Submitted by Paul R. Scheele, Ph.D., Learning Strategies
Money is a powerful and useful tool that can make life easier and more interesting and fulfilling. But how you perceive money can hinder your ability to earn and receive it.
The beliefs or “scripts” you hold about money can significantly affect your financial, mental, and emotional well-being, according to research from Kansas State University.
Subjects responded to a list of 72 common money scripts. The study revealed four distinct belief categories that give insight into a person’s “desire to avoid money issues (avoidance), accumulate money (worship), differentiate one’s self from other socioeconomic classes (status), or keep one’s money issues private (vigilance),” the researchers wrote in The Journal of Financial Therapy.
The research was done to develop an assessment tool to help clinical therapists and psychologists identify a client’s problematic attitudes that can be destructive or interfere with accomplishing their financial goals.
Here are some money beliefs from the Klontz-Money Script Inventory. Do any resonate with you?
Money Avoidance: Rich people are greedy. It is not okay to have more than you need. I do not deserve money. There is virtue in living with less money. Money corrupts people.
Money Worship: More money will make you happier. You can never have enough money. I will never be able to afford the things I want in life. Money would solve all my problems. Money buys freedom.
Money Status: I will not buy something unless it is new. Poor people are lazy. Money is what gives life meaning. Your self-worth equals your net worth. It’s okay to keep secrets from your partner around money.
Money Vigilance: You should not tell others how much money you have or make. Money should be saved, not spent. People should work for their money and not be given financial handouts. If you cannot pay cash for something, you should not buy it.
Researcher Brad Klontz told The New York Times people need to be flexible about their money beliefs and open-minded in their thinking about money’s role in their lives.
“As human beings, we’re always evolving and we only have part of the picture at any stage,” he said. “We need to identify the set of beliefs that work and the ones that don’t and modify them or let go of them.”
So how do you accomplish that? How do you create a new money mindset if you are living in an old one?
Try this process from our Abundant Money Mindset Paraliminal. It helps you release limiting beliefs about money and develop a positive relationship with money so your choices and habits align with an abundant money life. Focus your attention on the following:
- Your old stories about money—the limiting beliefs and mindsets you grew up with that made you think the outer world of money controlled your inner world of thoughts and feelings about yourself and what you could or could not do in life.
Could you let these limiting ideas go? Would you let them go? When?
- Your current story about money—the competing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that may prevent you from fully realizing true abundance.
Could you let these competing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors go? Would you let them go? When?
- Your new ideal money story—your life with an abundant money mindset. This is how you feel, act, and speak with the freedom your new relationship with money brings.
Could you welcome these feelings and new ways of being? Would you welcome these feelings and new ways of being? When?
Imagine your ideal money world as a vivid movie playing in your mind. Be clear about what you choose to be, to do, to have, and to keep appreciating in your life. Take time to engage in this practice daily. Journal about it, and notice how your money mindset changes.
When you replace your limiting money stories with a positive habit of thinking about money—independent of your circumstances—you’ll develop confidence in your ability to earn, save, and grow your financial resources and share them with others.
To help you create a healthier and wealthier money life, I recommend you listen to an audio program I created called Abundant Money Mindset. Simply push play, close your eyes, relax, and listen. You will be led through a closed-eye process that activates your “whole mind” with a precise blend of music and words to help you acquire new behaviors.
To learn more about Abundant Money Mindset and the 41 other Paraliminal programs, please click here.
