5 Classic Negative Beliefs That Stop Money Flowing To You

We make our beliefs and our beliefs make us.

Marissa Peer

What do you believe about money?

Whatever you believe about it, it’s right, whether it’s true or false. And this is true with every aspect of your life, including yourself.

In other words, your beliefs create your reality.

So if your financial reality seems to be a constant struggle, no matter how hard you try to earn more money, chances are you have some limiting beliefs that block you from your own prosperity.

What Are Negative Beliefs? 

Contemporary philosophers define beliefs as “propositional attitudes”.

These are the attitudes we have whenever we regard something as true, and believing in something doesn’t involve active reflection on it.

They serve as the preset filters we use to perceive the world, and guiding principles to navigate our lives.  

From the evolutionary standpoint, our brain developed beliefs as mental templates that help us make sense of and navigate a complex world. When the belief is formed, your brain expects things around to behave in accordance with these templates.

Psychologists and neuroscientists explain that most of our beliefs are distorted or limiting by nature because they don’t involve higher reasoning processes. They are formed by lower, primitive parts of the brain, and become the subconscious default perception that doesn’t give us a full grasp of reality.

And for us to advance, we must better understand our beliefs, how they are formed, to be able to identify limiting beliefs and change them.

Going Back To Your Roots

Most of our beliefs are formed in our childhood, before the age of 3. To be more precise, we pick them up from our family.

It explains how our beliefs, acquired so early, shape our entire life because we first form a belief and then look for evidence supporting it.

Marisa Peer explains the most limiting beliefs that we have about money are all acquired.

She says: “We were born with the belief that everything is available for us and that abundance is our birthright. Then we start hearing from our parents things like “I can’t afford that”, “I don’t have the money for that”, “We’re not those kinds of people”.

And that’s how our initial belief that we can have everything in abundance subtly goes away, being replaced by limiting ones. 

Having worked with thousands of people, she identified these five classic limiting money beliefs:

1. Pursuing Money Is Bad, Or Only Bad People Pursue Money.

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This limiting belief is as classical as the class war. If you happen to be born in a low-income family, the chances are that money is evil was your family’s mantra.

In fact, most of us were taught that money is the root of all evil, and it’s one of the most common collective beliefs about money. Yet, all of us would love to have as much money as possible, and we spend our lives pursuing it.

Many of us assume that to become wealthy, you must take advantage of others. So despising rich people and wanting to be rich creates that biggest inner conflict.

Jon Butcher, a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Lifebook believes that this results from a lack of education about money in any profound way.

He says: “We learn different subjects but money, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to earn money. Our serious money issues become the root cause of divorces and crime in society. And the truth is that when it comes to money, we are expected to figure this out on our own, and it’s a hard thing to do.”

2. Wealthy People Are Spiritually Bankrupt People.

The challenge with this belief is that not only has money been linked to wickedness, but its pursuit is also portrayed as vice. 

There is a saying that poor people are more spiritual, and you should stay poor to help people. And wealthy people are labeled as spiritually bankrupt people.

The truth is that the love of money and pursuit of it is the love for human progress and humanity itself, and prosperity can eliminate human suffering. And if you have the money, you can help people more by giving and sharing stuff.

There are multiple examples of wealthy people who use the money to contribute to the betterment of humanity. 

On top of that, they simply don’t brag about it.

3. I Have To Work Hard For Money.

This limiting belief has created a modern society of hustlers who work harder and longer hours to succeed in life.

But no matter how fast a hamster spins the wheel, it is still in the cage.

It’s one of the biggest traps of “The Culturescape.”

These are the mental models based on limiting beliefs to make humans conform to societal rules. It’s how society teaches you not to see any distinction between absolute and relative truths.

Vishen explains that the culturescape becomes the false goal-setting framework that will never bring you true happiness that is unique to you.

And this belief cannot be further from the truth.

Stanford studies show that working more hours is pointless. Economics professor John Pencavel found that productivity per hour declines sharply when a person works more than 50 hours a week.  Moreover, it’s going to drop even more after 55 hours.

He says: “After 55 hours, productivity drops so much that putting in any more hours would be pointless. Those who work up to 70 hours a week are only getting the same amount of work done as those who put in the 55 hours.”

In today’s world, your value is measured in terms of the amount of your original vision and ideas and your decision-making.

So to succeed, instead of hustling, you need to flow.

What’s flow?

Flow is defined as the optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best, and we perform our best.

Steven Kotler, the world’s leading expert on peak performance, explains that when you are in flow, your brain produces the five most powerful neural chemicals: norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, anandamide, and endorphin.

All of them have a lot of different functions in the brain and the body, and they have a huge impact on performance on a physical level. They impact motivation, learning, and creativity. 

This is what Steven calls the high-performance triangle.

These chemicals are all pleasure drugs, they’re the five most potent reward chemicals, and flow appears to be the only time we get all five at once. So they become the source of intrinsic motivation that means that when the activity starts producing flow, it boosts productivity by 500%.

4. Working For Money Makes You Sick.

This limiting belief is often coupled with the previous belief. 

Although it might be true for some people who get sick from overworking, it’s not necessarily true for you. It’s a limiting belief that we form in childhood.

Marisa Peer explains that when you saw your parents worrying and stressing about money all the time or working hard for money to the degree that they got sick, you form a belief that working for money makes you sick.

A similar limiting money belief is that money causes only troubles and disappointment. You want to understand that money is energy, and the way you feel about money will manifest itself.

The truth is that we use our limiting beliefs to justify our actions or inactions. 

We neglect our physical and mental health in many cases, consciously or subconsciously, but end up blaming our beliefs or external conditions.

5. There’s Not Enough To Go Around.

If you take abundance from abundance, abundance still remains.

Bhagavad Gita

This limiting belief stems from the scarcity mentality. We have been taught by the environment that money isn’t enough for everyone and that we live in a scarce Universe. 

Ken Honda, Japan’s #1 money teacher, calls it Scar City.

 He says: “We are living in a city called Scar City, and living in scarcity means that when you have money, you don’t want to spend it or share it because it’s not enough for you.”

Scarcity mentality makes people stick to their jobs and deprive themselves of simple joys like going on vacation or buying things that they want.

It takes one mental shift to change your attitude toward life and money. 

If you look around, you will see that abundance is omnipresent. You can see the limitless nature of the Universe everywhere around – in the vastness of the ocean, countless grains of sand, and flamboyant lushness of the forests and jungles. 

Michael Beckwith, the creator of the Life Visioning Process, explains that abundance flows into your life in various forms, but it positively impacts your finances.

But it’s the abundance of thoughts and emotions that bring about harmonizing prosperity. This is one of the fundamental principles of the Universe.

Upgrading Your Beliefs 

Do you have one of these limiting money beliefs? If you do, you want to replace them with empowering beliefs.

Today it’s scientifically proven that beliefs aren’t static, and you can change them if they don’t serve you and your reality. You want to replace them with the belief that you’re one with the abundant Universe, and all your needs are met.

Moreover, abundance and intelligence aren’t merely around you but operate through you. 

The question is, can you see and recognize it around and within you?