This is video number four in the Financial Stress & Money Mindset series.
I’m really excited about today’s topic because this is where we start taking actual action steps toward our goals.
Over the last few videos, we’ve been building the foundation for this moment.
We started with the awareness practice. We explored limiting beliefs, emotional patterns, and the deeper reasons behind our goals. We looked at what we truly want and why we want it.
Now it’s time to begin putting the pieces together.
Why the Foundation Matters
Earlier in this series, I used the example of going to Disneyland with an old-fashioned paper map.
A map is useless if you don’t know where you are on it.
You need to know:
“You are here.”
Only then can you plot a route to where you want to go.
The same thing applies to a GPS or navigator. If it doesn’t know where you are, it can’t guide you.
The awareness practice is your connection to “you are here.”
When you sit, go into your breathing, connect with your body sensations, and become aware of your emotions, thoughts, and motivations, you begin understanding where you actually are.
Without that awareness, it’s difficult to create meaningful change because you’re disconnected from the starting point.
That’s why the awareness practice remains such an important part of this process.
The 1000-Piece Puzzle
Today I want to introduce a tool I call the 1000-piece puzzle.
Imagine a large puzzle.
Normally, you would see a picture on the box showing what you’re trying to build.
Maybe it’s a horse standing beside a barn with fields and fences in the background.
Now imagine opening the box and discovering the pieces inside don’t match the picture at all.
The pieces create a mountain scene instead.
No matter how hard you try, you’re never going to build the horse puzzle because you’re putting together the wrong pieces.
The same thing happens in life.
If our actions, habits, thoughts, and behaviours are not aligned with our goal, we cannot create the outcome we want.
The puzzle becomes a completely different picture.
Creating Your Puzzle
For this exercise, imagine the puzzle box is blank.
There is no picture.
No horse.
No mountain.
Nothing.
This is perfect.
You have a blank canvas.
Now take the goals you’ve been exploring through the awareness practice.
Think about:
•What you want
•Why you want it
•The deeper essence behind it
•How you want to feel
Maybe it’s freedom.
Maybe it’s confidence.
Maybe it’s security.
Maybe it’s peace.
Maybe it’s a sense of accomplishment.
That deeper feeling becomes the essence of your goal.
The First Piece
Every puzzle begins with one piece.
Not the whole puzzle.
One piece.
The same thing applies to your goals.
Your larger goal may feel far away, but what is the very first step you can take today?
It might be:
•Researching something
•Learning a skill
•Making a phone call
•Filling out an application
•Cleaning up a space
•Organizing your thoughts
•Watching an educational video
•Writing a plan
The step doesn’t have to be big.
It just needs to move you in the direction of your goal.
Then bring the essence of your goal into that step.
Feel the excitement.
Feel the curiosity.
Feel the interest.
Feel the possibility.
That feeling is what you are imprinting onto the step.
One Step at a Time
A lot of people become overwhelmed because they focus on the entire puzzle.
But you can only take one step at a time.
Imagine crossing stones over a pond.
If you try to take too many steps at once, you’ll fall into the water.
Instead:
•Step onto the first stone
•Find your balance
•Look for the next stone
•Take the next step
Then repeat.
Every goal works the same way.
Ask yourself:
“What is the next step?”
Not the next hundred steps.
Just the next step.
Celebrate the Small Wins
This is one of the most important parts of the process.
When you complete a step, acknowledge it.
Celebrate it.
Give yourself credit.
Many people wait until they achieve the entire goal before allowing themselves to feel successful.
But if you never acknowledge success along the way, you’re training yourself to overlook your progress.
A thousand small successes create confidence.
A thousand acknowledgements create self-belief.
A thousand moments of recognizing progress create momentum.
Each small step matters.
What Happens When You Get Off Track?
You might notice that you procrastinated.
You got distracted.
You avoided something.
You doubted yourself.
That’s okay.
Notice it.
Acknowledge it.
