Sunday, April 24, 2022

Making Peace with Money

Special thanks to Mandy Starling for another great guest post in her 3-part series!


A few years ago I decided to get out of debt. With the determination and perseverance of an Ironman, I poured all my energy into this goal. I fretted, I worried, I sacrificed. One day when I was out running errands, I debated whether to use a coupon for a few dollars off a Great Harvest sandwich.

I weighed the pros and cons, and after an hour or more of stressing over it, I ultimately decided the $5 should go towards debt instead. I felt guilty for even entertaining the thought of spending money on something I didn’t absolutely need, and angry at money for even existing in the first place. Can you imagine what I went through when I bought a new tri bike?!

This past January, I was again out running errands and started thinking about the debt we had from getting a new car after my accident and buying harmonic lights. My next thought was, it’s going to be so fun and exciting to find new ways to pay this off! I stopped and thought, whoa! Where did that come from!? I’d never had a positive thought like that about money before. Ever.

I’d lived my whole life thinking money was always scarce, that it was bad to want money in excess of paying the bills, and that I had to struggle and suffer to make enough of it. But that positive, automatic thought was proof that I was changing my limiting beliefs and finally making peace with money.




Wouldn’t you like to feel confident knowing your needs and wants are always met, that bringing in lots of money is okay, and that it’s not necessary to always struggle and suffer to earn money? I felt uncomfortable and thought this sounded too good to be true when I first heard these ideas, but I’ve since learned - and experienced - it’s absolutely possible.

Most of the tips I’ll share came from working with a mentor and reading two books, which I highly recommend: “Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity - A Simple Guide to Unlimited Abundance” by Edwene Gaines, and “The Science of Getting Rich”, by Wallace D. Wattles.


Dear money,

Doing this activity completely changed my feelings towards money. I thought of money as a person, and wrote a letter to it. I apologized for trying to control and hoard it when it came to me, and curse it when it wasn’t coming to me (how would a real person feel if I treated them that way? They wouldn’t want to hang out with me anymore, that’s for sure!).

I admitted to not showing enough gratitude for the abundance of money that constantly ebbed and flowed to me, through me, and from me.

I asked it to forgive me for looking to it as my source of security rather than God. Then I expressed tons of gratitude for all it had done for me over the years - fund amazing trips and experiences, pay for surgeries that helped my family and I, purchase food to keep me fed during training and racing, and more.

All my negative feelings towards money slipped away as if I were leaving it behind in the Snake River during Spudman, and were replaced with gratitude and joy.

Money mindset

The law of attraction 100% works in relation to our thoughts. The more we think and believe something is true, the more we’ll attract it to us. If we think positive thoughts about money, we’ll attract more of it our way. We do this by owning these new thoughts, and thinking them as if they were already true. Then, per the universal law, if you believe it to be true, it soon will be!

The key to success with this is to remember to feel positive feelings while thinking the thoughts. How will you feel when x comes to pass? Focus on that and feel it while thinking the new thoughts over and over again throughout your day. Here are some of the thoughts I regularly had before I started working to improve my relationship with money, and what I think now.



Four laws

I loved reading Edwene Gaines’ book and wanted to share some of her thoughts that helped me. Whether you’re religious or not, she found that when her clients followed these four laws, they didn’t just eek out enough to pay the bills at the last minute - they received more abundance and prosperity than they could imagine.

Law One: Tithe. This can also be thought of as your step one. She invites all her clients to acknowledge God as their Source (rather than money as source), and return 10 percent of all they receive to a person, place, or institution from which they have received spiritual food.

Law Two: Set Goals. Set a concrete goal and then take the first step towards that goal. We’ve been taught to save up the money first, then spend it, but money doesn’t like to just sit around with no purpose. It likes to be put to use. This doesn’t mean rack up a ton of credit card debt - it means when you feel a nudge to set a crazy high goal involving investing in yourself, leveling up, improving yourself so you can help others, go for it.


Law Three: Forgive. What we feel, we bring more of to us. If we stubbornly refuse to let go of self-defeating feelings such as guilt, shame, blame, hurt, and resentment, we cannot feel worthy of receiving more abundance and wealth. If we are open and feeling love and gratitude for ourselves and others, that will bring more abundance to us.

Law Four: Find and fulfill your purpose. Because each of us has lived a unique set of experiences, we each have a unique perspective. Couple that with our talents and strengths, and every single one of us has something awesome and amazing to offer others. Yes, I’m talking to you! Get curious, and seek to learn what your purpose is. Then follow the nudges and ACT.


Feb 28th, 2022, I left my job of 8 years. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do next, and didn’t have anything lined up. It was a huge leap into the darkness, a butt-clenching moment. But after getting the nudge over and over, I decided to go for it.

After running for almost 11 years and doing triathlons for almost 10 years, I’ve started looking for opportunities to share what I’ve learned with others. I’m done suffering through workouts and races - I want to do it all with a beautiful mindset and enjoy it!

I created a new dream and I’ve been following all the steps above and in my two previous posts (Mastering Time and Overcoming Injury and Illness) and I now own my new reality: I am a coach and mentor for athletes and future athletes to achieve their goals - by mastering time; stopping the cycle of pain, illness, and poor health; and helping them heal their relationship with money.

I teach my athletes how to train intuitively for an event, rather than following a vanilla training plan that doesn’t actually work for them and puts them in a miserable, stressed out state.

I live each day as if this dream is already here, and I know it’s coming… I’ve visualized it! I challenge you to try all the things I’ve shared to reach new heights with your goals too!

If you’d like to learn more about my intuitive mentoring/coaching program, reach out to me on Instagram (mandyj_tris), Facebook, or send me an email at MandyStarCoaching@gmail.com. Have an awesome race season everyone!


*****Below is the 2022 UTCS - the only update we're aware of from the below is that Brineman will be a unique Friday race on Sep 9th. Check out this post if you need a refresher on how the UTCS works.*****

show up at 3+ races to qualify for a slew of season awards!


Below are links to all the 2022 Championship Series races:

Ice Breaker - Sprint
Sand Hollow - Olympic
Daybreak - Olympic
Jordanelle - Olympic
East Canyon - Olympic
Brineman **Now SEP 9th - Half (70.3)


POPULAR LINKS

UTAH TRIATHLON CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES 2022 --> HERE
LATEST AGE GROUP RANKINGS --> HERE
CHAMPIONSHIP BELT HOLDERS --> HERE
MOST IMPROVED TRIATHLETES --> HERE
TOP LOCAL RACER AWARDS --> HERE
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2020 --> HERE
IMSG "COUNTY COMPETITION" (MAY BE REVIVED) --> HERE

UTAH TRIATHLON HISTORY 101 --> HERE


HISTORICAL U.T.B.
"BELT HOLDERS"






Thinking about Lasik or have other eye health needs?
Dr. Brice Williams is offering some incredible
deals for fellow Utah Tri Buzz readers




Local triathlete Steve Monson has a stellar reputation
as one of Utah's finest financial advisors






We started a Patreon account (link below) with the hope of raising a few bucks towards awards & swag for athletes of all abilities in our tri community. We've given out a lot over the past 6 years, but would like to continue to expand our offerings & the volume we can do.

If you enjoy Utah Tri Buzz and would like to pitch in, any amount would be greatly appreciated... (there may be something in it for you as well!)


We're also always grateful for talented people who contribute in terms of time... let us know if you'd like to be part of the Utah Tri Buzz team.



Interview Archives:







































No comments:

Post a Comment