Negative gearing: how it can improve your health
When most people plan their goals they usually plan forwards, its understandable given that we associate success with stepping forward but how do we know how to achieve our end result? How do we know how to really make it possible? Negative gearing allows you to accomplish your goals in a simpler more motivating fashion meaning you’re more likely to repeat the process of goal setting in the future.
Have you ever had the goal of losing 5-10 kilograms but completely lost the motivation when it comes to taking action? It’s understandable. Many of us know how to plan the execution of our goals 1 to 2 weeks ahead of our starting point because we’ve experienced that kind of motivation, commitment and action that yields some results but we get stuck beyond what we don’t know. Backwards planning or negative gearing can help you to see exactly what you need to achieve from your end point back to where you are beginning. This method is often used my health professionals in the fitness industry to adjust programs so they can identify what increases need to happen over time for people to achieve the goals they have based on where they are starting. This method also helps an individual to see whether their goal really is SMART as it shows us how realistic our time frame is to accomplishment.
Here’s an example. Please note I have not put in the specifics just yet simply the way in which success will be measured. The specifics will add another element of reality to the question ‘is this goal a plausible demand on myself given where I am starting from?’
GOAL: Lose 10 kilograms (please note each check in point denotes a 1 to 2 week period)
Final check in: I’ve lost 9.5 kilograms
Lost 9 kilograms
Lost 8.5 kilograms
Lost 8 kilograms
Lose 7.5 kilograms
Lost 7 kilograms
Lost 6.5 kilograms
Lost 6 kilograms
Lost 5.5 kilograms
Lost 5 kilograms
Lost 4.5 kilograms
Lost 4 kilograms
Lost 3.5 kilograms
Lost 3 kilograms
Lost 2.5 kilograms
Lost 2 kilograms
Lost 1.5 kilograms
Lost 1 kilogram
Lost 0.5 kilograms
Start program at my existing weight beginning with
As you can see this breakdown alone shows that to lose 10 kilograms safely and keep it off long term you are looking at a need to workout, eat well, reduce stress and sleep right for at least 4 and a half months. Four and a half months is a long time, however by incrementally working on a small amount of weight to move each week to fortnightly period your goal only needs to focus on a loss of half a kilogram per week at a time. When you look to break this down further (though granted it is not always this simple but looking at it this way will help your mindset) you are looking at 72grams less food per day or:
5 less grams of carbohydrates per day
4 less grams of protein per day
2 less grams of fat per day
2.5 less grams of alcohol per day
However combined with exercise that has moderate to high levels of intensity you can easily make an even greater difference to your health, achieving goals quicker simply by getting 30 minutes per day in and taking the stairs instead.
Doesn’t this seem far less intimidating than looking at the first 2 weeks of your plan and your end goal you can easily become overwhelmed and demotivated. However if you look at it bit by bit and work on the rough guide that you should progressively increase your weights every 7 to 10 days provided you have stayed committed to your entire program.
Like fitness programming, you can negatively gear your nutrition goals. For example if you want to cut grains out of your diet you may find it easier to cut bread first, find healthy substitutes outside of grains and then progress on to pasta. Like exercise this approach may help you to create lifelong healthy habits without overwhelming feelings of failure when stopping old habits cold turkey hits hard.
The final area of your life and the one you should ignore the least, is negatively gearing your finances. Negatively gearing finances improves your health because it can reduce stress and create space for you to enjoy life more. To do it you look at the total amount you make (or want to make) in a month and then you remove the bills, subscriptions, necessary items to examine exactly how much you can save. As a business owner negatively gearing your income is transformational. It allows you to stop thinking you need to work 80 hour weeks and start focussing on getting the numbers required to earn you the salary you desire. The more successful your advertising campaigns and joint ventures the less time you have to spend on working as an employee in your own business and the more you can spend growing it and your impact. Below is an example of how to negatively gear your finances (as a business owner) over the course of a year.
GOAL: Earn $150,000 per year
PRODUCT/SERVICE: $1000 value
WHEN IS IT FOR SALE: 12 months of the year, 365 days per year
This means you need to make $12, 500/month or sell your product or service approximately 13 times (to be sure) per month.
This equates to 3 or 4 sales per week.
Therefore your marketing or sales needs to focus on bringing in 3 or 4 sales each week to make $150,000. That’s it.
Doesn’t this alter the perspective of effort or concern you have for income?
As long as you capture 3 to 4 new customers per week you can achieve the long term goal you have set.
Of course this does not include what costs you would take out for running the business but it does show you that achieving a goal you’ve perceived as insurmountable can become significantly realistic.
This negative gearing approach (as I call it) may also help you identify exactly how much money you have and how much money you can get with some simple planning.
Can you see how this approach may help you recognise the need for passive income, investments and habitual change to help you achieve your financial goals? To secure your retirement? To live life as you’d like?
Personally I have found this strategy to be one of the most useful for goal setting. The greatest growth area for me was seeing how empowering it was when used with your financial goals. It completely changes how you prioritise, your perceptions on work, in creates laser focus and develops some simple, tangible ways to quantify your success.
I’d love you to give it a go and let me know how it has worked for you! Please do comment below!
Till next time,
Jules xo