Four Beliefs to Help Change Your Money Mindset
Anything is possible.
If you don’t believe your thoughts are powerful, this read might not be for you.
The mind is a powerful thing; most of us haven’t figured out how to harness our thoughts to maximize our full potential.
We allow negative beliefs, negative feedback loops, or something hurtful someone important said years ago sabotage us in the present, even if only in the subconscious mind.
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature. “— Marcus Aurelius
Far too often, we allow past beliefs to affect our present actions and determine what we reach for and if our reach exceeds our grasp.
“Your belief, or faith, is the element which determines the action of your subconscious mind. “— Napoleon Hill
For many years I have been a devout reader of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, and because I revisit it often, I’m reminded to guard my thoughts carefully.
Books can change your life; they have mine. Darius Foroux said it best when he wrote, “Reading is my favorite way to develop my mind because it’s the most effective way to learn something. But not every book changes the way you think.”
“Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.“— Francis Bacon
Napoleon Hill’s bestseller, Think and Grow Rich, is one that I have chewed on and digested thoroughly. It will not resonate with you if you don’t believe you are your thoughts.
I’m not suggesting belief in the absence of proof is easy, it isn’t always for me, I’m here to tell you it works.
Think and Grow Rich is one of the first personal development and self-improvement books to go mainstream and reach a wide audience.
It remains the biggest seller of Napoleon Hill’s books. Business Week magazine’s Best-Seller List ranked it the sixth best-selling paperback business book 70 years after it was published.
The book’s main focus is on increased income and wealth and the psychological power of thought to money and success.
It breaks down the secrets of success for achieving anything you want.
If you don’t believe in the power of thought plus action, a change in your thinking will be necessary for Hill’s money-making secrets to work.
You can’t go on doing things the same way and expecting different results. If you don’t have the money in your life that you want, why keep doing things the same way?
“Faith is the ‘eternal elixir,’ which gives life, power, and action to the impulse of thought.”
If you have everything in life you desire, you really don’t need to read this, keep doing what you’re doing.
Hill believes you are what you are because of the dominating thoughts you allow to occupy your mind.
If you have an idea running on a continual thought loop in your head, you will make it so. For example, “I do not have what it takes to make money from my ideas.”
If this is the predominant thought running in your head — whether it is true or not — it’s what you will manifest in your life.
You will not make money off your ideas.
Your thoughts make it so.
This truth is why it’s vital to be particular about what you watch, read, and who you spend time with. If you spend most of your time with a person who is negative and critical, this will affect your thinking and the thoughts that dominate your mind.
And manifest negativity in your life.
The four main ideas in the book
One. The starting point of all achievement is desire.
A burning desire to be and to do is the starting point from which the dreamer must take off. Dreams are not born of indifference, laziness, or lack of ambition.
Burning desire is essential to success.
Unlike the phenom book by Rhonda Byrne, The Secret, released in video format several years ago, which prompted the creation of a lot of beautiful vision boards with minimal action behind it, Hill states wishing for riches alone will not bring riches.
But desiring riches with a state of mind the becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence which does not recognize failure will bring riches. — Hill
According to Hill, there are six ways to turn desire into gold.
- Determine the exact amount of money you want to have. This can’t be a vague statement, like, “I want lots of money.” It has to be a fixed number. I will have one million dollars in my bank account.”
- What will you give in return for the money you desire? There is no reality where you get something for nothing. Will it be your time, your talent, your attention, your patience. What are you willing to give to get what you want?
- What date will you achieve the amount of money you came up with in step one? Pick a date.
- Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire. Start at once, whether you are ready or not, begin today.
- Write a clear and concise statement that says how much money you desire, the date you will obtain your desire, what you are willing to give, and how you will go about getting it.
- Read your statement out loud before going to sleep and upon waking up. As you read your statement, “see and feel and believe yourself already in possession of the money.”
Many years ago, I did this exercise religiously for months.
After coming up with a plan and believing it would happen, I bought three properties in California that earned me more money than I thought possible.
More than the amount I had written down.
