I would like to be more financially successful, but for some reason I just keep making really poor choices. It is almost as if a part of me wants me to stay poor. I don’t even know where to begin with this issue. Do you have any suggestions?

photo by Andrew Magill

Like lots of issues, when we struggle with financial success it is often because we believe there is some penalty for having more money. On the surface that might seem silly that there is a penalty for having money. Many of these beliefs are not only rooted in our subconscious but are also rooted in our culture.

For example, we might fear being rich because a part of us believes that “All rich people are jerks!” We know this not to be true, but think of every rich person as they are portrayed in movies, tv shows, and books. Other than Daddy Warbucks from Annie I can’t think of a single nice rich person in fiction. When we recognize these facts it is becomes very obvious on how we might hold this sort of belief in our subconscious.

The part of us that is preventing us from being financially successful is protecting us. By keeping us from being financially successful it is keeping us becoming a jerk.

I have found that when it comes to this sort of limiting belief the easy way to deal with it is through a kind of conversation Emotional Freedom Techniques(EFT)/tapping where we state both sides of the argument. It might look something like this:

All people who are rich are jerks…I know this isn’t true…but when you are rich you only think of yourself…I know lots of rich people who have do good work…but you have to step on people to get rich…but not everyone who is rich has gotten rich by stepping on people…it is possible to get rich and help people at the same time…when you are rich you only hang out with rich people and you will forget where you came from…I can become rich and still keep my friends and connections…

That is only the beginning of the tapping, but you can easily see how all you are doing is stating both sides of the argument and tapping away.

Here is a great list of limiting beliefs about money and financial success published at the web site money-attraction.com

1. Rich people are greedy and dishonest
2. I could become overly dependent on money.
3. It will tarnish my sense of who I am as a person.
4. I’ll become a greedy and uncaring person.
5. I’ll attract the unwanted envy of others.
6. I will do wrong if I become rich
7. I will become a bad man if I have a lot of money
8. It’ll make me stand out and I’ll lose my privacy.
9. If I get rich I’ll abandon my values
10. I can’t be rich and spiritual!
11. If I’m successful, my friends will be jealous and stop liking me
12. I’m no better than my parents, so I shouldn’t make more than they did
13. I might forget what’s truly important and not like the person I’ve become
14. Money is dirty.
15. Money is the root of all evil
16. Money is not spiritual
17. It’s a sin to be rich
18. I am poor but I am a good man
19. I will never have enough money
20. I can’t get ahead
21. I’m not worthy
22. I’ll probably just fail anyway
23. We can’t afford anything we want
24. I’m not smart enough to be wealthy!
25. It is too greedy for me to earn more than ** in a month
26. It is impossible for me to earn so much
27. Friends around me don’t make so much money, so do I
28. Financial success will mean working all the time
29. You have to lie and cheat to get rich
30. It takes too much effort to earn it.
31. Money doesn’t grow on trees!
32. I have to work harder if I want to earn more money!
33. It is greedy/bad/joking to making money easily and effortlessly
34. It is impossible for me to making money effortlessly and easily
35. Getting by is good enough
36. I don’t deserve it.
37. I’m not like those people
38. There is virtue in poverty, and wealthy people are morally bankrupt.
39. Those who have figured out a way to achieve wealth and financial security are just lucky.
40. Only people who have access to large amounts of money from family and friends can be assured financial success
41. There are limits to how one can attain wealth and how much money one can make.
42. Saving money means making money
43. Spending money is far faster than making money
44. I can’t charge too much
45. Never lend money to others
46. I must save money for unexpected things
47. I hate/envy those wealthy people
48. I work to pay for the debt
49. I can’t afford what my wife/someone loves
50. I can’t buy what I like most but the cheapest because I have to save for the unexpected

Podcast 15 is all about tapping for financial success. You should also check out 3 Keys To Having and Keeping Finacial Abundance in the Tapping Q & A online store.

[Note: As I wrote this article I had a very hard time writing the word “rich”. I could easily write “financially successful”. Obviously there is a limiting belief I have about the work “rich”. I guess I should tap on that!]