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We can talk endlessly about useless impulsive spending and a sense of purpose, but our earnings and financial success depends to a greater extent on the way we perceive it.
Everything is driven by our thinking, but which specific beliefs and attitudes - completely irrational and even dangerous, in fact - cause us to lose money? You can be productive and hardworking, get up bright and early and be at your workplace even on weekends, and still barely make ends meet. What is the issue? It is these beliefs! This article features the most common ones and explains what to do about them.
Belief 1. "You can't make all the money in the world."
If you think about it logically, this is indeed true - you can never become the sole owner of all wealth without some kind of a post-apocalyptic sequence of events. However, this statement is not based on logic, but fear. It is a defense mechanism, an attempt to convince oneself that since it is impossible to achieve, you shouldn't try. As a rule, people use it to justify a lack of an aggressive action plan or their low efficiency. This belief is deceptive because it gives us a sense of calm and comfort, but at the same time it deprives us of our prospects and the desire to strive for them.
What can you do about this? Identify your intentions. You don't need all the money in the world; you just need enough to achieve your goal. Which is what? Calculate a specific amount. So, this is what you should work for, and earning any specific amount of money is quite attainable, even if it is a billion. Specify it and don't operate with such abstract concepts as "a lot", "all", etc.
Belief 2. "Not everyone is born to be rich."
If you believe that in order to get rich, you need a specialized education (say, in economics) or experience in a particular field, successful relatives and good luck, then Google famous people and read their life stories. There is no secret or "mojo" that they have that you do not possess. You may even think it's all about a special number in their "fate matrix" or a special position of the planets when they were born; but it is magical thinking - looking for irrational explanations to interpret perfectly rational phenomena because they are comforting and protective.
What can you do about this? As I mentioned earlier, you should read stories of successful people, watch movies based on true biographies, and surround yourself with wealthy people. So, if you interact with well-established and wealthy experts, you'll see very soon that there's really nothing special about them except perseverance, hard work and a clear understanding of their goals. And these are the skills that anyone can improve.
Belief 3. "I was born at the wrong time, there are no such opportunities these days."
Surprisingly, this is what every generation says about its time! In fact, the same laws always drive the market, and the same people - determined and persevering - achieve success. If we try to make a comparison we can say that there are by far more opportunities today than twenty years ago. All this is due to the Internet that underpinned the emergence of the lucrative IT niche, cryptocurrencies, online stores, etc. And all these opportunities have a low entry threshold, that is, you can tap into them without specialized education or training.
What can you do about this? Explore the current trends that can help you optimize your work and become more efficient or open new venues for earning money. For example, Lectera offers a free mini-course to help you implement artificial intelligence (AI) in your business and a set of courses on digital marketing.
Belief 4. "You have to live for today!"
This belief may result in destructive behavior - it feels good to succumb to it in the moment, but it will destroy your future. What "living for today" looks like in practice? Not saving, spending impulsively and on a momentary desire, not keeping a budget, not monitoring the inflation data. This belief can also include "not taking care of your health", "not doing any sports" and in principle not doing something useful but unpleasurable (or on the contrary, not too pleasant). In essence, it means a lack of planning and infantilism, which seems convenient until you try to live a different life and see how much you have in fact lost and stand to lose even more.
What can you do about this? Planning is the answer! Start making plans for the near future if you can't do it for the long term. Start with a plan for a fortnight, then a month, six months, and so on. Forget the fear of "second-guessing". You don't do guesswork, you plan; it is something completely different. Planning allows you to more intelligently allocate your resources, including internal ones, and realize your dreams. And you probably have dreams, right? You will never be able to achieve them if you live only for today.
Belief 5. "You can trust only banks."
