. They can go out on whatever their personal high is. And I think that's the same too for your finances. It's having the goals that you're working towards. But if life happens and something else changes and whatever, then knowing that, okay that's okay. I can park that goal. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> and move on to something else. Or the other thing is if you haven't been making any progress to that goal <laugh>, that should be the red flashing light going. Was that actually your goal? To your point around they have to be your goals. It shouldn't be what everyone else expects of you. So yes, it definitely has to come down to power of goals but it also has to be the right goals for you and that it can change 'cause you're not a tree. Just wanna throw that in there one more time.

Mel: So beautiful. Haven't heard that for the longest time. I love it. The second thing is focus, and we just touched on this, but it's one thing to set goals, but unless you're looking at well what's my focus, what's the next step? What's my action plan as a result of this, then really it's just a magic wishing treat. I can say my goal is to get to the Olympics <laugh>, <laugh>. But I mean we all can say stuff. Yeah but unless you are looking at right, well how can I focus that and what does that mean? And for me, focus and action just are together. And as you said Lawsie, that focus might be this is my next 12 months, this is my next four years. Like I'm really clear after that. I'm not sure what it's gonna look like but I'm so clear on the next 12 months and four years. Or it might be this is where I wanna be by age 60. I'm so hyper-focused on that, that I am happy for the next 15 years to look like this. That focused and action steps is going to change depending on what your goals are, how committed you are to those goals and how audacious those goals are. But goals without focus and action, we really just want to highlight that they are just a magical wishing tree And that is not what this is all about. <Laugh>.

Lawsie: Yeah, strangely, you do have to be able to put in the work and be taking the action to be working towards your goals no matter what they are. And some of it it might be it's really dedicated focus for a particular period of time. It might be for a month or we've got people in the course at the moment that are doing their financial detox. Like their goal is to break their spending habits and bring more awareness to where they're spending their money. So their focus is exactly on that thing of I'm not doing this for a particular period of time. And I think that that's all okay as well. Like you can have those really ultra concentrated times of focus but it doesn't mean that your whole life has to be like that is, you know, you can do that for a season and then change what focus and what action and stuff you'll be taking after that. Or, with the goal of aim of hitting your actual goal that you're working towards. But you can be applying different strategies and taking different action to get there as well.

Mel: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's really important too when we have that focus, you put it somewhere visual even so it might become, so my word a number of years ago was duchess and that's still on my phone 'cause it's just that visual to go actually that's the focus that I have. And again the goals work is that's really telling your articulated activation system in your brain. This is what is important to me, this is what I want you to focus on, this is what I want you to nudge me towards. But as you said, it's coming up with the action plan and the what's the next steps around this so that I know goals are great, focus is awesome, but if I'm not taking steps, then really this is all for naught, which leads us into Point 3 Law-dog, which I'm gonna let you, this is you <laugh>,

Lawsie: I feel like you need to lead this one

Lawsie: For better or worse. I am absolutely a discipline

Mel: Training and disciplinary.

Lawsie: I feel like this is confession time with Lawsie but anyone that knows me knows that this like, I guess it's got pros and cons with it, but obviously if you're looking at been seeing all the things that the people at the Olympics have been doing and achieving and to your point, they haven't just rocked up a week ago and gone, oh yeah, I'll give this a crack. Like there is,

Mel: Although that's an Olympics, I'd like to go and see.

Lawsie: Yeah, <laugh>, you and I could have a crack. Imagine that it comes down to that training and that discipline. Like it's having the drive, which again has to come from the goals and the focus really because you've gotta have this underlying why reason as to why you're gonna keep showing up and doing the same thing. Like swimmer's like ah, kill me now. I could not be going up and down

Mel: Following that line,

Lawsie: That black line for hours on end that they do day after day, week after week, the discipline, month after month, year after year. Like all of those things I just go, no, I think that in itself just shows the discipline that they have to be able to show up and to do that and to be working on the most minute parts of every part of an action that goes into the swimming from the way that they, even when you see them get up on the diving box, like they don't all get into the same position. They're all cute and wide, slightly differently. They've worked with best of the best, you know all of those things to get to that point to be like this is what I need to do. But they're able to show up and we're able to see the end result of all of the hours and years of the training and the discipline with it.

