The Money Affirmations Experiment

Want to do an experiment with me?

Yesterday, XOJane’s Brook Bolen wrote about her experiment in saying money affirmations three times a day for a week:

At first, I felt silly even reading — much less writing and saying — things like “I am a magnet for money. Prosperity of every kind is drawn to me” because, although my expendable income has varied from none to very little throughout the course of my life, I’ve never had anything even close to financial prosperity. But as I continued along, it felt less and less silly and more reasonable — even truthful — to say and think such things.

There are a lot of problems with The Law of Attraction, including the idea that your success or failure in life depends on whether you say the magic words every day, but Brook also notices that her affirmations subtly change the way she thinks about money:

They began to feel more like statements of fact, rather than hope. The affirmation that really helped bolster my confidence and believe positive change was imminent was “I move from poverty thinking to prosperity thinking.” I looked up “poverty thinking” and learned it’s a mindset that inadvertently works to maintain poverty, because you focus on what you lack (“I can’t afford that” and “I don’t have the money for that”), as opposed to what you want.

[…]

On days two and six, I got three paid freelance writing gigs — the sum total of which is enough to make up the difference between our old house and our new one! I can’t say whether or not the affirmations caused me to get those jobs, but they did help me muster the courage to pitch them.

I’m really nervous about the concept of “a mindset that inadvertently works to maintain poverty,” but let’s agree that in this case “poverty” means “feeling stingy about your funds” and not “an entrenched system that makes it very difficult for people in lower income brackets to seek out or receive the same benefits as those in higher income brackets.”

On the other hand, even though I don’t necessarily believe in the Power of Positive Thinking, I do believe in the Unpower of Negative Thinking. If you go around all day saying “I can’t afford that, I can’t do that, I don’t have the money for that,” you’re going to start to feel pretty powerless, like life is happening around you instead of you being an active participant in your own choices. (Notice the difference between “I can’t afford that” and “I choose not to buy that, because I have other goals for my money.”)

I also believe in the Power of Going After Your Goals, e.g. “I can’t afford that right now, but what can I do to get some of that in my life?” I have done plenty of that, especially during the times in my life when I had less money. A day walking through a free nature park substitutes for a vacation in the mountains; a DVD from the library fills in for going out to the movies; thrift stores have just about everything; and chatting with friends on Facebook is free (except for the part where Facebook sucks off all your personal data for advertising purposes).

But the one thing I haven’t ever tried is saying the magic words three times a day.

So I want to do an experiment. Who here wants to say some Money Affirmations with me? We can use the affirmations Brook Bolen used (get ’em here), you can use your own affirmations, or you can use my custom-created Money Affirmation for Billfold Readers:

“I am an active participant in my own choices. I choose to know what I want and find ways to bring it into my life. I choose to be aware of the numerous ways of making money that are all around me. I choose to pursue the ways of making money that best fit the life I want. I choose to accept serendipitious ways of bringing more money into my life, such as reading blogs that include money affirmations written just for me. I choose to have big dreams for my life. Today, I choose to work towards them.”

I’ll check back with everyone next Wednesday, and we can share how our lives changed (or didn’t) during our week of Money Affirmations.

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