Your belief system creates your reality

Do you have a limiting belief that’s stopping you from financial success? Rewire your brain to lead yourself to greatness.

Do you ever find yourself saying I wish I made more money or I’m not making enough money? Do you have healthy beliefs about money? Is your mind working with you or against you in your quest for financial freedom? Your beliefs create reality, and limiting beliefs about money can have an immense impact on your financial success. With the help of positive affirmations, you can take control of your mind and your money by removing negative beliefs and thought patterns that have been holding you back from the financial security you crave.

In this first step, you’ll begin by identifying limiting beliefs and replacing them with new models in order to shape a more positive mindset and reality. If your financial situation is not currently what you want it to be, it’s quite likely that some of your beliefs and thought patterns are preventing your financial growth. In order to remove these obstacles, you must shine the light of day on them and actually LOOK consciously. Now is the time to stop burying your head in the sand and be brave!

The number one thing that will determine your financial success is your mindset towards money. Your attitude towards money is actively creating your financial reality. What you believe about money plays a leading role in your level of prosperity and happiness. The Law of Attraction states that you will attract to yourself those experiences that match your beliefs. These beliefs create your reality. Unfortunately, most of us never examine our financial beliefs at all. We just live by them unconsciously, many times feeling bewildered and upset with the results of this arrangement. The first step in changing this feeling of helplessness and confusion is to become aware that these limiting beliefs about money exist at all. When you fully identify a set of beliefs, you instinctively divest them of their power over you, beginning to facilitate change in your emotions and behavior without a lot of work. These shifts happen just through your expanded awareness.

There are a number of techniques to identify unconscious beliefs. You could take a battery of psychological tests, go to counseling, or tap into your inner wisdom via meditation. But there is a shortcut that can predict with 99% accuracy what your beliefs are. It is so simple that people usually overlook it.

Here’s the secret:

Look at your life with an eye for recurring difficulty. Those zones in which you have repeating problems are almost certainly the same areas in which you operate under false or limiting beliefs. This doesn’t mean that just because you’re in between jobs, you necessarily have a false belief about work, but if the problem constantly repeats — for example, if you find yourself out of work over and over again — then you can be 99% sure a false belief is involved.

Your attitudes will help you identify your false beliefs. Let’s say you want more money but are having trouble achieving that goal. If it’s worthwhile then ask yourself: What is my impression of wealthy people? Am I happy for them, or resentful? If I am resentful, what signal does that send out to the universe? Probably that you don’t want anything to do with those “rich people”! Why then are you surprised that you’re not attracting wealth into your life? After all, your attitude suggests you don’t feel comfortable with it, and might even be disdainful towards it!

Below are some examples of limiting financial beliefs. You may have different ones. Look through the list and ask yourself: Which of these beliefs could be holding you back? Once you have determined your own limiting thought patterns, you can take steps to change them. One way to free yourself of a negative belief is to write it on a piece of paper and burn it while telling yourself it is forever banished from your being. Or you can swap out a limiting belief for an empowering one by repeating the positive mantras offered below in your mind or out loud throughout the day.

Limiting Belief #1: Money is the root of all evil. Money spoils you. Money is not spiritual. I dislike people that have money.

Many of us have been taught to think of money as something bad, or even evil. But in fact, these are values we ourselves place on currency, not characteristics inherent to it. Money was created as an exchange medium to make it easier for people to trade goods and services. It is just an expression of value. While it is true that some people who chase wealth become blind to higher human values like love, compassion, and integrity; it is not the fault of money, but rather of the untrue beliefs and values we attach to it.

Instead, replace it with this empowering belief: Money can be used for good. I appreciate what money does for me. I like people that have money.

Limiting Belief #2: Conspicuous consumption. We want to have a bigger house, a new car or new TV.

In our culture we are taught that having the newest things is important, and many of us are willing to go into debt to buy the things we think we need. The problem here is that we cannot or are unwilling to distinguish the difference between needs and wants.

Replace with this empowering belief: I can wait until I have saved the money to buy what I want. It is important to me to have little or no credit card debt.

Limiting Belief #3: I’m just not good with money. I don’t have time to work on a budget.

The misconception here is that being skilled with money is something that either comes naturally to you or not. But in fact, we all have a responsibility to educate ourselves about money. Everyone has to learn financial concepts. If we think of our home as a business then it makes sense to have to work to improve our knowledge and performance.

Replace with this empowering belief: I learn and use knowledge about money every day. I am optimistic about my financial future because I am putting in the work to learn and improve my performance.

Limiting Belief #4: is never enough money. Money is hard to get. It’s not fair that other people have so much more money than I do.

Many of us buy into this scarcity mindset. An abundance mindset, which assumes that there is plenty available for everyone, on the other hand, is just as easy to assume, and far more effective in creating wealth and contentment.

Replace with this empowering belief: There is plenty of money to create financial abundance. I have no fear about money.

Limiting Belief #5: My family has never been rich. I don’t deserve to have a lot of money. It’s somebody else’s fault that I don’t have money.

