Many think that just by thinking positively that it will help them make money. This is just really the first step. What it really requires is changing your beliefs about money.
To Change your beliefs about money requires the understanding of how beliefs are formed, questioning your beliefs and changing your perspective through the process.
The process for me has been quite painful and I also recommend that you work with a good therapist or life coach. I have both and a supervisor and a peer group that I meet with regularly.
The thing about money is that it is just money. The problem is really that we tend to attach so man emotions to it and equate it to our own self worth. Massage therapists have a tendency to say things like “It is not about the money” or not need much in the way of money.
Steve Capalleni talks about this in his book “Making the Switch to Being Rich
“. If you haven’t heard of Steve -he is one of the prominent leaders in the spa industry and has written on spa therapies and working in spas. In his book he talks about how massage therapists become massage therapists to keep themselves in the moneyless bubble. They think that being a massage therapist is more about helping people than making money and often wonder how they can charge for something so loving and caring. We keep proving over and over again that we can’t make a lot of money and then defend the position of having no money by saying we are doing more good than anything. He says “if there is an entire group of people who are almost all inside the moneyless bubble, it’s massage therapists”
Where beliefs about money come from.
Beliefs are formed at an early age. Beliefs are really just the opinions of others that are handed down to us by our families and in school. The whole grading system and having to do good and not be wrong in school instills fear of making mistakes. The most common belief that people have about money is that money is the root of all evil. You can tell what your belief is about money when you think about people who have a lot of money. Do you feel jealous of someone driving a Mercedes or even a Bentley? Do you wonder what they had to do to get that? Do you think that they must have had to sell their soul to get it or that they are greedy or doing something like taking advantage of people to get that kind of money?
Your beliefs can be found in your feelings and reactions to the world around you. Since most of our beliefs are really unconscious because they have become so ingrained in our brains and bodies, feelings are the only way to get to them. Whenever you are feeling anything but love or joy you can know you are buying into an old belief that just isn’t true. It does sort of bend your mind to start thinking like that. It is sort of ironic that the whole field of being a massage therapist is based on feeling. You can learn whatever technique or special type of massage and the only thing the client will know is how it feels to them. The don’t care if it is myofacial release, cranio-sacral therapy or effleurage. They just know how it feels.
There are so many other beliefs attached to making money. We think money will provide us financial security. It won’t. I know people who are multi-millionaires and they can’t sleep at night because they worry they don’t have enough. We think money will bring us freedom. You can have a ton of money to do what you want when you want or you can have no money at all and be a beach bum and have all the freedom you want. The other motivation for making money is Power. You can be like Donald Trump and Mother Theresa – yes Mother Theresa was all about power. She basically ran the richest church in the world. Some people look to money to feel loved or get love. Someone who does is the massage therapist who charges less than they need to make or doesn’t charge for no-shows or last minute cancellations. Instead of setting boundaries around money, they feel that it is more important to be nice to people and let them slide and they incur the loss of income.
Beliefs about money are also seen in things like how you promote your massage business or not. People can easily blame their lack of success in getting clients on the economy being down. While yes the economy is struggling, it doesn’t mean that you have to be struggling. It is easier to blame the economy than to take responsibility and do whatever is needed to get the clients that you need. Do you have a website that is at the top of Google for your keywords -massage, your city? Do you have a network of other caregivers that refer to you? Just doing one mailing to 100 people and not getting any response does not mean anything. Do the same mailing once a week and keep changing the wording until it works and send it to targeted potential clients until it does work.
Teach classes to groups of lay people on massage – like for couples or friends or co-workers. Offer free classes at your church or other group. Go out into the community and give and you will soon find yourself on the receiving end. The struggling economy only means you have to do things differently and start finding things to do to get the clients that you need. It isn’t easy and it takes also planning financially to start a business. Do you have enough in the bank to live for a few years before you start your business?
Tools for changing your beliefs.
The biggest thing that I think helped me start changing my beliefs was learning that my feelings are really the key to figuring them out. Your feelings tell you what you are unconsciously thinking. So since you can’t really know because it is unconscious – you can start asking -”What would someone be thinking that had that in their life”. Just start guessing.
The other part of this is that while you can’t really change your feelings – you can change your thinking. Figure out what you can do to start changing the feelings. Esther Hicks has a great explanation in one of her books The Astonishing Power of Emotions: Let Your Feelings Be Your Guide
Your emotions are what indicate the difference between what you desire and your belief or your expectations around whatever it is that you are struggling with. Your emotions tell you that you are moving away from your desires. Your emotions are your guidance system to understanding why you are getting the results you are getting.
It takes much more than a few blog posts to really get this. I read and studied and worked with a financial counselor to start challenging my beliefs about money and success. It is still an ongoing process and always will be. The more conscious you become about one thing it has a way of bringing up things in other areas and you can also see deeper aspects in the same area.
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Julie, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being a model. Like many, I’m a good massage therapist but I struggle to stay busy in my practice. It’s happening slowly but I’m starting to make some positive changes. Thanks for helping to point the way. – Alice