If you want to be successful in your career or business, I have a little-known secret for you. It’s not what you do to get ahead, it’s how you think.  You can’t get your career unstuck or grow your business if you are not in the right mindset. If you take all the actions but don’t work on your mindset, you will not get the success you want.

3 Ways to Transform Your Money Mindset for Success

1. Practice gratitude

More often than not, we tend to get wrapped up in what we don’t have. We’re constantly wishing for more, comparing ourselves to others, and feeling not good enough because we believe we’re lacking something. Thoughts like this keep you from achieving financial success because it feeds a negative thinking pattern.

Here’s how to combat that. Be thankful for what you do have. It doesn’t even have to be money related! It can be your pets, your husband, coffee, whatever! If you’re having trouble getting started, I always recommend being thankful for your health. That’s something people tend to overlook and not everyone is lucky enough to have.

A tip to make this routine is to think of five things every morning while you have your tea or coffee. When I do this, it never fails to make me feel blessed and motivates me to continue working on achieving even more. If you’re someone who needs to physically write things down, you can use The Five Minute Journal or the app, Blessed. Both essentially do the same thing, get you ruminating on what you’re most thankful for. This will boost your mood, get you to stop moping and focus your energy on all of the possibilities you have to improve your life and finances!

2. Know where your money is going

Avoiding your bank account is not going to make anything better! I know we like to tell ourselves if we don’t see it, it’s not happening, but if you’re unhappy with your financial situation, this is exactly why you should be heavily involved. Wondering where your money is going but not actually tracking it will only lead you to continue making uneducated and poor decisions with your money. As a result, you stay in financial distress and this propels your limiting money belief that you cannot get out of this situation.

Here’s how to fix it. You can track your money using a notebook (I use my planner), make a spreadsheet, or use the Mint app to automate your tracking. It’s easy to use if you don’t want to deal with tracking every little expense, so there is no excuses.

Whichever method you choose, make sure you know exactly how much is coming in each month, and what your recurring expenses are. Before I did this, the numbers in my mind were very different than what they were in reality. Writing it down definitely helped me realize where exactly my money was going. It also helped me decide what I could spend less on (I’m looking at you, Starbucks) instead of just assuming where my money went. This helps transform your money mindset from anxious and fearful, to in control and optimistic. Even if you hate what you see when you first do this, at least you’re now monitoring and taking action to improve!

3. Include self-care in your budget

It’s super easy to skip self-care when trying to watch your spending. Especially if you’re always trying to take care of others first, you may put yourself on the back burner more often than you’d like to admit. While it may seem like you’re doing good by saving a few bucks or putting others first all of the time, you’re actually keeping yourself in a limiting money mindset belief. By doing this, you’re telling yourself that you’re not worthy of pampering, or maybe you are, but only after you’ve taken care of everyone else. Neglecting yourself will not lead you to a healthy money mindset!

[RELATED: How to Create a Self-Care Routine]

Here’s what to do. Make a list of non-negotiable activities you will do to in the self-care department and allocate an amount from your budget towards this. If your weekly manicure is what makes you feel happy, put it on the list. If you want a massage once a month, divide the cost by four and save 1/4 each week until you’ve saved up enough. Not only does this take care of your mental health, it also elevates your money mindset. By practicing self-care, you tell yourself that you’re valuable, that you deserve to be taken care of, and as an added bonus, you’ll also feel rejuvenated to keep working efficiently!