What Does Wealth Mean To You?

The financial app, Moneybox, recently asked its customers (myself included), what does wealth mean to you? In all honesty, when I started my coaching & hypnotherapy business for women who have been silenced by shame, I felt like charging for my service and accruing wealth off the back of other people’s problems somehow made me a bad person. Don’t worry, I see the irony of helping others let go of shame whilst feeling shame myself!

Self-Limiting Beliefs Around Being Wealthy

I’ve had to reflect on where my shame around being wealthy comes from and I realised it was multi-faceted. I’ve worked as a medical doctor in the NHS for most of my adult life and this has meant providing a service that’s free at the point of care, which very much speaks to my core value of fairness. But when I dig a little deeper, my negative beliefs around being wealthy started at a much younger age. Think of your storybook villain, Scrooge type characters hoarding wealth for themselves instead of helping others. I’ve been battling an underlying self-limiting belief that being wealthy equates to being a greedy, selfish, bad person.

If any of this resonates, you’re probably wondering, how do you remove the shame around being wealthy especially when it’s keeping you financially stuck in your business? Well, I’m by no means there yet, but for me, my starting point is to reframe how the wealth is earned and what I can do with my wealth when, and not if, I become wealthy. So, for example, instead of telling myself, ‘I’m making money off the back of other people’s problems,’ it becomes, ‘I’m being compensated for providing a service that is empowering & transformational.’

What Does Being Wealthy Give You The Opportunity To Do?

And when it comes to what I can do with my wealth, this leads me back to Moneybox’s initial question, what does wealth mean to you? Well, for me, wealth means not only having the financial security and freedom that will allow me to spend time with loved ones and do the work that I love, but it also means the ability to support causes that are important to me and to make a positive global impact. Charities that work towards ending violence against women and girls immediately come to mind.

So, in a nutshell and to finally answer your question Moneybox, what does wealth mean to me? It means the power to effect positive global change. And that’s how I remove the shame around being wealthy.