It would have to be one of the most desired tangibles in the world today, and often the most elusive. We can’t live without it and yet the desire for it is the source of much guilt and the lack of it brings so much despair. What is it you ask?

That’s right, it’s MONEY!

Turn on your computer, look at your Facebook timeline – practically everywhere you look online you’ll find someone willing to teach you the secrets of manifesting money, for a fee. It seems that making money online is either all about making the law of attraction work for you (by delivering a missing secret) or about teaching you how to make money online. It’s absurd!

I don’t doubt the validity of the Law of Attraction – I have seen it working first hand in my own life.

But to me, the key to creating a life of your own design is not about looking for the missing link in manifesting, it is something you are already doing and already have access to change.

Firstly it’s about understanding how you create your world.

Take a look around you. Do you like what you see? You enjoy some of it but other aspects of your life bring you down or make you downright frustrated, right?

Do you know that everything you have in your life right now – the good and the bad – are products of your own mind, creations that you delivered to yourself?

How did you do that?

You have desire, sure, desire for a better way of life – perhaps a better car, a better house, even a better relationship. But desire alone won’t do it for you.

You have been chanting your affirmations religiously, writing them down every evening before bed, taping them to your fridge or computer where you will see them every day.

You may be taking the ‘right’ actions towards gaining what you want the most, but it somehow eludes you – just as you are about to realize your dreams some unforeseen circumstance snatches it from under your nose!

And the funny thing is, you have been doing these actions for a very long time without the results you hope for, and yet, in the absence of anything better to do, you keep swinging the bat, hoping eventually to strike a home run.

Well it’s a fact that your beliefs are the keys to manifesting whatever you want in your life and removing whatever you don’t want.

What are beliefs?

Beliefs are statements about the world that you repeat to yourself over and over and over again so that, over time, their veracity becomes unchallengeable in your mind. They mostly are programs installed from a young age by parents, teachers, family and friends – people that picked up their own beliefs in the same way as you.

Our beliefs are so ingrained that we don’t really consciously know any more how they came to be – we just know that they are so, and yet they are the cause of so many conflicts in the world, especially when one person or group’s belief system does not agree with someone else’s. We are so damned sure that we are right that the other person whose beliefs don’t agree with ours must be misguided.

The first step to changing your programs about anything in your life – including your beliefs about money – is to understand that belief systems are not the absolute truth. They are systems that allow us to co-exist by providing agreed structures about how the world works. Within the system that they operate, they provide certainty and safety. That is fine as far as it goes, but when you venture out into the world you are going to find a whole lot of other beliefs that don’t agree with yours.

This is contrast – and contrast is great to help you decide what you prefer, what you desire for yourself.

Once you understand that beliefs aren’t set in stone and actually can be questioned, then you are on your way to discovering what your true beliefs are and whether you prefer to change them – which you may want to do if you discover they are getting in the way of achieving your desires.

It is important to understand how strong our money programs are that were installed when we were young – we may not consciously agree with the things we were taught and yet on an unconscious level, we are sold – hook, line and sinker.

Have you ever had money come in that was more than you expected, or thought you deserved? What did you do with it? Did you save it, pay off bills, give it away or spend it as quickly as you could?

[Tweet “What you do when you have more money than usual is a useful clue as to what your money programs are.”]

Having discovered at least some of your deepest beliefs about money, you may now work on changing them to what you prefer. This can be achieved via hypnosis, parts integration work, consistent affirmations, energy work or a myriad other methods that are designed to affect the subconscious mind. The work you do with an understanding of your deepest beliefs are most powerful when you use them to counter and turn them around. Understanding your deep programs is, in my opinion, where the most important work lies.

It is only when you change your deep money programs (or any other program you desire) that you will be able to permanently change your results in the outer world.

NOTE: This article first appeared in Smart Healthy Women Magazine on NewsStand.