Lawsie: And so I think it is of taking from that and applying it to your finances, it's setting up great routines and habits and stuff that are gonna support you to achieve what you're working towards. It's automating when you get paid, like automating where your money's going, which again helps when you've got goals 'cause you know where you want your money to be going. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. And then also being really well knowing yourself as well. Like it's creating systems. So if you're someone that goes, I know I'm gonna blow every dollar in my bank account, that's just who I am. Well then putting systems and having discipline in around that. So don't tempt yourself. Don't have every single dollar sitting in your bank account. Give yourself a certain amount and you go, well great, if I've blown it, I've blown it. I've gotta wait till I get paid again.

Lawsie: In the same way that for all of the athletes, they're not eating exactly the same food. No they're not following the same programs. I think we saw it with, oh is it Cameron McAvoy, someone that's more swimming orientated than me. But it came out that he totally flipped the way that he was doing his training and stuff for the 50 meter splash and dash down the pool, you know? And he got the gold medal for that. But it was again, he had to change the way that he was training. So his training plan will no doubt look so different to all the others in the pool because he had this other switch that he wanted to do. And I think it's about taking those things and then applying it to your finances. How you do your finances is very different to how I do my finances.

Mel: Yeah

Lawsie: Is very different to so many other people that we work with. But it's just constantly looking at it, reviewing it, changing it, and being really disciplined. Which again, I think comes back to what we're saying. If you've got great goals that you're working towards, you're more likely to be motivated to stick to them. Yes. Life will happen. Yes. There's gonna be emergencies that pop up that are gonna deviate you from your goals. No different to what the athletes have had. How many amazing stories do you hear of people that were gonna give up after the last Olympics and

Mel: The BMX, the Australian BMC winner that was her, yeah. Oh my gosh.

Lawsie: Yeah. So it's just like what can you take from their experiences and then bring it back into us mere mortals in our finances, not quite as sexy as the Olympics. But I think it's, yeah, training and discipline is very, very important

Mel: Yeah. What's that saying? Success is on the other side of consistency and I know I really pushed against that 'cause I don't always love consistency. Having said that, I'm someone that will eat the same thing every single meal and would be so like I do, I have exactly the same thing for breakfast when Tone's away, I ate same thing for lunch, same thing for dinner. I'm quite okay with that. So it's funny that I really like consistency so it's then applying that. But the other thing I'll say is that if you were looking at 10 different Olympic sports, so I loved your example of within swimming, but those 10 different Olympic sports, their goals, their focus, everything is so different. Jess Fox might be doing pull-ups with a ridiculous weight around her waist. Whereas someone else, like a sprinters gonna be working on twitch starts just over and over getting out of those blocks versus someone else, like a gymnast might be on flexibility.

Mel: Like they're all gonna have something else at their training and discipline. A swimmer's gonna just be going up and down that pool and if Jess tried to apply swimmer's training and discipline to her, she's not gonna do well in kayak and canoe. So it's not looking across to what someone else is doing and go, oh maybe I should just do that. I mean absolutely bowerbird the best of habits, et cetera. But I think when we try to apply someone else's goals or focus or training to us and it's not right for us and they're not our goals, then that's why it derails us. Or it feels like an itchy jacket and we abandon it. Or we say, well that doesn't work. I'm not good at money. Like no, you are just a canoeist trying to a train like a swimmer. Let's figure out what's actually right for you.

Mel: Which is everything we do inside our program. But number four I think is really pivotal and that's the power of a great coaching team. Because if I was to pull out Jess as an example, Jess Fox, no, Amy Fox, Tristan Carter and Tim Anderson who is the full athletes that Tony's over there. My husband's supporting, they have a nutritionist, they have a coach, they have a team manager, they have a strength and conditioning guide, they have a physio, they have a psychologist that's just six that are there over with them or working with 'em at the moment. There would've been so many others. So yes, we can do this on our own, but we are gonna get there a lot faster if we have a great team around us. I know in business that's the same. And I know for me I'm super independent and I'm very introverted and I'm also a little bit stubborn.

Mel: So I'm always gonna try and do it myself with no help. Like I just don't want anyone's help. I just wanna do it myself. And the one thing I worked out far later than it needed to be is that if you have a great team around you, if you have a great coach, then you are actually gonna get further. And you and I saw that Lawsie inside, even at our accounting programs we were inside of like I know I'm hyper competitive, we worked with a great accounting coach back in the day that really propelled the success of my accounting firm. Like instrumentally. It's the same for your finances. Like if you've just got people around you that are kind of trying to fuss around with money and do it and no one really knows what they're doing, but they're all trying to figure it out versus being with a great coach, with a great team, with experts that are helping you get there faster. I mean it just makes sense to me that it works for sport, for business and for all areas of our life.

