Following on from last week when you identified your story around money, can you identify where it comes from? Your beliefs around prosperity could have been shaped on two levels:
Firstly, the environment you grew up in or found yourself in. These are usually the attitudes and beliefs that you picked up unconsciously, perhaps without a specific incident that triggered them. What came from your direct experience of being in your environment? What did you see around you? How did your close friends and family handle money? What subtle messages about money did they pass onto you? What feelings did you hold about prosperity then?
In my case, for example, it was growing up in a culture where women are not encouraged to be financially independent. I cooked a lot as a child and the praise I got was that I would make a good wife, instead of encouragement to train as a chef.
Then there are those formative incidents that shape you. Being denied something that you badly wanted. Someone being particularly mean or even surprisingly generous to you. Losing your dearest possessions or having to guard them fiercely. Being spoilt. Not being given an equal share.
It could have been anything that took place when you were young and made you write that story around money. I remember once being made to skip dinner as a child for saying the wrong thing. So the story I made up then was that I needed to play small and fit in to be fed. If you remember this post of mine, you can see how that story will replay in your life until you are able to let it go.
So, try to cast your mind back to where your particular prosperity beliefs came from. But be gentle with whatever truth you find, even if it brings sadness or resentment. All that’s important today is the awareness, chef.