While Things Are Opening Up, What Are You Banking On?

Financial Advisors are in the best position possible to be of service to their clients during this recent wave of banking news.

“Kevin O’Leary thinks regional banks and their shares are doomed. … wherein small regional banks will consolidate into super-regionals.” – March 30, 2023

Who would better know what to do now, in this place, with their knowledge, than a financial advisor?

When I say, “financial advisor,” I am talking about a real intelligence advisor, not a robo artificial intelligence advisor. A real financial advisor with decades of experience with designations like the following: CFP, ChFC, CLU, LACP, LUTCF.

Since 2020, the world has been going through more compounded change and transition than ever before that include Covid, wars, supply chain problems, economic stimulus packages that have yet to be paid for, inflation, unsettled stock markets, increasing interest rates, residential and commercial real estate corrections, recession, and the banking crisis.

Whether you are a layperson or a financial advisor, it is essential to understand the difference between change and transition.

“Change is something that happens to people, even if they don’t agree with it. Transition, on the other hand, is internal: it’s what happens in people’s minds as they go through change. Change can happen very quickly, while transition usually occurs more slowly.” – William Bridges

Financial Advisors and their clients are experiencing change and transition in Retirement Planning.

“Retirement” is an artificial construct that is becoming obsolete, and will be replaced by a non-linear, multi-stage life model that has dramatic implications for how we do “retirement planning.” – Mitch Anthony and Steve Sanduski

An example of a Change is Laura, and I decided to downsize and move to Victoria to be closer to Laura’s Mother, Helen. Luckily, we sold our home in Parksville at the peak of the Canadian real estate market in May 2022 and moved to Victoria in August 2022.

The actual “Psychological” Transition that I realized after attending live and online courses at The Modern Elder Academy was transitioning from a live speaker to a virtual speaker.

The value that Laura and I received from MEA is enormous, and the highlights are; Pre-MEA, we were trying to stay “In Competent,” trying to do the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result concerning the absence of live speaking from 2022 to what appears to be 2024, in the absence of understanding the difference between “Change & Transition” while going through “Concurrent Transitions” still fueled with a “Growth Mindset” with a lack of “Appreciative Inquiry” because we were too busy being busy trying to sustain the unsustainable. 

“Appreciative Inquiry is a strengths-based, positive approach to leadership development and organizational change.” – Benedictine University

I’m amazed at how well Appreciative Inquiry questions help one fully associate with their values, positive feelings, and positive beliefs.

Try these Appreciative Inquiry questions and notice how they not only focus you on your values, positive feelings, and positive beliefs but focus you on a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset.

What is the best mindset to realize your calling, meaning, and purpose?

And, how might you change your mind from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset?

“Someone with a growth mindset views intelligence, abilities, and talents as learnable and capable of improvement through effort. On the other hand, someone with a fixed mindset views those same traits as inherently stable and unchangeable over time.” – Harvard Business Review 

I’m using Appreciative Inquiry to ask myself: How might I let go of the expert writer-live speaker-coach mind and release the persona of who I think I have to be, so that I can embrace all of who I really am and who I want to become? 

Answering this Appreciative Inquiry question creates the spaciousness to write, flowing through into higher quality authentic content.

The answer to the above Appreciative Inquiry question has been revealing itself for a long time while I have been exhausting myself trying to prove the persona of being a road warrior-live speaker. Ask any road warrior-live speaker that used to be out there and ask them if the lifestyle is sustainable. The answer is no.

Through my studies at MEA, I realized the following definitions of an advisor, coach, and mentor.

• Advisor-offers expertise and assists with specific decision-making.
• Coach-offers tactical leadership skills, processes, systems.
• Mentor-offers the spaciousness to become a better person.

Upon reflection, I realize that I am a Transformationist, an experienced advisor, coach, and mentor.

With less time on the road, I have more energy, focus, and time for myself and more energy, focus, and time to work more deeply with fewer clients on developing the inspiration for their five-year vision and business plan, complete with developing and implementing processes related to succession planning, team building, hiring executive assistants and associated advisors, customer service, marketing, and sales.

So how can you answer the following question during change, information overload, and transition? How might I let go of the expert mind and release the persona of who I think I have to be to embrace all of who I am and who I want to become? 

Answering the above question is not going to be something that you think through with your mind, but rather the answer will be revealed through first feeling through your heart.

Answering the above question first requires a stilled mind in this accelerated informational world based on real or artificial intelligence.

The world will become increasingly overstimulated, and the self-aware must step back from the mind and be stilled.

“Freedom is not for the mind; it’s from the mind.”

Mooji

Whether faith-based or otherwise, you have probably heard the opening verse of Psalms 46:10; “Be still and know that I am God.”

In closing, let me offer you The ABCs To A Stilled Mind that you may wish to affirm three times, two to three times a day, to disengage your overstimulated mind.

Be stilled and know that I am aware, brilliant, conscious, decisive, enlightened, fulfilled, gracious, happy, inspired, joyful, kool :-), loving, magnificent, nurtured, outgoing, peaceful, quiet, realized, spacious, transcendent, unified, verified, wonderful, xenacious, young-at-heart, zen. 

Breathe deeply, recite the above affirmation, and notice the shift from your mind to your heart.

Once again, How might I let go of the expert mind and release the persona of who I think I have to be to embrace all of who I am and who I want to become? 

While things are opening up, you don’t need more information, only spaciousness to decide what you are banking on.