The following is a guest post by my friend and mentor Morty Lefkoe. Morty struggled to make lasting changes in his life for 45 years until he figured out a way to unlearn the beliefs that held him back. He turned what he discovered into a repeatable process that he used to help others—including family, friends, and eventually 150,000 individuals and over 50 corporations—unlearn their limiting beliefs. He shares what he discovered with readers like you in his weekly blog at http://www.mortylefkoe.com
How negative beliefs will keep you from achieving wealth
by Morty Lefkoe
About a year ago Joe Vitale and I were having dinner at my home in Northern California. At some point we started discussing the Law of Attraction (LOA). Both of us agreed that no matter what we felt, what we focused on, and what we did, if we had a bunch of limiting beliefs serving as barriers to achieving personal success—whether you measure that by money, position, or a general sense or happiness—it would be difficult if not impossible to get what we wanted.
Let me explain why.
Why beliefs have the power they do
A belief is a statement about reality that we feel is “the truth.” Our beliefs seem like facts to us. So if you believe life is difficult, relationships don’t work, or money is hard to get, for you, those are facts about the world. You will deal with life as if they are as real as the device on which you are reading the words.
I conducted a survey of my mailing list a few years ago and asked them to name the six most common beliefs that could keep them from achieving financial abundance. Here is how they answered (the most important one first):
Six of the most damaging beliefs about money
| |
| * You have to work hard to make money. | |
| * I’ll never have enough money. | |
| * Money is a struggle. | |
| * I’m not deserving. | |
| * There is never enough money. | |
| * Life is difficult. | |
If you really thought these six statements were accurate descriptions of reality, can you see how you would be blocked in your ability to create financial abundance in your life?
You would have to work very hard all the time (which is not really a good way to enjoy your life) and, if you didn’t, you wouldn’t expect to make money.
How motivated could you be to make money if you really were convinced you would never have enough? And if somehow you did have “enough,” there would be the constant fear that you would lose it, because you don’t expect to have enough.
You would expect to struggle all the time to make money. And if you were unwilling to struggle all the time, you wouldn’t even try to make money.
The fourth belief is an interesting one because it is a self-esteem belief, not a belief directly related to money. If you really believe that you aren’t deserving, you will unconsciously resist getting what you want. And like the second belief, if somehow you did get some money, you probably would find some way to lose it because you wouldn’t deserve to have it.
If you really believe there is never enough money, you will never be satisfied with what you have. You will always experience needing more money no matter how much you have. This dooms you to dissatisfaction no matter how much wealth you accumulate.
The final belief isn’t even about making money or achieving financial abundance as such; it is a belief about life, one that is very common. If you expect life to be difficult, it will be.
Self-esteem beliefs can also sabotage your ability to accumulate wealth
These are only the major beliefs specifically relating to achieving abundance. It should be clear that self-esteem beliefs could affect your financial situation—beliefs like I’m not good enough, I’m inadequate, I’m not capable, I’m not competent, I’m powerless, and I’ll never get what I want.
Is it real now that your beliefs could severely sabotage your ability to earn money and accumulate wealth? In other words, personal success will probably always be just outside your reach.
Is eliminating beliefs sufficient?
But what happens if you eliminate all the beliefs that could interfere with your accumulating money? Will that insure your financial security? Unfortunate, the answer is, no.
If you have a behavior you want to stop, such as procrastination, or a negative feeling, such as anxiety, if you eliminate all the beliefs that cause the behavior or the emotion, they will permanently stop. Guaranteed.
But attaining wealth is not a behavior or a feeling; it is something that has to happen in reality. And, although getting rid of limiting beliefs can increase the possibility of something happening in reality, eliminating beliefs will not insure it.
There are many factors determining your ability to accumulate wealth
In order to earn money you have to offer people something of value they are willing to pay for. If you have nothing to offer, or if your price is higher than what people think the product or service is worth, or if your expenses are higher than your revenues, etc. you will never earn much money.
If you want to work for someone else and don’t have the skills that employers are looking for, or if you aren’t particular effective at what you do, or if you are late in doing what you are asked to do, etc., the chance of getting or keeping a job, much less a promotion and raise, is not very good.
So getting money depends on more than eliminating beliefs, as important as that is. It is a precondition, but not sufficient in itself. You also need an effective strategy that is implemented well.
Eliminating beliefs can help you find the best course of action
Getting rid of beliefs will not only remove barriers, as discussed earlier, it also creates possibilities for taking action that significantly improves your chances of doing what needs to be done to make money.
Let me explain how eliminating beliefs creates new possibilities that didn’t exist before. Imagine you had the beliefs: I’m not loveable, relationships don’t work, and men/women can’t be trusted. If you really believed that is the way reality is, what would be the possibility for you to have a good, nurturing, loving, long-term relationship? Slim to nil, right?
Now let’s imagine that you totally eliminated those three and a few other related beliefs. Can you see that without changing anything else about you or reality, you now have possibilities for a good, nurturing, loving, long-term relationship that you didn’t have before.
How eliminating beliefs creates new possibilities
My wife Shelly, a Certified Lefkoe Method Facilitator who has helped thousands of clients eliminate the beliefs that stop them, tells the following story about personal success..
A client called her one day and told Shelly that she and several friends had just attended T. Harv Eker’s “Millionaire Mind” workshop, after which she purchased the summerhouse of her dreams. She was so excited that she just had to tell Shelly that what she had learned in the course had enabled her to do it.
Shelly pulled out the client’s file and read her some of the beliefs she had recently eliminated: Money is scarce and hard to get. Mistakes and failures are bad. If I make a mistake and fail I’ll be rejected. You have to save your money for a rainy day. Taking risks with money is dangerous. I’m not deserving.
Shelly then asked her: “Regardless of what you learned in the course, do you think you would have purchased the house had you not eliminated these beliefs first.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone. Finally the client responded: “Probably not.”
Shelly then asked: “What did your friends buy or do to increase their income after they finished the course?”
The client answered slowly: “Nothing.”
In other words, you need the possibility for something to happen before it can happen. When you create possibilities, you see things you can do that you never saw before. And eliminating beliefs is the best way to create new possibilities.
So what do I do to accumulate wealth?
Although getting rid of beliefs is not sufficient to make money, it certainly is one of the most important things you can do if you ever hope to accumulate wealth. And if you take advantage of the possibilities that get created when the appropriate beliefs are eliminated, your chances of personal success and financial abundance increase exponentially.
What are you waiting for?
Morty Lefkoe
Copyright © 2014 Morty Lefkoe
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