Investing During a Pandemic…Isn’t it too Risky?

Written by Barbara Huson

Yes we’re in a pandemic. Yes, investing now may feel very risky. But understanding risk is what makes you wealthy. And so few people actually get it.

You want to know your most dangerous risk? It’s not the market’s gyrations. It’s your emotional reactions.

The emerging field of neurofinance has proven that most investors, regardless of gender, tend to act on emotions, not rational thinking, when making financial decisions.

The reason? Our brain registers risk even before we’re conscious of it. Consequently we tend to make rash decisions that rarely end well, even if we know better.

So when markets take a tumble, our emotions, especially fear, take over. And we make very bad decisions. It also happens in reverse.

Beware of Always Wanting More

Written by Barbara Huson

I’ve spent most of my life yearning for more…more money, more success, more sales, the list goes on.

I proudly considered my perpetual wanting a healthy sign of a robust ambition. Until I began studying neuroscience and realized how truly unhealthy this kind of thinking actually is.

Here’s why: We literally sculpt our brain by what we dwell on. The more we think a thought or feel an emotion, the stronger that neuropathway becomes in our brain.

By constantly hungering for more, I was inadvertently telling my brain “I don’t have enough.”

The more I repeated that thought, the stronger the “not enough” neuropathway grew, until I’d unconsciously do things that kept reinforcing my experience of ‘not enough.’

Slowly it dawned on me. How can I expect more, if I was repeatedly focused on what I had not yet attained? Clearly, I needed to shift my focus to rewire my brain.

I decided to experiment. Every time I felt myself coveting anything, I stopped, took note and shifted into appreciation for what I currently had.

I Know What To Do! So Why Don’t I Do It????

Written by Barbara Huson

Could this be you? You’ve read a ton about investing, attended some classes. You understand stocks, bonds, and the value of diversification. You own a few funds in your retirement account.

Still, you continue to ignore or neglect your money, even though you know better. Why?

Blame it on traditional financial education…where the emphasis is on filling your head with facts rather than fostering your courage to change.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been given the tools to boost Self-Efficacy, the most powerful predictor of financial well-being. (I didn’t think so.)

Self-Efficacy—a concept developed by the Stanford psychologist Albert Bandera—is a person’s belief in their ability to succeed in a given task or goal.

Don’t Even Try to Have It All Figured Out!

Written by Barbara Huson

Guess what the biggest roadblock is to your success? Those devilish how-tos. You know, thinking you have to have it all figured before you begin. Because that’s exactly what slows you down, or keeps you stuck

Those who have the most trouble thinking bigger are the ones who have to know exactly how they’re going do it. And if they can’t figure it out, they lower their sights.

I was in this category most of my life…until I interviewed six-figure women.

I learned from them a three-step plan.

Set a goal.
Commit to reach it (without knowing exactly how).
And grab hold of any unexpected opportunities that fall in your lap.

The second step is where the power is. Commitment, like a magnet, attracts coincidences. I always say, once you commit to a goal, if you’re not experiencing coincidences, go back to the drawing board. You’re obviously not totally committed.

That’s the way it happened for me. In 2008, I decided to earn $125,000. When I told my now ex-husband, he burst out laughing. I did too. It sounded ridiculous coming from a chronic underearner.

I had no idea how I was going to do it. But as I learned from the women I was interviewing, I didn’t need to have a full blown plan in place.

I just needed to take advantage of synchronicities. Of course, coincidences always lay just outside our comfort zone.

Here is the real secret to success: let go of control and do what comes next, especially if you’re scared to death to do it.

What are you scared to death to do? Leave me a comment below!

Your Brain on Savings

Written by Barbara Huson

There’s actually a positive side to being stuck at home. Personal savings have skyrocketed. But my guess is that when the pandemic passes, savings will plummet.

The fault may lie in our brains.

A recent study by Cornell University neuroscientists discovered that our brains are biased toward earning and against saving. Perhaps it’s the immediate gratification our paychecks offer while putting aside small amounts feels about as gratifying as watching grass grow.

“Fundamentally it comes down to this: saving is less valuable to our brains, which devote less attentional resources to it,” said the co-author Adam Anderson. “Our brains find saving more difficult to attend to.”

Yet fixating on earnings can be fool hardy. I call it the Illusion of Affluence. I see it all the time. Successful women spending too much, saving too little, plowing all profits back into their businesses or on classes for personal growth (deceptively calling it “an investment”).

Their ample earnings gives them the illusion, but not the security of true abundance. The real measure of wealth is your net worth…not what you earn but what you keep.

My Journey Through Fear

Written by Barbara Huson

I had a rough few days.

As I watch the world implode, the virus surge, the markets plunge — my doctor tells me I need cataract surgery. Anything with the eyes terrifies me.

My head fills with worse case scenarios. I fall into a very dark place, unable to find my way out.

Then I remember what A Course in Miracles calls “the most important concept that exists in the universe—”the Law of Cause and Effect.”

The Course explains this law very differently from the world’s more generally accepted Newtonian explanation.

Here’s What Really Needs to Change

Written by Barbara Huson

Am I the only one feeling this way?

Yes, the protests—peaceful or not—have led to incredible changes. Companies are hiring more blacks. Communities are implementing radical police reforms. The shares in black-owned businesses are soaring.

