A Zen Millionaire's Secret to Creating Abundance in Your Life | Ken Honda

you are capable of paying back all the debt I think it's a beautiful thing like somebody trusted me that I'll make enough money so I can pay back [Music] I'd like to welcome to the show Ken Honda how you doing Ken hi Alex I'm so happy to be here and your shows are amazing so I feel so honored to be part of your show oh that's so thank you so much it's humbling for you to say my friend I've been a fan of yours for a while I found you on Mindvalley years ago and that introduced me to your whole world and your amazing book happy money and I love your approach to money and the Zen philosophy behind it and I've used some of your techniques I I always say thank you when I pay a bill or or ortegato I think it is arigato or thank you or gracias in my world because I'm Spanish uh and and when I pay a bill and when I and I Get Money I do it a lot when I get money I I'm not as good when I pay um I gotta get better but we'll get into all of that so my first question to you my friend is what started your journey with happy money and understanding money in general and the way you do thank you for um such a great question you know to make it short uh it's almost predestined when I when I come to think of it I've listened to your past shows and I think is this the whole simulational thing and I think I agreed 100 because uh I was born into a very unique family in Japan uh not many people talk about money but uh money was that just a daily Topic in their household because my father was a very successful tax accountant and he started teaching me about money since I was five or six and since then I uh he taught me everything about uh what needs to be learned about money and business by the age 10. so I could ask uh his my father's clients on weekends when they visited my father's office uh in our house so I asked I used to harass them when I was six or seven you know uh sir what is your Roe you know what is a turnout ratio and stuff like that and I didn't know what that mean um but what they meant but I I I really enjoyed looking at the they're confused face and look on their face like wow you know so I was just a very interesting kid asking adults about you know what's money for you so since then I've been learning about money now how did you incorporate these uh these Zen ideas with money and well let me how can you first of all the next question is how can you tell if your money is happy and that whole concept is very strange to a western audience is like happy money you know because money money is a loaded question it triggers there's a lot of triggers in that I I I I I find it so fascinating I um last year I did the world tour um at that time westbound I'm going to start the eastbound again this year but I I thought it's fascinating to listen to people talk about money so because uh in in the west uh it's widely believed that more money is better but I found out that I met uh wealthiest people in Japan and in the world and uh not all of them are super happy and uh in fact uh some of them are more confused than most of us so more money doesn't seem to solve the problem on the other hand you know if you're in a Spanish um uh culture you've seen the Most Blessed um happy people who who on the street that they didn't seem to have much money so happiness doesn't really relate with money but as we know um in in everyday life uh if we have no money we we struggle so we need some kind of money so how much is enough and how do we get the money and I realized that uh depending on how you receive money how you make money and how you spend money um the energy around money that is a source of your happiness and also the source of unhappiness if we make money in a way that you feel so Truth uh true Joy and also when you spend money you feel so happy that will make you very happy person but if you make uh your money in a miserable way like try to take advantage of other people or try to be dishonest to get the money and then you feel bad lousy about yourself and when you want to um be stingy when you need to pay the bills you feel bad about that too and you feel frustrated that will also make you a very unhappy person so uh happiness determines how you receive and also let go of money and that is a source of Happy Money so how this is something that I've come across in my my battles with money throughout my life I was raised in a household where you work hard for your money work ethic you know money is not easy to get you have to work hard for it you've got to save don't spend be careful and and that's called poor people mentality in many ways now a lot of good came out of that work ethic excellent I work harder than many people now I've actually figured out that I don't have to work as hard I have to start pulling back a bit as I get old because that's you know after 30 years of of just not I was I got my first job when I was 14. illegal illegally being paid under the table at a video store you know and and that's how I got because I wanted to get in so hot so so bad but this poor people mentality where like you look at money so scarce scarcely affected income I've noticed it but the moment I Let Go and started to not give that energy to the money money becomes easier it flows a lot easier and I've just noticed that in my own life not rich by any stretch of the imagination but I'm happier so how do you break through this poor people mentality especially in the west there's a lot of poor people mentality in generational tune we'll talk about generational mindset as well but my generation immigrants especially immigrants work hard work hard work hard work hard work hard to the point where you don't even you can't even enjoy a vacation yes that place so can you tell us yeah so you know uh you may have the impression that Japanese people work harder and I it's true so I'm the uh the very few uh people who have you know guys who have long hairs and just don't care about the rules you know and the rebels in Japan so when I walk in this uh street with a T-shirt and everybody's wearing you know like at least my age is wearing a you know serious