Overcoming limiting beliefs about money can take some time. After all, you’ve probably been thinking about your limits for years! Most people have at least some limiting beliefs about money that have been picked up unconsciously, often from their childhood. It’s not until you struggle, that you will begin to look for the hidden spectre to your success – yourself, or rather your own limiting beliefs about money, and/or yourself.
But your beliefs are invisible. So how can you route them out and change them to allow you to become more success conscious? A good first step is to become more conscious of how you think, feel and talk about money, wealth and other aspects which relate to money in your life. Here’s a few common beliefs which are easily picked up unconsciously before you are even 10 years old:
- Money doesn’t grow on trees
- Rich people are greedy
- You’re selfish if you earn a lot of money
- Money is the route of all evil
- It’s virtuous to be poor
- I don’t care about money
- Money is hard to earn
- Life is hard
Of course how you feel about yourself and your ability to earn money is another common thread to lack, struggle and poverty. Limiting beliefs about yourself will most likely bring about problems with earning money too:
- I’m not good enough
- I’ll always be poor
- I don’t have the right background to earn money
- I don’t have the education
- I’m a failure
Overcoming Limiting Beliefs About Money – Your Circle Of Influence
The 5 people you spend the most time with will often reflect your own ideas and attitudes towards money and aspiration. “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”. — Jim Rohn. As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together.
So another thing you can do is to just pay attention to what your circle of influence (friends and family) has to say about money, income, wealth and aspiration. Are they negatively inclined towards money? If they are, you’ll likely pick up on these same attitudes if you hang around them for long enough.
How do your friends talk about money, and about people who have it? If it’s in a very negative way, you can be sure they have some limiting beliefs about money.
Overcoming Limiting Beliefs About Money – Your Story
Everyone has a story which they tell people when they meet. What’s your story? Is it a story of woe and strife, or one of joy and abundance? Most people have some back story of woe and struggle, even if they don’t talk about it. If your story is about lack, struggle and poverty, you are feeding the very ideas you want to change. Stop giving energy to the negatives and begin to write a new story for your life, one which you want to happen instead of the one you wished hadn’t.
Your subconscious mind is wise and listens to everything you are saying. To begin to change some of your negative programming around money, you need to first become conscious of what you’re saying and thinking on a regular basis.
Once you become conscious that you are giving more energy to the things you don’t want (thoughts/words of poverty consciousness), you can begin to break the habit and stop feeding those negative beliefs. Start paying attention to what you say about yourself. You’ll begin to see/hear your self image which is related very strongly to your ability to earn money.
Maxwell Maltz – Psycho-Cybernetics
Maxwell Maltz was a plastic surgeon who realised that many patients still had problems after successful surgery. If a patient had a poor self image, no amount of plastic surgery solved their issues. So Maltz started doing therapy with patients before surgery, helping them with developing the self image.
He discovered that after the therapy, many patients no longer even wanted the plastic surgery. Their problem was mental in nature and not physical. Once the self image was changed, their problems went away!
Holding limiting beliefs about money is similar. If you can change the negative programming towards how you see money, you can potentially change things much more powerfully than chasing money in the ways you always have.
Write A New Story
Once you have uncovered some of your limiting ideas around money by listening to your self talk, your circle of influence and your “story” which you tell yourself (and others) most frequently, you are in a good position to make some changes. If you continue to see yourself as the person in your (negative) story (and as a victim), you’ll keep repeating the same and getting the same!
The negative stories and self talk are a key indicator as to your deep subconscious beliefs about money. You can also think back to your childhood where many of these beliefs took hold.
Before you reach 10 years old, you have no conscious reasoning ability and you will have accepted your parents ideas about money unconsciously. So a good way to uncover your subconscious beliefs is to think about their attitudes towards money/wealth and income. What did they used to say about money? Can you think of any scenarios or situations where your self worth was an issue, or the issue of money came up?
Installing New Ideas
Installing new ideas about money can be a long process. Remember that you have most likely been repeating old stories and beliefs to yourself over many years. By listening to your self talk, story and that of your friends and family, you should be able to see more clearly the negative comments and ideas coming up about money.
By noticing them, without comment, you can become clearer about the kinds of ideas you would rather have! Here’s a few ideas which you can use:
- Money comes easily and frequently
- I get paid for being “me”
- I am enough
- I choose to be wealthy
- I love and approve of myself
- I’m happy and grateful
- I choose happiness
These statements may of course not be truly authentic for you at the moment. But remember the old beliefs are not either – they are just faulty “programs” which are keeping you from a fuller and more enjoyable life. When you see the old beliefs and ideas as a faulty program, you’re going to be more willing to embrace some new ideas which you can use as mantras.
Whenever the older ideas come up in your mind, I’m not good enough, I’ll always be broke” etc., choose a new one to replace them with. Repeat it many times. Let the new mantra take over the old belief and make a habit out of repeating the new idea.
See also overcoming poverty mindset and money magnet mantra.