What’s stopping you from making more money?
How about living a life of financial freedom?
Does it seem like it’s out of reach?
Or can you see it, but you can’t seem to get it?
Our host, Chris Miles, goes deeper into what might be keeping you from living the life of your dreams. There are at least 6 possible reasons why you are stuck financially. Tune in to find out what they are and what’s keeping you from getting different results!
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Chris Miles Bio
Chris Miles, the “Cash Flow Expert,” is a leading authority on how to quickly free up and create cash flow for thousands of his clients, entrepreneurs, and others internationally! He’s an author, speaker, and radio host that has been featured in US News, CNN Money, Bankrate, Entrepreneur on Fire, and has spoken to thousands getting them fast financial results.
Chris consistently teaches audiences how to do what no other financial advisers can or will – achieve financial prosperity, NOW AND IN THE FUTURE, while spending time doing what they love most!
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Listen to the podcast here
Why Are You Financially Stuck?
I’m so excited and ready to be able to give you some great value. I hope you are, too. If you’ve got questions and if you want to know how to make this stuff work and apply it, shoot me an email at Chris@MoneyRipples.com. Go ahead and ask your question. I can make a show out of it. For something more personal, we can talk more personally as well. I would love to be able to address why you are stuck financially. What’s stopping you from hitting the financial goals that you want?
I believe there are about six ways. These are not all-inclusive but these are the most common ways that I’ve seen that people get stuck. If you feel like you’ve been working hard and you’ve been trying to do what you need to do, maybe you don’t know where to go. For whatever reason, it seems like there’s this glass ceiling. Maybe you can see it but you can’t figure out how to get there.
You could be doing better financially. You could make more money. You could be having that life of your dreams but for some reason, it seems to be out of your reach. Maybe you feel like, “I’ve been stuck here for a long time. I don’t know if I know any different than what I know now.” A lot of times, when it comes to money and finances, it’s so much more about what’s going on in your head than it ever is about what’s going on with your pocketbook.
Granted, there are some things there too but I want to talk about both. Where are you stuck? What’s keeping you from being able to make this work? Let’s start at the first one, the first one is false beliefs. In more cases than not, this is true for any human being on this planet, including myself. We all have adopted false beliefs, false assumptions, and false conclusions.
We believe that something is true when it’s not. You might say, “I’m pretty self-aware.” Maybe you are but you have to admit that we’re always learning and growing. Look back 10 to 20 years ago. Are you a different person today? Do you understand different things that you thought were true then that aren’t true today? There are always these false beliefs around money.
If you're not taking action, you're not going to get results. You can't just sit around and expect life to just come to you. Click To TweetSome of the common false beliefs that I hear people say are more often than not about themselves than it is more about the money. There might be false beliefs where you believe that it takes money to make money. Until you have money, you can’t make money but it’s this constant dilemma because if you never have money, then you can never make money. There’s that false assumption or belief.
There’s a false belief that you’ve got to take high risks. Do you realize that a lot of people don’t take high risks? It might mean you do things that are outside of your comfort level but I’ve noticed more times than not that the highest risk is to do the things that everybody else is teaching you to do. Follow a financial advisor. You’re probably taking high risks, whether you know it or not.
There are also false beliefs believing somehow that money is elusive or money is hard to get. You have to work hard to make more money. We know that’s not true. It’s not even about working smarter. It’s about working it right. What are those false beliefs that you’re holding onto? If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already found several false beliefs to be true. There’s a whole lot more we haven’t even dived into yet.
We’ve got future episodes coming up. There are plenty of those as well as strategies to help back that up. What are those false beliefs that you hold onto that maybe have become the sacred cow that you’re holding dear? The second one is our limiting beliefs. What are those limiting beliefs that are keeping you from hitting that next level? This is also very common because many people get comfortable.
If you think about a thermometer, oftentimes we hit a level of comfort that we don’t turn the thermometer on or off. We leave it alone. When things get hard, this is when you might start to turn the thermostat up and say, “Let’s turn this up. We’ve got to do something about this.” Things get super easy. A lot of times, you turn it off. How do we keep that thermostat up?
Many times, people will have this limiting belief. For example, you make $50,000 a year. You’re probably going to be stuck at $50,000 a year until you get to a different mindset. I’ve seen many people increase income and then watch it come right back down to where they’re comfortable because they don’t believe they’re worthy of that much money. They don’t believe that they even make that much money.
