How to Create Abundance: Busting Common Myths Around Money

Executive Summary – How to Create Abundance?

In our modern world, access to money plays a big part in how we create and perceive abundance. We will explore this subject in three separate parts. In the first part, we look at debunking a few unhelpful and even damaging myths around money. So, before we learn how to create abundance, let us start by understanding what is the meaning of abundance.

Here is an audio version of “How to Create Abundance – Busting Common Myths Around Money”, narrated by the author, Rohini Rathour.

What is Abundance?

Abundance is not about having more than you need at all times. It is about never going without when you are in need. As subtle as the difference might be in those two statements, it makes a big difference to how we live and our perception of plenty. 

Abundance is about access without outright ownership. Abundance creates win-win scenarios that stem from openness and value creation. It involves co-operation and collaboration. Even when there is competition, it is welcomed because it raises the bar for everyone and creates further abundance.

It’s the difference between having a big warehouse full of grain that only you can access at will vs. having access to grain alongside others any time you want.

This very same attitude applies to money. Before there was money, there was barter: an exchange of value based on a symbiotic give and take, based on supply and demand. Those same basic principles of supply and demand still apply and are the basis on which pricing occurs. But money – how we create it, how we perceive it and how we use it – has become far more complex.

5 Common Myths Around Money

Before you can create abundance in your life, there are five commonly held myths around money you need to get familiar with:

1. Money is scarce

This is a mindset we often grow up with when money is genuinely limited and every expense needed to be carefully considered. I remember being told money doesn’t grow on trees and that it was important to save for a rainy day. I agree with both of those sentiments, and it is never a good idea to live beyond your means. However, I want to point out that there is plenty of money out there, and new wealth is being created every minute of every day, including by Central Banks whose job it is to ensure that there is enough money circulating through the economy.

2. Money is the root of all evil

This myth around money is generally, and unsurprisingly, espoused by those who don’t have a lot of it. It feels like both an excuse to not aspire to greater affluence and a way to feel better about not having any. It is often the stomping ground of any argument that supports socialism in favour of capitalism. 

Money is neither good nor evil. It is simply a tool for exchange of value. And like any other tool, it can be used to create something of value or to destroy. A hammer in the hands of a builder has a very different purpose to one wielded by a crazed maniac.

3. You have to work hard to make money

Don’t get me wrong; working hard is a virtue, but it won’t necessarily bring you riches. If that were true, much of world’s poverty would be eradicated. Those manual labourers who work themselves into the ground would be millionaires. What matters is the value that is created as a result of the work.

This may not appear to be true if you are in a job that pays you by the hour for the time you spend in it. However, even in such a job, you won’t get promoted or make progress unless you can demonstrate the value you create beyond what you are already being paid.

4. Your wealth and worth are connected to your earnings

This tiresome money myth has become a bane of our lives. There are two parts to it.

Wealth

The first aspect of this money myth relates to wealth. Wealth is an accumulation of value that includes actual cash, physical assets such as property, jewellery, financial assets such as shares and intangible assets such as brand value. It is possible to very wealthy and still be cash poor. You could be living in an inherited family home that is worth millions, and yet have no money to spend even on your basic necessities. Conversely, you could be earning millions and spending it all on luxuries and other goods of no lasting value. There are many examples of people who seem rich on the surface who are in fact in so much debt that when it is all added up, they owe more than they own.

Your Worth

Second, your worth. Generally, when people talk about what someone is worth, they are referring to your net wealth.  But we are worth so much more than that which money can buy. So much of the value we bring into our life and that of others can never be measured in terms of money. The intangible things such as joy, peace of mind, love and compassion are more precious because they are priceless. 

5. Time is money

This is one of the most common myths around money perpetuated by busy people. And there are entire industries created around charging customers for their time. In reality, what we are buying is not their time, but rather their expertise that in turn creates value for us. 

Time itself is far more precious than money. Money can be earned, saved, replaced and substituted. Time on the other hand is a gift handed to every one of us at birth. A gift that starts to irreversibly ebb away from the instant we are granted it. And we never know how much of it we are left with at any given moment in time.

Time is our most precious resource, and yet we often take it for granted and waste it. Everything changes the instant you see that money is abundant but your time is scarce, not the other way around.

How to Create Abundance – The First Step

The first step to creating abundance is to acknowledge the role money plays in your life. What myths are you consciously and subconsciously adopting that are stopping you from living an abundant life?

As a first step, unlock your money story to open the door to a more affluent way of living. If you’d like to receive a free money mindset quiz, email me.

In my next think piece, we will explore how to think about time and make the most of the time we have left.

Other articles of the four part series on Abundance by Rohini Rathour

How to Create Abundance: The Gift of Time

How to Create Abundance: Make Money Work For You (Part 3)

An Abundant Life: Assess Value For Money and Create Goodwill

Editor’s Note

We hope you enjoyed reading about how to create abundance – Busting 5 myths around money. You may also want to read – how to deal with adversity by Rohini as this will help you to shift your locus of control. You can start taking action right away and overcome confusion, if any.

About The Author

Rohini Rathour is a leadership coach and mentor, helping visionary leaders to lead with courage and compassion. She helps individuals become more self-aware, deepen self-belief and exercise greater self-control. She is also an author and a well regarded public speaker.

Rohini brings into her coaching her love of simplicity, compassionate empathy and a strong foundation of business knowledge and financial markets. You can reach out to her for a conversation that may just change how you see yourself and your life.