00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on episode 670 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Mark ahow author of building wealth and living in faith. 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 between faith and money is key to doing that.
00:00:33 And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Mader. You're simply trying to get a little better today than you were yesterday, which is a much more forgiving mindset. And in this way, given enough time, no matter where you are in this journey, you can change what you do with money.
00:01:11 You can change what you achieve with money. You can change your relationship with money. 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,
00:01:36 invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world. In today's episode about developing your influence through stewarding your treasures. I talk with you about recognizing why getting your finances, where you really want them to be is a process, not an event. Why this view of a process, not an event with your money matters and how this lets you focus,
00:02:08 but also forgive as we talk about stewarding your treasures. Wouldn't it be great if you could support this podcast and do it without costing yourself an extra dime, it turns out you can. 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 will come back to support the show. If you enjoy the show,
00:02:33 when you're ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/amazon all too often. When I'm working with people on their money, when I'm working with them on their finances, people come in and they often want to know what is the one thing I can do? What is the life changing moment that I can have that will get everything working? Again, it be because they've got massive debt and they're talking about,
00:03:02 you know, is bankruptcy the right action for them. It could be because they've been trying and trying and trying over time to get out of dad and they've struggled and it's just not working. It could be that they've got a situation where they have no debt, but they've been trying to save money. And it seems like they take one step forward and three steps back over and over again.
00:03:25 Or maybe they've suddenly come into an inheritance and they're worried about blowing it and wasting it and doing something not really good with it. And one of the things that I have to encourage people to recognize is that when it comes to our money, it's always a process, not an event. It's always about making changes over time, even if you've had a sudden life changing event.
00:03:51 Yeah. Maybe you've had a medical situation and now you've been suddenly saddled with thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars of medical bills are, or maybe it's a positive life changing event. You've suddenly inherited $2 million from your grandma when she passed away. Whatever it is oftentimes what's happened is if we haven't laid the foundation of developing new behaviors and new mindsets around money,
00:04:21 that life changing event creates a situation where we respond to it in a non-healthy way. This is where I've seen people inherit millions of dollars and wasted away and have nothing to show for it or where you've seen people who just have despair because of what's happening financially. And they feel like they're trapped and have no choice and no power and no way out. But if they recognize that for all of us,
00:04:51 it's a process, not an event for all of us, not about making that sudden sweeping change. It's not about turning a light switch. It's not about finding the magic tool or the magic. The thing it's about looking at it, what I can do today, that makes it just a little bit better. I have a lot of debt. How can I pay off just a small amount?
00:05:13 If I've got an inheritance, what do I need to set up so that I begin to use that money in a way that honors the inheritance instead of squanders it, in all cases, it's about making small changes. Is that over time have large impacts, you know, investing. If you're trying to invest money, are you trying to get rich quick?
00:05:37 Are you willing to get rich slowly? If that's your goal, because the truth is yes. Maybe you can bet right, and buy the perfect stock at the perfect time that's possible, but it's more likely that you won't statistically over time, slow and steady growth wins time. After time after time, this view of looking at your money as a process,
00:06:06 not an event really matters. It allows you to forgive yourself for the tiny mistakes that you make, because you're going to make mistakes with money. We all do. You're going to spend money on something that later you look back on and recognize it was a waste of money. It was something that you shouldn't have done. You're going to have that day or that month,
00:06:27 where you have a weakness and you spend more than you plan to on something. And you, you break your budget. You're going to maybe write a hot check from time to time or do something else. But when you recognize that it's not about those little events, it's about making changes at a fundamental level in the processes that you use. It's not about achieving perfection in one fell swoop.
00:06:52 It's about making those tiny changes. Day after day, I've talked before about the framework I use for coaching about refocus gain control, set a plan. And the truth is this isn't a linear process. We refocus. Then we gain control. Then we set a plan. We begin to ex exercise that plan and execute on it. And it causes us to need to refocus again and again,
00:07:16 and develop new things to gain new control. Because as we ratchet up and get to a new level, there's always new things that we uncover new problems with our mindset, new problems, with our money, also new opportunities and new solutions and new things that we can do that we were never able to do before come up both ways. It causes us to have to refocus.
00:07:40 And in all of these cases, the neat thing is it lets you focus on the areas that you want to change. If getting out of debt is important to you, it lets you recognize that you can do that. It's going to take time. It's going to take work. It's not going to be easy, but it is worth it. If you're trying to grow money through investments,
00:08:02 it lets you focus on that. But it also lets you forgive it lets you recognize that when you make a mistake, it's not the end of the world because you're not trying to achieve perfection. You're simply trying to achieve progress. You're simply trying to get a little better today than you were yesterday, which is a much more forgiving mindset. And in this way,
00:08:28 given enough time, no matter where you are in this journey, you can change what you do with money. You can change what you achieve with money. You can change your relationship with money so that it no longer is your master, but it's your slave. Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for, to the inspired stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener,
00:08:59 we challenge you to not just sit back and passively, listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you like this episode on the stewardship of treasures, you can sign up for our treasures tips by going to inspired stewardship.com/treasures or text in the U S four four two two two treasures tips. And we'll send you five weeks of our best tips on stewarding your treasures until next time,
00:09:38 invest your time, your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.