Before I acquired my first rental property, I wrote out every step and read it twice a day.
I made decisions based on the goals I had written on paper.
I didn’t have a trust fund or any experience in real estate and very little money. I educated myself by reading books on money and real estate. I renovated the properties myself and only hired outside help for plumbing and electrical updates. I spent countless hours lost in Home Depot, asking the stupidest questions. I mustered the most amount of patience I had when I had to retile an entire shower myself.
It is fairly easy to make money from real estate in California if you can get in and hold. It was the getting in that was the obstacle I needed to overcome with hard work, planning, saving, and desire.
Once I purchased my first property, numbers two and three were much easier because of the equity that shot up quickly in the first. I still believe owning real estate is the quickest way to wealth.
Buying real estate in California is a no brainer, people want to live in California — always. But it is challenging if you have little money to compete. My desire made it happen.
It wasn’t easy, but I kept my goal in mind.
Two. You are the master [mistress] of your destiny.
An intangible impulse of thought can be “transmuted” into its physical counterpart.
If my idea of making money from real estate hadn’t been my burning desire, it wouldn’t have transmuted into its physical reality, and I wouldn’t have made money.
I would have given up because there were so many obstacles, the market in which I wanted to buy was competitive, even more so now. Now, twenty-year-olds from Palo Alto gobble up So Cal real estate for breakfast and bid way over asking in cash.
If you really want something badly enough, your burning desire will feed you until it happens.
If you don’t have a state of mind that is obsessive about winning in any undertaking you desire, you will not succeed.
The desire must be there.
Three. When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rework your plans, and keep trying toward your goal.
One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat.
I’ve been writing every day for a year.
I’ve been rejected from publications, posted articles that have landed with a loud thud, and received nasty comments from strangers.
I have wanted to quit hundreds of times. Today even.
I’ve been working for pennies on the hour. And still, pressing on with not much success.
For several months no one was reading, and then I wrote something very personal that struck a nerve, and I knew I could make money from this writing thing.
It took me less than 30 minutes to write, but had I not been writing for the months leading up to this piece, it wouldn’t have been as good.
It made me realize I was on the right track and had to keep going despite rejection.
Had I given up, I wouldn’t have written the next piece that has earned the most money for me from one piece to date — about a book I read once a year, The One Book That Will Change Your Life.
Had I succumbed to disappointment and gave in to quitting, I would have stopped writing months ago and never had any success.
A small seven-minute story that took me a few hours to put together has made me a good chunk of money.
I didn’t see success right away, because I had no proof, but I kept writing like success was right around the corner, and it was.
You have to believe success is in your reach, even though you can’t see it.
And pivot along the way to make it happen.
The greatest gift from the success of that one story — yes, the money is nice — but the greater gift is it made my belief stronger.
I know I have another story in me that will earn as much or more, like the success stories we often hear about on this platform, one writer has earned over 30K for one story.
What does success look like for you? What is your dream that you want to see come true? We all have an idea of what success looks like for us.
No dream is too big.
Your greatest success will often come just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken you.
“When riches begin to come, they come so quickly, in such great abundance, that one wonders where they have been hiding all those years.”
Four. Set your mind on a definite goal and observe how quickly the world stands aside to let you pass.
Wishing will not bring riches. But desiring riches with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence which does not recognize failure, will bring riches.
I’m nowhere near where I want to me in terms of the amount of income I plan to make online.
But I have several definite goals, outlines of how to achieve each goal, an exact number of the amount I will obtain, and the date at which I will receive it.
Desires have turned into realities right in front of my eyes.
The seed of the success I planted with the belief that I could do something I hadn’t previously done — make money from writing! — was the first part, writing every day and hitting publish at least five times per week was the second (the plan in action), not quitting when it wasn’t coming fast enough was overridden by my burning desire to succeed and be my own boss.
Money is being deposited into my bank account monthly.
I think I’ll aim higher.
Jessica is a writer, an online entrepreneur, and a recovering Type A personality. She lives in Los Angeles with her extrovert daughter, two dogs, and two cats.