But to create true and lasting equality, we must look beyond the external. To change the collective, we need to transform the individual.

I say this from experience.

I came of age during Women’s Lib. Enraged by rampant discrimination, we took to the streets, burning our bras, demanding gender equality. And lo and behold, the workplace opened its doors, albeit a crack. The banks gave us credit cards without requiring a man’s signature.

Feeling Like an Imposter? Time to Rewire

Written by Barbara Huson

I just read that award-winning Maya Angelou, after publishing her 11th book, thought to herself: “Uh-oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody.”

Can you imagine Maya Angelo feeling like fraud!! But looking back, I think of all the courageous, confident, highly successful women I’ve interviewed who told me they still felt like a fraud long after their careers were flourishing.

Sadly, the imposter syndrome is epidemic among women, even the most successful ones. In Neuroscience, I found a possible explanation as to why. Despite their achievements, these women never rewired their old belief systems.

They didn’t prepare themselves mentally as they pushed themselves physically. Because they hadn’t changed their thoughts, their brains remained wired to see only the past.

Their low self-image hadn’t caught up with their incredible successes. Their old neuropathways still dictated their current perceptions.

The moral of this story: before you focus on changing your behavior, you must transform the causes of that behavior—your thoughts and beliefs.

What thoughts and behaviors could you begin to rewire for success? Leave me a comment below.

Get the support you need. Join my virtual community, The Wealth Connection where women support women! Learn More!

Reinventing Normal

Written by Barbara Huson

I’m hearing the same thought from numerous sources. Once the pandemic has passed, don’t expect a return to normal. Life as we’ve known it will never be the same.

That can feel scary. Indeed, uncertainty is frightening. But what if the current crises is not to be feared? What if we welcomed it as a much-needed wake-up call?

I’m reminded of a 2019 Ted Talk by Ashweetha Shetty. Though her subject was education, her words feel eerily prophetic.

“All of us are born into a reality we blindly accept,” she said, “until something awakens us and a new world opens up.”

I’m wondering if that’s what’s happening now. “Something” (Spirit. perhaps) is trying to awaken us to other possibilities—possibilities other than the reality we’ve “blindly accepted.”

What if we all used this time in isolation to imagine the new normal we’d love to create? What if we reimagine a future unlike the past?

Think about the life you crave, not the one you live. Consider the legacy you wish to leave. Allow your imagination to run wild, to dream audaciously. Make it fun, as if you’re a child playing make-believe.

Notice if your thoughts tell you it’s not practical or even plausible. Know that’s your brain defaulting to old neuropathways. Resist the urge to acquiesce.

Instead, trust this is your intended future yearning to emerge. Allow the ideas to sink into your psyche. Adopt them as your new story.

Repeat this story often (especially when tempted to tell your old one). Focus on it in meditation. Visualize it as you fall asleep.

Rest assured. This new story is not some grandiose tale told by your insecure Ego, but guidance from your loving Soul, urging you to step into your Greatness, shining your light in a world steeped in darkness.

Tell me about your new normal—the one you’d love to start living. Share in the comments below as if it’s already a reality.

A Spiritual Solution for Scary Times*

Written by Barbara Huson

*Adapted from my upcoming book: Rewire for Wealth

I’m turning to A Course in Miracles (ACIM) a lot more these days.

As many of you know, ACIM is a spiritual text that calls itself “a course in mind training,” and declares its sole purpose is “to restore awareness of the power of the mind.”

I may not be able to control the frightening unfolding of current events. But I can use the power of my mind to control how I react to them.

“The only way to make prudent decisions in a plunging market”, my favorite WSJ columnist, Jason Zweig, recently advised, “is by creating a circle of calm around yourself.”Amen to that!

How do you train your mind to “create a circle of calm?” You must understand what ACIM calls “the most important concept that exists in the universe:” The Law of Cause and Effect.

ACIM (as well as neuroscience, quantum physics and many spiritual teachings like Buddhism) explains this law very differently from the more generally accepted Newtonian version.

To the world, a cause is an external incident which produces an internal effect. The market crashes (cause) and you panic (effect). But this view is very disempowering. Blaming something or someone else for ‘making’ you unhappy or fearful turns you into a victim.

According to ACIM, nothing ‘out there’ has anything to do with you feeling happy or upset. Your thoughts are always the cause. If you want to change the effect (your experience)—greater abundance, more happiness, increased peace of mind—you must first change the cause (your thoughts).

Mind training is about far more than positive thinking. It requires you to shift the source of your feelings from the world out there and point your finger where it belongs—your own mind.

Or as ACIM puts it: “Seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world.”

When you understand how to control your thoughts, you’ll discover how much power you have to create the life you desire.

What thoughts do you need to change for greater peace of mind? Leave me a comment below.

Neuroscience

Investing During a Pandemic…Isn’t it too Risky?

Beware of Always Wanting More

I Know What To Do! So Why Don’t I Do It????

Don’t Even Try to Have It All Figured Out!

Your Brain on Savings

My Journey Through Fear

Here’s What Really Needs to Change

Feeling Like an Imposter? Time to Rewire

Reinventing Normal

A Spiritual Solution for Scary Times*

Meet Barbara Huson

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