suit like what's wrong with you guys you know life used to be enjoyed so that's why my books are so popular I saw it about 8 million copies it's almost like one out of uh ten you know 12 Japanese people uh the reason is that people need to realize that uh what life is for but this uh scarcity mentality we have to do something we have to be somebody in order to bring food on the table I understand it but at the same time how can you balance out uh there's so many things to be enjoyed in life um so uh the first stage you may have to work a little harder but after um getting out of survival um mode you have to switch into a more of a life enjoy mode but a lot of millionaires and billionaires they cannot do that because uh they're so driven and they cannot let go of this energy I have to do more I have to get more but you have to at certain time could be something to do with the age or something to do with your financial back uh you know status but you have to know when is enough how much is enough otherwise when you start dreaming about making say a hundred thousand dollars a year because with the inflation that may not be enough to keep you going so you might want to make two hundred thousand dollars and uh if you reach that level a lot of your friends would be making half a million dollars and then you know a million dollars and then uh you realize that there is something called uh helicopters or private jets and then your toys are getting more expensive and expensive so unless you say okay this is this is enough I'm so happy with certain amount of money or certain amount of um uh energy otherwise you'll be driven in a washing machine so you will lose a peace of mind and also you lose the meaning of life so um you have to balance out what's in your life and isn't it isn't it amazing though especially in the west how you know we're pounded constantly with this you need more more consume more buy more and at a certain point you need a box to live in a place to prepare food a place to sleep a place to go to the bathroom safety security um a car to get you from point A to point B and maybe a few other things but at a certain point how much bigger does your box have to be is five thousand feet enough is ten thousand feet enough is it so big that you're going into rooms there's rooms that you don't go into the entire year like how much is enough and I think this I think at least in the west it seems to be shifting a little bit maybe I'm wrong but it seems to be shipping into more of like maybe I don't need especially the pandemic I don't need to work so hard you know I spend time with my family that's more important than another car or a bigger box to live in or a fancy t-shirt or a fancy watch you start you focus on where that money makes the most sense for your enjoyment of life and do you agree that the pandemic kind of was like a big Etch-a-Sketch if you will if you know what a nacho sketch is from the olden days you look so young sir that's why I didn't know but uh the adjust which kind of shake the entire world and kind of reset things do you agree yes definitely because uh we just happen to be thrown into uh um a box to life in a way you know because of the lockdown and many many major cities you know people realize like uh why did I work so hard so in that sense we were forced out of Trance but working hard and busy and then we realized oh what was I thinking so that's why many people are not coming back to the workplace that seems to just raise up the rage uh wages higher so it causes inflation but because of all this we just um we are forced out of Transit once again I think this year is going to be in such an interesting year uh the people who who have too much will worry uh people who have too little will worry too so in the middle people uh people don't have to worry as much but I guess uh people who have too much who will realize that having too much is a cause of your own happiness at the same time having too little could be also the cause of your life worries too so if you have too much you have to let go of too much because the money you think you you thought it you had is gone and for the people who are suffering you have to figure out the ways to live you have to get out of this like um I have to survive a mentality you have to find who you are and you have to find what your gifts are and by sharing your gifts you can live a better life but for most of us we need to be out of the trance well let me ask you this because a lot of people listening right now might be in survival mode and it's really easy to talk about a lot of the concepts we're talking about when you have money when you're more comfortable you're like you know you shouldn't work as hard maybe you should relax a little bit more enjoying life but if you can't pay the you're stressed out about rent or food this is a more difficult conversation so what what advice do you have for people in that situation so in that sense in a sense we are all forced to live a different life so say if you're in uh San Francisco or New York or in L.A um you know maybe this is a time to move out to the city you know so that's what I did so if you listen to somebody like Alex oh gee maybe I should move to Santa Fe or you know some some place nice and then when you just uh move up the city like uh wow there is a world out there outside of L.A there's a lot of trees and what oh no trees you know so beautiful you know why did I work so hard in a in a in a city where you have to pay incredible rent but you know I I don't have to pay you know so much so um maybe uh it's time for you to re-evaluate your life is this the way you want to work is this way you want to work is this how you want uh is this how you want to work and then you almost like get Enlightenment move out of the city and I think a lot of people are doing it so I think we are going to be in a very interesting age where people get to choose where to live even where to stay and where to work so we used to be somewhere tribes you know we have to be somewhere to do something but we're just many of us are moving into anywhere tribe where we can do anything anywhere so I think