How come some people can make money easily while other people can't?  More and more, scientists are proving that we create much of our experience with the way we think and perceive.  The field of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is based on studying mental process and behavior and knowing how to explore a person's thinking in a precise way.

Do wealthy people think and behave differently?  Yes they do!  So what is the secret?  It is their belief system surrounding money and wealth and this system is a collection of your feelings, experiences and relationship with money, wealth and success.  Our belief system is formed at an early age and is stored in our  unconscious mind and we form our reality based on those beliefs even if they limit us.  Our beliefs come from three sources.  First from our parents who raised us and installed their beliefs into us,  the second source is our teachers and friends who we looked up to and admired, and the third source is our culture and media.

Some of the most common limiting beliefs I have heard are:

"I have to work hard to make money."

"Life is a struggle."

"I am not smart enough to become rich."

No matter what a person does to become successful, if they hold on to any of these or similar limiting beliefs, they will struggle because a part of them believes they will not be successful.  The good news is that these limiting beliefs were installed at a young age where we had no resources to consciously pick the beliefs we wanted, but now as adults, we do have the choice to replace or bust these limiting beliefs and create new empowering ones.

Imagine your belief system is like a cluster of grapes and each grape resembles a limiting belief.  However, these grapes are held by a strong core stem which resembles your core limiting belief and this one is emotionally charged.  What would happen if we were to get to the core limiting belief, to that core stem, and completely bust it?  Then there would be a complete shift because not only will the stem disappear so would all the grapes!

Up until this February, I was surprised to learn that my core limiting beliefs was that I was afraid of  failing.  However, that is not the way it started off.  I have always seen my parents work hard and they have done well so one of my limiting beliefs was, "I have to work hard to make money."  Using NLP questioning methods, I found myself emotional when I finally blurted out that I was afraid of failing because it was humiliating, because the same thing had happened to my father when he lost almost everything in a business and he was depressed.  I was flabbergasted because unconsciously I was holding on to the thought that I would become like him.  Yet, I knew that my parents came out of this dilemma and did so well for themselves later on.  With cutting-edge NLP techniques and processes, I replaced this limiting belief with an empowering one and my new upgraded belief became, "I love what I do and can create what I want and be successful."

Successful people open themselves up to possibility and are willing to take risks, trusting and believing that the risk will turn into a reward.  Whereas most of us are unwillimg to take risks or try something different because there is the fear of failure, of losing everything.  I want to work smart and this year alone,  I have taken huge risks.  At the same time I have made great leaps as well, trusting that the rewards are already within my reach.  However, I had to upgrade my belief system to be able to take those risks and have that trust.