It’s funny how many people don’t even realize what money they’re making. Even if you are making money on paper, it doesn’t mean that in reality, you feel comfortable with that amount of money. Even if you do make that amount, you will probably find a way to get rid of it to give it away or something to lose it. What are those limiting beliefs? Do you believe that you can do it?
This is my opinion. This is what happened to me. Most people get stuck at a certain income level and stay there to get. To another income level, especially if it’s double what you’re making, you have to start thinking and being like someone who makes that much money. People say, “How do I do that, Chris?” There are a few things. This comes down to number three here. One is your relationships. Who are your relationships? Who are you surrounding yourself with? Who are those people around you?
I’m not saying to be a snob and not to be friends with people that have been your friends or family members for years. What I am saying is, who do you choose to listen to? Whose philosophy or mindset do you adopt? Are you thinking and even feeling like you resonate and feel comfortable around people that make twice as much money as you? If not, you’re probably not going to make it.
If you constantly feel inferior to those people and if you constantly feel like you’re not worthy to be there or you feel like you don’t understand why they think the way they do, this is a perfect opportunity to get to know them and understand how they think to be able to do that. A great way to also do this is if you can’t be with them personally, adopt their voices into your head.
Maybe you don't see what you're missing because somebody else has to point it out to you. Click To TweetThis is where reading good books could help. This is where listening to podcasts, other audios, whether it be audiobooks or audio in general, DVDs, or whatever it might be to understand how they think and how they act. One of the great books that I read, when I was going through my worst time financially, was Never Give Up by Donald Trump. I loved hearing his perspective. I’m starting to understand it more as he went through hard times as I was going through at that time.
To hear how he would problem-solve and even how he would have this massive amount of faith to overcome some massive challenges that we do not have is interesting. Many people want more money and more wealth but they’re not willing to have stewardship over it. They will say, “I want to be blessed with that curse.” There’s crappy stuff that can come with good blessings.
Who’s got more tax problems, you or Donald Trump? Who’s got more employee issues, you or Walmart? There are so many things that you have to understand. You do have to take the good with the bad. It doesn’t mean you throw the baby out with the bath water. You still take the good but if you’re not willing to take what’s given to you and the responsibility that goes with it, you’re not going to be able to do that.
You’ve got to have a different mindset, one that’s not limited to where you are. You’ve got to surround yourself with different people, even if that means good books, audio, and things like that to get their voices in your head. You want to associate with better people in your life. Find a way to do that. That’s number three. Number 1) was false beliefs. Number 2) was limiting beliefs. Number 3) was different relationships or creating different relationships in your life. Number 4) is you lack patience.
Many people want to dig up and find out what’s beneath the surface so fast. They don’t want to wait the appropriate amount of time for blessings to come, things to happen, or results to come that they end up changing course before anything works. If you’re constantly going to and fro and constantly changing up the disciplines that would be giving you the results, you’re not going to see the results because right before they’re about to occur, you go and sabotage it. You’ve got to have patience.
I remember in 2009, right before things turned around for me. I prayed to God and said, “Heavenly Father, I know that these principles that I’ve learned are true even though the physical or tangible financial results aren’t showing up yet.” I made a commitment and said, “I don’t care if it takes 10 to 20 years or however long it takes if it takes months, years, or even a few decades. I’m going to live by these principles because I know they work. I don’t know when but I know that wherever the win is, it’s the perfect timing of when it’s supposed to happen.”
I gave up trying to set a timeframe of when I was going to fix everything because I couldn’t control everything that way. All I can control is me and my attitude. I’m not saying setting a date is not a good thing but what I did was I relaxed and said, “I’m not going to be attached to that date or those results. I’m going to keep applying these principles because I know they work.”
They did. The next month, things turned around right after that. It’s funny they hadn’t done that before. I had been doing the disciplines that were necessary to make that happen but I still had to get to a place where I said, “It’s okay. I’m going to keep living these principles. I’m going to keep on keeping on. I’m going to do what’s right and let those consequences follow.” That’s how it works.
The next thing is that you’re not taking action. Maybe you’re being impatient because you’re not doing anything. If you’re not taking action, you’re not going to get results. You can’t sit around and expect life to come to you. You can’t attract the right things but the law of the harvest still has an effect. A harvest does not equate to hard work. It doesn’t even equate to smart work. It’s doing the right work and the right things.