Lawsie: Yes. <laugh>, you are not stubborn boss. Mm. Yeah. And I agree that it is actually something that is applicable to all aspects of life. Like I mean you see the Olympians, they all thank the team, all the people around them, all the support that they've had. 'cause Yes they get to have the glory of standing on their starting blocks or even ultimately on the podium, but they know that it's such a team effort from family and friends as well as all of the professionals that they're working with to get them. And I think it's this, yeah, it is the same for your finances, it's the same for anything that you're actually wanting to be better at though. Like I think I'm the same. I'm like, no, I can figure this out. Yeah I can do this, I can do that. And then suddenly go, oh no, let's actually talk to someone that's an expert in that field and lo and behold, wow, <laugh> the progress that you can make and the things that you learn.

Lawsie: And I know all of those things and yes, part of that is you've gotta have money to be able to do it. Like let's be honest, you do have to have money to do it, but if it's important enough to you and if you can see that it's gonna be able to amplify your success and ultimately in this case bring you more money or bring you the gold medal or whatever it is that you are working towards. And I think it can be the right thing to be putting your money to. But again, it's still tying back to the goals. Like you're not gonna go and hire or engage someone for every single single aspect of your life. It's gotta be what's the right thing in terms of what your goals are, what are the holes in that plan and who do you need to help plug that in. But absolutely it's having the right people around you and also like even just in life like yeah, have some good friends. I don't know, like it's, yeah.

Mel: What do they say that you're, it's you are the, sum of the however many people that you surround yourself with and if you don't have those people bring them in. Yeah.

Lawsie: Or if there's people that are around you that aren't giving you actually what you need, like it's okay to set them free as well. So yes.

Mel: Yeah, yeah. Or move them out. I kind of see that as different circles. Yeah. So they just might be moved back a ring so they're still there. You are not allowing them to have the same impact that you are in a ring will have and they don't need to know they've been moved out.

Lawsie: No, there's no opening and closing ceremony of the rings.

Mel: No, exactly. I move people in and out ring

Lawsie: <Laugh>. I know I'm like a little satellite flying around in space.

Mel: It's helpful. It's really cathartic as well.

Mel: I don't know about you, but sometimes I wish there was an easy way, a silver bullet, a magical unicorn, a fairy godmother ready to grant me three wishes. I mean, think of all the miracle diets, fitness fads, promising a six pack in six weeks, or finance bros promising riches by following this easy formula. Do you believe a word of it?Well, the part that longs for a quick fix might be taken in, but you are smarter than that. Personally, what I believe in is consistency, educating myself, finding an expert to help me, surrounding myself with a community who are going to motivate me to keep going and make me feel like I can do it because they're doing it too or are further down the road than I am. That's exactly what we've created inside the My Financial Adulting Plan. If you feel like you're on top of your finances, you have a plan for this year that you're super comfortable with and have everything you need to make that happen, then just ignore this ad. But for the rest of you, make sure you check out my life-changing 12 week course or for less than the price of a cup of coffee a day. Head to the show notes to join the wait list for the next round. Or you might be lucky enough to find that the doors are open and you can join now.

Mel: Number six is self-talk. I think this is so freaking important. Oh sorry, number five. I skipped over one. Number five, it's 'cause I was so excited about self-talk but actually this one leads into self-talk so we're not gonna miss it. And that's mindset. Belief and visualization. I can't believe you didn't skip over this one. You should see Lawsie's face <laugh>.

Mel: But let's me give you two examples actually. I'm gonna give you three examples from the Olympics. The gymnast, so the American male gymnast on the pommel horse with the eyesight issues. I don't know if you've watched his reels or watched the footage so he can't see. He does it all on feel. And if you've watched him before when he practices he just is off the pommel horse and he's moving his body around visualizing that routine. Like it's extraordinary. Noah Lyles is the same. So Noah Lyles who just won the hundred meters in Sprint, I'm hoping he can back it up with the 200 meters. I love the sprint. So I'm very excited he put it out. I think he tweeted it or put it on Insta. His two times he was gonna do for the a hundred meters and the 200 meters and they were ridiculous like so fast. And he got so much hate for putting that out. But he was like, this is what I'm going to run. And he just has that note. This is my belief, this is my visualization. I'm putting it out there that that's what I'm running. Has he hit it yet? No, but you know what? He's got freaking close and I wonder if he hadn't put that out there or if he'd put a slower time if he actually would've

Lawsie: Achieved what he's got so far.

