If you struggle with personal finance, your limiting beliefs may be holding you back.
Many finance tips focus on practical steps to change your financial situation. But they often miss a key component of financial wellbeing. When it comes to making money, it’s not just about what you do, but also how you think.
Your Mindset Affects Your Money
Do you like to hoard money? Or perhaps you like to splash it around to show off how successful you are?
You may not give much thought to how you act around money but your attitude toward money is determined by your money personality. Your money personality is shaped by your money story – your personal narrative about money that’s built up over a lifetime. It’s a melting pot of things you learned from family, friends, education, and other life experiences.
In order to change your behavior, you need to understand your money personality and how it shapes your money mindset.
Limiting Beliefs
A limiting belief is a negative belief that keeps you from growing. This might be something you believe about yourself like “I’m not a math person” or “I’m terrible at public speaking.”
Overcoming your limiting beliefs about money will open up new opportunities for growth.
Common Limiting Beliefs About Money and How to Overcome Them
The first step to changing your limiting beliefs is to recognize and challenge them. The following are some of the most common beliefs that can hold you back from financial success.
1. Unworthiness
Many people struggle to make money because they feel unworthy of it. This is usually rooted in an experience you had earlier in life. For example, if your parents refused to buy you a toy as a kid, you may have concluded it was because you weren’t worth it.
Start by examining the root of your feeling of being unworthy. Next, realize that this feeling developed when you were younger and didn’t have the maturity to fully understand the situation. As an adult, you can acknowledge that your parents didn’t buy you that toy because money was tight and not because they didn’t love you. As you begin to re-interpret these experiences, you can start to gain a new perspective.
2. Money Isn’t Important
Have you ever felt like it’s selfish to pursue your financial goals? While it’s true that money isn’t everything, it is necessary to live a happy and fulfilling life.
To overcome this barrier, you need to reframe the way you approach money. Stop thinking about money as a goal, and think about it instead as a tool you can use to do what’s important to you. Money allows you to create opportunities for yourself and others. It will also decrease your stress and allow you to be more present in your relationships.
3. Money Is Scarce
Saving is important to financial stability. However, holding onto money out of a feeling of scarcity can actually hold you back. To make your money grow, you’ll need to invest it and spend on necessary resources.
Try focusing on the assets and opportunities you have rather than what you lack. As you train your brain to see the abundance around you, you’ll be better equipped to reach your financial goals.
4. You Need Money to Make Money
While making money is easier for those who start out with more resources, it is possible for anyone. Instead of focusing on the barriers that hold you back, seek out resources that can help you make money. Look for inspiration in the stories of people who have come from similar situations.
5. It’s All About Hard Work
You may have learned that hard work is the key to financial success, but this isn’t necessarily true. By adopting smart financial strategies, you can make your money work for you. Instead of focusing on hard work, leverage what you have to achieve long-term gains.
Personal finance is a lifelong journey. Changing mindsets that are deeply ingrained in our brains takes consistent effort. As you challenge your limiting beliefs, you’ll see your financial fortunes change. You’ll start seeing new opportunities and gaining confidence as your abilities grow.
