To become financially free, follow these eight essential steps to manifesting money. In this blog, I’ll share the first four steps.
Step 1: Create a positive money mindset.
Most people have unconscious limiting or negative beliefs about money. If you aren’t aware of your limiting beliefs then it is very difficult to change them, making it very difficult to manifest money. I didn’t know that I had a limiting belief about money until my coach pointed it out to me. It never even occurred to me that I could be financially free and independent. I always assumed that financial freedom was the exclusive preserve of people who were born into wealth or who would inherit a big business. I figured I’d always work for a living.
My coach challenged my assumption and said that I could become financially free so that work was optional. At the time, I was buried in credit card debt and paying off student loans. So, becoming financially free seemed an impossible goal. I remember seeing a financial planner who printed out a report saying that I needed over $1,200,000 to retire. I called my mother and we just laughed at the absurdity of the sum. A million dollars seemed hopelessly unattainable. It was certainly not a figure that felt real in any way.
Now I see that I just didn’t know how to get there. I didn’t have a clear road map to reaching financial freedom. Nor did I fully appreciate the power of compound interest! Most poor people harbor some unconscious negative beliefs about money. Have you ever thought rich people were greedy or unethical, that money is the root of all evil, that it takes money to make money, that money doesn’t grow on trees, that you have to work harder to make more money? These are all examples of negative, limiting beliefs about money. If you have negative or limiting beliefs about your finances, you’ll be repelling money, not attracting it to you. The cure is to first write down all your negative beliefs. Then write down a new, positive, empowering belief — positive affirmations. But affirmations aren’t enough. The next step is to get clear on what you really want.
Step 2: Visualize your ideal life in glowing detail.
Imagine that you were truly wealthy and could easily afford to buy whatever you wanted. You are financially free and no longer need to work. What do you really want? What would you do? Make a specific list. What would your ideal life look like? Where would you live? What would you be doing? Who would you be spending time with? What would a normal day in your ideal life be like? How would you start and end your day?
Take out a piece of paper and jot down and sketch the elements of your ideal life. It doesn’t have to be a work of art. You can cut and paste images out of magazines or draw stick figures to represent what you want. Include everything. Think big — as if you’ve just won the lottery and can truly splash out on all the things you’ve ever wanted. Then, imagine yourself living this life now as if a full technicolor film. How would you feel? Write down the feelings that come to mind. What would you be doing differently?
Step 3: What you focus on expands.
This is one of the essential laws of attraction. Always focus on what you want, not what you don’t want. If you focus on your credit card debts, you are focusing on the lack of something, on the feelings of not enough, on feelings of anxiety, guilt or shame. Now shift your focus to what you want — feelings of abundance, luxury, wealth, freedom, peace. Now how do you feel? Do you feel calm, excited, grateful, appreciative, happy, free, secure?
The key to activating the law of attraction is to start focusing on the positive emotions and feelings you want that you believe money will enable you to feel. How can you create more of these positive feelings right now in your life? Take action to create the feeling you want now — the feeling that came up when you visualized your ideal life in step 2 above.
If you want to feel more freedom, how can you create the experience of having more freedom in your life right now? Maybe you could work from a coffee shop a day or two a week or ask your boss to give you a flexible time schedule so you can set your own hours. If you want money to give you a feeling of abundance, how can you create the experience of abundance right now in your life? Try carrying a $100 bill tucked into your wallet. Or take $100 and cash them into $1 bills and sprinkle them in your underwear drawer so that every time you get dressed you feel like you are awash in cash. Perhaps you have an abundance of friends and can be grateful and acknowledge them for who they are in your life. Maybe you have an abundance of shoes and enjoy wearing them. Bask in the abundance that is already yours.
Step 4: Money is a resource, a tool, a medium of exchange.
Most of us really want money so that we can exchange it for something we want to have or something we want to do. We want to take a holiday or buy a nice pair of shoes or have a lovely home to raise a family in. Instead of focusing on money, shift your focus to the thing or experience you want instead. You may discover it is so much easier to attract what you want for free or very little money. I have personally used this technique to furnish my entire house without spending much money at all. Furniture is so easy to attract.
The ultimate goal is to bypass the thing or experience and go directly for what you really want: the feeling you think that thing or experience will provide. Then you can skip the money steps altogether as you’ll have the same end result. You may discover that once you have the feeling, you don’t need or want the thing or the experience. The scientific research into what makes us happy has revealed that having a fancier, more expensive car and a bigger house does not result in greater happiness. If your goal is to be happier, then you can simply skip those budget-busting purchases. You never needed the money in the first place. If your goal is to impress others and show off your wealth, then it is an emotional or ego question – why do you need a fancy car to prove your success?
You can achieve the feelings you are hoping money will provide simply by raising your emotional intelligence. If you don’t know what you need emotionally, you will need an unlimited amount of money and find that you never reach the ultimate goal of satisfaction. You can never get enough of what you don’t really need.
To find out what your own top four personal and emotional needs are, take the free Emotional Index Quiz. If you find, once acquiring one thing you’ve coveted, that soon after you want the next great thing, this is a pretty good indication that you haven’t yet figured out what your emotional needs are. That feeling of “never enough” is actually curable. You will reach a point where you are truly content and satisfied with what you have at a very deep level. There is a tipping point where bigger and more isn’t better, it is worse – more work to maintain. The key is to find that sweet spot where you are happy and content with what you have. That starts with identifying your hidden personal and emotional needs. Most of my clients find they naturally spend less when their needs are fulfilled and they are living in accordance with their core values.
I’ll publish the next four steps next week…
