The new tax year arrived in April and while we are busy (thinking about) completing our tax returns, now is also a good time to focus on how we could be much better off this time next year.

Do you earn well but don’t know where your money goes every month?
Do you make money for your company or boss, but would rather make money for yourself?
Do you work for your money, or does it work for you?

Some say “money is evil”, “money’s not everything” “you can be happy without money”. Well, I believe money is neither good nor evil, but it is the person with the money who can do good or evil with it, and there is an awful lot of good that can be achieved with money. The latter two statements I tend to agree with, but life is a hell of a lot easier with money than without.

So what stops people succeeding financially and having abundance in their life? Financial success first depends on a belief that it is a possibility. Many people create barriers to prevent them having abundance at an unconscious level which can hamper efforts to succeed. At a conscious level you can do everything possible to achieve your goals, but if there is an unconscious part of you that doesn’t believe, it will continue to find obstacles – until you address it. These beliefs can form unconsciously from childhood and you may not even know you have them.

We all have different conscious beliefs about money. Some of the common ones are that you need money to make money, or it’s too late in life, or that you don’t know what to do or finances are too complicated. These are all cause/effect beliefs which have little to do with achieving abundance. These types of beliefs limit people because they’re looking for the answers outside of themselves, when in reality the keys to prosperity exist within ourselves. Abundance is not was a person has – it is a state of mind.

So why is the pursuit of money often met with derision by others? Why do we compare ourselves with others on the basis of what we have? Why do we get jealous when someone else has something that we want? It is common to compare our financial status with others, but this is often the root of much emotional pain. Thinking about what you don’t have makes you angry and resentful, which in turn creates more limiting beliefs and barriers to your prosperity. Once we stop equating our self-worth with money the doors of possibility swing open because we are willing to try more things, since we feel better about ourselves. Having a strong inner sense of self is what is truly important because when we have this, having money is no longer a question of self worth. Money doesn’t determine who you are, it’s simply a resource.

Many people have positive beliefs about prosperity and abundance. By thinking “What is possible?” you can move to a whole new level of thinking. Your possibilities start with a dream, then it’s a matter of turning that into reality. As you embrace your own self worth and open up to the idea of what is possible, you’ll attract abundance and prosperity. If you feel good inside it will show on the outside and positive will be attracted. That’s the way life works!

No-one will ever care as much about your financial well-being as you do..

It is good practice to keep on top of your personal financial situation, and even more so in times of some uncertainty. Regular focus or reviews to ensure you are in the best possible ‘health’ with your finances is common sense and provides a good foundation on which informed financial decisions can be made.

Given the so called ‘credit crunch’ we’ve been in you would be forgiven for thinking that the next few months / years could be a little difficult. Well if you listen to all the doom and gloom merchants out there you could easily start to believe this. The issue here is that we attract into our lives what we focus on and persistently think about, so thinking this only fuels your negative expectations, which drives your self defeating behaviour which in turn results in a negative outcome – going to prove those doom and gloom merchants were right – and that you were right to believe them!

On the other hand, you could choose to believe in prosperity, and that there are numerous opportunities to generate money and increase your personal wealth over the next few months and years. Believing this will build your positive expectations which will drive your self motivating behaviour which in turn will result in an excellent outcome – proving that you were right to believe in prosperity as a possibility.

So, the process is the same, it’s just a question of which you choose to believe, and whichever you choose, you will be right!

What if you want to believe in prosperity but it’s difficult to find the evidence to support it? Well you just need to start looking for it. Money is an abundant resource and there is plenty of it around. Recent estimates place the wealth of the world at over 44 trillion dollars – that’s 6 million dollars per person (ish).

There is a very simple economic principle:

- The scarcer the resource, the more people are willing to give up in order to get it.
- The more common the resource, the less people are willing to give up in order to get it.

A fundamental mistake a lot of us make is thinking of money as a scarce resource, and we inconvenience ourselves to get it. As soon as you create yourself as the scarce resource, the money will inconvenience itself to get you!

With love and gratitude

Nadine.