by: Audrey Burton
What is your opinion of people with money? Are they kind and generous? Are they snotty and snobbish? Do they think they’re better than people without wealth? When you see a really expensive car on the road do you sense negative feelings rising in you? These beliefs come from everywhere – your parents, the media, your work environment, etc.
Your inner belief system may be in conflict with your inner dreams. You may be overtly or covertly sabotaging yourself – stopping yourself from getting what you want.
To get started changing your belief system, you first need to identify the beliefs that don’t serve you. By slowing down and paying attention, you can begin to better understand your inner beliefs.
What worked for me was to listen to my inner dialogue while I was driving alone – I was shocked by how many times I made judgments against people because of the car they drive! A Mercedes sedan would cut in front of me and I would think to myself, “apparently they think they own the road just because they have money.” What I didn’t recognize is that bad drivers come in every income bracket, and 1972 Toyotas cut me off just as often as the $100,000 cars.
If this doesn’t work for you, listen to your thoughts while in the grocery store, at the mall, at your kid’s school, watching TV, at the gym, etc. It may help to keep a pocket journal to record your thoughts to review later. Taking the time to do this for yourself may be the most difficult part, but it could change your ability to accept money into your life.
Once you have identified these negative beliefs, you need to eliminate them. The best way to do this is to replace them with positive beliefs. For each one, ask yourself:
One technique that works for many people is positive affirmations. By repeating aloud your positive statement in your own words, you will integrate this new belief into your subconscious. For example, you may start with “Rich people are generous, giving people. I am a generous, giving person. I am rich.” By placing yourself in the place where you want to be, your subconscious begins to believe it.
You will soon find on a conscious level that you feel differently about wealth and people who are wealthy.
Another technique is to get to know people with money on an individual level. To me this is similar to combating racism. As you meet and talk to rich people, you will find that there are nice rich people and mean rich people – just like any other group of people! It will also benefit you to learn from people with money so you can do as they have done, and perhaps be more comfortable making your own money.