by Tricia
I recently reviewed The Maui Millionaires (affiliate link). In the book, they discuss the Dirty Dozen. They are the 12 most damaging Negative Wealth Beliefs. I was originally going to discuss all of them, but I decided to discuss one of them, even though it is going to be hard for me to do.
Here’s the Dirty Dozen:
1.) It takes money to make money, and I don’t have any.
2.) I’m poor, always was, and always will be.
3.) I’m middle class, always was, and always will be.
4.) It takes too much time and effort to be rich.
5.) I’m just not smart enough to become rich.
6.) Money is bad.
7.) Rich people are low down, bad people.
8.) To become rich, you have to take on huge risks.
9.) People won’t like me if I am rich, or worse – they’d like me only for my money.
10.) It isn’t possible for me to become wealthy.
11.) My spouse or significant other doesn’t support me enough.
12.) I’m not good enough. I don’t deserve it.
This isn’t easy for me to talk about, so please bear with me if some of my thoughts seem scattered. I’m just going to blurt it out and hopefully it makes sense because if I think about it too much, I will never hit the publish button on this post. I can tell you where I spend my money, but when it comes to talking about personal issues I have…well, that’s another story.
#12 really hits home with me (“I’m not good enough. I don’t deserve it.”). For some reason, thoughout my life I have had the thought that I am not good enough and I don’t deserve things. It happens all the time when someone asks me if I do something. For example, someone asks me if I play bass guitar. I say, “Yes, but I’m not that good.” Someone asks about how my job is going. I say, “Good, but I’m still learning and catching up with things.”
When I landed my current job, I was so close to quitting that I am sure all of you would have commented and voiced your opinion. This happened when I first started blogging and I was still getting comfortable with blogging so I didn’t mention it. Like I said, this is a real personal issue with me. Anyways, the biggest thing making me want to quit was that I was making more money than I ever had and I didn’t think I deserved it. I could name many reasons why they should hire someone else. I didn’t have much experience…I didn’t have much education…etc, etc. When someone was passing out self-confidence, I think they skipped me.
I did stick with my job, and slowly I am gaining some confidence and starting to realize that maybe I do deserve that job. It has definitely been a slow process. And the confidence I lack is affecting our financial momentum. I know deep inside, I have a fire to possibly eliminate our debt quicker by making more money, but something is holding me back. It’s not the attitude, because I believe I’m pretty positive. I know it has to do with my confidence and believing that I deserve it.
That’s something that I need to work on.
