One of the most prevalent types of stress people feel stems from money. How we feel about money is based on our belief system and programming. If you're feeling stressed, trapped, or scared about your financial situation - it's time to change that.
One of the most prevalent types of stress people feel stems from money. In fact, 72% of Americans reported to be stressed out about their financial situation. From the many conversations we’ve had with our listeners and friends, we’ve found that it’s not uncommon to have a negative relationship with money.
Reflection Exercise
Think about your own relationship with it. Do you feel good, positive, and excited about your finances? Do you feel like you have more than enough to meet your needs? If yes, that’s amazing! You’ve unlocked the exact mindset we’re trying to help people achieve.
Mastering Your Money Mindset
How we feel about money (and how we feel about most things) is ultimately based on our belief system and programming. There are a lot of factors that subconsciously go into creating these beliefs. Some of it comes from the attitudes our parents have, our perception of things that happened in our childhood, culture norms, societal expectations, and what the media is telling us.
With social media now-a-days, it’s more difficult to change your mindset about money because it’s so easy to get locked into an echo-chamber, where the people you follow’s thoughts echo your mentality. There’s no harm in following people that think the same way that you do, but it’s important to listen to and read about different perspectives to broaden your view of understanding.
So where do negative ideas about money come from? Why do you think some people have such a problem with their neighbours and friends being successful?
It’s a bold statement to make, but a lot of negative ideas about money come from people not feeling like they have enough and wanting more or jealousy. If we deconstruct the root of jealousy, these negative feelings usually stem from people’s own self doubt. Jealousy is a normal human reaction, it's not a positive one one, however, it is normal. People always want to keep up with the Joneses.
People need to realize that financial wealth is all relative and that there is always going to be people that are more financially well off than you and there is always people who are going to be less financially well off than you.
The problem with comparing yourself to others, is that no two people are in the same place.
People with more wealth have the resources to do more good in the world.
Money is neither good nor evil, but simply a tool that can be used to create good in the world. You can use a hammer to build a house or you can use a hammer to clock someone on the head. Try not to blame the tool.
Being financially successful, or focused on achieving wealth doesn’t make you a bad person, unless you achieved that wealth not in a virtuous way.
In reality, at its most basic level, money is energy. It’s the energy that we as a society use to create a value for time, goods and services. When we have a surplus of it, or more than we need to live, that’s when we have the choice to either spend on wants, save, or give it away.
Money is an essential part of the capitalist world we live in. Being financially comfortable should be a priority for those who want to live a life free from financial stress. Whether you allow it to manifest in your life, or repel it is based on your belief systems, which determine how we think, feel and act, and influence the actions and behaviours we have.
There is no shortage of abundance in the universe. If money is energy, and you look at it from this lens, then the typical rules of energy apply. Here’s a quick refresher from grade 4 science. Energy cannot be created, only transferred from object (person) to object (person). Think about a pendulum.
One person lifts his arm, pulls one ball back, and then each ball swings as a result. This is a great example of how kinetic energy works.
Now, I don’t have a PhD in Physics, but what I can tell you is that the same rules apply. When one person (you), decide to take control of your financial situation and take action (pull one ball back), each subsequent ball will swing, and eventually that energy will come back to the first ball over and over again, until eventually there’s not enough kinetic energy to keep the balls swinging. In which case, you just pull the first ball back again.
You are in control of your life. Your life does not control you. Just as you have the ability to pull that first ball back, you have the ability to take action in all aspects of your life, especially in terms of your financial situation.
If you have a victim, or poverty mindset this will of course have impact on your every day life. This kind of mindset shows itself in thinking that there’s not enough to go around, people who live in nice homes and drive nice cars are greedy, money is not easily available to me, and comes out in phrases like “I can’t afford it”, “This always happens to me”.
Everything that we experience in life is a reflection of ourselves and the way we think and feel. When we have this attitude towards money, then everything to do with money feels hard and doesn’t spark joy.
Can you take a minute and think about what it might be like to feel calm, excited and CONFIDENT about money?
To change your relationship with money, you need to master your money mindset. That begins with being grateful and appreciating everything you have right now. When you are focused on what you have, what you have multiplies. When you are focused on what you lack, that is all you see.
If you want to take control of your financial situation, and change your relationship with money, this is where you start.