we are in a process of uh Transforming Our Lives so if you have a hard time making both ends meet maybe you're in the wrong place in so many ways absolutely I left Los Angeles after 13 years because of that specific reason like why are we spending all this money it's not that we couldn't afford it but it's like why are we throwing this money away we could be traveling more with this money buy a bigger house that makes more that we're more comfortable and there was so many reasons to move and we never looked back very very happy so it is something that that hopefully people listening might there's opportunities now that they weren't before the pandemic you know before you really needed to be in some big cities to make a living but with remote with remote work that's become different very very different now you speak about money wounds what is a money wound so this is the cause of of our unhappiness you know since we're four or five we start to realize that there is something called money and by that by the age seven or eight you kind of figure out uh what kind of uh situations Financial situations that your your families are in I I met a kindergarten boy who said uh I don't get a I will not get a Christmas present because my my my house is my family is poor and I asked him do you know the do you know what what it means to be poor and he said I don't know my mother taught me we're poor so you know we just begin to realize that there is something called money so since then we get we're being hurt so much about not getting the right present not getting uh to go to summer camps and not getting the the same toys that my all our friends seem to get and so we just feel so bad about money and how we've been treated uh in our um in our family and uh we've been how many times have we been scolded by our parents you know saying like don't waste money what did you do you know um do you think we're Rockefeller families you know bad things I have a collection of all the terrible words that our appearances to say it's so Universal uh one time um there's a saying in Japanese if you don't have money that means you don't have a head that get me nightmares for days like when I grew up I have no head because I have no money so those scary sayings are kids you know um that we grew up I think parents wanted to make sure that their kids are okay but uh I think they're doing it too much so money could be such a scary monster chasing after you if you're not careful if you don't study hard if you don't do something right It's Gonna Catch You So instead of just saying you know money can be your best friend so just do whatever you love in your life and then money will follow you so just enjoy money because life is to be enjoyed if all our other parents uh used to say that I think we're having a different life probably a lot less stress and worries without question now what about cultural money wounds which is something that that can like I like I just talked about a little bit ago where my parents were my grandparents were immigrants my parents were immigrants and that kind of leaned into what I am and even even my wife and I was also an immigrant trying to not do that to our children and we catch ourselves and we are conscious of it and we're catching ourselves but doing it but it still seeps out of us because it's so programmed in us we're like no no we can't no no we got to pull back on that so what about those kind of money moons it's there because uh it's so embedded in us and it's almost like DNA so I I gave a uh um a couple Counseling and Family Counseling and I usually need to go back to two generations so that means like uh your grandparents or grandparents uh had a hard time uh getting over the Great Depression in 1930s it's because of those what what happened in 1930s and 40s gave so much scars to our grand grandfathers grandmothers and then scarred grandparents did so terrible job at raising our parents which was a cause of our misery so we need to go back to at least two generations to figure out what's in us so when you're afraid of um starting your business why is that it's because your parents used to teach you if you don't have money you've been in a big trouble why did why did they say that because the same thing their their their parents which is our grandparents used to is to say when our parents are small why is that it's because our grandparents had such a tough time during the war or depression or right after the war because of that uh we have a different uh cultural background and uh and it it's got some pros and cons you know like I I have a huge uh respect for Latin American cultures because you respect family uh and also bonding that's great but at the same time this bonding could be it's such a restrict uh restricting energy too so he has some good and bad uh and and most of the western uh culture uh we are taught to be uh be alone Be Independent but too much Independence uh gives you isolation too so when you are having a hard time uh both financially and socially and emotionally you have a hard time reaching for help asking for help so we are so good at giving uh help but we are so bad at risk asking for help so that's because of this we have to be independent so uh in North American culture in general except Latin American or some immigrant uh cultures uh it's almost Unthinkable to ask help among brothers and sisters and also I was so shocked in North America uh you know your best friends and don't talk about how much how much money you make to each other like asking money questions is such a big taboo oh yeah so in Japan and in Asia we casually like a high school Union we try to ask about hey Alex how much are you making like oh you're making so much oh that's great I'm so happy for you but in North America if you get ques asked you know how much money you make a year in a College reunion like you get out of here right might as well just ask about religion and politics while you're at it and also you have another fight too but of course these days you know we have such a cultural taboos in in so many different areas by the way in a Japanese guys don't care about how you know the