So here is the awful truth. You want to acquire a certain lifestyle and you need money to do it. And therefore, you really want more money in your life. Yet nothing you do works out. It seems as if everywhere you turn “macca juk yu”. It doesn’t seem like you can catch a break.

And that doesn’t make sense on the surface. You work hard, you pray hard, and yet nothing is working out. Your finances haven’t improved.Now think back to a time when you did get exactly what you wanted. What happened next? Did it somehow vanish and you were back at square one? Are you absolutely frustrated because of that recurring pattern of almost getting what you want?xThe root of the problem is your self-limiting belief.Lorna Li, business coach, explains it this way: “Unfortunately, self-limiting beliefs are deadly, because, if unchecked, they tend to:(a) Lower your aspirations, hopes and dreams. Because, deep down inside, you don’t truly believe you can accomplish a desired goal, you set your goal lower. This lowers the bar of achievement from remarkable towards mediocrity.(b) Spawn patterns of self-sabotage. I’ve seen this in action, and it ain’t pretty. It often looks like this. You think deep down inside you are a failure and don’t deserve success. But you so earnestly long for success, so you throw everything into your pursuit, working 60, 80, 100 hours a week on it to the brink of exhaustion. However, something in you, in spite of how hard you are working, causes you to make fatal errors that completely negate all the energy and hard work you’ve put into your endeavour.(c) Increase procrastination and laziness. It becomes easier to put off an important task if you don’t believe performing that task is going to lead you to success. And because, deep down inside, you don’t believe you can truly achieve your goal, it makes it easy to avoid doing the necessary work of growing your business in favour of social diversions, surfing Facebook, watching TV, you name it.(d) Drain your energy. Ever notice the energy drain that happens when you are emotionally conflicted? Your heart wants to do one thing, but your mind wants to do something else, so you end up fighting with yourself. This internal struggle will drain your energy big time.”So what is the solution to helping you break the pattern of having limiting self-beliefs? According to Ms. Li, it involves a series of practices that break the mental chains that hold you back.1. Carve out some quiet time to identify your self-limiting beliefs and write them down. HINT: They are usually the same thoughts that replay in your mind every day, or familiar thoughts that are triggered in specific scenarios, like when you think about your finances.2. Pick one self-limiting belief to work on at a time.3. Ask yourself why you believe this. Reflect upon your life and write down every instance, every experience you had that reinforced this belief. Try to trace this back to the earliest experience from where this belief emerged.4. Gather any evidence that suggests this belief is false. Can you think of any real-life examples when a statement like this was not true? Can you think of any examples in your life where this statement about yourself was false? Write down every example that indicates this belief is untrue – for other people, as well as for you.5. Neutralise the self-limiting belief with positive visualisation.6. Get a life coach, and partner with someone who can guide you to success. 

Dennise Williams, MBA (Banking & Finance) is a journalist, TV producer, certified practitioner NLP coach, and has 15 years’ experience in the financial services industry. You can see more of her work at www.youtube.com/financiallyfocused and contact her at financiallyfocusedtv@gmail.com