Congratulations, you made a few mistakes!

Money Energy Law #23:

Experience improves abilities. The more you learn, the less likely you will repeat mistakes.

They say that all the education in the world cannot replace the self-awareness that experience can provide. And “know-how” doesn’t always come from when things go as planned, but rather when they don’t. In other words, our experiences are an accumulation of mistakes. In fact, feel free to make a few of them. 

First-hand mistakes, good or bad, add to your learned behavior—and they have a lasting impact. More often than not, they result from a lack of experience, and the result of taking the less optimal action because of ignorance, not malice. Mistakes become an experience when we own them, fix them, learn from them, and move on.

The Rise of Experiential Biases

How you handle a mistake depends on whether your reaction to a miscalculation is a negative one (I failed) or a motivational one (I learned). For the most part, we are too hard on ourselves when we first experience them, but repeating mistakes may stem from what is known as an experiential bias and form of anchoring.

Experiential bias is when we have gained knowledge and experience in a given area, concept, or skill, and use what we have gained in making future decisions. So, as a result, we tend not to do our homework and are less likely to conduct logical analysis and research that such a decision might dictate. This is especially true when we find ourselves making what we perceive is a similar decision to one we’ve made before, but meanwhile, the data, facts, and logic may have changed. And these behaviors are amplified as we age.

This behavioral risk is often observed when we do not learn from a mistake and move on. Or, thinking we can replicate the same outcome from a choice we made in the past. Experience is knowing WHY a particular decision worked or did not work before, and determining based on new information whether that outcome is repeatable. 

Why Understanding Your DNA Behavioral Style Matters

Experiential bias is often observed in financial decision-making. Consider the opportunity for young adults entering the workforce who have less life experience. Unless these individuals have been fortunate enough to have money conversations and financial literacy at an earlier age, they enter their adult worlds ill-prepared to understand their relationship with money.

That’s where understanding your DNA behavioral style and learning to create Money Energy are essential—to learn how to leverage your DNA superpower and not just rely on past experiences alone. DNA Behavior helps you to manage that energy, understand its power and the emotional connection, and gain practical insights into generating wealth. We’re very proud of the thousands of “graduates” who have forged better relationships with money and achieved reduced stress, happiness, and success as a result.

Share your financial wisdom.

I’d like you to meet Penny Martin. She is a 68-year-old retiree, living alone following the death of her husband two years ago. She has always been the person in her family responsible for managing the household finances. Fortunately, their financial advisor encouraged her and her late husband to complete a DNA Behavior Discovery many years before, resulting in her profile as a Stylish Thinker. More recently, her advisor introduced her to the concept of Money Energy.

The past two years were stressful, but using her learned experiences and her Money Energy potential, she has been able to manage well and would like to share her financial know-how with others. Penny is money smart; she has managed her finances and those of her various charitable interests well. 

As an active member of her community and her church, Penny chairs the finance committee and is heavily involved with managing the money from fundraising events. At a recent family get-together, Penny announced she will be a part-time lecturer to recent high school graduates. She wants to do more than educate them. She wants to help them learn from their own mistakes when it comes to budgeting and saving, and understand the financial implications of their own decisions based on behavioral style.

One advantage Penny has over similar lecturers and coaches is her understanding of the powerful energy forces. She knows how money energy is sourced, felt, boosted, managed, and measured. She has the desire to help students understand the difference between viewing mistakes as opportunities versus seeing them as failures. She’s not only a success story, but she shares how to create opportunities that may radically change a young adult’s linear trajectory of expected outcomes to experiencing quantum leaps.

What about you? Have you ever repeated the same mistakes in your own decision-making? Keep building life experiences. And remember, every failure is a step to success. Continue to focus on your behavioral style and be mindful of the actions you take.

I hope you’ll take your journey one step further and explore the Money Energy Discovery Process. Gain access to as little or as much as you need for yourself, your business, or a mix of both! Isn't it time you learned an improved method to achieve better financial wellbeing? Stay tuned every week as we continue to reveal all 40 Laws of Money Energy.

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