Last Updated on August 2, 2024 by Jan Barley
Do You Think It’s Odd That Lottery Winners Often Lose the Lot?
Why lottery winners go broke?
Have you ever wondered why lottery winners who scoop millions of dollars in prize money go broke? Me too, until quite recently when I discovered that it would happen to me if I didn’t make some changes.
It’s all to do with your money mindset and your financial ceiling.
Eh, what? Financial ceiling? I don’t have one of those!
Excuse me, but you probably do. I say that with authority because I would have denied it, too, until I did the following exercise.
After reading the book 10X is Better than 2X by Benjamin Hardy, I set an income goal of ten times my average income from freelance work. Considering the feast and famine of freelancing, my average was £2,500 a month (yeah, I know. Pitiful, right?).
That made my financial target £25,000 a month.
No problem, I thought. Hah!
I wrote, “I have a consistent income of £25k a month” and sat back.
What was that feeling?
Yikes! I felt uncomfortable with that amount. Genuine discomfort.
My brain began questioning me:
- How the f**k do you think you’re going to do that?
- You’ll never be able to “earn” that much money
- Do you realise how much effort that will take?
- Be more realistic. Aim for £5k. You could probably do that if you make more effort.
- Give up!
The disbelief went on.
I knew that if I didn’t change my money mindset and raise that income ceiling to “no ceiling”, I would not EVER attain such dizzy heights of income. Or, if I did, I would eventually lose most of it.
So, thank you, Dr Benjamin Hardy, but I need to do a reframe.
I started day one by writing, “I consistently have an income of £3k a month.”
Did you notice I removed the word “earn.” That’s super important because if you attach earning potential to your financial goal, you will end up exchanging time for money, working crazy hours and suffering from burnout. Use words like “have” or “create” or any word that removes the correlation with “working”, especially for someone else.
Each day, I increased the sum by £1000. It started getting uncomfortable at around £12k a month.
I then added, “I am worthy of £12k a month and much more. I am in the flow of abundance, and the money is there for me if I believe it is so.”
I had more sticking points. It took time to get comfortable with generating £25k a month. That’s OK. You have probably had this money ceiling most of your life.
My parents weren’t well off and constantly argued about money. I grew up believing that: –
- There is never enough money
- I will have enough to get by.
The trouble with those deep-rooted beliefs is they held me back from stretching to creating more income. I didn’t take risks, but I procrastinated and talked myself out of opportunities (and believed I was right to do so).
Commit to doing this exercise daily or as often as you can. In time, you will believe wealth is easily attainable without selling your soul.
Let me know what you think. What is your money ceiling?
