Is money the root of all evil? Let’s put it this way. In the world we live in, money allows us to put a roof over our heads, food on the table and to educate ourselves and our family. Therefore money is important in creating the life we want.

Ok that’s awesome – but why is a productivity coach writing about money?

Excellent question! Well the thing is, most if not all of my clients come to me wanting to become more productive so they can earn more money in less time giving them the freedom to either:

a) have more free time to do non-work related things or;

b) use the extra time they have created to complete more work and earn even more money.

The split between a) and b) is generally 20:80, most people want to become more efficient so they have more time to undertake more work that will produce more money.  

See how it all ties in now? And of course being a good productivity coach, I would be remiss if we didn’t talk about goals and strategies for achieving them. And when it comes to goals involving money things can get a little murky. 

Why? Because of our thoughts and beliefs on the topic. If you set a goal, but have unconscious thoughts or beliefs that you’ll never be able to achieve that goal. How do you think that story’s going to end for you? 

And the thing with money is that we can inherit a lot of these thoughts and beliefs from our parents and grandparents and not even realise we have them. We collect evidence from what we see play out in their financial lives that back up these thoughts and beliefs making them true.

But what if they’re not true? What if we can choose to think and believe whatever we like about money in our life? How awesome would that be? 

But first we need to be aware of what is currently going on in our brains…  

So I’m going to pose a few questions to you and I really want you to think about whether or not you think each is true for you or if you are unsure, concentrate on how it makes you feel. 

Here we go…

• Do you believe that money is a limited resource – that there’s only so much of it in the world and if you have more, then someone else has to have less?

• Do you believe that in order to earn more money you have to work harder, putting longer hours into your business in order to generate more income?

• Do you believe that the only way you will ever become wealthy is through an unexpected windfall like winning the lottery or receiving an inheritance? 

• Following on from that last one, do you believe that you are capable of creating wealth for yourself?

• Do you believe that money is a dirty word that we shouldn’t talk about? That to admit to wanting more money than you currently have makes you a bad or greedy person?

And finally, 

• Do you really value what you do, or are you the type of person who is always giving discounts, freebies or exchanging time for time with other service providers because one or both of you can’t afford the going rate at that time?

How’d you go? Do you feel like you’ve got some pretty positive beliefs around money in your life, or do your thoughts need a little work?

That last question is the one that I find the most telling. Because often in these cases the person doing the giving lacks the confidence and belief in themselves that what they are contributing to the world is truly valuable and worth the investment from others. (I’m going to address this one further in my next blog post.)

I also regularly hear comments like.. 

“I’m not in business to become rich”

“I care more about helping people than making money” or 

“Making money’s not in my values”. 

And I totally get where these people are coming from, I used to think exactly the same way. Until someone posed the following questions:

“How many more people could you help if you increase your income and your own personal wealth?” 

“How many more charities could you donate to or worthy causes could you support?” 

“How many scholarships could you fund?” 

“How much greater would your ability be to purchase clothing and items based on the company’s vision, sustainability or ethics when you don’t have to be conscious of or limited by price?”

It’s very true, money doesn’t create happiness, but it does provide greater freedom and choice. So how about you? 

What would you do with the extra time you created in your day by becoming more productive?

Do you have positive thoughts and beliefs around money and your ability to earn? Or do you need a bit of work in this area?

Keep an eye out for my next blog post when I will give you some insight on how to create more money in your business (spoiler alert: it doesn’t involve working harder…)