5 Unconscious Ways You’re Driving Money Away

5 Unconscious Ways You're Driving Money Away

It’s often the case that as budding entrepreneurs start making serious progress towards building the kind of business we’ve long envisioned, we’re shocked to discover that certain negative, unconscious beliefs about money begin wielding a powerful and unwanted influence upon our thoughts and actions.

What makes the situation even more frustrating is that these wayward beliefs about money tend to start bubbling up at the very time we ought to be feeling the most encouraged.

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Yet, instead they threaten to erode the potential of the opportunities we’ve been working so hard to achieve.

In this video, CreativeLive instructor and business coach Sue Bryce explains why she believes so many entrepreneurs aren’t charging what they’re worth.

With the taste of success tantalizingly close, getting a firm grip on these limiting beliefs that threaten to drive money away, takes keen insight, and a focused & consistent action to uproot them at their source. For much more, join Make More Money and Discover Your Worth with Sue Bryce and Tiffany Angeles.

Costly beliefs you cannot afford.

Entrepreneurs can’t afford to move through life on autopilot.

The complexities required when juggling multiple roles at the same time, demands that we either step up and figure out the solutions to our problems, or find and hire someone who can help cut through the nonsense.

Otherwise, we can pretend everything is fine and do nothing as the business tanks, or simply succumb to our fears and admit defeat. We either rise above and triumph, or lose all hope, along with the many advantages and possibilities that make an entrepreneurial lifestyle so appealing. There really is no middle ground.

Frankly, I’d rather get my act together and do whatever it takes to counteract my own shortcomings, than go crawling back to a never ending rerun of the socially sanctioned 9 to 5 nightmare. Building a business as an entrepreneur has never been the lifestyle of choice for those who aren’t willing to work hard.

“Adjusting our mindset for success is always at least half the battle. In the case of overcoming our fears, rather than being overcome by them, – it is 99% a war waged in our own head.”
― Connie Kerbs

Mindset, success, and wealth creation.

The business world is literally awash with information about the connection between mindset, success and wealth creation.

The attitudes we hold can help us thrive in the midst of challenging experiences, or they can work against us by subtly sabotaging and undermining that which we seek to accomplish.

Unconscious Ways You're Driving Money Away

Thankfully, even though this unconscious inner dialogue may be unexplored territory for those new to the entrepreneurial arena, this kind of self-negating mind chatter has long been identified and is well understood.

Genuine solutions are available for those who are serious about unravelling this dynamic.

Unconscious, negative money patterns.

1. Fussing over busy work.

Ultimately, the true measure of a successful business is how much profit is generated by offering in-demand products or services to those with a genuine need.

One of the traps entrepreneurs often fall into, is focusing on endless minutiae to make their business project a professional aura, at the expense of not truly connecting with your clients and understanding how you can best help them.

While it’s easy to fuss for hours about honing your elevator speech or tweaking the fonts and color scheme on your website, it’s a different matter entirely to attach a price to your skills and pitch potential clients without any sense of discomfort.

Sure, it gets easier with time and experience, but early on it can generate a palpable uneasiness that many novices would rather avoid than directly embrace.

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2. Thinking “who would pay a phony like me?”

One issue that is definitely at play here is what can be thought of as imposter syndrome.

It manifests as a kind of sneaky, guilty feeling that we are somehow just pretending to be a competent professional. Sooner or later, we’re going to be found out and exposed for the frauds that we really are. It boils down to having a thought like, ‘who would want to pay good money to a phony like me?’

It’s helpful to know that even well-established professionals can still have similar feelings many years into their careers, despite their obvious skills and success. High caliber actors and musicians report much of the same thoughts. Some have acknowledged that their careers have not advanced as much as their peers who were able to embrace and overcome the self-doubt.

While experience is not something that can be gained from books or by studying theory, it is an inevitable by-product of the day-to-day running of your business.

Everything gets easier with time, or at least more tolerable. Listening to the voice of doubt can at least show you where you most need to direct your attention. Trying to deny that voice or drown it out will just perpetuate the problem and drive it underground until it pops up in another form.

3. Using distractions to play it safe.

Another tactic that covers up the discomfort of taking action getting down to business, is distracting yourself from self-doubt by focusing on elements of the business that are safely controlled with little risk.

This includes tweaking designs, logos, sales copy, or organizing and re-organizing your workspace over and over.

This kind of behavior goes hand-in-hand with procrastination or putting off potentially painful actions in favor of more mundane and less threatening activities.

It’s completely normal to be afraid at times. Very few people enjoy admitting it, but many have developed a mindset that translates fear into the motivation to take positive action.

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Fear and doubt are like warning lights on the dashboard of a vehicle. It’s idiotic to put tape over them and pretend they aren’t flashing like crazy. But, these uncomfortable feelings can encourage you to slow down, check in internally, and try to get a good read on what the fear is really communicating.

4. Having an outdated attitude. 

The subject of money, wealth, and power often has many convoluted and conflicting messages.

Political, religious, and familial beliefs can deeply influence our attitudes towards money. While the notion that ‘money is the root of all evil’, ‘rich people are all greedy crooks,’ or ‘nice guys always finish last,’ may seem obviously wrong, these are often powerful messages that society creates at a very formative age.

Irrational as it may be, these outdated and false attitudes can make their mark at a deeply unconscious level.

When we begin to make significant changes, such as starting a business or setting out to increase our income, these old beliefs can become activated and begin to haunt us with negativity.

Although entrepreneurs generally tend to be outliers and free thinkers that are comfortable living outside the norms, very few have the capacity to override their own unconscious beliefs without experiencing discomfort, self-reflection, or assistance from a mentor.

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The trick is in knowing that by their very nature, unconscious beliefs are hidden and unseen.

They pull strings from behind the scenes, and subtly sabotage progress for as long as they remain unresolved. It’s therefore a necessary part of an entrepreneur’s journey, to anticipate such resistance, and pre-empt its influence by demolishing unhelpful attitudes.

By learning to understand and counteract them with intentional responses, you really can begin to enjoy the rewards of hard work and enterprise without seemingly random backlashes.

5. Money is not the enemy.

Just as the human psyche is infinitely creative, so too are there many other unconscious means of driving money away.

Some other examples may be feelings of guilt for earning more than your parents or other significant role models. Fears can arise about not being liked, or perhaps becoming popular because of money and not for who you are.

Money can be linked to survival. But having plenty of it means being at risk of losing your wealth. People can fear the complications that money may bring in terms of managing it responsibly, of being scrutinized more closely, or getting judged for being too frivolous.

All of these unconscious messages can translate into not taking (or delaying) action in your business.

The scary part of change.

Money has the power to create great change, within yourself and in the world outside.

Despite your best intentions and thoughts to the contrary, change often meets resistance because it requires growth, re-evaluation, reorganization, and the redistribution of our focus, attention and energies.

The best way to navigate your subconscious concerns when it comes to dealing with money, is to bring your attention to bear on the subtle messages always at play in business.

Catch them as seeds and retrain your mind to work in harmony with your goals.

For much more on how to re-train yourself and your relationship with money, join Sue Bryce and Tiffany Angeles in Make More Money and Discover Your Worth.

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Alexa Albanese FOLLOW >

Alexa is a slow traveling New Yorker who loves to write, drinks a lot of coffee, and probably swears too much. Hustling hard in pursuit of location independence, entrepreneurial bad assery, and endless epic sunsets. Follow her mischief at She Tells Travel Tales or on Instagram.