I just read an inspirational story in a magazine of a football star from my alma mater. His name is Scott Mitchell and I watched him quarterback the University of Utah football team to amazing success. Scott was drafted by the Miami Dolphins in 1990 and had a very successful 12-year career in the NFL. His story gets even more interesting after he left professional football. He ended up gaining weight and finally reached a whopping 366 pounds! Then he watched his 450-pound father struggle, over a 6-year period, with diabetes, cellulitis, neuropathy, and several life-threatening infections, including gangrene, which led to the amputation of his leg just before he died. This was the sad part of an inspirational turn-about.
Scott Mitchell, photo credit: LDS Living magazine
As Scott’s story unfolded I could not put the magazine down. Scott opened up and shared his emotional roller coaster rides as he won games and lost games, then the drama of watching his father die. When he was 10 years out of the NFL, he had ballooned up past 350 pounds and in his own words, “Without knowing it, I had thrown in the towel of my life! I had resigned myself, like so many overweight people do, to the fact that I was always going to be fat. I just got tired of fighting it, so why bother?” I hear people say this about their money all the time as well, “I’m always going to be in debt and me and my spouse are always going to fight about it, so why bother trying to get things under control?” But just like Scott Mitchell’s turn about, there is hope beyond hope.
One day Scott was reviewing his father’s life and could see his choices were the very same. An intense desire grew within him to change. He just didn’t know how. Then he heard of an advertisement looking for over-weight people to compete on the TV show “The Biggest Loser.” He signed up for it, but when auditions came along, he did not go. He could not bear the thought of how many people would see him, how out of control he had become. “There was no way I was going to be on this show and expose myself to vulnerability,” said Scott in the article, “I just didn’t think I was emotionally up to it, so I left.” Money Mastery Principle 1 teaches that spending is emotional, which so-called
financial “experts” will never teach you. Scott had to face his demons emotionally, and so does every other person who wants to get in control whether it’s physically or financially. Scott ultimately swallowed his pride and qualified to get on the show. And here’s where everything turned around for him: He started to receive coaching. One coach was all about eating healthy and balanced nutrition. Another coach specialized in exercise, stamina and living a happy lifestyle. Scott concluded that he could not lose weight by himself and that the only way he was going to reach his goals was to take advantage of the expert advice his coaches offered him on the show. When he humbled himself and allowed others to teach him, to help him when he failed, to be there
and lift him up when he made a bad decision, then he was able to lose 126 pounds and keep it off. He changed his life. In the same way, if you are out of control financially, you need to get help outside of yourself, like Scott did. In order for you to learn how to control spending, eliminate debt and prepare for a wonderful retirement, do just what Scott did to lose weight: Get a coach! Learn new ways from those who know more than you do about how to manage your money and regain your self-esteem. This process has nothing to do with your level of income. It has everything to do with your emotions. Check out the Money Mastery Web site, www.moneymastery.com for affordable ways to get solid financial coaching using time-tested, principle-based personal financial management.
