I Was So Broke That I Forgot What I Liked! How Money Mindset Changed My Life
Money Mindset is such a trendy thing right now. Well, at least, in my circles it has been! I’ve seen posts about why it’s super important to change your money story, upgrade your mindset, and to let go of what is holding you back so you can be more abundant…
I bet you’ve seen those kinds of posts and sentiments out there too.
But it did get me thinking a lot about money mindset. What does all of this mean to me? I’ve been thinking about all of this lately and how that translates into the lifestyles I’ve chosen to live.
So, I wanted to share with you, my friend, my little money mindset story.
I grew up broke. Like, super broke. My mom never had money for clothes, art, music, sports programs and food. She did however have money for alcohol, cigarettes and drugs.
In other words, when it came to just about everything we went without.
Unbeknownst to me, this experience created a money mindset within me. It was a mindset that I held onto as I got older.
When I became an adult, I went into a career in accounting. Now, I might not have realized it consciously at the time, but I took that career path for a reason. At some place I believed that studying accounting might teach me something about how money worked.
After all, maybe if I knew more about how this “money” thing worked, I might be able to break out of the destructive money patterns I’d had all this time.
Now, to a certain degree, pursuing accounting did shed some light on some of the mysteries of money. It helped me have some sort of control over WHERE and HOW I sent my money. That was a start.
But studying and practicing accounting did not show me anything about how I ATTRACTED money in my life.
Ever heard ‘beggars can’t be choosers?’ So did I. I lived in this statement.
When I was 19, I weighed 60 pounds less than I do now. You could literally see all my bones.
Even though I’d been on my own and working since I was 14, I couldn’t afford food. I ate my one free meal a day my restaurant job. I recall hunger pains being almost comforting at night. They would show up every night at the same time right before I fell asleep.
I knew without money I didn’t have the freedom of choice. Therefore, I learned to give up choices easily. Because as far as I knew, money was the key to choice. And since I was without money, I never knew what it was to have a choice.
Here’s how that idea stayed with me for a LONG time…
I ate what I could afford, but not what I wanted. If I was on a date and someone else was paying, I’d say I’d have ‘whatever he is having‘ instead of what I wanted. I automatically scanned to the cheapest of anything and everything in my life, and never looked at what I truly wanted.
On the work front, I stayed at my toxic jobs longer that I should have. Because without a paycheck, I believed, I’d probably do something of the equivalent of dying!
Money kept me up at night. I would cry over it. I would give up what I really wanted from lack of it. We’re talking about waking up sweating over my rent being due. The fear was debilitating, to say the least!
I gave up choice for so long I forgot what I liked. The cheapest thing available was what I went with, not the thing that fulfilled me.
The truth is that all that time, I had no idea how much my money mindset was was devastating my choices in life. I finally started to see it for myself when I started my first business.
After kicking off my first business, I learned what SO many entrepreneurs do. All my strengths and weaknesses were magnified and impossible to ignore at this point.
(I bet you’ve heard it said that “entrepreneurship is the world’s best self-development tool,” right? Well, it’s true…)
So at that time, I began my Money Mindset work in earnest. Books, coaches, Mantras, mentors, seminars, workshops, even more books…
This work took literally YEARS. But I stayed with it. And I broke FREE.
Money doesn’t keep me up at night anymore. I choose the things I LIKE rather than the things I think I can get.
Through it all, something even more amazing happened….I got to know who I was. I am a survivor in more ways than one. Now, I am free.
So if you feel me on any of this, know that you are NOT alone. You can change your money mindset from scarcity to abundance. Taking back your power of choice is TOTALLY possible. And you can CRUSH your goals in ALL areas of your life by making these kind of shifts. Really.
Does any of this resonate with you? Let me know in the comments below if you’ve ever felt like money dictated your choices…and what you did about it!
Until next time,
Love, light, and MONEY, honey…
Kaylee
Inspiring story Kaylee! Thank you for sharing.