Mindset is Everything: The Importance of Investing with a Can-Do Attitude
Sep 22, 2023
As-Salaam-Alaikum everyone! Today, I want to discuss the key to taking that first step on your investment journey: mindset.
A Can-Do Attitude
Mindset is everything when you start investing…in fact, mindset is everything when you start anything new in your life.
In anything in life, you need to have a can-do attitude. If you begin with an attitude of defeat, it's not going to take you anywhere.
I mean, think about it—what purpose does it serve for you to start with a mindset of, “I cannot do it?”
When we are talking to anybody else—our friends, our family members, particularly our children—we always embrace a can-do attitude. You are never going to tell a friend that they are incapable of doing something they want to do, so why would we say that to ourselves?
Hard Does Not Mean Impossible
Here’s some psychology for you:
The brain is comfortable with the familiar. Discomfort does not necessarily equate to what you are and are not capable of doing.
Everybody finds comfort in things that are familiar. That has nothing to do with your capacity to improve, to succeed, to do anything. So don't limit yourself to what you’re comfortable with.
Whenever you start something new, it’s going to be hard. It doesn't matter if you're a teenager, if you're a nine-year-old, if you're thirty-five, if you're fifty…no matter when you begin, it will be hard.
What you need to understand is that everything is figure-out-able. Even if it starts out difficult, if you have a can-do attitude, you will be able to figure it out.
Turn Discouragement Into Inspiration
If you’re struggling to cling to a can-do attitude, always remember this: your kids are watching.
People around you are watching. Everybody around you who told you that you cannot do what you dream of doing, they’re also watching…and when you prove you can do it, they are going to be inspired.
A lot of people told me finance is not my forte because I did not take graduate-level mathematics classes or finance classes or economy classes. They told me I should not learn how to invest.
They told me I should leave it to the professionals. They told me I should stay in my lane. They told me that because I'm a woman, I would never be good with numbers. Even my husband told me that I was going to lose my money if I tried to invest.
If I had listened to all these people and allowed them to destroy my can-do attitude, I would have nothing. I would have zero investments to my name. Instead, I have a full portfolio of investments, and I’m teaching others how to achieve the same things.
In order to do that, I had to put on my blinders like a horse and do what I thought was right for me, for my future, and for my family. And it was the best decision I ever made.
Was it easy to keep up my can-do attitude with all those voices telling me I couldn’t do it?
Absolutely not. But I chose to take action. I chose to educate myself. I chose to pay people for their expert opinions and to teach me the things that I needed to know. And if I had waited to take action, if I had convinced myself I needed more formal education or that I wasn’t capable, I wouldn’t have achieved any of this.
The First Step
One thing you need to know in order to support your can-do attitude: you don't need to know everything today.
You don't need to know all the terminologies in finance today. You do not need to know everything about investing today. All you need to do is take the first step today.
The first step can be as easy as opening an investment account. They’re free of cost; it's just like signing up for an email or a newsletter.
They are so simple. They require absolutely nothing. The websites have enough educational material that you can literally teach yourself how to open an account and go from there.
So whenever you start to think that you can’t invest without some kind of education or degree, just ask yourself: do you need a degree to open a bank account? Do you need a degree to learn something from a website? No—you can figure that out on your own. In fact, you’ve probably done it before.
All You Need is a Dollar
Another thing that often slows people down is that they think they need a lot of money to start investing, and this isn’t true at all.
You can literally buy a fraction of a share for as little as one dollar. If you have a dollar, you can begin investing.
The Familiar is Not Always Good
All you have to do is begin. You do not need all the information today, but you do need a can-do attitude, and you need to believe that whatever you need, you will find it along the way.
It's like anything in life. You need to start, and then things will fall into place.
We believe in Allah. He will help you, but He will not help you if you do not begin the change within yourself. Allah will not change the condition of the people who do not change it themselves.
You are the one who's going to bring about this change. You are the one who's going to inspire other people around you with your can-do attitude and prove them wrong.
In order to do that, you need to stop being comfortable in your current state.
There is nothing that grows in your comfort zone. When somebody told me this quote, I was completely windblown.
The brain wants to keep you safe, and like I said earlier, the familiar is comfortable. The familiar feels safe to the brain.
But here’s the thing: for some people, familiar is drugs. For some people, familiar is gambling. For some people, familiar is alcoholism. For some people, familiar is smoking cigarettes.
Familiar doesn't always equal safe or good, just as the unfamiliar does not always equal danger.
Try to be find comfort in your discomfort zone. There is a concept of excellence, of ihsan, in our religion, and in order to achieve excellence, we must continue making progress.
So we need to ask ourselves this: “Am I moving forward? Am I making progress?”
Here’s how to tell if you are moving forward: it's going to be very uncomfortable.
It is going to feel like you're making no progress. It is going to be difficult. But what you don't see is that progress is not a destination; it’s a journey, and you're never actually going to arrive.
Every time you reach your goal, you are going to have another goal to strive toward.
So, how do you make the most of it?
You do your best. Every day, you wake up, you do your best, you have a can-do attitude, and then you give the rest to Allah.
So when it comes to investing, remember you need to have a can-do attitude. The beginning is going to be hard, whether you start now or thirty years from now. It's going to be a learning curve.
You do not need all the information right now. You are resourceful; there's so much information around you. You can hire somebody to teach you. There is nothing that you cannot figure out.
So are you taking the first steps? Are you trying your best? Or are you too comfortable with what is familiar?
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