questions like how much money they're um they're making they don't care about it but when it comes to sexual issues there's a big taboos so then you can freak out all the American Business people about how much money they make so you can ask Japanese business and then how's your sexual Life by the way vice versa somebody will ask answer a question about their sexual life in America much quicker than they'll ask I'll tell you how much they'll give you details that you don't even want to know about yes before they tell you how much they make yeah it's so interesting you know about what is uh what brings you so much excitement and what brings you so much shame and money is such a great extractor of shame in any culture because uh when you talk about how much money you make how much money uh um you you don't make yeah you don't make or but that area the whole area brings out so much shame so unless you heal this uh embarrassment or shame or guilt you cannot really enjoy money absolutely now how about debt debt is you were speaking of Shame debt is such a massive thing of Shame and guilt about that how can we if someone's in massive amounts of debt this is a difficult conversation for them to listen to and and if the stats are correct most Americans are in debt uh and and because that's the way the system is built here what do you have what do you have to say about it so you know I often talk about that in um very different ways that probably you think in in in your entire life instead of feeling that the heaviness of the dead I just ask you to uh turn around and look at that in a different way as energy so when you borrow money what did you do you just you know sign the papers and you you just say how much money you make you're a college graduate or whatever that is and the bank or your friends or somebody give you the money why is that because they had a complete trust in you that you're gonna pay back so in other words they had the uh they had the belief they believed that you're capable of paying back and I think it's a huge amount of trust that you got there like five years ago 10 years ago when you're in college uh you get a you got a college loan and that means that after college they believed the bank believe that you are capable of paying back all the debt and I think it's a beautiful thing like somebody trusted me that I'll make enough money so I can pay back so instead of feel instead of feeling the heaviness of the debt you can feel the joy of the trust that somebody placed in you wow I thought it's a heavy burden but it's not it was a huge trust that that you will be more abundant you'll make enough money so you can pay back the the debt and after paying back the debt you'll be more prosperous that's why I'm just giving it a loan so going back 5 10 20 years and thinking like so somebody trusted me enough so I I'll do better so to answer the trust I'll make sure that I'll pay back every month and the interest I'm paying is to show my appreciation to the trust that somebody or the bank uh showed in me so uh the bank or whoever it could be your uncles just say uncle you know Uncle Lee thank you so much you know for the trust and paying back every month to answer that answer your trust so that can be translated into um love and Trust if you want to it's very it's fascinating hearing you talk about it because you're absolutely right it is a perspective change you change your perspective you change the way you think about it and it does change the way you approach it but be being from someone who you was in massive amounts of debt when I was younger in my 20s because I had no idea about how to do it I think with my money I'm thinking back to if I would have been listening to this in my 20s I would have been like man this is this is going to be tough it's a tough It's Not Easy like when you've got you know you're a hundred thousand dollars in debt and you're only making 30 or 40 000 a year you don't have a lot of money to throw around you start to change this is I think mind-blowing and also can really change the way you look at how you move forward in life money it's a beautiful poetic way of looking at it but I know a lot of people listening going man that's going to be hard to do very hard yeah so let me just share a story of my friend who inherited his father's business about uh 15 20 years ago he um inherited his father's business which was losing so much money so when a few months after his father passing uh his father's accountant show he showed him the paper and uh his father's um company was three million dollars in there well here's a question to you if your father left your company with a three million dollars in debt what are gonna do you have two options you inherit the uh your father's company and you become a CEO you leave your nice uh paying job and start working in a terrible company without like five employees or just say oh oh no I'm not going to inherit any of his debt any of his things so I'm a free man you have a choice you know you can just sign the waiver that say I'm not going to inherit his debt or his money and then you're off the hook uh I think 95 or 98 of the people would say oh I'm not going to say sorry Daddy you know like I'll just leave the the thing legally so I'm okay hold the hook a lot of people would say that but my my friend is a very unique guy said my father borrowed three million dollars and I think as a son I'm I feel responsible to pay back so not only he quit his very uh nice job very secure job he started um he he got his father's business and uh he struggled because he didn't know nothing about anything about um management but uh because of his strong will to to pay back all the money because uh his father uh was trusted by his friends and his uh you know uh uh colleagues and and among his uh his community so he had to uh he had to pay all the money so uh his father's name will not be in shame do you know what happened he worked so hard so he started paying back uh the the debt every year it took him 10 years to clean out the bail but that means he made about a million dollars every year in profit to pay back three hundred thousand dollar