Do you worry about money?

Let’s solve that problem.

Most often in life, we have a negative and needy association with money. Whether you have a lot or little, most of us fear losing money. What drives us in our careers is usually money. And this causes many psychological problems for the individual.

The key adjustment we need to make here is to change our scarcity mindset towards money into an abundant mindset. This is the foundation of a healthy career that can aid your happiness.

The unconscious identification with the amount of money you have in your back account ties back to your childhood as well. Our brains are all about what we have experienced and observed. That is how it shapes itself.

If you come from a poor family, you will have a “money scar”. What is funny is that this can also happen in middle-class families. If your parents were constantly worried about money (even though they may have above average standards of living), you’ll most likely still have the “money scar”.

On the flip side, if you come from an affluent family, you might under-estimate money and waste it on materialism (cars, houses, booze) thinking they will bring you happiness. This is another form of money scar that traps you in materialism. 

So it doesn’t matter what your family background is. Unless you have consciously investigated your attachment towards money, you probably have some sort of money scar.

Money scar is thinking that money is hard to get and hard to manage. It is difficult to find a job. It is difficult to create a business. Life is hard when it comes to finances. 

This mindset has a flair of victim conditioning as well. You think you have less control over your money situation than you think. Government and economy are to blame, right?

Well, not really. Even though, you might be right. This ideology will only lead to whining and complaining, not real life results.

We are living in times when anybody can add value to society thanks to the internet and its global integration. If you are living in Pakistan, you can start a blog and solve other people’s problems by doing content marketing and selling courses and membership sites.

Doing this is much cheaper than you think. If you are in it for the long haul, if you know what you are doing, there is a high chance that you can transform your life without needing to find a job.

Obviously, you need to have tangible skills. If you live in Pakistan and you are not good with English, that is your biggest hurdle. Learning English at an advanced level must be your priority if you want to do this. Without knowing English, your impact on the global economy will be little to none. You can only do local business in your area (which is not a bad thing). It just limits your options heavily.

Now let me help you change your needy and scarce mindset towards money.

Firstly, this process starts with questioning what exactly is this “money” that you worry about all the time. Also, this process might take some time since we are de-programming potentially years of unhealthy and obsessive emotional issues towards money.

Think about the fact that the currency we exchange is nothing more than printed paper. It doesn’t really have any value at all except the value that’s been assigned to it.

Why would we want to measure our personal worth against printed paper that has no value? And yet, this is the mindset that millions of people have adopted.

Look at the effect money has on the way we view ourselves. To some degree, our sense of self-worth and security tends to rise and fall with our income. And regardless of how we reason on it intellectually, the truth is, we all have an emotional connection with money because we always feel better when finances are not an issue.

Imagine if the whole value exchange system had been built on something like strips of red ribbon. “Oh, I’ve got more red ribbon than you so that means that I am a more valuable person.”  The whole concept is so absurd, it’s laughable.  And yet, in reality, a strip of ribbon is probably worth more than a dollar bill.

A long time ago, currency was intended to represent a commodity like gold or silver, but is that still the case?  No! There is no commodity to back it up – they just print up currency and put it into circulation.

And because most people still hold a commodity based mindset about money, the whole economic picture is just an illusion. But it’s a picture that we are all involved in, so what can we do?

Obviously, we need some financial security in our lives. Sadly, the way we’ve been programmed to attract money is probably not the best way to satisfy that need.

Let’s go over several false notions about the almighty dollar and its place in our lives, and consider some alternative approaches.

From early childhood, we are told that money makes the world go around. As a little kid, we might have looked at our parents and said, “Can I have a dollar?” Then, if they asked why we would reply, “I need it to get one of these.”

So right away, we learn to recognize that everything we want in life has a price tag on it. From that point on our mindset is that to get anything in life requires money.

As we get older we start to link our worth with our hourly wage. As a result of this emotional link, our sense of personal value gets all wrapped up in what we are able to earn per hour.

