If you want to change your financial destiny, you must change your financial behavior. Successful people continually do things which enhance their odds of winning. Even though many people know what they are doing wrong financially, they have a hard time making changes. This is because they have deeply ingrained habits which drive them to do the wrong things.

Behavior is based on values. Values are based on beliefs. It is nearly impossible to change behavior without changing beliefs and values. People who win financially have different core beliefs and values than those who do not.

Most people would claim:

• I value people more than things
• I value long-term over the short-term
• I value investing for retirement
• I value having financial margin
• I value giving to those in need

But the proof is in the actual spending. If we live in a huge house and drive expensive cars but have not done the above, then we are only mentally assenting to these values. We really value the appearance of being well-off more than making the sacrifices needed to really be well-off. Much of America falls into this category. Much of America has fallen for the great American scam.

The most important fundamental factors in being financially fit are:

1. Believe that being fit is better than appearing to be
2. Value the habits that cause you to be fit

These two factors will automatically change your behavior.

I have witnessed this first hand in a long-time friend of mine. He always spent to the max.  He has twice my income, but he was continually frustrated in his actual financial position. He openly admitted that his values were in the things he owned and yet he knew that he also needed to be financially fit. This is a conflict that most Americans face. Knowingly or unknowingly.

Just last year, my friend finally decided that he wanted to be out-of-debt (financially free) more than anything else.  Now he is listening to Dave Ramsey and implementing a detailed plan to get out of debt. He knew how to do this for several years but he didn't really want to make the sacrifice. He finally believed that he could make a short term sacrifice to obtain the long-term benefit of living debt free.