“Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants.”
Benjamin Franklin
Most of us are no stranger to the “Money is the root of all evil” or “the rich are greedy quotes”. And while this seems like a bit of a strange topic to be covering in a blog thats unrelated to halloween, I really wanted to do a deeper dive into this one as despite it seemingly being a tongue in cheek, rather innocuous statement it has the potential to have a profoundly negative impact on our relationship with money. For some of us this “money is evil” belief is so much more than a passing quip, as it has buried itself somewhere in our subconscious, unwittingly influencing our money decisions and actions and preventing us from building our financial security.
Believing money is somehow bad or evil is one of the most self-destructive beliefs we may acquire. When our brain operates with this mindset we are crippling our ability to rationally manage money given that we unconsciously don’t see anything good coming from having it. This is often the driver behind those who unexpectedly come into a large amount of money taking action to rid themselves of it.
The beliefs we have created are somewhat based on factual occurrences and how we perceived these realities and built our story around it. This mostly occurs in early childhood and are created with a young child’s perception of reality. As we mature these beliefs are strengthened by evidence we recognise as being congruent with that belief. And there is clearly a lot of evidence in tv shows, movies and the media to support the view that money is evil and the rich are corrupt.
If you subconsciously believe money is evil and having it will somehow make you a bad person, what do you think the chances are of you bringing or keeping money into your life.
They are likely to be very low odds.
So how can we rewire this very limiting belief.
Understand where your beliefs come from
The first step to overcoming limiting beliefs is to identify what they are. Acknowledge the belief, consider the source if you can, for example what might have been the event or story that triggered your belief and understand how this may be playing itself out in your actions around money.
Find Evidence to contradict
Understanding the nature of your belief, question its integrity.
What contradictory evidence is there that counters your belief? For example, are all rich people corrupt and greedy? As this is a very extreme generalisation there will clearly be evidence to dispute it.
In looking for the argument against your belief, you will put yourself in the position of questioning your beliefs from an adult perspective.
Know thyself
Key to releasing or rewiring these limiting beliefs is knowing yourself, knowing your strengths, weaknesses and values. From this perspective you have a much stronger basis for understanding the potentially damaging consequences of holding onto the beliefs and whether they are in fact supporting you in growing as a person and achieving your goals.
Imagine how having more money can support you in doing more of what you value
Choose a new belief about money that’s supportive of achieving your goals. Conditioning yourself to a new belief means creating the reality you want to replace your limiting beliefs with within your mind.
To this end, imagine how having money can support you in doing more of what you value.
This visualisation of the reality we want to create is a good way to send signals to your brain that are congruent with the new belief thereby reinforcing the validity of the new beliefs you are installing.
The world is full of beliefs and generally the more black and white they are, the easier they are for us to hook onto and put out own personal money story spin on. However, when we choose to become conscious of the limiting beliefs we may be harbouring we get to choose to get rid of the one’s that are not supporting us and are getting in the way of us living the life we want for ourselves.
