We all know how TIP feels. If it ain’t about the money, dude ain’t getting up. Don’t call him. Don’t talk to him. Just leave him be if your conversation isn’t about the who, what, when, and where of getting that dollar bill.
This song has been stuck in my head all week, but it isn’t for the same reasons as Mr. Harris. The whole, if it ain’t about the money concept has been speaking to me lately.
See, despite the fact that many pursue the almighty dollar bill like it would solve all of their problems — the thing is, it won’t.
Now don’t get me wrong — $70k dropping in my lap right now would definitely make me more than a little happy.
I would take that bag of money and run my behind straight to the bank. Then proceed to call Navient before I can even get back to the car to schedule payment.
I would give them the all of it and do a little dance around the house that would involve a little twerking… for my husband of course, but anywho…
No matter how nice this sounds, that scenario in and of itself won’t keep me happy. It goes beyond money.
See, money isn’t hard to come by, despite what many believe. It’s the thoughts about money that’s making (and keeping) the struggle real for many.
With that said, I want to share with you what it’s really about. Because like the lyrics on repeat in my head — it ain’t about the money.
It’s All About The Money Mindset
Our minds are full of dead weight about money. I’m talking about nasty, negative thoughts that are totally screwing up our present and future life.
We know exactly what we want and wonder why we can’t get it. Luck sure as heck doesn’t play nice.
For those of us who believe in God, we continue to pray for a change. And let’s not front, sometimes we get a little indignant while we wait on an answer to our prayer.
But the problem isn’t with luck or our prayers. What’s stopping our breakthrough is our jacked up mindsets about money!
People reach out to me ALL THE TIME about how they can improve their money situation. However, when I try to point them towards addressing their mindset issues, they completely shut down.
They want immediate solutions. Yeah, I can point them towards budgeting. I can help them create a plan to pay off debt. I can even refer them to my favorite online bank and tell them to put a little money in a savings account.
But none of that will solve their financial issues if they haven’t addressed their money blocks. What are money blocks? Glad you asked.
Common Money Blocks
- I ain’t never going to get out of debt.
- I will die with my debt.
- Getting ahead is hard.
- Money don’t grow on trees.
- Making money is hard.
- If you don’t work hard, you won’t make money.
- There’s never enough money.
- Saving money is hard.
- Black folks don’t save for retirement. (And yes, I’ve really heard that!)
- We were born poor, we’ll die poor.
- If I could just win the lottery, everything would be better. (Yes, this is a block and a lie!)
- I’m broke.
See a recurring theme here?
All of these statements are so negative! I’ve heard ALL of these and even uttered a few of them myself.
All of these thoughts are hard to get rid of and I can understand why people shut down when they are asked to deal them. They really do believe them! However, to truly overcome financial struggles, they have to be dealt with.
It’s not our fault if we don’t know any better. All of these money blocks have become beliefs through life experiences. Even though you want something better, your subconscious continues to hold on to these thoughts.
I mean, tell yourself you’re broke for 20 to 30 years and it’s kinda hard to get rid of that belief. But it’s totally possible because I don’t say the words “I’m broke” anymore. And trust me, I said it for a long time!
Was it easy? No, but it’s certainly possible. Your words are extremely powerful and you have to start saying positive things about money before your subconscious will start catching up.
How Things Started Changing
To change my subconscious thoughts, I started simple. I began telling myself and others I wasn’t broke. I would say something like, “I’m not broke, “ or “I don’t want to spend my money this way.”
When I saw this was working, I graduated to telling myself things like, “I have enough, my needs are met, I can save for that…” etc.
It wasn’t until years later I realized I’d totally turned my finances around. With transformed thoughts, I was able to learn new things about how to manage my money. Learning about money wasn’t something I was open to receiving with my old mindset.
If you’re wondering why all of this is a big deal to me, remember just nine years ago I was bankrupt. My credit was jacked up, I didn’t have any savings, and being a personal finance writer had never even crossed my mind.
Throughout this experience, I never knew this thing about your thoughts creating your reality had a name. However, to my surprise, it does. It’s called the Law of Attraction.
Seriously, I kid you not. I knew nothing about the law of attraction before this year. Never heard of it!
When that movie, The Secret, came out all those years ago — yeah, I thought that was like a sequel to The Secret Garden or something (don’t laugh at me).
Despite never hearing about the law of attraction, once I learned about it, it really did make sense.
I’d already been doing many of the things required to clear money blocks. Since I knew it really did work from my experience, I wanted to know more. I wanted to make sure I was clearing out every negative belief I had about money.
So, I started journaling affirmations, writing down income goals, tracking any money I received, etc. I’ve been doing these activities for about two months now and I’m pleased with my results so far.
My biggest breakthrough was last month when LAAB broke a record and had it’s highest income report. This and a few other financial wins confirmed what I knew to be true — you create your reality through your beliefs.
How to Improve Your Money Mindset
I read as many books as I could on the subject matter but it all started with Get Rich Lucky Bitch by Denise Thomas-Duffield. I read this book three times in one week! Then I moved on to other books about the Law of Attraction.
I’m not going to go into a whole thing on how to improve your money mindset, but I will give you these four pieces of advice:
- Stop telling yourself that you’re broke. Just stop.
- Write down everything you believe about money. Good and bad.
- Now replace every negative thought about money with a positive.
- Last, continue learning more about how to free yourself from your money blocks. Here is a workbook that I am currently using and I absolutely LOVE it.
Start with those four things and you’ll be way ahead of many folks in getting your finances together. Check out this video below from Marie Forleo. It pretty much sums things up too for those of you who need a little reinforcement on the whole mindset issue.
Wrapping Thangs Up
Don’t be blowin’ me up…
Sorry, the song is still in my head. But in case you jumped to this part and decided not to read anything I said, the gig is — it ain’t about the money.
It’s about your money mindset. If your beliefs about money are jacked up, your finances will be too. No one is trying to hold you back from living your life, paying your bills, etc. Plain and simple.
Feel free to read all you want about budgeting, saving, and paying off debt. They do serve their purpose.
However, let’s be clear, if you think budgeting, saving, and paying off debt is hard, it will be. Take all the negativity about paying bills, saving more, and budgeting out of the equation.
See the positive in these things. When I pay bills, I like to look at it like, “Thanks for providing me with the means to pay this bill!” That’s way better than, “Oh goodness, not another bill.” By the way, saying the latter will just attract more bills. Try it, if you don’t believe me:)
If you think you’re broke, then you will be. Your thoughts and the words you speak are what determines your results. Make sure those thoughts and spoken words are working for and not against you.
So, chime in. Are your thoughts about money working for you or against you?