Working to change the way you perceive money is the missing link that can begin to improve your financial situation and help you escape the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle.
What is Your Money Mindset?
Your money mindset is the set of beliefs you have surrounding money. It’s shaped throughout your life by your experiences with money.
The way you see the people around you handle their money, the things you hear them say about money, and your own personal financial situation growing up have all contributed over the years to your money mindset.
The way you view money influences the way you interact with money in either a negative or positive way. And while it takes time and effort, it is possible to change the way you view money.
Here’s the thing…a very wise man (Jim Rohn) once said: “For things to change, you have to change.”
Here are three steps to help you adopt a healthy money mindset.
1. Change Your Scarcity Mindset
Many of us were conditioned to have a scarcity mindset without even knowing it. We grew up, money was tight, and we constantly heard, “We don’t have the money for that” or “That’s too expensive.” These words shaped our mindset and led us to believe that money is finite.
This is not the case. Instead, money is infinite; we can always earn more.
This belief leads people to approach their finances from a place of lack rather than a place of abundance.
An abundance mindset tells us that there are enough pieces of the pie for everyone. An abundance mindset allows us to be generous with our resources (money, love, opportunities, etc.) because we know we can always get, find, and earn more.
Embracing gratitude and finding contentment goes a long way to combat a lack mentality, and being able to adopt a “silver lining” outlook on life makes a huge difference in the way we view our situation.
Once you can embrace abundance and cast out the scarcity, you will experience a substantial shift in your mindset.
2. Believe You Are Worthy
Technically, this ties in with #1, but it’s important enough to warrant its own number.
You may have struggled with an extreme scarcity mindset throughout your life. You may understand where it comes from and even be conscious of it, yet it can be difficult to shake.
Something that can help is truly believing that you are worth it. You deserve it. Understand this isn’t about entitlement.
We are not entitled to anything; working hard and building a wonderfully abundant life for ourselves and our families is important.
But we are not able to do so if we don’t first believe we are worthy of success, love, acceptance, and opportunity.
When you truly start believing this, you realize that your situation is not permanent; you can HAVE better, and you can DO better!
When you believe it, you can achieve it.
Constantly heeding your great-grandpa’s warning about rich people and how they are all crooks is reinforcing your limiting beliefs and holding you back from building your amazing life.
When you can understand that money is not the root of all evil, BUT the love of money is the root of all evil, then you can let it go.
You will be free to get out of your own way, clean up your financial act, pursue success with all you have, and relish in the overwhelming gratitude for everything you have been given.
3. Invoke the Law of Attraction (LOA)
This one can be difficult to wrap your head around, but it works!
I truly believe that we can manifest what we want in life, and the universe will make it happen.
Where it gets tricky for me is that I [strongly] believe God is guiding my life, but hey, a little help from the universe never hurt…Have you ever read this classic book, “The Secret?” This is an awesome book (and movie) about the LOA if you want to learn more.
Regardless of your belief system, the LOA is a real thing.
Similar to the Law of Gravity, it’s not tangible, so often goes unnoticed, but simply put, the LOA tells us, “What we think about, we bring about.”
That’s it! It’s not complicated, but it’s also not magic. We will subconsciously move towards what we constantly focus on – good or bad.
Laser focus all your energy towards one big goal, i.e., paying off your debt, and not only will you be working hard and gaining traction, but you will begin to see the universe helping you to achieve those goals.
Certainly, there is more to getting out of debt and changing your current financial situation, but intentionally working to shift your mindset and the way you view money can make a huge impact quickly.
The first step towards lasting change is making a mental commitment to embrace a different belief system.
This can often be the most difficult yet most important step, but I promise you that learning how to change your mindset is the key to changing your life.
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Kristin Stones is the owner of Cents + Purpose, an online community dedicated to sharing practical personal finance content. Her mission is to equip women with the necessary tools and knowledge to take back control of their money and live a more purposeful life. She creates actionable content to help her audience achieve financial wellness using her simple approach to managing money - all learned through her personal experience of paying off almost $55,000 of debt in under two years.
