Money…it’s a word that brings up a lot of different things for different people. And, everyone who has any kind of relationship with money, has a story about it that’s showing up in their lives.

Previously, I posted about everyone having a story to tell, one that each of us has written and that we live out in our lives on a daily basis. One chapter of that story does involve money.

Over the course of the past few weeks, I’ve become aware of a pattern involving my clients, one that involves money.

A few of them are telling their money stories in their lives right now, as each of these individuals is a holistic practitioner who wants to make what they do their livelihood.

The challenge each is experiencing is that they aren’t making the money they would like doing what they love to do.

Recently, I’ve been giving to clients, such as these holistic entrepreneurs, the assignment of writing their money story. The exercise is the same as the “What’s your story?” exercise, however the emphasis is on money.

I ask the person doing the assignment to write about their first experience that revolved around money. I ask to include what their parents told them or modeled for them that centered around money.

Examples of Money Stories

For them, the exercise proved to be illuminating. For example, one practitioner commented, in her money story, that, as a child, she witnessed her father’s unscrupulous business practices with others, cheating them out of money.

She realized, as a result of the exercise, that she struggles with making her business a success financially, because she equates being in business with having to be unscrupulous, and cheating people out of money.

To counter this, she undercharges her clients for her services.

Another shared that her parents could not handle money, and she, as a child, had the fortitude to create a budget and put them on it, because they were in a lot of debt.

Her parents stuck to the budget, and were able to pay off their debts.

Instead of celebrating the fact that she was able to solve a problem with a method she created, she internalized her parents’ money story by only buying what she needs in life, never the things she wants.

She would feel guilty, as she was reliving the memory of hearing her parents discussing how they couldn’t afford to buy her the things they felt she needed, which was the first time she experienced guilt that revolved around money.

My Own Money Story

I had my own money story. My first recollection having to do with money involved wanting to buy a book.

As a child, I was in love with books, always having my nose in one (some things do not change). My favorite place to hang out was a store in the Middlesex Mall called the Paperback Booksmith, in my native New Jersey.

I asked my mother for the money to buy a book that I saw at the Paperback Booksmith, and she replied with this question: “What are you willing to do to earn the money for it?”

I can’t recall the chore or task she gave me to do, but I did get the money to buy the book.

What that exchange taught me was that no one gives you money for anything; there’s some condition that has to be met.

It taught me something else, something that I didn’t realize until recently, especially now that I’m self-employed. I realized that I’d been living out the belief that I had to do work that I didn’t particularly enjoy to make money, that I couldn’t make money doing work that I loved to do.

That particular belief showed up in my life again when I was in high school. I wanted to go on, after high school, to a school that taught cartooning so I could break into the comic book industry.

My mother, well-intentioned as she was, questioned this, and suggested I consider something more “practical.” I took this in, and subconsciously worked that dream right out of my life.

When I was working in my retail job, I lived out, on a daily basis, the belief that I had to work hard at a job I didn’t love (and some days didn’t like all too much either) to make money.

When I started my work as an intuitive consultant years ago, I would tell people who would ask how business was going, that it was “cyclical,” and that I couldn’t steadily make money doing the work I actually enjoyed doing. I changed that belief, and now steadily earn income doing work that I love to do.

Over to You

In closing, the intention of doing the money story exercise is to get you to see what beliefs you’re holding about money, and how those beliefs may be hindering you in creating the life you want to live.

Once you’re aware of those beliefs, and how they’re operating in your life, you can get to work on improving your relationship with money, and telling a new money story.

So…what’s your money story?

Your partner and storyteller,