Ramit Sethi: This 1 Mental Habit Is Keeping You From Building Wealth

©Ramit Sethi

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Most people have probably had the experience of hearing two compliments and one criticism but only remembering the criticism. The negative has a powerful hold on us, so much so that there’s a psychological phenomenon that seeks to explain it, known as the “negativity bias.” In essence, we tend to pay more attention to and spend more time processing the negative than we do the positive.

Moreover, finance expert Ramit Sethi suggested we may have a tendency to lean toward negative thoughts first rather than positive ones. Thus, not only can the negativity bias ruin your mood or make you feel badly about yourself, it can also be standing in the way of growing your wealth. 

Sethi explained in a recent newsletter how to overcome this naturally occurring phenomenon as it relates to your finances and wealth building.

You Can Change It

Sethi is optimistic and encouraging of his readers to know that they can overcome these thought patterns with some intentional activity. He wrote that it’s very common for these negative thoughts creep in before you even notice them, “Thoughts like ‘I can’t do this” and ‘There’s no chance this will work.'” 

Step 1: Notice Your Negative Thoughts

If paying attention to your negative thoughts seems counterintuitive, Sethi is taking a page out of the mindfulness book and asking you to notice them without judgment, because it’s a way to recognize what you’re dealing with. He suggested that the next time you find yourself reacting to an idea or scenario that matters to you, such as “I could start a business in 2025,” take a moment to notice the thought that arise, but hold back making judgments and proclamations to yourself about what these thoughts mean, or how “right” they may be.

He even recommended writing them down. If you’re working toward a financial goal, it may help to first get all of the negative thoughts that crop up around it out of the way so that you can start to focus on what you imagine will go right. 

Step 2: Disconnect the Thought From the Feeling

Though they often seem entwined in the moment, Sethi said that feelings and thoughts are two separate things and it’s much more helpful for your goals if you can separate them out. Not to mention that one can influence the other.  

In other words, he wrote, “If you’re scared to start a business, and you find yourself looking for reasons why you shouldn’t, you’re conflating a feeling (fear of failure) with a thought (reasons not to start your business).”

He assured his readers that thoughts all by themselves are just ideas floating through the ether of your mind and don’t have to contain emotional energy or positive/negative resonance. 

“They’re neutral,” he wrote. “YOU give them their power by associating them with feelings.” So if you’re noticing a tendency to shoot down your own financial success or best practices before you even arrive, maybe now you have a better idea of what’s holding you back.

He also reminded readers that humans are “hard-wired” to look for the worst that can happen, which is a survival instinct.

Step 3: Choose How To Handle the Thought

Sethi suggested that by bringing awareness to your thoughts, and separating out the emotions from it, you have power over it. He recounted something a therapist once said: “You can’t keep a thought from entering your mind, but you don’t have to sit it down and serve it dinner.”

And like anything, the more practice you get observing your thoughts, the more likely you’ll be able to “gain control over them,” especially the negative ones. “You get to decide whether the thought actually has any merit — or whether it’s just your amygdala trying to protect you from a lion,” he wrote.

When you have a hold of a thought that might seem potentially negative, he recommended asking some questions, such as:

• Is this thought valid?
• What should I do about this thought?
• What if things went the exact opposite way?
• What if this went really, really well?

Sethi cheerleads readers on, having faith that they can get out of this habit, but only with conscious attention and a lot of practice. 

Imagine the wealth-building success you want for yourself and start to invite positive thoughts toward your endeavors. You may be surprised at what you can achieve.

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