Transforming Our Thoughts Poco a Poco

Happy Saturday Amor!

This past week on my Instagram Stories I shared how I use Brook Castillo's Thought Model Framework to manage my own thoughts and help my clients manage their thoughts. Since self-awareness is so important on your path to financial independence, I want to make sure you understand that some of your dinero thoughts may be cognitive distortions.

Now don't feel bad, if you see yourself in the following examples. We ALL engage in distorted thinking at some point. I just want you to be aware of your distorted thinking habits so you can interrupt them with cariño and choose thoughts that help you reach your financial goals.

Five Examples of Cognitive Distortions:

1. All or Nothing Thinking: Using words such as "always" or "every" or "never." Financial circumstances are labeled as right or wrong, good or bad, amazing or horrible. When someone creates a spending plan and doesn't follow it exactly, they say something like "I can never follow a budget. I'm so bad with money." "Eating out is bad, comiendo en la casa is good."
2. "Should Statements": Blaming yourself or others for things that aren't controllable. Expecting yourself and others to always meet high standards without considering the various systemic barriers to building financial security. "I should have more to show for my money. I should have a house already. I should be debt-free already."
3. Mental Filter: Thinking that everything will go wrong and always identifying the worse-case scenarios. "I shouldn't apply to a higher paying job because they won't hire me anyways. There is no way I can have a side hustle and still take care of my kids." When learning about anything new, this person is quick to identify all the potential challenges as reality.
4. Overgeneralization: Making quick conclusions with only one selected fact, situation, or event. "I don't want to learn to invest because I know someone who lost a lot of money investing in AMC. I don't want to talk dinero with my partner because one time it was so awkward."
5. Personalization and Blame: Everything is about the individual, especially the bad things. A person will take the blame for things they could not control. When their investment portfolio goes down when the entire stock market is down, they think "I'm not a good investor." or "Of course the market went down, it's because I just started investing."

Do any of those thoughts feel familiar amor?

Like I said in the beginning amor, we ALL do this and the key is to identify when we are engaging in distorted thinking so you can choose different thoughts. Do this with lots of love and grace. May the words of Nakeia Homer remind you that we could transform our financial trajectories with cariño.

Todo con tiempo,