“It’s not what we don’t know that prevents
us from succeeding; it’s what we know that
just ain’t so that is our greatest obstacle.”

Josh Billings

I was quietly reading a very good book the other day when this quote jumped out in front of me and hit me squarely between the eyes. I have been studying the human psyche, success and self-esteem for years, and I am very familiar with the current theories. But my knowledge was all intellectual; all in my head. For some reason this quote finally resonated with my heart, my true feelings, and everything has fallen into place.

I will admit, I was one of those people who thought the more degrees and certifications you got, the more you were guaranteed financial security and success. Well, after receiving several of both I still wasn’t even close to the level of success I was striving for. I kept telling myself that just one more certification or degree would do it. But I’d get that “one more” and nothing would change. Now, I’m not knocking education; I think education is incredibly valuable. But, I finally realized that education is only one leg of the success stool, and we all know a stool will not stand on one leg alone.

I knew there was more to the financial success formula, but it just seemed so wishy washy. I couldn’t put a finger on what was missing from my formula and that of millions of other people around the country. That is when this quote and the book I was reading really hit home.

I have written before about inner beliefs and reprogramming the mind and how that can change levels of happiness, but I hadn’t wrapped it all together with the level of financial success. I finally realized that success won’t bring you happiness, but that happiness is a vital part of success, and happiness is closely entwined with inner beliefs.

If you think about computers, you know that a computer doesn’t operate by itself. It needs a program, essentially lines of code, to tell it how to interpret what you are asking it to do. Likewise, your inner beliefs are the result of the “programming” you received throughout your life, especially when you were young. This programming was downloaded from multiple sources around you, your family, friends, society, TV, religion, culture, etc., and your “programming” has been interpreting everything you have encountered throughout your life.

The problem with your programming is that there is no fact checking; your internal hard drive (your mind) just accepts what it is given without question. Many times that happens before we are even old enough to have the ability to reason or decide whether or not we agree with the programming.

One thing to remember, most of the time we were not given bad programming on purpose. Many times bad programming develops over generations; your parents got if from their parents, who got it from their parents, etc. Often the programming, even though not correct, was passed on because it was thought it would “protect” you and keep you from some kind of harm. Again, this was not done in spite, it was done with your best interest in mind, even though it ended up being a detriment to you.

Now the question is, what if the programming you received wasn’t correct? What if you received programming with “bugs” in it? As with software with bugs, your results or interpretations of the events in your life would be skewed or incorrect. This could explain why you have not been able to achieve the goals you have been working towards. This may be the answer to why you just can’t seem to get where you want to go.

So what can you do about it? First, you have to know what the “bugs” are. The best way to know what’s on the inside is to take a look at the outside. Do you have any recurring negative patterns? Are they similar to your family’s or friends’ patterns? Maybe similar to cultural or religious beliefs you were raised with? Maybe you have deeply held beliefs and emotions that are conflicting with what you want in life?

This may take some time to figure out so be patient. Keep a journal and spend time each day looking at your current results and see if they correspond with other connections in your life. Remember, the people who passed these beliefs on to you most likely thought they were protecting you from harm, so there is no reason to feel resentment or anger.

As you begin to identify the “bugs” in your software you can reprogram them. Decide what you would rather believe, and every time the “bug” comes up, replace it with your new belief. Be consistent and soon the old programming will be gone and the new programming will take its place.

This is a great place to start. I will continue exploring belief systems and how they affect our financial and overall success and will share that with you in future newsletters. My goal is for all of us to finally break free of our bugged programming and live the life of our dreams.

By the way, if you are interested in the book I was reading, it is called Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker. The book goes into great detail on changing your inner game so that you can achieve your goals.