loan so uh he paid back all the money in 10 years and not only he pay back all the money he got the earning power and he kept your going so just think about how much money you would make uh how much money would you have if you keep making one million dollar in profit so in a few years he became a Millionaires and looking back um after 15 uh 16 years he appreciated his father so much because he didn't his father didn't leave him a dad or a terrible company his father gave him a big training machine that's called a small business who's uh that which is losing a lot of money and with this opportunity his son got a training of making money and being serious about life so he's uh enjoying his life in a beautiful home with his beautiful wife and children so Luca what what happened he didn't know that something like that happens after 15 years of hard work but uh when it gets go look go back like because of the education you you had you know with a college degree and and a lot of parties and a lot of friendship and um a lot of uh knowledge and experiences you are you become a better person you become more productive person so you can make more money along the way so instead of feeling that heaviness of the Dead just look at look at in a different perspective you see a whole entire beautiful future ahead of you well the thing is too that the example you're using is of a positive good debt which is either for education or a home or like these are good debts that you have uh or even even your business your friend's business had debt but it was good debt to help the business but a lot of people have the horrible debt that the credit card debt and massive debt that they feel shameful of like oh my God I can't believe like I did I can't believe I was 100 because of doing stupid things but with all of that said looking back on it I wouldn't change a thing because the education I got from dealing with it getting out of it all of that was life life education that I needed to this day where I don't have to worry about that I don't have to worry about doing things like that but so people listening I just hope that even if you've had that kind of quote-unquote shameful debt of like I bought too much stuff and you know and I I maxed out my credit card and I oh those kind of things this mentality that you're talking about will change the way you look at things and you can't beat yourself up for what you've done in the past if you continue to move forward with this new perspective that you've done can help you move forward in a very positive way yeah so I want to give you one a fun affirmation you know what what I whenever I do something stupid and a lot of us do like oh no what did I do why did I do that I uh there's a beautiful affirmation I I I I often use when I find out I made a terrible mistake and the the and the thing I say is I'm human I can help it so I make a stupid mistake you can say I'm a human I can't I couldn't help it exactly and you can't beat yourself up over mistakes it's you know you made them it happened move on learn from it move on and that's the way it is but again this the way you're looking at debt and the way you're looking at money is a helpful positive way of moving forward not the shameful guilty way which becomes help heavy and hurtful and you have a different mentality around money which my next question is we talked about poor people mentality do you have any advice on how to reprogram ourselves from poor people mentality to a more positive relationship with money not only for um poor people or financially challenged people I'd say uh the attitude or relationship you have with money will determine your life so uh my my advice to you is to start appreciating money in your life if you start appreciating money coming in you how much can you appreciate the money coming in a lot of us are complaining I can't pay all the bills with this salary right instead of saying that you can say wow you know I don't have the uh college education or I I don't have any skills but people pay me this much thank you so much you know for the money that you gave it to me and when you pay the bills thank you so much for the electricity thank you so much for the food so I don't have to stop today what my families can eat so if you have that appreciation mentality uh people notice you uh one time there's this uh um TV interview um the factory was shutting down because the factories are going somewhere else so this woman was crying so hard and then she was saying after 30 years of hard work uh our Factory is shutting down but I so appreciate the management and the co-workers for working with me I don't I didn't have any college degree but because of the 30 years of factory work uh I could send three of my kids to college I forever appreciate that and I feel so sad about this shutting down of the Factory and then the next guy was angry he was just you know using terrible language and then and he was just yelling at the reporter and after the show a lot of calls to the TV station asking for This Woman's contact number because they wanted to hire her you know after enough actually shut down what's your reaction you can be super upset and angry or somebody like her she's she showed her deepest appreciation and love for the co-workers and the management so who would want to hire who get uh upset over little things or who appreciated uh for the for for the situation so the people who appreciate a little thing in life uh can be appreciated by other people so once you're in this appreciation mode it takes only a few weeks few months could be a year or two to get out of this terrible scarcity mentality place that everything doesn't work so the key is appreciation I'm telling you it works for me I was doing Arigato uh right yes yes Arigato your money I got all your money so I was I got all my money left and right and my wife was like did you just say arigato I'm like yes I did she's like what are you doing I'm like I'm thinking when the money comes in any time a sales comes in I say thank you and then occasionally I remember when I pay a bill I am out to dinner or something I go thank you you know orgato