Mel: Yeah, exactly. Jess Fox is the other one. So she, for the Tokyo Olympics, she wasn't able to train leading up to one of the races. So she would just walk along the course or sit by the course and visualize each gate, this is how I'm going to go up and down the gates. And I know all of the athletes do this for canoe climb. 'cause there's gates where you have to go up or down. They change the course each time. So they will visualize that course after and before they get on it. I think it's the same for our finances and I know we'll all sit differently on this based on how much woo we like and also what money type we are Lawsie sitting very low on it

Lawsie: I appreciate the value of it.

Mel: I would sit medium on it. <Laugh> and I know others sit super high. I so know from sport that this is a thing. And I also know there's research and data. So there was research done with the gym where they sent some people into the gym and I wrote about this in budgets don't work. They sent some people into the gym to do the routine and like to work out et cetera. Like they tested them before, tested them after other people. They just got them to sit there and think about themselves doing it ridiculous. Right? When they tested them both they were essentially the same. And some of the people that visualize it did better. Like ridiculous. The power of our mind is actually unexplored I believe in this area. So that whole mindset, belief, visualization, you can't live here. You can't not have focus, you can't have training and discipline. This is one of

Lawsie: It's an element. Yeah, it's

Mel: An element. But I think it's really important one.

Lawsie: Yeah and I think, I mean as much as we just about it, 'cause I am a little bit more pragmatic and I am very much, for me, I'm gonna lean more into the training and discipline element of this than someone else that really will lead into mindset, belief and visualization and less training and discipline and that's all Okay. But I think it's understanding that there's so many different parts of it and

Mel: The only thing I will say to you is you always believe you could do it.

Lawsie: Yeah. Like

Mel: The UTA 100, your marathons, you're like yeah, I'll do it. I might not do it in a particular time, but of course, course I'll finish it. Like for me that self-belief was always like wow, <laugh>.

Lawsie: Yeah. But it's like I don't necessarily like I would be to have that belief it's come because I know from the training and the discipline for it. Yes. Whereas I know that there's others that would do,

Mel: They'd start with half

Lawsie: The training of whatever. Yes. That I would do. And you know, doubt do heaps better than I do. And they've relied more on the visualization and the belief around it. But whereas I get that from the doing. Mm. So but there's still an element of visualization. There's still, yeah. That's the thing I'm going for. I want to be able to cross that finish line, all of those things. And I think it just depends however you are geared as to which of these elements that you might lean more heavily into or if you historically haven't, then to be able to look and go, oh maybe because I've always leaned into this, it can be self-talk for me if you like self prep. But if I've always leaned into training discipline, maybe I'd actually need to look into more mindset, belief, visualization if I don't feel like I'm achieving what it is that I am working towards. So yeah,

Mel: No I so agree with that. So Saya that BMX Australian woman that we were talking about earlier, she talked about, I saw a post-race interview where she said the night before she pictured herself receiving that gold medal. I'm like, oh. And it was interesting 'cause she said I knew there was gonna be tears when I finished this race. Tears if I won tears if I lost <laugh>. And she said, but she goes, I went to sleep dreaming about okay this is what it's gonna feel like. This is me on the podium. I'm like, oh I love that but I'm with you. Like I will focus more on the what do I need to do? Not the visualization, but I absolutely acknowledge the power of it.

Lawsie: Oh definitely.

Mel: Yeah. Which leads us into six, which I've tried to skip over. And that's self-talk, which is something you and I Law-Dog have had to work really hard on. Personally. I think we're

Lawsie: Very good at self-talk. It might be the negative type, but we're really good at it. Gold medal Winning!

Mel: We're exceptionally good at negative self-talk <laugh>. Yeah. And you and I really have had to work on that. I would say because we are glass half empty people a lot of the time. I think I'm quite positive. I believe it. I'll be able to achieve stuff. But I come at it with a negative mindset. If you go and watch Simone Biles before routine and it was interesting. She actually says you can do this. Like she says those words I can do like she said, I can do this, you can do this. Like for her to be so successful and to still say that.

