Prosperity Lens – Episode 426

This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors.

[00:00] On this episode of the Prosperity Podcast, we’re going to be talking about the prosperity lens and Kim, this is a phrase that we thought of specifically for this episode. Would you like to introduce it? I love this phrase because, and thank you, I’m happy to introduce it, it enables us to adopt. So a lens is something that you look through, think about a camera lens or a binocular lens or even our eyes. And as we know, we can pick up a camera lens, we can put it back down, we can pick up binoculars, put it back down. And so lens implies that we can adopt it even sometimes when we don’t feel it ourselves. And so we can apply a prosperity lens to things, sometimes in an effort to get own perspective to shift or even upgrade.

[01:00] And that is what we’re going to do today. Oh, I love it. Okay. So the premise of it and the reason why we’re thinking of this is because of all of the rapid changes in our environment. And that can be positive changes, it could be negative and negative changes. But what we’re noticing, at least I’m seeing is how quickly things are changing in the world. Have you seen it as well? Absolutely. And I think we’ve got about half of our listeners that are totally on board with those changes and happily sprinting right along with them. And the other half of our listeners with the brakes on resisting and maybe it’s two thirds and one third, who knows. But it’s something that there are skills, I believe is the word that I’m going to

[01:52] choose to acknowledging change, adapting to change, being excited about change that anybody can learn. And so if you feel like you’re in that one third that’s struggling with the change or you know somebody who is, we have some specific ideas for you. And then for all of the rest of us that do get excited naturally and are happy to bump along with the changes, there are so many changes happening right now that we may fall into that other one third from time to time. And so we’ll have some very specific things for you as well. Yes, wonderful. Let’s kind of talk about some of those changes. Obviously, there’s what happens in news cycle changes. And one, I think that’s pretty dangerous because really their job is to sell

[02:43] advertising. And in this world, it means that their job is to get our attention. And the way to get attention is to say the most horrific things or shocking things. That’s what I’ve seen, at least. Yes, it’s interesting, as our listeners know, and I know you subscribe to this as well. I’ve been on a news diet, even more extreme news fast, really, for twenty six, seven years now. My father, however, not so much. And so my sister, Tammy Brannon of Blueprint Process, and I were at home at the farm that I grew up on. So Todd and I got to go and Tammy came down to visit and we were having a family dinner with some of the next generation. In fact, even the next generation included and something had occurred in

[03:35] Oregon that my dad wanted to hear the perspective of the news on something he does a lot more than I wish he did. And he turned the TV on to to get this, quote, update. It was amazing how all of the adults in that group and there were seven of us got sucked into the living room where the TV was on, even though a lot of the adults would say, oh, I don’t want to listen to news or I don’t want to hear what the news is perspective. Talk about a lens, right? What the news is lens is on this particular item. And so it’s just a real wake up call, I think, to all of us. And I know I find myself as much as I resist news in every form, there is still sometimes when it seeps in. And I’m not recommending that people be irresponsible about things.

[04:37] That’s not what I mean by a news fast. I just mean being very, very careful about who you read, who you listen to, what you pay attention to, where you spend your time. Because as you said it while Spencer, there is so much fear mongering that goes on with most common news sources that we need to really protect our mindsets because truly if we listened to them too much, we would literally think that nothing in the world is good and that there are not good things going on and that’s very, very inaccurate. And at the same time, it does take some work and some specificity and identification of said good things in order to have a more balanced perspective on life and what’s going on with it. So we have this statement, okay, change is like happening so crazy fast.