This belief is usually unwittingly formed in us by parents who suffered severe economic crises in their prime years. And even if someone has never experienced anything like this personally, this is the first thought that comes to their mind when they think about where to keep their money - put it in the bank at interest. But there is a catch, though: in 2024, the inflation rate was already higher than the interest rate in most banks. Large banks still enable to offset the inflation, but in today's setting this is, alas, an unpromising way to keep your money, and, given the inflation, as dangerous as anything else.
What can you do about this? Consider alternative ways of keeping your savings, such as building an investment portfolio (you could even consider gold - the most stable instrument - if you are an anxious person). Contrary to the popular belief, this is just as safe as keeping money in the bank - as long as you diversify your portfolio, of course.
Belief 6. "You should invest when you are already rich."
This belief often reinforces the previous one and vice versa. Many people think that making investments is a challenge, it is risky, and you don't want to take risks when you have only one bank account and the amount does not feature nine zeros. But if you go back to the biographies of successful people, you will see that most of them simply learned to invest at the right time and were not afraid to do so. This belief can also take the form of "My peanuts will bring me nothing", and it is false too. Today, there are many straightforward, and most importantly, affordable low-risk investment tools. You can start with them with absolutely any amount! Today, even stocks can be purchased for the price of one or maximum two lunches.
What can you do about this? Open your bank's app and see what investment instruments are available with minimal capital. Most likely it will be stocks or bonds (the latter are long-term and as reliable as a bank, which will be a good fit for you if you've caught yourself on belief Number five). Invest what you don't feel bad about losing - say, $10 to begin with, and be sure to take a course called "Investing in the Market", which will help you build a suitable portfolio and dispel your doubts.
Belief 7. "Money spoils people."
This is another belief that is usually "inherited". It is based on one's past wounds, humiliation, or disappointment. It can act as self-defense ("At least, I'm honest!") and make you fear large amounts of money in your wallet.
What can you do about this? Think about how many good things you can do when you have money - philanthropy, hire people and pay decent wages and salaries, set up your own foundations, invest in research and education, etc. Money allows you to change society; it will also allow you to take better care of your family and people close to you. If you feel that this belief strongly influences you, then write down the social and other benefits that money provides and the reasons why it will not be able to change you. For example, you've been through different life situations without money and yet you've stayed true to yourself, haven't you?
Belief 8. "I'm not used to waiting, I need results right away."
People who hold this belief are prone to impulsive decisions and short-term gains that deprive them of greater long-term opportunities and prospects. They are also prone to irrational investments - for example, they get caught in Ponzi (pyramid) schemes and other traps that promise "wealth overnight". What distinguishes successful people from ordinary ones is that they don't seek just gains, but look for ways to increase their regular income.
What can you do about this? Practice patience. There is no magical wand that will make you rich. The stories of the rich people of today teach us this. Each of them had to start small, to fail, and most importantly, to wait. Try to start playing the long-term game with something simple, like planting a seed and tending it until it becomes a flower. Observe how slowly it grows, but how regular watering and attention helps it along.
Belief 9. "You have to work harder in order to earn more money."
This is the only belief on the list that isn't a full-fledged misconception, and yet it is here. Why? A bigger workload and more efforts are the easiest way to make money, but it's far from the most effective one - it is even more likely to be destructive because it leads to emotional burnout. And emotional burnout is a condition in which you are certainly unable to make money. Moreover, today's market and employers do not settle just for diligent workers any longer - they need more than that, namely expertise and soft skills.
What can you do about this? Optimize your current workflow, re-define your goals and plan steps to achieve them. In the process, you will probably see for yourself that in order to achieve your goal, you don't have to increase your workload but to master more skills and improve the ones you have, to learn, to rearrange your work pattern and to change your approach. Lectera's course "Goal Setting: How to Set Goals and Achieve Them Effectively" will help you do just that.
It is impossible to overestimate the impact of thinking on our lives and development. All the beliefs discussed above are just bad habits that you need to get rid of in order to improve your financial standing. Ask yourself questions and criticize your fears and doubts to determine which ones are dragging you down, and you are sure to resurface!
