Today we are talking about psychological money blocks that do not allow us to become financially successful in life. The idea of today’s topic I received from one of my YouTube viewers who send me a comment asking:
Hi Mam,
I’ve noticed that for the last 8 years I’ve been earning approximately the same amount of money. I work for a big company but somehow every time when there is a new promotion at work, I always miss it. Somebody else always gets it. I’ve noticed that when I do a presentation of a product, I make some awkward mistakes and forget something. It might sound strange, but I feel like something or somebody is stopping me from getting a promotion at work or from earning a bonus. Am I crazy? What is happening with me? I would appreciate your professional advice.
Danny.
This question has inspired me to talk about this topic in detail and even create a video that you can find at the bottom of this page.
By the way, if you have a question, please write it in the comments section at the bottom of this page or share it on any of my videos on YouTube.
Let’s get back to Dannys’ question. The answer is, “No. You are NOT crazy”. When it comes to money, we have lots of rules, taboos, and limiting beliefs. For simplicity, let’s call all of them “mental money blocks”. Negative family stories about money, our parent’s fears, financial anxieties, and social expectations – all these things fall into the category of psychological money blocks.
Today, I will talk about the 4 most common money blocks. Most people are not aware of their financial psychological blocks and they are, like Danny, missing new job opportunities, they make silly mistakes and they feel like some strange power is stopping them from achieving their goals. Let’s name some of our mental blocks and hopefully, you can identify some of them in your life and start working on eliminating them.
Let’s start.
1. The 1st money block is called “Responsibility”.
Money always comes with responsibility. The more money you make, the more responsibility falls on your shoulders. Little money brings little responsibility. If you don’t have money, you don’t need to worry about what to do with it. You don’t need to think about investing your money and worry about the stock market. If you don’t have money, you can’t buy an expensive house and maintain it. You just rent a small place and let your landlord take care of all the problems. If you don’t have money, you can’t buy an expensive car and purchase expensive insurance.
If you have a lot of money, then the question of how to spend it wisely comes to your mind all the time. Should you send your kids to a private school? Will it really benefit your kids? Should you invest in real estate or should you open a new business? How to invest money in order to multiply them?
If you don’t have money, you don’t have to deal with all the money problems that rich people have. It looks like people who don’t have money have a hard life, but in reality, there are millions of people who enjoy their simple lifestyle. They are happy with their lives even if they don’t have a lot of money.
2. The 2nd money block is called “Risk”.
If you don’t have money, there is no way to lose them. People with money are constantly thinking about how to preserve them. You’ve probably heard stories about people who’ve invested money and lost everything, right?
If you have money then you need to manage them well. You need to find a good financial adviser, a broker, or do everything yourself. No matter what you choose, there is always a risk to lose money. The only way to minimize this risk is not to have money at all.
3. Mental block #3 is “Fear of becoming a bad person”
Deep inside you might have a belief that rich people are greedy, selfish, or even ruthless. You might have a belief that if you want to make a lot of money you have to violate your moral or social values. There is a social belief that rich people are cold and heartless. Many TV shows, for example, Sharks show wealthy people as emotionally unbreakable and hard to talk to.
If this belief applies to you, then subconsciously, you are sabotaging every opportunity that comes to your life. You hesitate when you have to speak up and promote yourself. You don’t ask for extra pay but do the extra work because you are a good person, and not everything should be done for more.
Sounds familiar? If yes, then you should dig deeper inside of yourself and bring your money-limiting beliefs to the surface. Evaluate your beliefs and see which of them are helping you and which beliefs are stopping you from reaching your goal.
Let’s do a simple test if this mental block applies to you.
- Name 3 people who are rich, greedy, and selfish.
- Now, name 3 people who are rich, kind, and care about others.
If it was easier for you to name rich kind people, then you don’t have this mental block.
If you struggled with naming rich kind people but easily were able to name rich, greedy, and selfish people, then review this mental block #3 one more time and work on your money limiting beliefs.
Let’s talk about the 4th mental money block.
4. Family stories and Parental messages.
These are 2 different things, but for the simplicity of today’s video, I decided to put them together. Think about your parents and grandparents. What did they say about money? Actually, write down, what can you remember your mom, dad, uncle, aunt, grandparents say about money?
For example, in my childhood, I remember hearing the phrase “This is very expensive”. I don’t even remember what my mom or grandmother referred to, but I know that this specific phrase was one of the common phrases in my childhood. So, I’ve learned 2 things:
1. We cannot afford expensive things, which later transformed into “I cannot afford expensive things”
2. I don’t need to buy expensive things, it’s not worth it. I can buy several affordable things instead of buying an expensive one.
So, the 1st statement “We can’t afford expensive things” caused me to form a limiting belief in my head that no matter how hard I try, there is no way I will make a lot of money.
And the 2nd statement “I don’t need to buy expensive things, it’s not worth it” my brain reads as I don’t need to earn big money because I don’t need to buy expensive things. I just need to cover my everyday expenses and maybe have a little bit more.
Let me know in the comments if you have similar beliefs about money. If your beliefs are different, please share them as well.
By writing you will help yourself to acknowledge your limiting beliefs and you will help others as well. Just by reading other people’s beliefs, you can discover your own. Something will click inside of you. If you have a similar belief, you will feel it in your guts.
There were 4 common mental money blocks. Of course, there are more than 4. If you want me to continue talking on this topic, let me know in the comments. I can talk in detail about money-limiting beliefs, and I can give you more variations of negative family stories and parental messages. We can talk about social money taboos.
When it comes to money there are fears, such as a fear of success, a fear of failure, and a fear of an unknown future. Write down in the comments if you’d like me to create more videos on this topic and I will be happy to dive in and create more articles and videos for you.
If you are ready to work on your money blocks, join my Happiness Club, consider my private sessions, and check out my online course “Program Yourself for Success”.
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