Your beliefs about money stem form early in life by what you see and experience around you. Things your parents said about money, conflicts in the home about money, what teachers said, and your own early experiences around money.
It's really not your fault. But, once you know this, it's YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to change and reprogram your thinking and belief system. You owe it to yourself.
Here's a major test – think back as far as you can about your earliest memories about money. What was the context, the situation? What did you hear said about money? What were the messages you received about money? How did you ‘feel'?
What you believe about MONEY is how you see the world and will determine the experiences you have with it. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, your beliefs around money will result in what you experience.
Your beliefs may ‘feel' true and real for you, but it's not necessarily the truth or fact in reality.
Here's another test – If money is not showing up, it's a reflection of what's going on in your ‘inner' world – how you see yourself, your own self worth. It means you need to do some work on your ‘inner' world. IF YOU DON'T GO WITHIN, YOU GO WITHOUT…
Money is a great teacher and an insightful coach about YOU – if you will listen closely and learn, and use the experience to shift yourself in your relationship with money.
There are many erroneous beliefs about money – let's examine 5 of them.
>> THERE'S NOT ENOUGH FOR ALL OF US <<
This belief is based in the ‘scarcity' mentality or ‘poverty' consciousness. Resources are scarce and in limited supply, and you have to scramble over each other in ‘dog-eat-dog' fashion and compete to get those limited resources.
The truth is that money is just energy, an exchange for value.
If you make the mental shift that money is limitless, that it can be invented, created and generated on demand, in line with the value you provide, it will open up all sorts of possibilities.
So it's only your beliefs, imagination and creativity that limit you. How liberating is that?
>> RICH PEOPLE ARE BAD <<
Well, that has to be one of the biggest falsehoods I've ever heard. It's based in a mixture of envy, suspicion and mystery – “How come they can do it, and I can't? What do they know and do, that I don't know? They must have done something shady or deceitful to get their money.”
Sure, there are some who do it that way. Equally, there are less than desirable characters among the ranks of the less than wealthy too.
ANOTHER JUSTIFICATION IS – Good people, spiritual people don't chase after money. It's wrong to have money and focus on accumulating material things.
The fact is, whatever spiritual or religious beliefs you follow, it is your birthright to live an abundant life and your higher purpose and vision. With abundance, you have more options, resources, freedom, flexibility, and abilities to live your best life to its fullest potential, and help others achieve the same.
>> YOU HAVE TO WORK HARD TO MAKE MONEY <<
This belief is anchored in the simplistic linear view that the harder you work the more money you make. Well, that's just plain not true!
You are remunerated in direct correlation with how much value and service you provide, not how many hours you work.
Successful people know that working ‘smarter' not harder is the way to go and is totally achievable. We were not meant to toil, struggle or suffer.
Here's a Tip – whether you're starting your business, building it further, or taking it to its next growth level, always be looking for the best ways to automate the activities in your business.
Create ‘set it and forget it' automated systems that systematize your client acquisition, contact and selling process. Technological developments such as auto-responders and a range of software applications have done wonders for automating routine time-consuming tasks.
Leverage your time. Shift away from trading time for money.
Focus on doing what you do best. The truly wealthy put their money and the efforts of other people to work for them, and outsource tasks that are not natural talents for them. Like a virtual army always marching forward, advancing your interests.
A successful life is a balanced life with time for work and play.
Otherwise, what is the point of working hard if you don't enjoy yourself and get the benefits that flow from your work?
>> YOU HAVE TO SPEND MONEY TO MAKE MONEY <<
Wherever you look, stories abound about people who started their businesses in their garage, spare room, even their car.
Anything is possible, if you believe it, and set your mind to achieving the task, and taking the ACTION to make it happen.
With the internet, this is even more so. Technology has enabled minimal and no start-up money requirements. The huge growth in the home business sector has meant minimal overheads.
Sure, it's great to have some money to seed fund your business, but it's the other elements that are far more important, like your success mindset, entrepreneurial creativity, taking ACTION at the right time, repetition, persistence, and the flexibility and resilience to bounce back quickly to try the next thing that will bring success.
>> YOU HAVE TO HAVE EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS TO MAKE LOTS OF MONEY<<
Not true at all. How many wealthy teachers or university lecturers have you seen lately? Their salaries leave much to be desired.
In recent times, we have seen more internet marketing made millionaires than we've seen previously in other business sectors, and many with very little or no formal education.
What they have is an entrepreneurial, risk taking spirit, action orientation, and persistence to succeed at all costs.
In fact, too much formal education can be a hindrance as you may end up set in your ways with a standardized ‘cookie cutter' approach to seeing the world that you will have to ‘un-train'.
Another issue is that you can make the mistake of going on an endless quest of doing more courses to acquire further knowledge, always on the lookout for the next piece of the puzzle that hopefully will be the ‘jackpot' answer.
Without adequate APPLICATION, there is no success. Success comes from applying your knowledge ‘full circle' and seeing it through to the absolute degree of completion with dogged determination.
The most successful people come to business and making money with an open mind, egalitarian in nature, and willing to try new things. A success mindset and attitude are all important, as is the ability to see and act quickly upon opportunities with great timing.
When you know which particular false and limiting beliefs you may have about money, you can go about changing and reprogramming those beliefs so that you can move closer to achieving the success you so richly deserve.
I wish you well on your journey.