[05:38] So how does one find out about this change? So I’m going to throw that question to you and then I’ll answer it as well. So Spencer, I know you practice a news diet approach also. So then how do you find out about the change? So that’s a good question for me. If it’s something that’s really important, someone that I know is probably going to tell it to me. Now that’s going to be from their perspective and I understand that. Now outside of that, there are two ways to go and find information. You can actively seek it out or you can curate things so that you can have the right information sent to you and then being mindful. I’m mindful of how much I consume. So for example, there are newsletters out there that will give me just

[06:28] enough of a snapshot to maybe understand what’s happening in the precious metals market and what’s happening with crypto or what’s happening with innovations and technologies. And I just want enough and I’ve vetted the sources and so I know who I’m getting it from just enough to say, okay, I have a pulse on the market and I don’t do this every day. If I did it every day, I would probably go sick. And on top of that, when I do do it, we’re talking a very short amount of time. I don’t read normal newspapers. I don’t watch the news per se. You know, it’s like turning on the TV and watching whatever channel that would be. I don’t do that. And the next is from conversations of people that I trust and people

[07:25] that I know have the same values as me. So for example, if something changes in the financial world and it may scare others, smart, intelligent financial minds that I’m friends with, they may update me and we have a conversation and they tend to spot the opportunity instead of shrinking in fear. You’ve probably seen that too. I have. And that right there is a awesome call to action when you’re out and about and you’re hearing commentary or you happen to walk by a TV that’s playing in a hotel lobby or whatever occurs where any kind of information does come in is to pay attention to the lens with which you’re accepting that information and a prosperity lens says this information could be bad or good.

[08:12] What can I learn from it? Where is the opportunity? How could I benefit from it? How could others benefit from it? Where is the good that is going on? Any of those questions let you have a prosperity lens about information into information as opposed to a fearful or scarcity oriented lens. And this is not having a rose colored glass or glasses on your eyes where, Oh, everything’s fine. This is I’m going to dig and find some good here and work to get the learning out of it or get the opportunities out of it or let it go. And I think that’s a completely legitimate response as well. Todd just shared some information with me this morning about something that’s going on in our world. So clearly not something that impacts my daily life.

[09:06] And it really got to me mentally for 20 minutes or so, which is a little longer than I normally allow. And then I put my foot down to myself and said, okay, you you’ve had your, your time with it, let it go. And I normally recommend only about five minutes because truly if there’s nothing that you can do about it, then five minutes is enough. You know, maybe it’s 60 seconds, go outside and do some jumping jacks and call it a day, call it good, right? Cross it off the list. You said something in your language that I think some of our listeners may picked up on, but I’m going to point it out. You said more than I would allow. What that means is you’ve already set up the rules for your game, for

[09:51] the way that you want to play and you’re compartmentalizing. And I think a lot of people get it wrong when they think about compartmentalizing, we see this with like first responders and military members when they have to get into harm’s way. And I’m sure those circumstances are overwhelming. And once you’re done with, you know, a trauma experience, whatever that may be, then you have to go through and process it. You have to allow that to happen, but the difference is you don’t, you know, as compartmentalizing, you’re, it’s not that you’re never going to process it, you do have to take the time, but you allow it to happen and you choose how long you want to let it happen. That’s what’s amazing about what you just said within there.

[10:40] So you’re saying, okay, I got this information. It’s great. I’m going to let it happen for five minutes. I’ll think through it. Okay. I’m done. That’s wonderful. There’s a fun story coming out about my college days and where I got the five minute rule idea. And I know there is another book out about that, but the story will be in Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy’s new book Gap and Gain. And that is, I think available in October. And it is, there’s a pre-order link on Amazon. If you want to throw it in the show notes, it is a fabulous book. I’ve been able to get access to the advanced copy of it. And I’m so grateful and we’ll just so encourage everybody to grab the book and I’m sure there will be some type of audible version of it

[11:30] available as well for those that prefer to learn that way, because it is a mental construct that you can be gain oriented. And this is a way to deal with change is to be seeking the gain out of the change. And then sometimes also choosing when to stop, stop seeking, stop, stop processing, stop dealing with it so that it doesn’t become a, a mental racetrack where you’re just going around and around in circles and not getting anywhere. I’ll make sure that we put a link to that book in there and we definitely don’t want to be spinning our wheels like that. At the top of this conversation, you mentioned giving some actual tools, some frameworks that will help our listeners. And so what I want to do is just take a second and you and I

[12:23] can kind of play a game of volleyball in a way. So this is, this is what I’m thinking. I’m going to take the subject of government spending because that government, oh, they’re printing so much money right now and the news is going to talk about it. And so if we work on the game of finding opportunity or, or using the prosperity lens with that, I think that we can show a shift. What do you think, Kim? Do you want to try it? Yes, let’s do it. Okay. So we’re going to, we’re going to shoot for about 10 ideas. I’m pulling the 10 ideas from James Altucher. He’s a well-known author. What James does is he carries around a little notebook and he just writes ideas down every day. He tries to write down at least 10 different ideas.