Lawsie: Yeah, that's

Mel: Just extraordinary

Lawsie: Example. Just says all the reasons why I should have positive self talk <laugh>. Yeah. Yeah.

Mel: So I think there is a lot of research that says like how you talk to yourself matters. It's catching that and saying, right, I'm gonna choose to. And with money, we talk about money stories in week one of the course and part of the reason why I do is it's catching how you talk to yourself. 'cause You might be telling yourself I'm bad at money or certain things about beliefs, about money. And yet the truth is that's simply something you've been passed down and it might be your parents' voice in your head that has become self-talk and a self-fulfilling prophecy that we actually need to shush and rewrite for you so you can have a different voice in your head. My voice instead maybe your voice.

Lawsie: They're beautiful voices.

Mel: <Laugh> Number seven is rest and recovery, which I think is really important both for finance, for business, all of life. My husband is a physio and he obviously has worked with Jess Fox and the team, but he's also worked with NRL, he's worked with cricket, he's worked with so many high performing teams. When he was a, with the NRL working for Penrith Panthers, he used to say to me that often it's a team with the lowest injury rate that will win the competition. That's something that they knew. And part of how you adjust that is yes you're training regime, all of that thing, but also rest and recovery. And I think that's really important. I was talking to a good friend on Friday where they're talking about as a family, not having a phone day on a Sunday, we just need recovery from our being so on digitally. So that's an example of sport. That's an example being on. But again, it can be applied to your finances as well. What do you reckon rest and recovery might look like for finances? Law-dog.

Lawsie: It's gonna depend. Like I think for some people they're on their finances all the time. They're checking the money in their bank account all the time. They're checking what their investments are doing like and doing that all the time, like several times a day and all those kind of things. And that's not healthy. Yes, you need to absolutely have an awareness of it, but I think it's just being aware of what are you doing? It's like people that are checking Instagram every five minutes of the day just looking for that. I think you need to be able to apply. Like if you are someone that is doing that, it's like okay, maybe check it once a day and do you even need to be doing that? Like can you start stepping it back for a week so you can actually use some of that time to look at other things and maybe look at investing or doing things or it's also, like I said before, if you're going hard for a particular goal or something that you're working towards, then it is doing that for a period of time and then letting up. Like it might be

Mel: Maybe easing on the break or sorry, easing off the accelerator for maybe a few months. Yeah.

Lawsie: Because it might be that you go like, I really want a house and I really want that deposit. And I say this from my own experience and again 'cause of the training and discipline and just how I work, but I'll go hard at it. Like I will go, well that's the goal that we're working towards and I have no drama.

Mel: You did 12 months of spend, no anything, didn't you like

Lawsie: It wasn't 12 months would've been three to six months or something. Okay. But was going then go, I'm gonna strip all of the non necessary things out and what the necessary things are for some people are gonna be different to me and whatever. But for me it's like, well that was what we wanted. We wanted to get there as soon as possible. We are going hard at it. Whereas others are gonna have a bit more of a moderate approach to that. Yeah. But if you are something like that, we are going hard, then it's going, okay, I've done that. Now I need to stop that and go, actually no, I need to make sure that you can rest and recover from that in that sense and going, great, well we've achieved that goal now we need to bring a bit more normalcy back into life into you making sure you're doing some things and spending some money on stuff because that you still need to enjoy now today. And invariably it's gonna cost some dollars and things. And it's not to say, 'cause you're also wanting to prevent yourself going to the other extreme and going, yeah, I've been so strict with this and now I'm just gonna go and splurge over here. It's just bringing it back so it's all into even kilter. So I think that's definitely, those would be a couple of ways. I think the rest and the recovery with it.

Mel: And to that point, what you just described with it, if I don't do that and I'm super strict, then I'll just take it and blow it. That's kind of like a financial injury. And the reason why athletes rest and recovery is so they don't get injured. What you're saying is to have those moments where you're not going as hard otherwise you're gonna cause yourself a financial injury by going against, like blowing them out. 'cause You're like, screw it, this is just too hard. Or acting contrary. 'cause No one can sprint the a hundred meters. You can't sprint the a 100 meters for 800 meters. There's gotta be that rest and recovery time. It's not healthy to be on all the time.

