Whatever you want — better health, stronger relationships, or a business that actually pays you — focus is non-negotiable.
But focus isn’t one thing. It’s three. And once you understand them, you can use a simple formula to rewire the way your brain handles money.
Your Brain Rewires Around What You Repeat
Neuroplasticity is your brain’s ability to change itself. Every time you repeat a thought or an action, the pathway gets stronger. Repeat it enough and it becomes automatic.
That’s how the loop got built into you — earn, spend, borrow, repeated for years until you didn’t even notice it.
Self-directed neuroplasticity is the flip side: you decide what your brain rewires around. Instead of the marketers choosing, you do.
The Three Parts Of Focus
- Quality. How fully you’re in it. Ten minutes of real attention beats an hour of half-watching with your phone in your hand.
- Quantity. How often, and for how long. Reps. Nobody gets a black belt from one class.
- Veto power. Your ability to say no to whatever pulls you off track — the scroll, the shiny new opportunity, the old habit that shows up on payday.
It’s exactly how you train on the mat. Every rep done properly. Enough reps to make it automatic. And the discipline to stop yourself the moment your technique gets sloppy.
The Formula
The formula comes from Jeffrey Schwartz, the neuroscientist who wrote You Are Not Your Brain. Put that book on your reading list.
His four steps are a brilliant tool for changing any habit, including your money ones:
- Relabel. Catch the urge and call it what it is: “That’s the loop talking.”
- Reframe. Remind yourself it’s conditioning, not you.
- Refocus. Put your attention on something that moves you forward instead.
- Revalue. See the old urge for what it’s actually worth to you — which is usually nothing.
Do that with quality, in enough quantity, with your veto switched on, and your brain rewires around the new habit.
Your Move
Pick one money habit you want gone — the payday splurge, the late-night online order, the “I deserve it” purchase. For the next thirty days, run Schwartz’s four steps every single time it shows up. Count your reps.
Mitch LingardMoney Mentor at Black Belt Results. Former representative rugby league player, martial artist and dad — now putting other people in the room with black belts in wealth. Get In Touch or Book A Call.