because it's it's I thank you for the ability to pay this bill thank you for the ability to receive this money and it's a different mentality on how you look at at money now you've talked about the money container concept what is that huh so I realized and after meeting a few clients on the same day many and they're about the same age like they're a 30A or 39. they have about the same college education same skills but uh the second one was making five times more money because I was doing the paper right so I know how much exactly how much they make and then where is it you know they have the same background same kind of guy but what's what made this whole difference and I realized that there is something called money container and every one of us was born with a certain money size some some people were born big you know somebody like Elon Musk or Bill Gates they're they're born here do big things and then get a lot of money and other people like my uncle you know um uh he has a small container he's working in a small uh Factory and then he doesn't make much money but that's who he is and he doesn't have this ambition to learn new things to do something big and so he has a modest lifestyle here he doesn't have any debt but his his money container is so small so and you may have uh your parents or your friends who are a school teacher or nurse or whoever that is who have a small container so um some of us are born with a bigger container than others and it's almost like a pre-distance and of course you can make it bigger but uh just think about this you know if you are born and by the age 30 or 40 you kind of figure out how much you're gonna make for the rest of your life and then based on your money container size you can make it bigger or you can satisfy yourselves with presence container otherwise if you're trying to make it bigger too quick you're going to crack the container you know a lot of lottery winners they ruin their lives by winning like five million dollars or so it's because too much money cracks and their money containers that's is there isn't it interesting though with lottery winners that lottery winners I think it's something I don't know the exact percentage but ninety percent eighty percent within five years lose all their money again uh are dead are bankrupt or broke or some or they've lose their family they don't know how to deal with that because you when you say that cracks your container if if tomorrow I was given 20 billion dollars I would I think I could figure something out but it would be difficult because I said so much you don't know how to even handle that your mind can't wrap your head around it and even these billionaires it they gradually grew to this building their skill sets to be able to handle that kind of money so even when we're rushed in with a lot of money that's why people with a lot that win the lottery they don't they just can't deal with it right and you know I'm more curious about who's the uh left over 10 percent you know who didn't go for that and I have a friend who just wanna um a million dollars you know um you know I'm actually not at least five or six uh people who win who won more than a million dollars because uh you know I have a huge Network and then uh there's a person at the at the end of the party can you know what I want three million dollars in a lottery do you know what happened so I hear all the sacred stories so the people who didn't get influenced by money Alex just guess who they are you know they they were wealthy before before winning the lottery so winning another million dollars didn't really affect them at all so so they were just celebrating their winning and then they're just just doing a little research and and uh what can we how can we have so much fun with this extra one million dollars so you know like do you think I should donate to uh uh dogs or just charity it or other causes so they are just enjoying the fact they want uh extra money but that doesn't influence them because they're already wealthy so yes no no I was going to tell you that I was I was uh younger in my younger years I did a series of documentaries I worked on a series of documentaries of lottery winners oh nice and I went to their houses and interviewed them and it was all walks of life some people went crazy lost their entire family and friends and self-destructed and then there was one family I never forgot Working Man Factory man salt of the earth one 10 million didn't move out of his house refused to leave his job because he didn't want to lose his pension I'm not kidding you he's like nothing changed in his life he's like you know what every once in a while when my wife walks by a window at the mall and wants to buy a dress you buy it for her so it was I think a it was a completely they just didn't bother dealing with it they just put it away which I feel it was a little bit two extremes you need to be in the middle somewhere because when you have that much wealth and blessed with that much well there is a responsibility to be responsible with that energy that came into you right yes definitely so it's how you play with a uh money energy you know I I often talk about money as energy uh if you're dealing with a happy money energy you become happy if you're dealing with a a competitive energy or busy energy or fast energy or violent energy uh your life will become that so you have to really watch out what kind of energy you're being surrounded by now can you discuss saving versus spending so there's good spending and bad spending you know when you spend money in a bad way you regret you know one of the fun uh um key line tagline in a near shopping center and my house is like shop now regret at home is what they say so at least they're honest yeah I really enjoy that you know the the shop owner wow he's so honest about his thing and but he has a good sense of humor so it will either save or we shop you have to ask yourself is this is this crucial for my survival and in fact a lot of shoppings are not so if you are struggling you're spending too much you know I've done a lot of money counseling sometimes for free and the people who don't