Lawsie: I think it's also just, or if you're saving for a goal like a holiday, like again, you might be pulling back on your discretionary spending there so you've got more money to spend on holidays and then go and do that and do that without guilt as well. Like I think with the rest and recovery, I think so often it doesn't matter which part of life people are in, it's like, oh no I, and I've put my hand up for that, but it's the, oh, I'm wasting time. I could be doing something else with this. Mm-Hmm. I could be being more productive. Oh, I shouldn't be spending this money because even though I've saved for this holiday, if I don't spend everything there, then I can put that towards this other goal so you're not actually having proper rest and recovery as well. And so I think it's just needing to be really intentional about it.

Lawsie: And it's not to say like if you've got a holiday budget, don't go and just blow it. 'cause You go, oh, I've got my certain amount of money and I'm gonna spend every dollar. But when you are spending it, do it 'cause you enjoy it and do it guilt free. 'cause I think it's just that thing of yeah, you, you need to, otherwise you are not getting that proper rest. It's like me going, oh yeah, I have a rest day every day when I'm doing all my training, but I'm still gonna go out and walk 10Ks and then get for a gentle spin on the bike. 'cause I'm going, it's rest. 'cause It's easier than what I'm doing for your other sessions during the week. But it's actually not giving your body that total rest and recovery time. And I think it's just making sure you're doing that with your finances as well.

Mel: I love that guilt free. Yeah. If it's saying, well if this is what I wanted, this is what I've achieved it, so I'm going to do it and I'm going to really enjoy it, I'm gonna choose to enjoy it. Yeah. The final one, I think it's really important and too few of us do it and that's celebration.

Lawsie: Yay.

Mel: I mean you see the athletes at the moment, they're going out <laugh> and they finish and it doesn't matter. I heard Cate Campbell the interview this morning who was one of the Australian swimmers and she said even if the athletes didn't achieve the result they wanted, they're still going out because they need to go, right. Well I'm here and I did it and I might not have achieved what I wanted, but I'm still here and I still gave it a red hot go. The ones that did achieve it, they're also going out going, yeah, I did.

Mel: So it's celebrating almost getting there. You and I, I think we are good at celebrating stuff, but I think we've become better at celebrating the effort, not always if we hit the moment. And I think that's been a real turnaround because I think it's like when we were kids, I know my parents were, we just want you to go in and do your best. And I'm like, well yes, that's very nice, but really I just wanna win <laugh> <laugh>. And I think we've been, the Olympics are really bad for it sometimes where it's, unless it's gold, we're like the commentators are like, yeah. Whereas sometimes it's celebrating the fact that they're freaking there. So for you financially, you might have fallen a bit short, but you got so freaking close and you are so proud of yourself. Like we want you to be proud of yourself and how far you've come. So not to blow celebration doesn't need to mean a lot of money. It could simply be you stopping and going, yeah, I did that and I'm really proud of myself. We have people post it inside our closed Facebook group to say, yeah, I did. I have people DM me. Like that's a form of celebration to go, yeah, this was really cool.

Lawsie: Yeah. And I think it is that thing of not necessarily comparing, like even when you see the athletics and stuff in the last couple of days, like it's yes, here's who's won the heats and here's whatever, gone through and to podium, but they still have the thing on their season best, personal, best. Yes. All of those things. So I think it's acknowledging that as well. Like yes, those people might not win the gold medal, but they're still smashing out amazing.

Mel: A pb. Yeah.

Lawsie: Achievements on that global stage as well. Whereas they could also go, oh, but I didn't get gold. Like I'm comparing to somebody else that's in the team or the other people I'm racing. It's actually, no, you still have done that. And if that's still your goal, like if your goal is still that, it's making that progress towards whatever event that you're in. It's the same with your finances. It's the I'm saving towards this or I really wanted that particular thing, but to do that now is whatever, slightly out of reach, I'm still gonna do this and achieve that. Amazing. Like it's just making sure that it doesn't all have to come down to the number one position.

Mel: I agree. Well, I hope that we've encouraged you to run your own race, to not compare and to look at the eight things we talked about, the power of goals, focus and action steps, training and discipline, the power of a great coach and team mindset, belief and visualization, self-talk, rest and recovery. And then Lawsie.

Lawsie: Celebration!

Mel: Celebration! <Laugh>.

Mel: If you enjoyed this episode, we would love it if you subscribed and give us a review, then make sure you come and play with me on Insta. I'm at @melbrowne.money Remember there's an E on the end of Browne. I'm one of those fancy Browne's, and don't forget to check out the show notes for even more ways you can work with me to transform your finances.

 

 

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