Rewriting your money stories

Transcript

What stories do you tell yourself about money? Maybe you’re not even aware of the subconscious beliefs that you have around money. In today’s episode we are going to be diving into all of those underlying stories and importantly, working out how to reprogram them in a way that will serve the next level you, let’s begin.

Hello and welcome to The Clare Wood Podcast, where myself and incredible guests share about money mindset, financial successes, and how to manage your money in a fun and practical way to create wealth and abundance in both your business and your life. I’m your host, Clare Wood, I’m a business coach and a money mentor. I strongly believe that money has the power to positively change the world. I can’t wait to help you transform your mindset around money, create a love of numbers and build the business of your dreams so you can live a life of financial freedom, giving, and global impact.

You might’ve noticed that the podcast had a brief hiatus. I took a few weeks away from the podcast last month as I was feeling pretty tired, so I took a step back from the business, went on a holiday. And while I was away I had a few ‘ah-has’, one being that I really wanted to niche into the space of money, which truthfully is what I speak about most of the time on the podcast, anyway. I hope you love the new look and feel of the podcast and I promise to still deliver you down to earth and practical episodes with the best guests to share their money wisdom and inspiration.

What are stories?

Today we’re chatting about money stories. What are money stories? A money story is a story that you tell yourself about money. What do I mean by a story? Stories are our subconscious beliefs. They are things that we might not even know that we’re telling our self because they are happening on a subconscious level. It’s really hard to distinguish if something is indeed a truth or if it’s a story that we’re telling our self. We can believe things so deeply that they feel like a truth to us.

Let me give you an example. When I was in grade 12, I was really underweight. I was a competitive swimmer who used to train two and a half hours a day, and to be honest, I barely ate anything but yet I was still convinced I was fat. In fact, to my grade 12 formal I wore a big baggy dress because I was convinced that I couldn’t wear something more tight-fitting because I didn’t have a good body. I look back at photos of me now at that time and I think how skinny I used to be. My perception of my weight at age 17 is the same but my story around it has totally changed. I used to on a fundamental level believe that I was overweight yet in hindsight I look back and think how underweight I look. Exactly the same situation, a totally different perception around it.

Another example of these is when you get into an argument with someone. Have you ever had an argument with someone? I now so clearly know what the truth is? It’s your side of the argument, right? But yet the other party can have a completely different take on exactly the same situation. In their mind, their perception of what has played out is the truth. See how something can feel like a truth to us? But when we dig a little bit deeper it’s actually a story or a perception which is being filtered through the lens of our past experiences. So why does it matter what your stories are? The reason is your beliefs drive your behaviours. If you have a belief, whether it’s conscious or subconscious, you make your decisions or take actions around this belief or this story.

Let’s take some examples. I have a belief that going to the gym will help me tone up therefore I keep going to the gym. Even if I am going to the gym and not getting the result I still have that same fundamental belief. If I didn’t believe that the gym would help me tone up I probably wouldn’t go to the gym. See how that belief shapes your actions? And when it comes to money you might have a whole bunch of subconscious beliefs about money. You might believe that money always disappears no matter how much money you make. And if you have that belief, what happens? Well, then when you earn more money, without even realizing it you will spend it all.

Why do these stories matter?

On a subconscious level, you are creating a reality based around your underpinning story around money. This is why lottery winners often lose all of their money not long after winning. They believe that people have no money and therefore when they come into money their actions will try and create these in their reality, which is why they’ll probably spend it rather quickly to repel it and get them back to that place which aligns with their story around money.

Finding out what your money stories are

What are your money stories? Take some time, literally grab pen and paper and write down everything that you believe to be true about money. There’ll be some good beliefs that you have, perhaps some not so good beliefs. We have been shaped our whole life by experiences that we’ve had, by our childhood, by our spouse, by friends or peers, we have created a whole sequence of beliefs throughout our life, and going through this exercise might uncover what some of your stories around money are. The good news about money stories is that they can be rewritten. Just like how I changed my belief around my weight at the age of 17, you can change your beliefs around money. This process is around changing the conscious beliefs and repeating that again and again until they become your underlying money stories or subconscious beliefs.

3 steps to change your beliefs about money

How can you rewrite your money stories? Well, number one, identify that it is a story. If you find yourself saying something, catch it straight away. An example might be something happens and you say, “I’m terrible with money.” As soon as you identify yourself saying something that is a story, catch yourself. And I like to actually say out loud, “That’s the story,” or, “That’s the money story.”

The second step in the process is to rewrite your story. After you’ve identified that it’s just a story or just a belief, replace it with a new one. If we were to refer back to the example before we could say straightaway, “I’m great at money.” Note that it’s really important to say it in the present tense. So we’re not going to say, “I will be great with money in the future,” we own it in the present, “I am great with money.” At this point I want to give you a bit of a warning, rewriting money beliefs isn’t easy. But change is never easy, it’s not meant to be. Growth doesn’t happen inside your comfort zone. If you want to make big shifts in your life you need to push through the discomfort of change.

Now that you’ve gone through and rewritten your stories around money the third step is to live your new truth. How would someone who believes that to be true act? If you were to believe that you’re really great with money what would you do? You’d be responsible with it, you’d track it, you’d monitor your cash position. When you rewrite your money stories you create a new reality where those dreams are possible.

To sum up today, money stories are stories you tell yourself usually on a subconscious level around money. It can be really hard to distinguish if something is a truth or a story. The reason it matters is because your beliefs drive your behaviours. If you have a story around money you’ll constantly make decisions around that which in turn will impact your financial position. Take some time and identify what your money stories are and then you have the opportunity to rewrite those money stories, firstly through identifying the fact that it is a story, secondly by rewriting that story, and thirdly by living in your new truth.

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s episode and that you have fun diving into those money stories and starting to reprogram your subconscious mind so that you can start to create a new financial reality. Thanks so much for listening. If you love this episode please share it with your audience and don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @clare_wood_coach, and also make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. Have an abundant week and I look forward to talking to you again next week.