Episode 1065: Focus on What You Can Control

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1065 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:07] Frazer Rice: I'm Frazer Rice, author of wealth. Actually, I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling, having the right relationship with all of your gifts is the key to doing this one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott.

[00:00:31] Scott Maderer: you end up just not doing anything at all instead. That's why when we're working together on money with my clients, a lot of times we're talking about things, we're talking about the future. We're not even looking at numbers. Sometimes we're not even talking about actual quote dollars and cents. Instead, we're talking about behavior and mindset and dreams and what you're thinking about for the future.[00:01:00]

[00:01:00] Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world today's episode about investing in others through stewarding your truck.

[00:01:30] I talk with you about how people are often worried about the things they can't control when it comes to their money, like inflation or taxes. I talk about why you need to focus on the fundamentals and what you can control to really deal with those things that you can't control. As we talk about stewarding your treasures.

[00:01:53] Wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it without costing yourself an extra dime. [00:02:00] It turns out you can't. All you have to do is use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission, we'll come back to support the show. If you enjoy the show, when you're ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/amazon.

[00:02:20] One of the things that comes up time and time again, when I'm working with people on their own. Is all of those things when it comes to money, that it just feels like we can't control. We have no way of dealing with whether or not the taxes are going to change this year. What's going to happen with inflation.

[00:02:39] What's going to happen with the interest rates, all of these various things that can remain completely outside of our control. And we often spend a lot of time and energy and emotional energy worrying about these things and trying to figure out what it is that we can do about. [00:03:00] And now I'm not suggesting that there's nothing you can do to prepare for inflation or taxes or changes in interest rates.

[00:03:07] But most of the things that we can do are actually a lot simpler and more basic than we really normally think about. We think that there's all these secret techniques, there's the secrets that the rich know that the poor people don't are there some sort of weird, complicated scheme that we can use that protects our money against taxes or inflation.

[00:03:33] But the truth is it's really the basics and the fundamentals that you can control that you should really pay attention to. These are the things that we can deal with. Laying a firm foundation, like actually having some plan for your money, a budget, a spending plan, some idea of how much is coming in, how much is going [00:04:00] out and what's happening to the money in between.

[00:04:03] Making sure that you're consistently spending less than you make, making sure that you know what to do with the difference that you're doing. Things like investing for the future, as well as saving for the present. You've got some money piled up. And you've got some things that are put aside for the future as well.

[00:04:26] This idea of just the basics in the simplification of your life is often overlooked by people. They want to make it into this complicated process that they can use. To find the secret. They're looking for the sudden change, the big night and day thing that happens, that completely changes their life.

[00:04:51] Instead of recognizing that it's the tiny little incremental things that you do that really make a [00:05:00] difference. It's getting a little bit better every single day. Now the truth is if you run the math, if you get 1% better, every single day it's an exponential growth. At the end of a year, you will have gotten 38% better, but in the end of 10 years, it will be a five with 15 zeros percent better.

[00:05:23] This massive change. The truth is it's looking at those sorts of changes when it comes to your money is important. What are you doing to invest in the future? Not to try to hit the one ball out of the park and hit a massive home run. Cause yeah, that could happen, but there's a lot more ways it doesn't happen than it does instead.

[00:05:48] What are you doing today? Incrementally and consistently put a little bit of money back for the future. What are you doing to just incrementally and [00:06:00] consistently look at what you're doing with your money and make sure it's in alignment with your priorities and your values. What are you doing to just incrementally and consistently improve your understanding and your education and your communication around.

[00:06:17] It's those little changes that really make the difference. And yet we don't pay attention to that stuff because that stuff feels like it's boring. It's too simple. It's too easy. It's not, what's going to really make a difference in my life. I've got to look for the big changes. I've got to look for the massive change.

[00:06:37] I've got to look for the thing that completely rewrites my life and makes my old life go away in this perfect and magical future new life. The one that I'm always dreamed about. And in fact, that's what usually ends up happening. Instead you spend all of your time dreaming about that future instead of actually just [00:07:00] doing a little bit of work each and every day.

[00:07:03] Instead of doing the tiny things that need to be done instead of focusing on those things that you can control and not worrying about those things that you can't, you end up just not doing anything at all. Instead. That's why when we're working together on money with my clients, a lot of times we're talking about things, we're talking about the future.

[00:07:30] We're not even looking at numbers. Sometimes we're not even talking about actual quote dollars and cents. Instead, we're talking about behavior and mindset and dreams and what you're thinking about for the future. You're thinking about what is it that really gets me where I want to go in the next 10 years or 20 years or 50 years.

[00:07:52] What is the direction that I even want to go? The truth is a lot of us go through life without actually [00:08:00] ever spending the time and energy to think about those things. And so the money just happens to. Instead of us happening to the money. That's why focusing on what you can control is so important.

[00:08:15] Thanks for listening.

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