have money they tend to spend more wealthy people don't spend money because they they think they can buy them anytime so a lot of uh financially challenged people spend a lot of time at a cheap shopping stores like dollar shops and they buy things that they don't even use so it's because there's a hunger inside a thirst Inside by shopping you want to fill that so you have to really ask yourself is this crucial so by not buying tender a thing you can save ten dollars so if you are if you feel like you're struggling with money you have to shop less and start making more money problem it's it's got only two problems you're making too little or spending too much and uh financially challenged people uh they have both problems making too little and spending too much very true now you also spoke about a life script what is a life script and how do you read it so a lot of us are born with a live script um if you are a children of immigrants you know as Alex said you have a working heart mentality and if you're born and brought up in a middle class America and now they're probably like two different um you know kind of groups people who are moving up and the people who moving down depending on uh what they think of Life uh us so uh I guess if you are uh thinking that life is to be enjoyed you bump into a lot of things to be enjoyed if you think life is suffering a lot of things uh happen because um you believe that so you have to change your perspectives and if you want to uh if you are think about it if you're a writer of your own uh movie you can change a script so instead of asking what what are the five horrible things that are going to happen in my life for the next 10 years you can say what are the great miracle that will start happening from today so if you just can't if you're a writer of the if you're the scriptwriter for your movie you can start writing incredible stories like 20 years ago I started writing before then I had no career I had no skills and I had no idea if I was gonna become a writer but I started changing I I guess uh my life script uh what if I become an author what if I become a best-selling author what if if I start making money by what well what I loved so I just um just changed my life script otherwise I'd have been working in a in an office shorter shorter hair maybe a suit as in a content but now I'm much happier because I changed my left script to more of uh what I really wanted to do in life so you have to do what matters most in life so if you want to put that in the center of your life you your life will be so much uh you your life will be filled with so much joy and abundance but if you think life is there for suffering it becomes that so you have to really watch what you wish for Christmas or holidays very very very true now we've mentioned a couple times about bad spending or spending too much on things that don't matter in life how do you deal with the feeling of guilt because that is a very powerful feeling like I can't believe I bought this dress I can't believe I bought this uh this this bar that I'm putting in my garage that or even better that that piece of workout equipment that now just hangs my shirts on uh that these things that cost a thousand dollars two thousand whatever it is dealing with the guilt of that how because that does stop the energy flow it stops the energy of the flow of money coming into your life so how do you deal with that so first of all can you forgive yourself for being stupid for being for being careless or for for being uh just a fool so if you can that would be the first step can you forgive and once again I said uh I did that I screwed up because I'm a human and then you can you hug yourself like you know you're not so bad you're not a bad boy or girl uh and then I I'll probably ask myself why did I do that you know I didn't want the dress I wanted to have the excitement of shopping you know showing the credit card I I can afford that I want to have the feeling not the dress so instead of just focusing on on the stupid things I did I learned something uh new today you know I shouldn't have bought that I know that but instead of blaming uh myself because if you keep blaming you're going to do another thing it's like getting into uh um a diet and then if I if I I just slip out a diet oh you know what the heck I have to eat more potato chips and then you go in a different way so it's the same thing so can you forgive yourself and just look what happened and then for next uh opportunity you know I'll just do better or just if you're a compulsive Shopper don't go near the mall you know and that is a good advice don't look at uh uh shopping site on on online so maybe those things can help and otherwise if you have all the potato chips and all the cookies and all the fun stuff in your kitchen you're gonna eat them but if you don't have them you cannot physically eat them so you have to kind of restrict yourself from shopping too much that would be the first and practical advice for the people who are spending too much and I have all the tips but I cannot really share everything you can just find all the information on my site so um or your book or your book absolutely there is um there's something that I've learned in my days uh again fighting this poor people mentality and when I say poor people mentality it's not people that are poor it could be rich people who have poor people mentality as well where you are spending and I know people I have friends like this they will spend 10 hours researching the cheapest the the the the the the the the the the cheapest price the cheapest version of whatever you're trying to get and they'll spend 10 hours researching it until they finally pull the trigger and buy it and then a year later it's broken because they went after the cheapest and not there's two problems here one spending obscene amounts of time on that which you could have done so many other things with your time other than doing that and two I found that when you buy something that's a little bit better quality might be more expensive it just lasts longer and at the end that cheap version will end up costing you more because