The problem with this belief is that it assumes that the past always equals the future, which of course is not the case! Certainly, circumstances beyond your control do have some effect on your life, but you are also an independent individual. What other people did or did not do has no power over you. You’re in charge of your life and how to improve your financial reality today.

Replace with this empowering belief: I can create my financial independence by learning and acting in accordance with my growing knowledge. I am determined to make money.

Limiting Belief #6: Money is not that important. It’s only money. Other’s needs come first. You are a martyr about being poor.

This limiting belief expresses that you don’t take money seriously enough. Treat money with respect and make it a priority.

Replace with this empowering belief: Money is a priority in my life. There is nobility in honoring myself in accordance with my priorities.

Limiting Belief #7: It’s too hard to get wealthy. I don’t want to spend my free time making money. You have to do things you don’t like in order to have money.

While it is possible to work yourself to the bone and give up your true pleasures in the pursuit of money, it is not necessarily required. In fact, you get wealthy by making the right moves intelligently. This means understanding how you can create real and lasting value for others and then offering those goods or services for a fair price. This is true whether you are an employee, a business-owner, or an independent contractor.

Replace with this empowering belief: To get wealthy I just provide real value for others and ask for a fair price. I am passionate about my work and believe in its financial value.

Limiting Belief #8: No one can be rich and happy and healthy. It is an either/or proposition.

Playing the “either rich or…” game is based on the wrong assumption that to get rich you have to be out of balance.

Replace with this empowering belief: Money is just one part of my life that I handle exceptionally well. I know how to delegate and am able to achieve a healthy, happy, and wealthy life because of it.

Limiting Belief #9: Money is a scorecard. If I don’t have it, it means I am not a worthwhile person.

This limiting belief mixes up net worth with self-worth. People who adhere to this false belief suffer significantly because money is the only thing that matters to their self-image.

Replace with this empowering belief: Money doesn’t define who I am. I am filled with gratitude for my success.

Limiting Belief #10: Someone else will take care of me.

Many women believe that a man will provide for them. A similar belief is that God will provide everything you need. Placing the responsibility for your care outside of yourself can mean that you don’t pay attention to your money or worry about managing it for yourself.

Replace with this empowering belief: I can take care of myself. I am resilient and land on my feet when I fail. I hang in there.

Limiting Belief #11: These people must be onto something, so I should do the same.

This is like getting stock tips at the health club. Avoid the frenzy and stay true to your inner voice and growing financial wisdom.

Replace with this empowering belief: I am prudent with my money. I make decisions based on my knowledge and research, not hearsay from others.

Limiting Belief #12: It doesn’t take much effort to manage money effectively.

Managing money actually demands real commitment and attention to detail. It involves sitting down and looking at all the money facts of your life, like your bills, spending habits, and goals with a clear, logical eye.

Replace with this empowering belief: I will pay attention to managing my money. I will put in the work to reap the results I desire.

Limiting Belief #13: Money is to be spent.

This belief comes from not understanding that in order to create financial abundance you actually have to save money. If you spend all the money you earn instead of saving and investing it you will never create the financial abundance.

Replace with this empowering belief: I consciously spend less than I earn. The money I don’t spend makes me rich.

Limiting Belief #14: The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

This cliché can function as a really a big excuse. This is an especially disempowering belief because it gives away your responsibility to care for your financial situation. Whenever you give up responsibility, you lose power and influence over your life.

Replace with this empowering belief: My financial future is entirely up to me. I am confident I can make money.

Limiting Belief #15: I don’t want to talk about money. I feel pain or stress around money. It’s selfish or bad to want a lot of money.

Avoidance will never get you to where you want to go. You can use money to help others by reinvesting it in your own business or in the service of others in order to add more value to yours and other people’s lives.

Replace with this empowering belief: The money I earn represents the value I created for others. I feel proud of my money because I can use it to make the world a better place.

I myself have struggled with limiting beliefs and their negative effects on my finances. For example, it was only after my husband was diagnosed with cancer that I became aware of the extent to which our financial situation was in complete disarray. Through counseling, my husband and I discovered that embedded in his belief system was the need to look like a HERO, rescuing me, his damsel in distress. This hero complex explained why he built beautiful, significantly over-our-budget homes, bought large cars, and an airplane. When he had recurring kicking, thrashing nightmares about protecting fair damsels from bad guys, I knew that financially things had tanked yet again. Once our counselor identified this limiting belief, we were able to make progress with paying off our debts.

If you are having trouble identifying your limiting belief(s), you might need another exercise which is to write your life. When writing your life, don’t let anyone else hold the pen; it might reveal experiences of relationships, emotions, conflicts, struggles, responses that are both universal and personal. Understanding your own story deepens awareness with which we hear another’s. We can better spiritually assess and intervene with understanding our story. Writing your story is a safe space to express fear and perceived failures, hopes, wonderings, disappointments, and achievements, listening to the pages of your life. You see yourself more clearly and accept yourself in your full humanity.