LET’S TALK ABOUT MONEY.

 

I love money.

Let me say that again in case there is someone at the back that didn’t hear me. 

I LOVE MONEY. 

Did you just cringe? 

Yes? 

Interesting. 

Let’s explore that shall we? 

I love money not for its own sake. I don’t worship at the altar of Mammon and spend my evenings counting gold coins with the maniacal fervour of Scrooge on Christmas Eve.

I love what money can do. 

I love the fact that the more money I make, the more I can invest in my business and therefore the more people I can be of service to. 

I love being able to support the causes, charities and campaigns that are important to me. 

I love being able to help my friends and my family when they need it. 

AND, I love being able to book weekends away with friends (remember those days…when we could travel?); go out for nice meals; drive a decent car and buy well made clothes. 

Money is not bad. Money is not the root of all evil. It is not the work of Satan.

And there is nothing holy or intrinsically virtuous about poverty. 

Money is simply a means of exchange. 

The characteristics we assign to money, to people who have money and to the pursuit of money – say more about our mindset than they do about the intrinsic nature of money or wealth.

And this is where I think that certain elements of the personal development ‘industry’ have done people a grave disservice. 

Money is energy. All you have to do is believe in abundance. Blah blah blah. Not helpful. 

Yes, on one level money is just energy but that’s not a particularly helpful concept if you don’t know how to make it or what to do with it. 

Yes, abundance is possible – and if you believe that, you’ll find it easier to attract and experience abundance than if you don’t. But that’s not sufficient all by itself. 

If the beliefs that you hold about money are undermining you at every turn, no amount of focussing on abundance is going to magically bring you wealth. 

Our money mindset is mainly formed before we even have language for it. The lessons we learn from our parents are then reinforced by our society and culture. And all the exhortations to ‘believe in abundance’ won’t help us to experience abundance or wealth until we clear out our mindset.

Let me give you an example. 

I believe in abundance. I grew up on an island called Jersey in the Channel Islands – where there are more millionaires per square foot than anywhere else in the UK* – so it would have been pretty perverse of me to refuse to believe in the possibility of wealth and abundance when I was surrounded by it every day. 

BUT, my parents were not wealthy and after they divorced, things were incredibly tight. 

I got my first weekend job when I was about 12 so that I could buy things for myself without having to ask my Mum for money because I knew she didn’t have any. I never went on a ‘family holiday’ – in fact the  first ‘proper’ overseas holiday that I went on was when I was in my twenties.  

No – don’t feel sorry for me. That’s not the point. 

The point is that I learnt as a child that abundance was possible BUT NOT FOR ME. 

I learnt that the only way to keep my head above water was to work really hard. And so I did. But it didn’t seem to matter how hard I worked or how much money I made, I never experienced abundance – because deep down I believed it wasn’t for me. 

It was only when I began to shift that belief that – miraculously – all of my hard work began to pay off. 

I’ve noticed a lot of misguided stories and misplaced beliefs about money amongst the values driven, purpose-led entrepreneurs that I work with. Like, the belief that you can either make money OR make a difference but not both. Or the belief that if you’re doing work that you love then that should be its own reward – and somehow it’s greedy to also want to make decent money. 

I suspect that these beliefs are the reason why, when I ask changemakers about their intentions for their businesses, so few of them mention financial goals. It’s like wanting to make money is a ‘bad thing’ when you’re also trying to do good. 

I don’t buy it. And I think it holds them back from growing their income and their impact. 

Which is why I insist on setting financial goals as part of my planning workshops.

So, if you cringed when you read ‘I love money’, I invite you to take a look at your business.

Are you making the money you could be making?

Are you experiencing financial abundance as well as the joy of making a difference?

Are you setting clear financial targets as well as targets for the people you want to be of service to?

If not, perhaps now might be a good time to reflect on your beliefs around money and whether those beliefs truly serve you. 

Let’s ACTUALLY make money and make a difference.

Sara Price

Founder, Actually

November 2020

 

PS: And if you’d like to join me at the Actually annual planning workshop – and set some proper financial goals for your business – you’d be very welcome! Just click this link:

https://actually.world/support/actually-planning-cycle/ 

*I may have made that statistic up – for dramatic effect – but you get my point!