Money Mode - Why & Values

MODULE ONE

WORKBOOK

Why & Values

MODULE ONE WHY & VALUES

Why? For what reason or purpose?

Answering this question may not be as simple as it seems, but if you can dive deep into this and explore what your broader purpose in life is all about, you will gain incredible clarity and confidence to make decisions about your life that are important to you. It will set your intentions and drive you in every aspect of your life.

So often we focus on the how and what, and when we think about our finances, we might set some financial goals. However, many of us just drift through without really planning

for the future at all (not until much later in our lives, often once the reality of retirement is within sight). More often I find people are disengaged with their finances, commonly because they are just running through the motions of life and not even thinking about it.

At some stage this will lead us to potentially feel disappointed with where we are at and then we find ourselves in a position where we don’t have the confidence or knowledge to get back on top or to make a change - so the cycle continues.

You’re here because you want to be engaged with your finances, you want to know you are doing the right thing and you want it to be easy.

Well, let me tell you that the easiest way for you to have a lasting change and impact is to align your finances to your values and broader purpose in life.

The traditional financial planning approach first gets you to set financial goals, work out where you are and then build a plan to get there. In my experience, unless a client is really committed to these goals, understands the bigger picture of where they are headed and is already in a very sound financial position, they usually fall short.

For goals to really survive, for them to keep you motivated, they must have purpose and relate to your desired lifestyle - one that is driven by your values and is at the heart of what really makes you tick.

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This module gets you to walk through what that desired lifestyle looks like now and in the future… I encourage you to really peel back the layers and get to the heart of what is really important to you.

Even though I’ve just talked a little about money, I don’t want you to exclusively focus on money through the ‘why’ section of the workbook. The money piece of the puzzle will start to fall into place as we work through the next few modules so stick with it and for now just start thinking big and broad in all aspects of your life!

MODULE ONE WHY & VALUES

Let’s get started Make sure you’ve watched the video and read through the notes, then take some quiet time this week to work thoughtfully through this workbook.

This task could be quite confronting, so if you find yourself coming up against some blocks as you work through the questions just be patient and compassionate with yourself.

Don’t hurry or force it, as it’s essential that you

take the time to work through this at your own pace and you may need to come back a few times to complete the workbook.

It’s really important that you jot down some notes as you go, since a lot of the answers might already be swimming around in our minds and we are perhaps not even conscious of them. By writing them down it gives you a reference point to come back to when starting to explore further. Also, you are going to need these notes to look back on as you build through the next couple of modules.

NOTE FOR COUPLES:

It’s really important that even if you’re in the most solid relationship that you do this exercise separately to your partner so that you’re not swayed by one another’s perspective. I strongly encourage couples, once you’ve both completed this module, to spend some time together working through each of your workbooks and share your discoveries and talk openly and compassionately with each other about each area.

It’s not expected that you necessarily be on the same page as each other, with identical purpose and values. Instead, you need to be able to open up the communication lines about what is important to each of you as individuals and as a couple and how you can respect each other’s priorities within your relationship.

“ Without a life purpose as the compass to guide you, your goals and action plans may not ultimately fulfill you.” Jack Canfield

MoneyMode Module 1 ‘WHY & VALUES WORKBOOK’

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MODULE ONE WHY & VALUES

What’s important to you?

What matters to you most in this world?

How do you want to spend your time on this earth?

What would you like to stand for?

How do you want to relate to people and the world around you?

Ask yourself this question with no one else’s expectations but your own.

We so often get caught up in society’s measures and expectations, but just try and dust those off and answer this question from within.

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MODULE ONE WHY & VALUES

Chasing a Dream Financial risks, fear of failure, fear of judgement or lack of time are the most common things that hold us back from chasing a dream. If you could put these aside, what dreams would you chase?

What dreams would you chase?

Get specific here. Really drill down into the details of what you’d be doing, feeling, thinking. Try not to get caught up in being realistic or practical here. The idea is to really let your imagination take over and dream about what might be possible for you.

“ You can’t just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream, you’ve gotta get out there and make it happen for yourself.” Diana Ross MoneyMode Module 1 ‘WHY & VALUES WORKBOOK’

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MODULE ONE WHY & VALUES

What does success mean to you?

You don’t need to necessarily relate this to a collection of ‘things’ or accolades - it might be milestones, experiences or emotions you feel.

For example, mine is ‘Success to me is not feeling overwhelmed, it’s having everything in balance….which is when work doesn’t feel like ‘work’, when I bounce out of bed each day, passionate about what I’m doing. I’m fuelling my body with good wholesome food, drinking plenty of water, getting enough rest and keeping fit and active. My partner and I are up to date with our finances and the house is orderly. This gives me a sense of order and I feel in balance, being in balance means I’ve got energy and I can use this energy to spend time on the things I’m passionate about. I’m succeeding when I achieve all this.

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MODULE ONE WHY & VALUES

What does success mean to you? cont.

Fast forward 5 year from today.

Sit back and reflect on what life looks like for you.

What will give you a sense of achievement and fulfilment?

(Not just in a financial sense, think broader.) What will this feel and look like?

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MODULE ONE WHY & VALUES

Imagine yourself looking in on your own funeral.

This might seem like a strange and sad suggestion, but this will get you thinking about how you would like your life to be remembered.

What sort of qualities would you like other people to speak about when they reflect on what you meant to them?