[13:10] I love it. So we’re going to go government spending. The news headline says the government’s going to print another three trillion dollars this month. Let’s, let’s prosperity lenses. So what’s the first one I can go or you can go? How do you want to, how do you want to run with this? You go for it and then I’ll follow up. Okay. So for me, the first opportunity is this. If the government spending $3 trillion of our hard earned money, I’m going to look at that and say, maybe I should start a business in one of the sectors where they’re pumping a ton of money. Awesome. And I’m going to add to focus on what you can control. So if you can go start a business, pay attention to where the government is spending.

[13:54] We remember Tom Will writes quote, which is the tax law is a series of incentives for where to invest. And if you cannot, then cross it off your list because if you cannot do a business in that space or you don’t have the wherewithal to pursue something like that, then there isn’t anything that you can do about this particular item of news. So cross it off your list and go focus on something that you can control that will help you not only feel confident, but feel like you’re doing something about it. Yeah. Love it. All right. If the government’s spending a ton of money, what I can do is I can find loans that are going to be long-term at low interest rates. I love it. Are you wanting my, what I can do?

[14:45] Yep. I can reinvest in the businesses that we have and help them grow because we know that the business environment is the one place that is our best investment. And so if you have a business, you could follow that lead. If you don’t, you are your best investment. And so investing in yourself and upgrading your skills and adding additional capabilities or capacities to either yourself or a business will enable you to overcome what is essentially governmental inflation, which is them spending this money, printing this money and causing the value of the dollar to go down. If the government’s spending a ton of money, what I can do is I can educate my friends and family that are nearest to me about what’s

[15:46] happened in the past and what may happen in the future. Ah, and picking up on the education idea, I think it is so fabulous when you can move knowledge to the next generation and possibly even the next generation, depending on where you are in life. And this is an interesting thing to think about because, as we know, especially when we’re talking to the next generation, like me to my adult children as an example, we can’t just spout off things and expect them to open their little brains and dump the information in. We have to really think carefully about what questions might we ask to help them get the education without us shoving it down their throats, because we know that if we shove it down their throats,

[16:35] they won’t accept it. And so developing some questions to ask that will spur the discussion, cause the self-seeking and self-education to occur is a super valuable skill. Absolutely. We’ve already crossed the halfway point of creating a 10-piece list. Now, do you have to create a 10-piece list, listeners? No, you can do one. You can do five. You can do 10. You can do 100. You see, I actually had fun doing this. This was kind of fun because we got to go through ideas and some are better than others. But by thinking this way, by putting on a prosperity lens, we have a clearer vision. And I know this. This is one thing that’s certain. If I see the news when I’m walking through a hotel, I feel like I just rolled around in mud.

[17:25] And right now I feel like I was outside and the sun was shining on me. That’s pretty good. I love it. Great analogy. Well, thank you for listening to this podcast and investing your time in listening to something that will give you a better perspective in life. If you do have questions of how you can hedge for the future or maybe what things will help you and your family, we have a special email address only for the podcast. It’s that special. It’s hello at partnersforprosperity.com. And we’ll also put links to the show notes for that email address and the resources mentioned. Kim, as always, thank you for taking the time to share your wisdom with us today. Right back at you, Spencer. Thank you for listening to the Prosperity Podcast.

[18:21] To take control of your money and have it work for you, visit us at partnersforprosperity.com. If you liked this episode, make sure you subscribe and leave a review.