It might be time to question your financial perceptions!

I am curious. Who was the first person to influence you around money? Think about the person who taught you about money when you were a child, indirectly. Where were they financially when you were learning from them? Were they struggling and fighting over money, avoiding discussions about money altogether, or living in such abundance that money was spoken of only frivolously? What did they do with the money that came in? Was it “money in and money out” or was there talk of saving, investing, and retirement funds? Did they influence you to believe money was evil?

Our unconscious, inherited beliefs about money often determine our degree of having or not having money. My grandmother indirectly influenced me and my attitudes about money – she said that if you have £1 you can only spend 90p and warned not to be penny-wise and pound-foolish. My grandmother did not have an abundance mindset and focused on saving and being financially responsible. Conversely, another indirect influencer in my life lived with an abundance mindset. To this person, having debt was a means to having anything you wanted. Today, however, I consciously choose my money influences, particularly as I have become an indirect influence on my children regarding money.

Have you made conscious decisions about who influences your thinking about money? Are money and financial wealth, areas in which you have chosen to empower yourself? It is time to reflect on the path of money in your life.

Your perceptions around money will determine many different aspects of money-related behaviour and attitudes. Money conditioning and business are also intertwined. If you believe money is a struggle, this will filter through into your business. It’s your perceptions, often unconscious, creating your money reality particularly any form of shame and guilt.
Any feelings of shame and guilt results in you giving more than you take, it reflects in the way you purchase things, wanting immediate gratification and accumulating stuff rather than managing your money wisely.
It is wise to look at the biases of the people who have influenced your way of thinking and having money, as you may have indirectly adopted these biases and become disempowered in this area of life.

Any area of your life in which you are not empowered may be prey to someone overpowering you with their biases. In order to avoid this, we need to dissolve our lopsided biases around money and encourage an empowered, balanced mindset around money. You can start doing this by asking yourself the following two questions:

1. Who has directly or indirectly influenced your thoughts about money? Identify their money biases. Ask yourself whether you have injected those biases into your money relationship and whether they are really serving you. Are they truly balanced perceptions? Any feeling of shame or guilt is feedback to let you know you have an imbalanced perception; this will unconsciously impact your willingness to receive. Has this perhaps become the unconscious bias that is holding you back from prosperity? Remember, subordination to an influencer’s bias may cost you.
2. How are you generating money? Earning or having money without feeling fulfilled often leads to spending for immediate gratification. Any resulting perception of shame or guilt may then erode your willingness to receive your ‘deserve level’.

Financial abundance or struggle is directly impacted by your biases and perceptions.