Money is the root of all evil…or is it?

Do you remember a song that said “Money is the root of all evil?” If so, what did you learn from it? And can what you learned be unlearned?

My father would only drive a Mercedes Benz. Every morning he would drive me to school. As we drove past the villagers who were walking to school, I would sink lower into the back seat of the Mercedes. I could feel their eyes staring at us. This was one of a litany of factors that contributed to my unhealthy mindset around money.

My mother’s critical attitude towards money also played a huge part in giving me a deep-seated shame around having it. I can still hear her voice in my head singing that song….but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Recently I took up Su Doku puzzles. The jury is still out on whether I enjoy them or not. Sometimes they are too easy. And sometimes they are hard and take ages. I think it depends on how much sleep I’ve had.

The other day I was frustrated as I was completely stuck on one. I kept staring at it and couldn’t see what I was missing. So I looked online and found some videos on Su Doku techniques. When I went back to that puzzle I was able to complete it with ease.

It reminded me that we can learn anything we want by finding out what techniques to use.

If you are an entrepreneur and you love what you do but don’t enjoy sales, the chances are that you just haven’t learned how to do them yet. You can learn sales skills and with practice you will improve. Then when it feels easier, you probably won’t hate sales so much! You can also unlearn your dislike of sales. You might even start to enjoy the process!

Many heart centred entrepreneurs feel a calling to provide their services, but have trouble charging for them. This is often referred to having an unhealthy money mindset.

In the same way that skills can be learned or unlearned, our old mindsets can be unlearned and new ones put in their place.

When I experienced some coaching and hypnosis about my money mindset, I came to some useful insights. First of all, I regularly drive my car to the supermarket to buy food. I am not remotely ashamed of this. It is completely normal. Neither am I ashamed of buying clothes for myself or my family members. Nor of going to Jamaica to help look after the residents at Missionaries of the Poor. All of these things require money.

Money is just a tool, similar to a knife and fork for putting food in your mouth. It is not evil in itself. On the contrary, it can be used to create an endless list of good things that are helpful to society. Money is no more the root of all evil than cutlery is to blame for all gluttony. Every time that song “Money is the root of all evil” comes into my head I replace it with “Money is a helpful tool for doing good.”

And look how pretty our Cayman Islands money is.