Be honest about what your first answer was! 

(No matter how silly, untrue, irrelevant, funny or Ok you think it was).

To uncover the money hooks that are holding you back you need the ability to be honest with yourself.  It sounds simple enough but my experience is that most people find true self honesty very confronting.  So confronting in fact that they will give up a LOT in order to avoid it!

If you think you could suffer from this consider the Feedback option – ask someone close to you what they think you would say.

If you haven’t done so already, write your answer down.
The more you can own your less than ideal unconscious thinking either verbally or through writing it down the more control you have over how much longer those thoughts rule your life.

Get curious, why might you have that belief?
Go back to your childhood – it’s where all deeply rooted unconscious patterns start.  As you do, just notice what comes up.

Now, remember, this is not a counselling session – it’s not time to wallow in the story of your bad or good childhood, nor a blaming session – if your parents spent everything they earned before it hit the bank account and therefore taught you to do the same, that’s history.  If you’re 16 or older it’s time to grow up and own the way you think.  Sure, your parents may have taught you to think that way but, they were doing the best the could with the knowledge they had and, far more importantly for you, as an adult YOU get to choose whether or not you continue to think like that!

Work out: How did this belief serve you when you were young?
“It didn’t” is NOT a useful answer to you here. There’s a whole chapter we could write as to why that’s the case and we’ll be sure to do just that in the future and put a link in here.  But for the moment, take a leap of faith and just pretend it’s true.  You don’t need to really believe it to get the benefit you need for this exercise.

So, if it did serve you how could that have been true?  Was it to fit in?  Did it get you more treats?  Did it keep you from getting a clip across the head?  What else was it for you?

Check: Does holding the belief STILL serve you today, in your current environment, as a grown adult?
If you’ve come up with an answer, great.
In most cases it’ll be a “Hell No!”.
Either way, be sure to complete the next step too.

So, Double Check: If there was still some benefit that you could be getting – what could it be?Come up with something before you move on.

The trick to shifting your mindset comes from pushing up against your boundary conditions (the current limits of your conscious thinking) and then moving beyond them.  So if you come up blank, that’s ok.  And, if something crazy comes up work with that too!  That’s your unconscious giving you IT’S thoughts and it’s not always as intelligent as you’d like.

If you can come up with FIVE benefits that would be ideal.

Notice, how does having that unconscious belief limit you?
Write a list of 10 ways.  You may need to get creative towards the end – let your unconscious come up with the answers!

Now, decide, would you like to keep that belief?
Hopefully it’s a NO!

Consider: What could you replace it with?
One again, get creative.
What else could you choose to believe?
What would Richard Branson believe?
What would someone who earns double your income believe?
Whatever you choose it needs to be something that feels good and light and freeing for you NOW.  So if you think you know what Richard Branson might believe but that feels a bit too big for you just now then start with a more useful belief to start with so you can congruently own it.

Start to put it into practice.
Look at how you currently handle and talk about money.  How would having this new belief change that? And, by making those changes what would be different in a month, six months, a year and ten years.  What do you see happening in those times frames that wouldn’t otherwise have happened?  How does that feel?

Shifting our thinking can happen in an instant.  Hopefully the above has assisted you to shift yours.  Now you simply need to take your first small step in that direction.