Did you know that there’s a man who climbed Mt. Everest wearing only shorts? Wim Hof “The Iceman” is an amazing human with an amazing story. He’s been able to do things with his body that other people only dream about and he believes everyone can do exactly what he does. When I watched several videos on Wim it became clear that the principles he teaches can be used in many facets of your life. With this being a finance blog I immediately saw the connection between his level of focus and how it can be transferred over to the idea of money.
“We take pills, kill the symptom, but cannot cure the cause.”
-Wim Hof-
The same holds true with our money. We try to find more of it, we think it will make us feel better, but more money only treats the symptoms of what we truly long for in life. A box of money won’t make you any happier, only what the money can do for you in terms of experiences. Therefore, when you become true to yourself money itself does not matter for the sake of only having more, but because it’s attached to a particular meaning. This meaning may be freedom to explore the world or to have more time to foster relationships.
When you’re able to focus like Wim you can hone in on what really matters in life, determine the price of what that costs, then find ways to pay those costs through making money through providing value to other people. If you do not focus on what you truly want, you’ll be too concerned with the environment around you and be focused on the “cold” that surrounds you. You should control your environment, not vice versa.
“With a simple method out of nature,
we are able to tackle the greatest problems.”
-Wim Hof-
Until you are in control of your money you’re not free to focus because your mind is cluttered with worry, stress and fear. Much like Wim in the cold, you should be able to focus and not let your surroundings determine how you feel. When you have a plan with your money, which is attached to your hopes and dreams you feel as though you’re in control and can achieve greater things because you have greater focus. You’re not in a state of fear or busy thinking about what you don’t have. When you think about what you don’t have, you can’t have space in your mind to think about the things you already do.
When you’re in control you can open your mind up to being grateful for what you already have and see the things that are possible rather than the things that are limiting you.
If you want to achieve success with money you need to change your perspective, much like Wim has changed his. You need to focus on the things you can control directly and the possibilities of how you can change them for the better.
Like Wim trains his mind to avoid the cold, train your mind to focus on opportunity in a “cold” financial environment you may be in at the moment. No matter your surroundings you can control your mind to gain the outcome you want.
“My mission is to show that everybody by their mind
can reach more depth within themselves.”
-Wim Hof-
To see more about Wim, you can listen to his TED talk below:
I love the analogy. I never thought about it like that but it’s absolutely correct.
I know that I am not nearly as mentally tough as I need to be. It’s one of the reasons that I joined a bootcamp instead of working out by myself. I couldn’t push myself hard enough and would give up even when I had still had stuff left in the tank.