To a better 2023 and a better you. Happy New Year

Issue #18

Jan 03, 2023

Hello everyone, happy new year.

It’s that time of the year when every other thing you see on the internet is either about the outlook for the coming year or people posting their resolutions, which people will give up in a week 😉

You all would already be bombarded with posts about finance, but there’s more to life and investing than just money. At the end of the day, money is a means to an end, not the end itself. Your overall physical health, mental health and wellness is what will help you earn more and invest more—not the other way around. So we thought we’d curate some good articles that will add value to your day-to-day life.

You can listen to the audio summary of this post below 👇

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Set Health Goals

This is one of the most common new year resolutions, but most often we end up failing. In fact, according to an analysis of 800 million activity data points by the fitness tracking app Strava, most people give up on their new year resolutions by January 19th. But let's try again this year with a fresh mindset and approach. We can identify a few priorities and make a list so that we have something defined and concrete to work towards.

In this delightfully simple post, Phil Pearlman describes why he sets health goals, how you might benefit from doing it too, and offers some tips.

You don’t need to set impossible goals that will lead to injury if you don't know how your body responds to pushing it to its limits. Not getting injured is important as recovery time sets you backwards.
Find your rhythms first. Get to know yourself and what you have in the tank.
If you are a beginner and your goals turn out to be too easy, you can always revise them higher during the year.

One of the easiest things you could do to improve your health is to start walking—set a target of 10,000 steps a day. Walking is a wonderful activity that helps not just your physical health, but also mental health. Not just that, it can also help to get your creative juices flowing.

Take care of your brain

Dr. Marc Milstein is a scientist, speaker and researcher who specializes in brain health and lowering risks for dementia. He recently talked about a few concepts like cleaning your brain, the effect of untreated diabetes, challenging your brain regularly and eating the right foods.

Did you know this? 😯

Your three-pound brain creates about five pounds of trash, waste, and toxins a year from the byproducts of chemical reactions that take place in your brain each day. Think of your brain like a sponge; you need to squeeze out all the waste that builds up.

Mental health and physical health go hand in hand

The last few years have been stressful. Some of us lost our loved ones, some of us lost our jobs. Our lives are hardly the same as they were pre-covid. One thing that has changed is that we are more open to conversations about mental health. In this light, I urge you to read this.

Everyone suffering deserves our love and support, and treatment. Do everything you can to fight the stigma against mental health. Refer others to professional help. If you suffer, seek treatment today, not next week, not tomorrow. You deserve good health.

We need to fight off the stigma attached with mental health. But first, we should try to understand why it came about in the first place.

Roy Grinker is a professor of anthropology and international affairs at George Washington University and the Editor-in-Chief of Anthropological Quarterly.

Here are 5 key insights from his new book, Nobody’s Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness.

One of the paradoxes of the “sink or swim” mentality in capitalism is that we encourage people to take risks, even to fail—but we don’t do that for people with disabilities. Our impulse to shelter and protect them can actually be dehumanizing. Shouldn’t we all be given the chance to succeed, and have the dignity to fail?

Taking care of your mental health is also not rocket science. It starts with a few simple things like:

Getting a good night’s sleep
Eating well
Basic physical activity like going for walks

Enough about health, now let's talk about something more exciting.

Money

Our beliefs about money are our money scripts. Like lines being read by an actor, money scripts are firmly held beliefs we recite to ourselves. They typically lie outside our conscious awareness and are passed down to us by our parents and grandparents. We arrive at them by observing how those around us talk about money, hearing their opinions about the rich and the poor, and watching their financial behaviors.

Once you identify your money scripts, you can make a conscious choice to change them. Our money scripts are often distorted – they do not represent absolute truths. By identifying, challenging, and changing your money scripts, you can change your financial trajectory.

There is a possibility that some of your money scripts may be keeping you poor, IMHO it is very important to see if any of these apply to you, before you start reading anything else about money and personal finance. Another very interesting thing about money scripts is that they can predict your financial behaviour. It’s a good idea to see where you could be heading and if any improvements are needed.

Now that you have understood about money scripts, don't feel too bad if you think you need to change your money script and if you have been in the dark. It's fine. Please know that just about everyone has a complicated relationship with money. A lot of people in fact also suffer from money disorders.

Money disorders are persistent patterns of self-destructive and self-limiting financial behaviors. They result from distorted beliefs about money we develop from our financial flashpoint experiences. Financial flashpoints are painful, distressing, and/or dramatic life events associated with money that are so emotionally powerful, they leave a lasting imprint.

Now, one important thing before proceeding further, let's check if you have a money disorder.

The basics of financial health aren't complicated, and we are all capable of mastering them, no matter who we are, or our level of wealth. When we identify our financial flashpoint experiences, challenge our distorted money beliefs, and practice healthy financial behaviors (e.g. maintain reasonable and low debt, have an active savings plan, and follow a spending plan), we don't just become materially richer—we become emotionally wealthier as well.

Okay, enough of the heavy stuff. Let's end the conversation about money on a positive note. Let's try to become better with money and richer at the same time. I give you this list of small actions that can make you richer.

Change your life

We all want to become better people. Don’t worry I am here to make it a little easier for you. Just follow these simple ideas to be a better person in 2023.

Idea number 12 in this list is “Money is not the most important thing” and we agree. So just don't stop reading about money.

Have a good 2023 guys, stay safe, be happy.

Thank you for reading. do like and share this with your friends and let us know your views in the comments section below.

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