Do money affirmations really work and how long does it take? They really do work but it is not a quick fix and for most people it takes at least 3 months to start seeing any benefit from it.
Do you have a big goal of manifesting “lots of” money and be rich? You’ve probably read about many law of attraction techniques and undoubtedly came across the importance of affirmation. But, do money affirmations really work?
Can the repetition of certain phrases really hold the key to turning your financial life around?
I think the practice of affirmations is probably the most abused by so-called success coaches who often present affirmations as a silver bullet solution to creating financial abundance.
Money is an incredibly emotional subject for most people. This emotional connection to money is also one of the key reasons why some people have more than enough while others struggle with it all their lives.
Our beliefs about money and finances are what controls and dictate most of our decisions and actions regarding finances.
As if that’s not enough to mess up any person’s finances, there is a far more influential aspect to your money beliefs, and this more than anything dictates your financial position and how you “are” with money.
Your beliefs dictate how you think and feel about money.
We know from the law of attraction that what you think and feel is what will determine what you attract into your life.
If you are not attracting the financial abundance that you desire then you need not look much further than your own beliefs about money.
Your beliefs contain your money blueprint and if you want to change anything about your relationship with money you have to focus on your beliefs.
This is where affirmations come in.
What Is An Affirmation And How Does It Work
Affirmations are positive statements that are designed to change the way you think and feel about something. In this case, it is money but affirmations work in any area of your life.
Our minds have three aspects that make up our consciousness. We have a conscious, subconscious, and a superconscious mind.
These are not separate minds but rather different aspects of the same mind.
Your conscious mind is your thinking mind. It is what you can control through your will power and your conscious and deliberate efforts.
Your subconscious mind is responsible for all the millions of bodily and mental functions that you are not consciously aware of.
If you accept a limiting belief, then it will become a truth for you.
– Louise Hay
The subconscious mind is incredibly powerful and can compute millions of complex events while the conscious mind can only really focus on one thing at a time.
The subconscious mind works through associations. It allows you to function at a high level without having to consciously figure everything out every time.
Your subconscious mind has “stored” the idea that something hot will burn you. That way you can avoid it without having to experience it every time.
The challenge is that the subconscious mind often links up meanings to experiences that are simply not true. You see your parents fight about money and your subconscious mind links up that money equals arguments and that it is bad.
These beliefs that are designed to help us be more efficient can control and dictate most of our thinking – even if it is not true and even if you did not consciously choose it.
Most of your money beliefs are firmly established by the time you are 7 years old.
Changing the way you think and feel about money can be very tough because most of us have lived a large portion of our loves with these negative beliefs about money.
Beliefs tend to only get stringer and your life experiences that are lived through these beliefs will serve as “evidence” to strengthen the belief.
If you inherited the belief from your parents that rich people are dishonest then you will find a lot of evidence of that and each time you see it your belief will be re-inforced.
To change the way you think and feel about the money you need to change these beliefs and that is the main reason for using money affirmations.
The first challenge is to identify your limiting beliefs about money.
Limiting Beliefs About Money
It goes without saying but you can not change something if you do not know what it is. Identifying your own limiting beliefs about money is not always that easy.
For most of us, it is so ingrained into how we think that we are not even aware of it. It often takes a lot of soul searching and a lot of inner work to uncover your deeper beliefs about money.
Most of the time you can uncover these beliefs by thinking back at what you constantly hear or saw when you were growing up.
Here are a few common negative beliefs about money that are rampant in our western way of thinking.
- Having a lot of money is not spiritual
- Money corrupts (people)
- Rich people are greedy and dishonest
- Making money is tough and takes a lot of hard work
- To make a lot of money you need to do something you don’t really like
- You have to save for a rainy day
- Money is the root of all evil
Most negative beliefs about money are rooted in the idea that you do not deserve to be rich and abundant.
You are as worthy and deserving of wealth as anyone else. NOBODY is more special or more anything than you that entitles them to money and not you.
Learning too soon our limitations, we never learn our powers.
– Mignon McLaughlin
You need to really understand that concept and drill it into your mind. This entire universe operates by law – not by chance or by random favors.
There’s no old man up in the sky who decides who gets what. It is an absurd idea.
If you correct your mind and align your thinking with abundance and prosperity you too can have as much financial success as you want.
How Long Do Affirmations Take to Work?
Affirmations are not a quick-fix technique. When it comes to changing habits and habitual thinking it can be very hard to break these life-long habits.
The vast majority of books that talk about affirmations suggests that it takes about 3 months of dedicated use for affirmations to work.
This is based on personal experience and the experience of numerous coaches and clients who actually see real and definite results from the dedicated use of affirmations.
