One of my favorite bloggers, Steve Pavlina, recently posted a couple of articles about replacing limiting mindsets with empowering ones. They are entitled Quality and Contribution and The Abundance Mindset. I’m amazed by the limiting beliefs people have about making money. Steve Pavlina refers to the “scripts” we run – a preset pattern of thinking and relating to the world. This concept of scripts really resonated with me because I’ve recently been able to take a step back and see myself running the same limiting scripts over and over again. It’s like telling yourself a story. You need to justify what you’re dissatisfied with so you create a story to tell yourself.

Limiting beliefs and scripts

Here are some common beliefs about money or scripts I personally have run or have seen others run:

• It’s hard to make money.
• Work isn’t meant to be fulfilling but is rather a necessary evil.
• Starting a business is hard and takes too much time.
• Socially responsible people get an education and then go to work at a 9 to 5 job regardless of whether it’s fulfilling or not.
• Following your passion is irresponsible and can’t provide an adequate income.
• I don’t have enough time (this is one of my personal favorites).
• I get home from work and I don’t have energy to do more than watch tv.
• I would break out of the 9 to 5 routine if only it weren’t for my wife, family, job, [insert excuse here].

Creating new beliefs and scripts

One exercise that has helped me break out of my limiting beliefs, at least to some degree, is to conciously identify which scripts I run and which beliefs I may be holding subconsciously. I can then create new empowering beliefs and scripts. For example, one belief I’ve adopted is “making money is easy given enough time, patience, and consistency.” By embracing this more empowering belief I’ve been able to make progress towards my goals without self sabotaging myself. It’s given me the liberty to take things one step at a time.

Expanding your beliefs step-by-step

Steve Pavlina promotes a similar approach of taking one step at a time, particularly when it comes to starting your own business.

Start where you are, and stretch yourself to let go of those limiting beliefs that hold you back. If you think it’s fairly easy to earn $10 or 100, try to open your mind to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, it could be equally easy (maybe even easier) to earn $500 in the same amount of time or less. One you’ve reached that point, push on to $1,000, and keep going from there. When you think that a certain amount of money is “no big whoop,” you’ll find a way to earn that much, and that means you’ll be contributing more value to others. The money you receive as compensation is your receipt.

When I started this website I took the approach Steve describes. I knew that if I could make $5 a month then I could then make $100. If I could make $100, I could make $1,000. Taking baby steps in such a manner allows you to push the boundaries of your beliefs little by little.

When I started this site I was absolutely thrilled when I had my first $5 month. I actually remember it quite vividly. One of my early posts was picked up by lifehacker and I received thousands of hits. I literally did a celebration dance like I had won the lottery or something. It was the most exciting $5 I’d ever made, not because of the monetary amount, but because it was a representation of the possibility of earning even more. I had taken action and created something capable of generating income. I now had an asset to build upon.

Now it’s commonplace for me to make $5 a day and sometimes I make considerably more than that. It’s still hard for me to realistically believe I could make, say, $10,000 a month, but as I gradually expand my belief system it doesn’t seem nearly as hard as it once did.

A way to practice

Last week I mentioned a way to learn how to make money online from the Thirty Day Challenge website that shows people how to make $10 online in one month. I’ve told several people about it and the responses have shown people’s beliefs. Some people say “what’s the use – it’s only $10.” Others say “it’s just too hard to start and maintain a business and I don’t have the time.” They just kick start their favorite script and away they go. It’s a shame that people don’t catch what the $10 represents. They don’t realize that once they learn how to make $10, they can use the same techniques to make $100, $1,000, or even more.

If you have any desire to make more income or a supplemental income, I strongly encourage you to participate in the 30 day challenge. I’ve been very impressed so far with the content. Most of it I’ve known already but I’ve also learned some incredibly useful tricks. They start from scratch so it’s doable even if you’re new to the internet. And part of the beauty of the program is that it’s flexible enough that you can choose to make money off of a topic that you’re passionate about.

Take some time and examine your beliefs about making money. Do you have any limiting beliefs or scripts? What new beliefs could you establish?