Notice how this conditioning process unfolded. Initially, money had value because it represented what we could buy with it.  But then, it took on a personality of its own.

 

On an emotional level money is linked to pain and pleasure

 

We all need money so we can pay the rent and put food on the table. The need is real and without adequate finances, things can get very uncomfortable. This adds another dimension to our mindset about money.

Now, lack of money equals pain and having money equals pleasure. Is it any wonder that it is almost impossible to avoid forming an emotional attachment with that worthless printed paper?

What happens to our emotional stability when the economy is floundering and personal assets start evaporating? Our sense of security can easily turn into panic and leave us wondering how in the world we are going to cope. That’s a lot of leverage for paper with no intrinsic value.

 

How can we avoid the emotional rollercoaster?

 

Independent of the economy or our personal financial status, a balanced perspective can go a long way toward neutralizing the emotional influence of money.  Maintaining the right mindset will not only help us to get through tough financial times, it will also help us prosper in the future.

Let’s try looking at this whole monetary issue with a more empowering mindset.  We can do this by ignoring the negative press and addressing our personal relationship with money.

 

7 Ways To Create A Stoic Mindset Towards Money

 

1- Do Your Finances and Career-Related Decisions Yourself. Money management tools like Quicken.com are informative, but it is also important to have faith in your own ideas and take control of your financial future. Investments are often not as secure as acting on your own productive ideas. If you come up with a sound business idea, create a business plan and act on it promptly. Don’t allow limiting beliefs about your abilities to create income stifle your creativity.

 

2. Always Operate from abundance instead of scarcity. Giving is a powerful way to attract what you need, and generosity opens the flow of abundance. I’m not saying you should give away your last dollar. But a mindset based on hoarding is a sure way to create scarcity. Remember, there are many ways to give outside the realm of finances. Could you give of your time or experience to help others?

 

3. Don’t put off enjoying your life and your resources. Planning for your retirement is not as powerful as living in the present with an awareness of your future. Putting enjoyment off until a future time is like pushing away your current prosperity. When you delay enjoying your life until your circumstances improve, you actually do yourself a grave disservice. A  mindset built on postponement links your emotional happiness to your financial future.

 

4. Realize that money won’t solve all your problems. Money is not the path to happiness or fulfillment and maintaining this emotional separation is vital for a happy life. If you want to be happy, then you’ll have to supplement your career with enlightenment work. Money will not make your life feel more meaningful, or improve your relationships. Always remember that money only solves financial problems!

 

5. Let go of limiting financial beliefs. A belief such as, “money is the root of all evil” will only block your prosperity. There is no shame in a modest lifestyle, but there is also nothing noble about lacking money or anything else. Being poor is no more noble than being rich. As Stoics said, money is a preferred indifferent. It fundamentally has no effect on your self-worth and happiness levels if you know how to detach from it. Hold a mindset that allows you to be respectful of, but emotionally detached from money will help you make better decisions in every area of life.

 

6. Don’t be afraid to chart your own path.  Self reliance is one of the most important skills you need to develop. Scarcity is mostly a matter of mindset and so is abundance. Human creativity can solve any financial problem and find ways to profit along the way. If you can block out the negative feedback and learn to think and act differently than the struggling masses, you may be astonished at what you can accomplish.

 

7. Spend some money on things that make you feel good. Practical spending is valuable and prudent, but you also deserve to enjoy some of the fruits of your labor. When you buy something that helps you feel good, you encourage a positive emotional response to money and feed your abundance mindset. When you feel better about yourself, you naturally tend to be more productive.

 

Conclusion:

 

An obsessive view of money can foster unhealthy responses like greed and dishonesty. This can be true whether a person has a lot or a little. When money has that kind of power in a person’s life, they become its slave.

When we have the mindset that money is just a tool, and avoid forming an emotional attachment to it, we are in control. Remember, it’s just printed paper with no intrinsic value whatsoever. You, on the other hand, are extremely valuable. The more you actively share your unique value with the world, the greater your sense of self-worth and abundance will become.