That is hardly a scientific answer though. In his book Psycho Cybernetics, Maxwell Maltz suggested that it takes 21 days to change a ‘mental habit’.
The 21 days where based on the results he saw from his own patients that used his Psycho Cybernetics techniques.
More recent studies however suggested that it takes an average of 66 days to break a habit. While that is the average, it varied greatly within a group and some took just 18 days while others took 250 days.
This is much more in line with the suggested 3 months. If you use affirmations correctly and really stick with it in a dedicated and enthusiastic way then you should start seeing results after about 3 months.
The Purpose Of Money Affirmations
If it is your thinking and your beliefs that prevent you from attracting what you need to create the wealth that you desire then we need to really focus on changing these beliefs.
But how do you wipe out a lifetime of thinking in a certain way?
Most people believe that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but that is just not true. If you have a big enough stick and a big enough carrot you can change anything.
If you have a burning desire to get rich then you have checked the first box. If having a lot of money is something that would be “nice” then you are not in the right frame of mind yet.
Do money affirmations really work if you are desperate for money? No. There is a big difference between having a burning desire for more money and being desperate for it.
Desperation comes from fear. A burning desire comes from love.
Understanding WHY you want more money almost never boils down to a self-serving goal. It is almost always because you want to give and share with family, friends, or those in need.
Knowing WHY you want to create wealth and abundance is often the fuel needed to create change.
Money affirmations work but they only work if you work them.
Beliefs can be very powerful and can be deeply ingrained in our minds. Changing these beliefs is often not as simple as just reciting a few affirmations every day.
The main purpose of affirmations is not to attract anything into your life. The main purpose of affirmations is to start changing the way you think.
As you start changing the way you think about money, you will start seeing things differently. This in turn will start to make you feel differently about money and this fuels a process that gradually starts building new beliefs.
Changing Your Limiting Beliefs About Money
Carl Jung famously said that “what you resist persists” and this is very true when it comes to addressing your money beliefs.
Trying to “wipe out” or change limiting beliefs about money is quite a task. Most people are unsuccessful at it. While it is possible through hypnotherapy and a lot of inner work it is not recommended.
The more energy you give to the negative belief the more you will strengthen it.
The way to effortlessly change a limiting belief is not to try and change it at all.
It is far easier and far more effective to work on “installing” new beliefs and as these new beliefs become more dominant the old beliefs will start to fade into the background.
Do money affirmations really work at trying to erase limiting beliefs about money? No, they rarely do and most of the time they only reinforce the limiting ideas.
The 3 Biggest Mistakes With Money Affirmations
I see so many articles online about “the best money affirmations”. I think the worse thing you can do is to go online and download a list of money affirmatiuons and start using them.
While this could be a great way to help you to start thinking more positively about money, it rarely will.
Just because a money affirmation sounds cute or sexy does not mean it is effective for YOU.
Here are the 3 biggest mistakes I see people make with money affirmations.
1. The Affirmation Will “Do It” For You
An affirmation in itself means nothing. Its just random words and repeating it has no real power. Just because you repeat a bunch of words does not mean you will attract wealth.
The law of attraction does not respond to the words you use. While the words you use can be powerful in building images in your mind, the words themselves has no power to attract anything into your life.
The idea that some phrases or affirmations will invoke the law of attraction is complete BS and I would urge you to avoid anyone or anything that promise such results from affirmations.
2. Meaningless Affirmations
If you download a list of affirmations from your favourite self-help guru and start repeating it 3 times a day you may run out of steam well before anything inyour life changes.
The reason is simple. If the affirmation(s) has no real meaning in your life it has no power to change your thinking and your beliefs.
It becomes dull and meaningless repetitions that you tend to just ramble off to make yourself feel like you are doing something about your financial goals and desires.
Worse still, these affirmations often have an opposite effect. It serves to remind you of your lack and the shortage of money in your life.
If you affirm “I am rich and wealthy beyond measure” your subconscious mind responds by saying “NO! Who are you kidding!?”
Instead of helping your mind shift on to thoughts and images of wealth and prosperity, your mind shift to what’s missing from your life.
3. Vague Ideas
Most affirmations that sound sexy are actually worthless. Affirmations that are vague ideas really can not help your mind in any way.
Always remember that an affirmation is a vehicle. It’s only use is to help you “transport” your thought from what you don’t want to that which you do want.
A powerful and effective affirmation is specific (to you), emotional and stated in a present tense as if it is already present and part of your life.
Let’s take our earlier example “I am rich and wealthy beyond measure” or another popular one “every day in every way I am getting wealthier and wealthier”.
These sorts of affirmations are utterly useless. They are too vague and has no power to move you emotionally.
When you use emotionally loaded words that address very specific issues or results and affirm it as a present reality then you start creating real change.
