You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you. – Maya Angelou
If you have limiting beliefs about how much money you can “possibly” make, you will not earn more than that particular income which you believe that you can earn, no matter how smart, hard-working and good in money management you are.
In my previous article 20 Strategies to Help You Overcome the Money Scarcity Mindset I wrote about my journey of cultivating the abundance mindset and overcoming the scarcity money mindset, and how it was not easy as I’m coming from a poor post-war country in South-Eastern Europe and I was witnessing a lot of poverty in my childhood during the war (having a bread on the table was a big deal, and I remember standing in a queue with my mom to collect the box with humanitarian aid with some oil and flour). I grew up in a middle-class family and learned that earning money is hard and that money doesn’t grow on trees and that one cannot get very rich by doing an “honest” work and by doing what you love (a.k.a. if you want to have a decent paycheck you need to be a doctor or a lawyer or so…) and was also listening all the time that rich people are corrupt, calculative, and selfish. Only when my beliefs around the money started changing (and it required some serious mindset work!), I started transforming my money story
If we have a scarcity mindset about the money, we will never have “enough” money or a lot of money, as the scarcity about money always reflects your deep subconscious belief of money lacking in our life.
How to Overcome Limiting Beliefs About Money
1. Change the Way You Think About Money
Make sure that you associate the money with opportunities to grow, doing the charity work, and making the world a better place to live, being able to give gifts and support people you love financially. Make a list of all the people who would benefit if you would be rich and earning your dream income. Also, keep in mind that the people who are giving the most to the charity, are some of the richest people on the planet (think of Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates).
2. Give and Spend Generously and Gracefully
The more money and material goods you give, the more you can receive, as holding onto things and regretting every cent that we’ve spent are a reflection of scarcity money mindset!
When we are giving to others, we always feel abundant as we would not be able to help or give to somebody else if we do not have at the first place and we unconsciously detach ourselves from the money. Start behaving like a rich person on a symbolic scale: give small donations, gift the things you do not use anymore, treat someone with lunch, take yourself out to five star restaurant (even if you can only order salad and a glass of sparkling water, do so), start entering into luxury shops, buy a small luxury item from a brand you never thought you could afford to remind you on how you actually can (even if it is a credit card holder, bracelet, or a scarf). Do not regret the money you’re spending on paying the bills, but rather be grateful that you have a home which demands bills to be paid, and whenever you spend say to yourself:
“There is more where that came from.”
3. Replace Limiting Beliefs with Empowering Beliefs About Money
List down all the negative thoughts and beliefs you have the money. Then, cross those negative beliefs and write down for each of them an empowering belief. For example:
Money is dirty.
Money is “clean” when earned honestly.
Rich people are corrupt.
Oprah Winfrey (or any other rich person you admire) is a wonderful person and a great philanthropist, and she is one of the wealthiest women on the planet. I can also be rich and still give a lot to others and stay grounded, caring, and good person!
This work will be as easy and as hard, depending on the strength of your limiting beliefs. If you start applying these principles and you still do not see your money story transforming, consider working with a life coach to empower your mindset (that was a big game changer for me!).
Read my previous article 20 Strategies to Help You Overcome the Money Scarcity Mindset for practical action steps you can do every day to ACT AS IF you are already abundant and attract more money and abundance to you.
And remember: it’s never about having the money, it’s about the lifestyle! Being rich is having money, but being wealthy is having time and more personal freedom.