Lim Kopi Fridays Videos

00:00 :

Hello everybody. My name is Adrian and welcome to another episode of Lim Kopi Fridays with Adrian. In today’s episode, we will explore this term called Monkey Mind and what it could do to us and how it could derail our financial plans. Let’s dive right in.

00:22 :

Now, the term Monkey Mind, is a term that describes how our mind is always looking for new things, climbing from trees to trees and we are not really being very stable in our mental state. And this could be as a result of our experience, this could be as a result of the particular scenario or the particular circumstance that we are in and the monkey in our mind starts to mess up our logical thinking and start to mess everything up and makes us react in a different way.

00:59 :

Have you ever experience a time where you felt that you have control over something and after that whole scenario has happened and is done with, the end result is not what you expected? It’s as though something have messed up your mind, and during that period of time you don’t know what you are actually doing at all. You thought you had control over everything, but you know it doesn’t work as what you want it to be. Now, that could be the monkey mind at work. Now the monkey mind messes up your mind in terms of financial planning as well. Now it could lead to things like impulse spending, where we are buying things unnecessarily as well, or we are buying things that we do not need and we don’t have the time to really think if we need or not, we just go ahead and buy it.

01:54 :

Now, that’s what the monkey does to our mind. And the other thing is that because it goes from tree to tree, it doesn’t really allow us to have the time to focus on what is important to us at that point of time. As a result, we probably do not have proper planning in to bring us to the next level. And last but not least, it could also result in unnecessary stress in us on how to handle the situation at that point of time and also the anxiety that actually builds up where our mind is, you know, whirlwind, where we thought that we had everything under control, but we are actually slowly losing sight of our objective and we are losing sight of what we set out to be.

02:44 :

Now, that could be very dangerous, because if you do not train your mind to react in a way that is good to you, to react in a way that is healthy to you, to build good habits, slowly you will succumb to whatever that is being built inside of you. And that may lead you down the wrong path. Now, in financial planning, it means that we should cultivate our internal mindfulness when we are going through our finances. And what do I mean by this? Now, if you notice that when you are making a purchase decision or any important financial decisions, there is a financial mind map inside your head. You may not notice but you actually go through a very quick process if you are not mindful enough.

03:37 :

But you can try this at your own pace, now you can try to break it down the different steps that you actually take when you are making a financial decision. And that’s what I realised when I look at it on my own. Because, I start to compartmentalise what actually went through my mind, and I tried to arrest the disturbing, the wild mindset that is occurring inside of me and try to stop it at that time, bring the pace down and to bring it through the structure mental mind map that I’ve formed inside my head.

04:18 :

So the next time where you are trying to reach a financial decision, go through this process, this mental mind map. If you’re not very sure whether or not it can help, you might want, or you can visualise it at all, you might want to write it down on a piece of paper. What is it about? How important it is for you to get it? And what are the financial implications if you really get it. So this is how you can create the mental mind map in you when you’re making a financial decision.

04:52 :

And the second thing you can do is to set clear objectives and goals. In most of our lives, there is not a requirement for us to set a goal. However, setting a goal brings you very clear to where you’re going and why you’re doing all this for. Now, having a clear objective can help you to structure your mental mind map as well. Because when you’re going through your mental mind map and you realise that you have a particular objective that you have to meet, and because of the particular thing that is bringing you down or there is holding you back from reaching your goals, then you might want to think twice.

05:33 :

So having a clear objective and goals can help you to stay focused on the original path that you wanted to take for your finances. And number three when you have the goal already, you also want to know whether or not you can, how long will it take you to take to go there? Because then if something crops up along the way, you wouldn’t want that to disrupt your original intention. And as where budgeting comes into play, very handy, because it allows you to try to find a balance between purchasing a particular thing and extending your goals. Last but not least, if you are having trouble keeping this up. It might be good to find an accountability partner.

06:23 :

It could be your spouse, it could be your best friend, it could be your parents, it could be your children or equipment, be your financial advisor, whoever that you feel can help you in your financial decisions. They can help you keep track of where you are right now and someone who is not judgmental or and you don’t have resistance trying to share things with that person and trying to find the right person, an accountability partner would help you to keep you on track.

06:53 :

 

So I hope that with this you have a better understanding of how you can handle your monkey mind and what some of the ways they can train your mind to react in a way that you really want it to be when you’re making your financial decisions. I hope this helps and I’ll see you in the next episode.