How To Make Money Affirmations Work Better
Importance of language – words create images. The mind responds to your words and simply takes it as commands from the upper management (that’s you).
You may not realize it but you are already using affirmations all the time. The problem is that you are affirming what you don’t want. You look at your bank balance and you say to yourself that you are broke.
Most of us have habitual responses and the conversations we have with ourselves are loaded with affirmations that serve to re-inforce what we don’t want to attract or manifest.
Affirmations That Address YOUR limiting beliefs
Once you’ve identified your limiting beliefs you can start to work on new and more powerful ideas and beliefs.
Don’t try and build money affirmations that break down these old beliefs. Instead, focus on creating new and exciting affirmations that that can help you move beyond the old limiting beliefs.
If your limiting belief was “rich people are dishonest” then don’t make an affirmation that says “rich people are NOT dishonest”.
Instead come up with something that excites you and moves you into a new way of thinking. Something like: Money is good and brings out the very best in good and honest people.
I choose to be rich and see myself enjoying my $1mil/year income and making the world a better place.
Affirmations That Are Specific
We already touched on this but if your affirmations are vague then your results will be vague. Decoide exactly what you want and affirm it.
Specific affirmations give clear and direct instructions to your mind. Your mind can not change or create anything without crystal clear instructions.
Affirmations That Are Personal and Present Tense
Don’t copy and paste other people’s affirmations. Come up with your own. Use words and language that is “you” and that speak to how you think and feel.
Avoid language that projects the accomplishment of your money goal into the future. Always affirm it ion the present tense – as if you already have it.
Affirmations That Emotional and Exciting
Words have the power to move us emotionally. When you use exciting language that is filled with emotionally charged words your mind is far more likely to respond.
Just think about all the negative affirmations you make all the time. It is usually filled with language that makes you feel even worse.
Affirmations That Build Images
Most people try really hard to visualize their success and have trouble doing it. It is much easier to use affirmations! Words have the power to automatically create images in your mind.
If I say to myself that “I now see myself sitting in my brand new BMW Z3 convertible” it automatically creates the image in your mind – especially if you’ve been for a test drive and know the experience first hand.
Affirmations That Are Effectively Repetition
There is a saying that repetition is the mother of skill. We learn through repetition and that is how your beliefs get installed in the first place.
To really ingrain your money affirmations into your subconscious mind you have to repeat them – a lot! And with feeling and with a present mind.
Don’t let it become dull repetitions that you just recite because you feel like you have to.
Affirmations That Inspires Congruence
Spending 10 minutes on your affirmations and then going out only to do the exact opposite of what you affirmed is defeating the purpose of affirmations.
You need to make a conscious and deliberate effort to be congruent with your affirmations.
You need to start paying attention to your thoughts, your words and your actions and make a deliberate effort top be congruent with what you want to be or want to change.
Affirmations That NEVER Use “Qualifiers”
The absolute worse affirmations you can have is anything that is qualified by words like “don’t” or “not”.
I don’t want to be broke anymore. I am not spending everything I earn anymore. Etc.
Your subconscious mind does not reason. It simply responds and words like don’t or not has no meaning. Your subconscious mind simply hears “be broke” and “spend everything you earn”.
Focus your money affirmations ONLY on what you DO want.
Affirmations That NEVER Affirm “Effects”
Bob Proctor says that most people do not think. They simply respond. Something happens in your life and you respond/react. This response is usually a knee-jerk reaction to a simulus that you have responded to before.
If you really think then you can respond with power because you are present and see the situation for what it really is.
Everything that is in your life right now and everything that you are currently attracting into your life is the result of past thoughts and actions.
To change what you attract in the future you need to stop reacting and replicating past patterns.
Most people sp[end all their time making affirmations about what they see in their lives. It is mostly silent and internal conversations but dwelling on what is going on in your life is nothing more than affirmations of “what IS”.
Do Money Affirmations Really Work – Conclusion
If you made it all the way to the end of this article you would have noticed that I did not suggest or recommend a single money affirmation.
I believe that the most powerful affirmations are the ones you come up with. We all have truly unique issues in our lives. While we share common problems, you and only you know what your real issues are.
Money affirmations really dow work but work mediocre at best if they are not deeply personal or fail to address your limiting beliefs.
Christie Marie Sheldon has probably the best program on clearing abundance blocks. After more than 50,000 one-on-one clients she came to the conclusion that even just one belief can block you entirely from allowing the abundance you desire.
Often times the beliefs and inner blocks you have to abundance and prosperity also hold you back in other areas of your life.
Money affirmations really work but only if you work them. It is not a quick-fix strategy but one that definitely works. Now go to work and do the important work in your life which is working on yourself.