“There’s never enough money.”
“Whatever money I earn just slips through my fingers.”
Sound familiar?
If so, you’re not alone. Many people worry about money: about earning it, keeping it, having enough. Budgets can be tight and expenses seem to grow and grow. And the daily grind of work can feel like a never-ending hamster wheel.
Is this you? Do you feel that no matter how hard you work, plan or save you are never secure? In fact, do these efforts leave you feeling tired, constrained and somewhat hopeless?
Paradoxically, these very feelings will only make your financial situation worse. That’s because deeply-rooted beliefs about money tend to be self-fulfilling prophecies. If you truly believe that “there’s never enough,” or “money can easily slip away,” you will behave accordingly in ways that make these notions your reality.
It’s a vicious cycle that drives many people to sabotage their best efforts financially and limit their prospects for financial success.
But there’s a way to bust out of the cycle. And having done so myself after losing millions and experiencing near-bankruptcy, I’ve created a word for the process:
Parashifting.
Parashifting means shifting your worldview away from fears about money and instead, embracing the paradigm of abundance. Money fears stems from an age-old mindset telling us that the earth’s resources are limited and that we’d better grab and hold onto what we can lest someone else take it. This view may have served humankind in eras like the Great Depression, but simply does not reflect reality today.
Rather, we live in a world overflowing with possibilities. Focusing on possibilities rather than on anguish will allow you to recognize opportunities, and seize them.
The first step in parashifting is to train yourself to see that in fact, the world is an abundant place filled with progress, growth and opportunity — and that you stand only to gain by participating generously in its interconnected ecosystem.
Here are 4 steps to accomplishing this:
Don’t allow the concepts of lack and scarcity dominate your thought processes around money and finances. Instead, overwrite them with stories of progress, hope and opportunity.
- Stay abreast of technological innovations and how they can help increase abundance and well-being throughout the world. Magazines like Discover and Scientific American are rich with examples. Focus on these rather than on the glut of news stories about devastation and ruin.
- Brainstorm about creative ways to make financial dreams possible rather than saying, “No, that could never happen to me.”
- Shift your perspective to acknowledge — and believe — that the world is indeed an abundant place filled with progress and growth. See where this leads you.
Through parshifting, you’ll discover a new mindset that encourages you to connect, to inspire, to collaborate and create. It will remind you to not become overly obsessed by the fear of adverse events, but rather, to remain hopeful and optimistic so that you can see possibilities rather than dangers; so you can recognize opportunities — and seize them. Fear can have its place, but it becomes debilitating when it blinds us to positive possibilities.
About the Author:
Julie Ann Cairns is the author of The Abundance Code: How to Bust The 7 Money Myths For A Rich Life Now (Hay House, September 2015) and has spearheaded The Abundance Code Documentary (March 2016) to help people everywhere make a shift to the abundance mindset and seek joint solutions to our planet’s most pressing challenges. She is co-founder and managing director of Trading Pursuits Group in Sydney.
2 Comments
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Hi Julie Ann Cairns,
Really a mind enhancing post.
Whatever you have written is true.
Many at times I feel money stay with me.
Thank you for your tips -
Great efforts
