Is it really possible to think your way to being rich?
The law of attraction would have you believe so and all those success books tell you that all you have to do is think like a rich person and wealth will come trundling in.
So basically your head determines your wealth.
There’s a part of me that would like to believe that. I could just have a few new thoughts and suddenly I’d be an overnight success.
But our relationship to money is more complicated than you’d think. We make some crazy choices and do some strange things when it comes to money.
We’d drive for half an hour to save $1 on a stapler but wouldn’t drive the same to save $1 on a TV. If we dropped a movie ticket we wouldn’t buy another but if we dropped $20 we’d still buy the movie ticket even though the cost is roughly the same. Neither of these choices make sense from a logical point of view.
So we have these little financial decisions that are being driven by something other than logic. Imagine what other strange choices we might be making on the bigger things. Bigger things that could seriously affect our wealth.
And that’s not all. Our brain structure (which is separate from our thinking) also has a say in our relationship with money and how wealthy we could be. Some of us are more sensitive to punishment and others more sensitive to reward.
If you’re reward sensitive you’re more likely to spend because it feels good now to have that nice dress or shirt. You’re also more likely to take risks which can result in either great successes or great losses. And you’re less likely to think about the future.
If you’re punishment sensitive you’re more likely to save because you’re more likely to think about the punishing qualities of spending, like not having enough for the future or not being able to pay for something important.
There’s also a structure in the brain that likes to keep us flying at our known altitude. Too much change and we’ll do things to sabotage ourselves. So for some of us the idea of moving from doing ok to wildly wealthy could be too different and we could stuff it up wildly.
So, if you want to think yourself rich (like I do) you’ll have to find a way to override all of these (and more) tricky little things.
If you find a way let me know. If I find a way I’ll be emailing you from my yacht 🙂