That awareness is also a success.
You caught the pattern.
Then return to your breathing.
Reconnect with the essence of your goal.
Ask yourself:
“What is the next step?”
Then continue.
Every time you bring yourself back, you’re strengthening confidence, awareness, and follow-through.
The Energy You Bring to the Puzzle
The interesting thing about the puzzle is that every piece contributes to the final picture.
If every step contains:
•Curiosity
•Interest
•Appreciation
•Confidence
•Presence
•Self-encouragement
Then the completed puzzle contains those qualities too.
But if every step contains:
•Self-criticism
•Frustration
•Doubt
•Resentment
•Negativity
Then those qualities become part of the final result of the puzzle as well.
What we practice is what we strengthen.
What we repeatedly bring into our actions becomes part of who we are.
That’s why it’s so important to practice encouraging yourself, celebrating progress, and reconnecting with the deeper essence of what you want.
Becoming a Different Person
By the time you’ve taken hundreds or even thousands of aligned steps, something interesting happens.
You become a different person.
You have practiced:
•Confidence
•Follow-through
•Self-trust
•Persistence
•Awareness
•Completion
•Encouragement
Again and again.
Not once.
Thousands of times.
And that changes you.
The goal is no longer just something external.
The process has helped shape who you have become.
Free 1-Hour Consultation
If you would like support with financial stress, money mindset challenges, limiting beliefs, procrastination, overwhelm, self-doubt, or subconscious patterns that may be affecting your confidence, abundance, motivation, or ability to follow through on your goals, I offer a free 1-hour video consultation where we can explore what may be holding you back, how these patterns are affecting your life, discuss your goals for change and growth, and look at whether my therapy process feels like the right fit for you.
Explore the Full Financial Stress & Money Mindset Series
Explore the full Financial Stress & Money Mindset series for a deeper understanding of limiting beliefs, emotional patterns, manifestation, confidence, self-worth, awareness practices, and practical tools for creating meaningful long-term change:
http://hypnotherapyvictoria.com/financial-stress-money-mindset/
FREE Self-Help Mindfulness Series
http://hypnotherapyvictoria.com/free-self-help-mindfulness-series/
My free mindfulness training series can help support you in building greater awareness of the limiting beliefs, stress patterns, emotional habits, procrastination, self-doubt, fear of failure, fear of success, and nervous system patterns that may be affecting your relationship with money, abundance, confidence, follow-through, manifestation, and long-term success.
This mindfulness series may help you:
•Build awareness of patterns that pull you off track
•Strengthen focus and follow-through
•Improve emotional resilience during challenges
•Reduce overwhelm and procrastination
•Increase confidence and self-trust
•Stay connected to your goals and intentions
•Develop healthier habits and consistency
•Create a stronger foundation for manifestation and personal growth
Counselling Hypnotherapy
I offer mindfulness-based counselling hypnotherapy sessions online through video sessions and in person in Victoria, BC.
Counselling Victoria
http://hypnotherapyvictoria.com/counselling-victoria/
Hypnotherapy Victoria
http://hypnotherapyvictoria.com/hypnotherapy-victoria/
My work focuses on helping people understand and move through subconscious beliefs, emotional overwhelm, anxiety, self-doubt, procrastination, nervous system stress, and the limiting patterns that may affect confidence, abundance, success, and overall well-being.
Final Thoughts
The 1000-piece puzzle is a reminder that meaningful change happens one step at a time.
The awareness practice helps you stay connected.
Your goals provide direction.
The essence behind those goals provides motivation.
Then each small step becomes another piece of the puzzle.
A thousand small aligned steps create transformation.
A thousand moments of confidence create confidence.
A thousand moments of follow-through create follow-through.
What we practice is what we become.
Continue the awareness practice this week.
Keep asking:
•What do I want?
•Why do I want it?
•What is the next step?
•Does this step align with the essence of my goal?
Then take that step.
And celebrate it.
Arne Pedersen
