Money and Limiting Beliefs

Limiting beliefs are something that have the power to really hold us back. So, what is a limiting belief? Let’s look at the actual words themselves.

Limiting, is something that has a boundary. Something that has an end; potentially an unnatural end. An end that we have identified ourselves, meaning it’s self-imposed.

A belief is something that we believe to be true. It’s not a fact. It’s not a truth. It’s something that for whatever reason we believe or interpret as being true for us. Someone else can have a different belief on exactly the same thing, which is what makes beliefs not absolute truth.

To test this concept, here is an example. When I was younger, I had a good friend who was constantly watching her weight. If she ate a little bit too much she would go and exercise longer and harder to try and work off the calories that she just consumed. What I saw was a beautiful, slender young woman. What she saw was someone who was fat and needed to lose weight. This is where beliefs can damage us or prevent us from even trying to do something.  Or, they can head us down a path that doesn’t serve us well.

On the flip side, beliefs can also help us achieve something that we never thought we’d be able to achieve if we thought about it too much. I look at my 7 year old daughter, and when she was learning to ride her bicycle without training wheels, she started off not believing she could do it.  Then, while attempting to ride she got distracted by something and actually began riding! That was enough for her belief in herself to completely change, and now she both BELIEVED and KNEW that she could ride her bicycle without training wheels.

My journey of learning to ride a bicycle was completely different.  I only learned when I was 33 years old.  It was something I wanted to be able to do SO much, that my belief in the fact that I could do it spurred me on.  I bumped into poles (and people), and was scared, but my belief was more powerful.  This is where beliefs can work FOR you.

I’m hoping that you’re starting to recognise the trend of where I’m going with this. So, when we start to get into the concept of limiting beliefs, they also link into the stories that we repeatedly tell ourselves. Now these stories could be based on actual experiences, quite often a single experience that we’ve turned into a truth. Or they could be based on something someone has told us at some point in our lives, and we’ve taken them on as part of our story even though they’re not necessarily true.

So, when it comes to money, how are limiting beliefs holding you back?

Did you grow up seeing money as something that corrupts people? Or is money something that is hard to get more of? Or, you have to have money in order to make money? There are so many other possibilities that I’m not going to go into, but you can see where I’m headed with this. If we believe these limiting beliefs, then we stifle our growth and development, and hinder our ability to build wealth or even achieve what it is that we want to achieve.

There is also the possibility that you don’t know what you don’t know.  Which, when it comes to money it’s probably pretty likely. After all, where are we taught about money? It’s not a class in school. No one pulls you aside and tells you this is what money is.

No one helps you to identify what your lifestyle goals are, or even talks about how the financial system works, or taxes, or budgeting, or retirement, or really anything to do with money. So, why are so many of us so hard on ourselves and not willing to talk about it when we don’t get taught it or can’t really even be expected to know this stuff?

And the not talking about it, is only going to make things like this worse.

As women, we love to support and help each other in times of need. We’re there to help if we can when a friend has a baby, or when a family member is ill.  But, when it comes to money the conversation is often shut down or not even started in the first place.  This is something that we need to change the stigma on, and come at it from a place of openness, willingness to be vulnerable, and willingness to admit that we don’t know.

Even myself, I’m constantly reading and learning about money. And I always learn something new. Almost every week I’m reading something that I didn’t already know. Sometimes this is also the pace of change in the financial system. There are so many better products being developed to help us invest, save, and be able to manage our money. So doing it completely alone is just hard.

The idea of creating a community of women who can support one another, share ideas, share tips and talk issues through is what we should be aiming for. Because it’s not always about spending or saving.  Sometimes it’s about sharing and bouncing ideas.

I’ve had clients who literally just wanted to talk through their thoughts about life and money. I’ve deliberately said “life” first, because that’s what this is all about. It’s often not even about the money itself, it’s about what we want money to DO for us.

So, take any limiting beliefs that you have, be conscious of them when they turn up, because they will. They do for all of us and not just in relation to money.  They turn up in all areas of our life. You can even apply this for those other areas where you’re feeling a lack of confidence, or self-worth.

Take a moment to acknowledge the limiting belief, think about it and ask yourself, “why do I believe this? Why do I believe this to be true, and that I let it hold me back from what I want?”. Sometimes it’s also because we don’t actually know what we want. The limiting belief keep us in a bit of a holding pattern because that’s easier than trying to figure out how to break out of that cycle.

Awareness is key and is the very first step. Being aware of the limiting belief and identifying it as such. Then figuring out what you want and why you want it is particularly important.

Once you’ve gained awareness and started to figure out what you want and why, the journey of evolution really starts! As we grow and evolve, so to do our life’s desires and goals. Then, you can start to replace those limiting beliefs with a new set of beliefs, and a story that will get you where you actually want to go. The rest of the money “stuff” are things that you can easily learn through information and checklists.  Things that will support the money beliefs and the story that are heading you towards your lifestyle (instead of away from it).

This level of empowerment will give you the self-motivation and the inspiration to continue when things get hard. And everything worth getting in life will always have an element of difficulty or complexity. Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid that. There is no magic pill. There’s no done for you solution. When it comes to money it is DIY. Thankfully, there is a lot of information and a lot of help out there to support you.

Find what’s right for you and keep it simple. Have a great day!