3 Money Mindset Blocks That Are Holding You Back From Expanding Your Business Is your business headed in the right direction? Are your finances where you want them to be? If not, despite years of hustle, it could be time to examine the money mindset blocks that keep you from expanding your business.
By Daniel Mangena Edited by Micah Zimmerman
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
In this article, we'll discuss money mindset blocks and how they keep you from expanding your business and living abundantly.
It's easy to put all of your focus on the number in the bank when thinking about living life more abundantly. That is, after all, most people's stumbling block when it comes to living on their own terms.
Money and mental health are clearly linked — but what is at the heart of that link? Money is, after all, just a tool. It's nothing more than a collectively agreed indicator of stored value.
Related: Money Mindset: How to Overcome Money Blocks and Grow Your Business
Why does money have such power over us?
To one degree or another, we all seek and revere social status. As societies have evolved, this has been primarily focused on a person's financial wealth. If they exhibit the trappings of a healthy bank balance, we consider them a person worthy of our attention.
We see published data on median incomes, top earners, "30 under 30," etc., all the time. When we stack ourselves and our financial situation against all of this data, it can feel like we don't measure up.
Worse than that: it can make us feel like we're not valued members of society.
But does money actually hold power over our mindset and emotional state?
Only if we allow it to.
The simple fact is, for your mental health to be impacted by money (or a perceived lack thereof), you have to have bought into the narrative that your value is estimable purely based on your bank balance. With that said, money mindset blocks will affect the expansion of your business. Here are three key blocks holding you and your business back.
1. "Money is the route of all evil" and other nonsense sayings
You've probably been fed lines about money since you were a kid. You know what we're talking about: "look after the pennies, and the pounds will look after themselves" or "waste not, want not."
These sayings are so commonplace that we probably don't give them much of a second thought. They've become shorthand for personal, fiscal prudence. But the impact they have on our subconscious is profoundly negative.
All they do is feed the notion that treating money as scarcity is ethical and a path to abundance in its own right. But the problem with this is it starts training your subconscious to apply that to all monetary situations. This is a very real money mindset block that keeps you from expanding your business because it teaches you to think in terms of contraction. Not expansion.
But, when times get tough, what do you do?
Tighten the belt. Cut costs. Reduce spending, and the first place that spending always gets reduced is in R&D, marketing and general areas of business growth.
It's a tale as old as time.
If you want to expand your business, no matter the state of the market, then you need to start drip-feeding other stories to your subconscious. Stories that speak to growth, expansion and abundance. Stories that will help you maintain growth as a priority.
Try writing down the following every morning: "I am so happy and grateful now that money comes to me in increasing quantities, from multiple sources, on a continuous basis."
Then be sure to observe and document the changes that you witness.
2. You've never done it before
This is what I call "your edge." Some might refer to it as your "comfort zone," but that's not the complete picture.
Let's say you find yourself setting financial milestones for yourself and your business, which you are required to cross to make your next move. Yet somehow, these never seem to materialize. Or maybe they do, but you still don't feel comfortable taking that leap…so you move the goal posts again.
This is because you're butting up against your "edge." The problem with expanding your business too fast is that it overwhelms your subconscious. Beyond a certain point, you become emotionally unable to cope with what feels like an out-of-control situation.
When you look back on how far you've come, you're probably managing situations daily that, when you started, you never imagined being able to handle. This is why I advocate making progress in baby steps or "micro-shifts."
If you push your edge incrementally rather than trying to take it in one leap, you'll find that you progress much faster. The analogy of trying to climb a mountain in one jump is apt but even better: pushing your edge in baby steps has a 'snowball' effect.
What feels like a baby step to you in a year probably feels like a giant leap right now. Much sooner than you think, you'll be making moves and expanding faster than you ever thought possible.
Related: Why Getting Rich Quick Can Mean Going Broke Fast -- And How to Prevent This From Happening to You
3. Your self-worth
This one is a major money mindset block for most people. It's the reason why 70% of lottery winners go broke. I don't mean that your self-worth is intertwined with your self-esteem and that you don't grow your business. However, that may be the case for some.
What I'm talking about is your mental picture of yourself. You see (and this is another example of jumping too far beyond your edge), the average person who wins the lottery is not already a millionaire. Shocker. They're usually everyday people who just took a punt on something.
They are also the kind of people with self-worth or image that says, "the only way for me to be rich is to win the lottery."
The issue with this is that they haven't had their mental picture of who they are, their self-worth, altered over time to reflect their wealth. When they find themselves suddenly thrust into the life of a millionaire, they start to face resistance from their subconscious.
Our subconscious mind is prehistoric and is programmed with the singular task of keeping us safe. Being of an era that predates intellect, it only understands emotional language. This is why traumas can become trapped in our childhood and still govern behavior into adulthood.
If your subconscious believes you to be someone who's never earned over $50,000 in a single year, then having $8 million in your account will feel like you're an imposter in someone else's life.
"I don't need all that money," you might say.
Even going out and buying that Porsche you've always wanted affirms that you're not a wealthy person. You don't know how to be. You're simply seizing an opportunity while you can, assuming it won't last.
Related: Feel More Valuable: 3 Ways to Raise Your Self-Worth
That's not what successful people do!
The same is true of your business: if you don't act like a business owner, fully intent on growth and success…you won't be. This isn't a call to "fake it till you make it" or anything like that. It's about understanding that your mindset and who you are at a fundamental level needs to change to support your growth.
I hope these three money mindset blocks holding you back from expanding your business speak to you. I think that we can all recognize these tendencies in ourselves. The way to overcome them is not through guilt or blame but through recognition and slowly correcting them over time.