you'll have to buy two three or four of those as opposed to just going out and like if you're gonna buy a frying pan for five dollars at a at a discount store that thing first of all is probably going to give you cancer secondly it's probably not going to last more than a month or two before it doesn't work anymore or you can spend a hundred dollars and that pan might last you a year a year and a half if you take care of it so can you can you give any tips on how to break that mentality a little bit yeah so everything about uh those is uh scarcity mentality you know you have to shop at the cheaper place you have to do something uh that uh makes financially makes sense financially but we are humans uh once again so we make stupid mistakes and even the hedge fund managers you know they are they they are the smartest people on Earth but they still make it they still make stupid mistakes uh emotionally so we have to keep reminding us uh about how stupid we are so by just doing this uh things that don't really make sense can you love yourself look I'm I'm so bad you know why did I spend 10 10 hours on in front of women computer and my eyes are tired and I feel so bad but can you forgive yourself that's your first step so if you can uh forgive yourself and accept yourself more you make a less stupid mistakes and then you can learn better if you just bought a cheap place you're not saving any money you're just wasting your money and then you learn a lesson so next time instead of just trying to find the cheaper places you probably spend the same amount of money trying to figure out which product uh is the best one when it comes to uh you know lasting longer or like good solid product quality so I think uh we all learned from our mistakes and unfortunately we cannot learn everything without making any mistake you know how many times we fell over when we're trying to learn how to um you know run a bicycle many times so with money too we make a lot of mistakes and which is okay so uh you know preferably ideally we can learn these things when we are in in teams but we didn't that's all we have to do it over in your 40s or 50s and 60s and it's not too late yeah I know people in their 70s and 80s are still learning those lessons my friend because you know um in a sense life or this planet Earth is a fun playground and if you feel like okay a different game you know uh and starting a new chapter uh you can start over anytime so um if you're in your six 60s and 70s don't think your your life is over you know there's a lot of fun stuff ahead of you without question now okay I'm going to ask you a few questions ask all of my guests what is your definition of living a good life living a good life um when it comes to my mind is uh feeling content not even feeling happy like I'm okay with where I am I make so many mistakes and I make so many uh terrible jokes and then you know at night I I always regret oh my God why did I say that but with all that that's me so I I I'm content with who I am I'm content uh for being uh 40 uh perfect so I'm I'm less than perfect but I'm okay so I guess uh being content being able to feel content was less than perfect is I think a happy uh living a good life uh what is your definition of God for me I want to see him or her um after I die so I can't wait to see her and him I have many questions and what is the ultimate purpose of life for me enjoying every moment with people uh that I care about um and I'm I'm excited to meet new people too so um learning and have fun having fun with people is my life purpose and where can people find out more about you and where can they get this amazing book happy money thank you I think uh uh you can find them at Amazon um and you can Google Ken k n Honda as in a car uh even though I drive Toyota you know probably it's easy Ken Honda and you can find all the information at kenhonda.com and I'm translating a lot of free information to English and I hope I can share more information in the future so you can find all the information there and I studied a English Community called Arigato Living Community it comes from people come from 20 different countries we learn about happy money we get together one once a month and we share a lot of uh tears and laughter together um so if you're interested please look at the website and do you have any final words for our audience Alex you're such a beautiful human being I so enjoy every second of my time on today and I'm here tomorrow uh this is such a fabulous way to start my day so um I I understand why your shows are so popular because you're such a wonderful person so um I send you all the blessings and all that all my love to you and all the viewers life is to be enjoyed so I know you know things don't work out always as we plan but that's part of life so when you make a mistake again we can say I'm human and it's okay and I hope we can forgive ourselves and each other and uh have fun and thank you so much for those kind words I appreciate uh that for you being on the show and for the amazing work you're doing and helping people make happy money in their life so I appreciate you my friend thank you so much love you all bye bye I've been able to partner with Mindvalley to present you guys free master classes between 60 and 90 minutes hovering Mind Body Soul relationships and conscious entrepreneurship taught by spiritual Masters Yogi's spiritual thought leaders and best-selling authors just head over to nextlevelsoul.com forward slash free foreign [Music]

Channel: Next Level Soul Podcast

Views: 110,177

Keywords: spirituality, meditation, yoga, Yogananda, Alex Ferrari, Next Level Soul, Near Death Experience, spiritual, love, healing, peace, life, god, wisdom, motivation, energy, awakening, soul, inspiration, selflove, mindfulness, believe, consciousness, quotes, happiness, nature, law of attraction, lightworker, enlightenment, positivevibes, universe, guidance, grace, nde, ACIM, a course in miracles, spiritual awaking, Medium, Spirit Guide, lifetips, Ken Honda, Money, Money Tips, Business

Id: at0tSC4ELU8

Length: 59min 25sec (3565 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 17 2023