What special memories would they reflect on when they spoke of you?

What would be the key moments or achievements that they would recall about your life?

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MODULE ONE WHY & VALUES

What are your passions and strengths?

Your passions are the things that make you come alive and light a fire within - when you do these things you lose track of time and you forget about the world around you.

Think also about your strengths, these are the things you are naturally good at and you feel emotionally satisfied when you are playing to your strengths. Strengths and passions will often be connected and may even overlap.

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MODULE ONE WHY & VALUES

What frustrates or worries you about your current situation?

While I don’t like to focus on the negatives, it’s important to acknowledge what (if any) frustrations you have about where you are at now.

What annoys you, makes you angry or sad about where you are at now on your journey?

Go back through the last few pages of the exercise and pick out the most common and important theme(s) that you’ve come up with:

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MODULE ONE WHY & VALUES

Summarise what you think is your ‘why’: Your what for…..Your purpose…..Your reason…..

What is your journey all about for you? What do you really want out of life?

You may have had a big ‘aha’ moment and you may be really clear on what your journey is all about. Some of you may have a really clear financial goal, but can not necessarily fulfil what your purpose is all about. If this is you, try reversing your thinking and understand why having this money is important for you. What impact is reaching that goal going to have on your life? What is it going to mean for you in the way you live your life? What will it allow you to do? And what purpose is it going to serve?

“Most of us live our lives by accident — we live as it happens.

Fulfillment comes when we live our lives on purpose.” Simon Sinek Don’t be hard on yourself if this isn’t clear yet, it can take some time, and you may want to come back and reflect on the work to really nail what your purpose is. At the very least, this exercise should have you thinking about what is important to you and the sort of life you want to lead, the possibilities that are available to you and provide you a sense of direction which will motivate and fuel you.

This is the perfect foundation.

Well done!

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MODULE ONE WHY & VALUES

Values Your values are your set of beliefs that define what is most important to you. They are at the heart of what guides your choices and decisions in life.

Some of us are very good at living our values, but for many of us there might be decisions or choices we make that are not aligned to our values or perhaps we are unclear on values.

If we don’t have a clear idea on what we value in our life, it can be difficult to know what is and isn’t important and this will affect the decisions we make. If we are not living life in line with our values, this will lead to us to not feeling good about our situation or decisions – and again this can be unclear or unconscious.

One of the most common things that happens is that we run through the motions doing what

we think we ‘should’ be doing. An example could be staying in a job that doesn’t allow you to live out your values, but we feel we need to because it pays a good income or you may be unhappy at work but have not realised yet why you are not feeling fulfilled.

Take some time to think about the concepts that you value most in life - there is a list below that may help you. When prioritising your top values, think about what brings you the most joy and what you’re most passionate about. Then, if possible, identify how money relates to your values.

Working with others

Financial Security

Learning

Integrity

Power & Authority

Love

Competence

Helping others

Friendships

Spirituality

Influencing others

Family

Career

Self respect

Success

Happiness

Knowledge

Freedom

Time

Leadership

Choice

Family

Environmental awareness

Balance

Recognition

Excitement

Contributing

Excellence

Adventure

Making a difference

Traditional

Connecting

Competition

Authenticity

Travel

Leaving a legacy

Trust

Expertise

Community

Order

Taking Risk

Change

Health

Nature

Fun

Stability

Sharing

Humour

Creativity

Peace

Reaching full potential

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MODULE ONE WHY & VALUES

Values cont.

What are your key values and attributes that you want to be living and how does money relate?

Values

What are your beliefs and behaviours that relate to this value?

How does money relate to this value?

“ Money is important, but money is fuel, not a purpose. We don’t own cars so we can have fuel. We own cars to get places.” Simon Sinek

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MODULE ONE WHY & VALUES

Values cont.

With your why/purpose and your values exercise in mind, what are the things that you need to stop doing, keep doing and start doing?

Things I need to STOP doing (these things are counterproductive to my purpose and values):

Thing I need to START doing (to be living life more in line with my purpose and values):

The things I need to KEEP doing (because they align with my purpose and values):

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MODULE ONE WHY & VALUES

How are all these going to tie into a financial plan?

So many of you said at the start of this course that you felt like you weren’t ‘getting ahead’.

One of the biggest challenges our generation faces today is trading off the instant gratification of buying something now for long term goals and financial security. The philosophy I’m sharing with you doesn’t mean forgoing everything now for the long term. I believe in balance and still being able to live life to the fullest now, but without compromising your future security.

How do you do this?

The answer lies in aligning your spending and saving to your values. You set your priorities on the scale of today vs the future, don’t miss out but be conscious of your spending and make sure you are spending on the things that will really bring enjoyment!

This first module is the precursor to setting goals and a very important piece of work for you to be able to create meaningful ones that you are going to want to stick to! For any financial goals to have meaning and more importantly, survive, they need to be innately important to you by contributing towards your broader life purpose.

For your spending and saving habits to change, you need to really want the goals that are in front of you, and by being clear on your purpose and the journey you want your life to take, this will be much easier and so much more meaningful.

Next up ... Goal Setting

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MODULE ONE Why & Values MODULE TWO Goal Setting MODULE THREE Money Mindset & Relationships MODULE FOUR Getting Your Financial House In Order MODULE FIVE Money Management Blueprint MODULE SIX Budgeting

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