Poverty was my reality until I discovered the source of true wealth and riches. By true wealth and riches I am not referring to gold, or other rich mineral deposits that can be found in the earth. The source of true wealth and riches is the mind, from where every great wealth emanates from. Wealth has to be thought of first before it becomes reality. In other words, it is the thought that produces wealth.
Now for the mind to be able to effectively kickstart the process of wealth creation, it must be free of limiting beliefs. These limiting beliefs are falsehoods that we have come to believe as true. This causes many people to fail to achieve their financial potential because it is what you believe that becomes your reality. Below, I list twelve of such limiting beliefs that held me back from financial success in the past.
Limiting belief number one for me was that riches are the result of spiritual activity. I thought that in order to become wealthy, all I needed to do was to fast and pray, attend church programs and vigils, and, voilà, my efforts would lead to financial breakthrough. No way. This does not work! In fact, most of the richest people in the world are the least religious with very few believing that God exists. Spiritual activity can only point one in the right direction as to what needs doing, it can’t produce wealth by itself.
Lack of connections was the second limiting belief that I felt was a hindrance to becoming wealthy. I believed that I needed to know the right people who would help me achieve my goals, and not having any connections meant I could never become wealthy. How wrong I was! Nobody is born with connections; rather, they are the result of years of deliberate cultivation. As I continued to work hard and build relationships, I gradually started building my network of contacts and they eventually became my connections and have assisted me on the way up the financial ladder. You too can do the same.
Third, it is not possible to “make it” in Nigeria. I need to relocate abroad in order to make it. That is a lie. Go to international airports and see the amount of foreigners trooping into Nigeria on a daily basis. They are not here for sightseeing. Even the international business community sees Nigeria as a huge investment opportunity that many want to cash in on. Can this be the same Nigeria that I wanted to run out of that many people were running to? This land is truly green with opportunity. I am now making it in Nigeria.
Fourth, the rich are lucky. They had luck on their side, and poor me didn’t qualify to be part of the lucky stakes. Now I know better. There is no such thing as luck, rather there are favourable situations that can benefit you when opportunity comes and you are prepared for it. I kept preparing and preparing and one day things fell in place like clockwork. My opportunity came and because I was prepared I was able to grab it with both hands.
The fifth limiting belief was lack of capital. I believed that without money, I could not take advantage of opportunities that came my way. I find that this is one of the major limiting beliefs hindering many people from building wealth. In order to defeat this, I pursued my dreams on a small scale for starters, sought for funds from friends and loved ones and even put some of my dreams on hold while saving startup money. Lack of money is not an excuse not to start something.
Self-limiting belief number six is the famous saying: “Opportunity knocks but once”. I used to believe this statement, which alluded to the fact that missed opportunities never return. With all due respect to the author of this statement, I have discovered that lost opportunities do return, however in another form. Opportunity will keep knocking and knocking and sooner or later as long as I was prepared I would be able to take advantage.
Harnessing the power of my imagination was the seventh self-limiting belief that was causing me not to progress financially. There is a lot of power in one’s imagination. The imagination is the eye of the mind that helps you first internalize what you want to see in your life. In other words, I needed to imagine myself as wealthy and successful in my mind before I could attain it. Unfortunately, my mind chose to internalize my poor state instead. It was when I started focusing on the right images that things began to improve.
Eighth, I was very guilty of underestimating my abilities regarding success and wealth creation. When you believe that you are an undeserving and unworthy candidate for wealth, then wealth wants to be far away from such a person. I came to myself and replaced those thoughts with positive and proper ones proclaiming the fact that I deserved to be rich. It was my place to control financial resources and I was as good as anyone trying hard to build wealth.
Ninth, the current economic situation could be such a major hindrance. I was wont to believe that wealth and riches cannot be amassed during times of economic crisis and recession. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is in times of adversity and challenges that some rise to the occasion thereby creating wealth for themselves. Economic crisis may be fraught with challenges but it is also a time of opportunity. I do not let the current economic situation dampen my morale or cause me to believe that it is impossible to be wealthy.
By far one of the strongest self-limiting beliefs I had to contend with was the fact that no one in my family had amassed massive wealth and fortune. What are the chances of succeeding when no one else in my lineage was up to the task? I was only able to defeat this notion of not succeeding by reading books of many successful people. In my studies I was pleasantly surprised to learn that many of today’s financial successes are also the first people in their families to amass stupendous fortune. If they could do it then I could too.
Self-limiting belief number eleven strives to make it clear that one cannot succeed without being fraudulent or engaging in criminal acts. It seeks to demonise everyone who is wealthy as being involved in one shady activity or the other. In fact it maintains that wealth abstains from those who are honest and upright in their dealings. Again it was while studying the lives of rich people that I found that there are many honest and upright rich people in our society. It is just that they are not often celebrated. Their stories made me believe it is possible to make wealth the right way.
My twelfth self-limiting belief concerns my desire and dream to amass wealth. I used to think that amassing lots of money was evil and would cause me to lose focus and compromise my faith and principles. Our society paints the picture of the rich as greedy and desperate people who keep wanting more and more. The truth is there’s nothing wrong in desiring plenty of money. Where wrong enters is when you compromise to get it and you love it more than anything else in your life. As long as I kept my motives grounded and did not let money become god in my life I was free to gather as much as I could.
The mind is a battleground. If you desire wealth then you must infuse the mind with wealthy thoughts and beliefs; failure to do so will cause you to stagnate financially. There is usually something holding us back from going after our goals and achieving our potential right in our minds. Once we can identify and neutralize these self-limiting beliefs we are well on our way to achieving wealth.
This list is by no means exhaustive so I urge you to take time out now and examine everything you believe about money. List them down and engage in a painstaking review of each one and make the necessary changes should you discover any self-limiting beliefs. I make bold to declare that one of the major reasons you are not rich today is because you have the wrong, limiting beliefs about money operating in your life at the moment.
By Pelumi JP
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