The 4 Rs Framework For Building a Blissful Relationship with Money

I didn’t always have a blissful relationship with money.

In fact, it took years to 1) recognize how dysfunctional it was and 2) find a solution.

In my search, I cast a wide net and had some truly amazing teachers:

• Dived deep into the work of Eckhart Tolle
• Attended a retreat with Deepak Chopra
• Worked with a business and life coach
• Found a network of women struggling with the same issues

And all of these helped me a ton.

If you’re where I was back then, you don’t need to take these steps, although they will put you on the fast track to change.

Instead, you can follow this simple framework to cure your relationship with money and adopt an abundance mindset:

The 4 Rs Framework for Financial Bliss:

Step 1: Reflecting

In order to make genuine change, you must first understand the thoughts, beliefs, behaviors, and habits you have related to money. Using prompts like “When I think about building wealth/being debt free/having financial freedom, my mind goes to…” or “Instead of paying off debt/saving money, I prioritize…”. Also, reflect on why you want to have a better relationship with money? How will it make you feel?

Step 2: Reconciling

In order to leave your past in the past, you must come to terms with it, accept the bad or silly money move as something you had to do in order to learn and grow, forgive yourself, and then shift your focus to what you are truly grateful for. When you do this, you see your cup is overflowing with blessings. You embrace abundance.

Step 3: Rebuilding

This step involves rewriting your limiting beliefs and adopting better money rituals. Take the limiting beliefs you surfaced through self-reflection and rewrite them into expansive beliefs. And then build the habit of repeating them daily until they are so stuck in your mind that you don’t need to be intentional about saying them any longer.

Step 4: Recalibrating

Toss out all of your previous financial goals and start fresh by surfacing a vision for your whole life, including retirement, at the height of your career, and the next 12 months. Get crystal clear about the life you’d like to have and how it makes you feel. Then adopt a mechanism (visualization exercise or vision board) to sustain your focus.

Once you’ve worked through the 4 Rs, you’ll be ready to pivot to the tactical steps like creating SMART goals, building a savings plan, and adopting a system to track and measure your progress.