Growth requires some degree of risk tolerance. The more self-confident, and the higher our self-esteem, the more calculated and informed risks we’re willing to take. To build self-confidence and self-esteem, we must take risks and be willing to learn from failures and missteps. This virtuous cycle works best when we surround ourselves with positive challengers—people who will simultaneously support and challenge you in an environment of psychological safety.

How we feel about risk and how we respond to risky situations is not applicable solely to the financial investments we make. Our feelings toward risk influence what jobs we pursue, the relationships we engage in, the products we buy, and the recreational activities we take part in. Your personal relationship with risk touches and helps shape nearly every aspect of your life.

The important point is to recognize that these biases exist and they have a profound impact on our ability to make sound decisions with our money. The purpose of engaging in self-talk is to challenge our internal biases and to bring more decisions—especially the important decisions we make—into working memory as opposed to giving agency to our biased, subconscious mind.

Our goal is to make better decisions about what we spend money on so that we can use our money more wisely. As an individual consumer, we want our assessment of value to exceed the price we pay. We want to minimize the likelihood of buyer’s remorse (feelings of regret) by thinking more carefully about the things we buy without tipping over into the spin cycle of analysis paralysis.

Financial success is dependent on making better decisions with our money. Making better money decisions depends on our ability to appropriately assign value to the things we buy. Turning off our mental autopilot tendencies and thinking more consciously about value is a prerequisite to improving our financial position.

We need to apply more effort as a society and as educators to making math more approachable and relevant. Why? Because our businesses and institutions are populated by millions who lack the necessary numeracy skills to be effective in their jobs. They’ve been conditioned to think that math doesn’t matter in the real world when math— the basis for finance and accounting—is literally the language of business!