You vibrate at a different level and attract different things when you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing. When you feel you’re in integrity, and when you feel that you’re doing what’s right, it’s amazing how the right things tend to show up. Start to take action. Many people are stuck in a certain place. If you’re not taking action, in this case, you’re not even going up. You’re usually going down or you’re stuck. You feel like you’re stuck.
If you're not being held accountable for something, you probably won't do it. Click To TweetYou might have to work harder to get more results or the same results because you’re not taking action. Taking action requires you to do something about it. You can’t just read what I’m saying here. You have to practice it and make it a part of who you are and your daily living. This is why I do it. Here’s a great bonus for you. This has worked for me greatly. If you want to be able to master the principles that we teach, teach them to other people and find somebody. It could be your spouse, your kids, or your friends.
That’s how I started. I started talking to my friends and my spouse and saying, “This is cool. Did you know this? I don’t quite understand it but this is what my understanding is.” I would start to try to make it make sense in my mind, figure it out, and show you a deeper understanding. The next thing I know, those results start to show up. Teach it to other people.
That’s why I tell you to share this show and discuss it together because maybe you don’t see what you’re missing because somebody else has to point it out to you. Maybe it’s that good friend or that spouse that says, “This is what you’re not doing. You don’t see it.” “I don’t.” “Here it is. Don’t you see it now?” You start to get those relationships on the same page with you. A great way to build those relationships is to say, “Let’s start sharing and talking about these principles. Let’s mastermind, create together, edify one another, and build it up.”
Start doing that and make it a part of your focus to say, “Let’s discuss it this week. What was this about?” This is where the law of attention comes in. Whatever you put your attention towards expands and grows but whatever you ignore will leave you. It will atrophy and decay. Put your attention on those right things. That leads to the last one, which is taking the wrong action.
Sometimes we put our attention on the wrong things and take the wrong types of action. It’s not that we’re not taking action but we’re doing the wrong things. You might be working hard. You might even think you’re working smarter but if you’re not working right, it doesn’t matter. You have to take the right action. When most people come to me as a client, they want to know the strategies.
First, they have to understand the right principles. If you don’t understand the right principles and put your attention on those principles, it’s not going to expand and grow. You’re not going to see results, at least not the results you want but you also got to have the right strategies. That’s one thing I do differently than almost anybody. We talk about principles but strategies have got to back it up. There has to be something we should go and do.
Usually, you won’t see it yourself. Usually, you will say, “I should do this.” Even if you knew everything, the reality is that if you’re not being held accountable for it, you probably won’t do it. This is why people hire me. This is why they want me to keep them accountable because they’re saying, “Chris, I know mostly what needs to be done but I want your perspective on things and what you see that I’m not seeing at a higher level. I want to make sure I do it.”
If you have a problem with taking action or saying, “Maybe I’m not seeing something,” that’s where I come in and tell people, “If you want to figure that out, go get a free Money Leak evaluation from us.” We will waive the fee and say where you’re leaking money. That’s where you can find those kinds of things out. I tell people, “Email me. Let’s find out and see where that is but you have to make sure you’re taking the right action.”
That’s what I find in so many people’s cases. For most of the clients I work with, it’s not that they’re not taking action. They’re action takers. I love them for that. Those are my people but they were usually taking the wrong action, or because they’re so confused because of all the different advice out there, they’re not sure what action to take. They’re stuck between taking action and inaction.
“I want to move forward. I’m doing this but I’m not sure. It doesn’t feel quite right. I’m not sure if it’s the right thing. I want to do it but it doesn’t seem like anybody else is supporting me in this. I don’t feel like anybody else understands what I’m trying to do with it. They say it’s not good advice for me to do this even though I feel it’s right. Chris, what should I do?” That’s why we discuss it. I find out that a lot of times, we will validate people to say, “I support you in this. Even if every other financial person thinks you’re crazy, this is smart. Do it.”
I challenge you to find out what you need to be doing and what’s the place. It may be a combination of these six things I mentioned. Is it false beliefs that you’re holding onto? It is probably true. We all have them. Do you have a limited mindset, which we also all have as well? Where are you having a limiting mindset? Where do you need to break on through the other side as the doors say? What relationships and people do you need to surround yourself with or fill your head with?
Are you having enough patience? Are you waiting it out and doing what needs to be done? Are you taking the right action? Are you not taking action at all? What is it you need to be doing? Find that out, discover it, do it, and apply it. If I can help you, let me know as well. Shoot me an email at Chris@MoneyRipples.com if you’ve got questions. Everybody, have a great and prosperous week. Make it happen. We will see you later.