As we work to help our clients (actors and artists) begin their journey towards financial stability and freedom, one of the first areas that must be addressed is their mindset with regards to money. Many of us believe, consciously or subconsciously, that if we aren’t starving, struggling artists, we can’t really call ourselves actors.
It is very difficult, if not impossible, to flourish creatively if you are coming from a place of financial stress and insecurity. Aren’t you tired of going into auditions desperate to get the job, not so much for the creative side, as for the paycheck? That energy undoubtedly affects your performance, sometimes actually keeping you from booking roles and developing your acting career.
The first step to creating significant positive changes in your finances is honestly examining and shifting some of your deep seated, negative attitudes towards money: and this is where financial education. Your financial conditioning is something that you must begin to self-manage and is something you need to be aware of and correct the rest of your life. This isn’t something that you can check the box and say – I’m done, I’ve arrived. Your psychology will always be impacting your decision making process along your wealth building journey. Your conditioning is so much a part of you, at the cellular level, that you are able to rationalize your current financial position. . . even though you may know it’s not where you want to be.
We have been conditioned about our money beliefs since we were young. During the early years of our lives, our financial conditioning was influenced to a great degree by those who provided care for us and were influential in our upbringing. This was then reinforced as we chose to go to acting school and onward into a career in the arts.
Relative to money and finances, what ideas did our grandparents have about money? How did that cause them to behave in relationship to their money – were they big savers, did they think they couldn’t afford things, were they putting it away for a rainy day . . . or were they highly religious and believed that money is the root of all evil? Probably for most, they lived through the Great Depression which created an entire generation who have a scarcity, rather than a prosperity, mindset. And, unless your parents decided to think and behave differently toward money, you were probably conditioned with the same scarcity mindset that’s passed down through the ages from one generation to the next. You then decided to pursue your artist development, and the final nail got hammered into the coffin, because you were told, repeatedly, that you were condemning yourself to always being a “starving artist”.
Another way the generational scarcity mindset impacted our conditioning is that we were never taught to have conversations about money out loud. It was as if there was some unspoken law that the topic of money was taboo, and as we went through our acting schools, that was again further entrenched in our subconscious by well meaning teachers and classmates.
Given the fact that we’re not taught to live out loud about money, it stands to reason that we would not be equipped with the proper mindset or tools to learn, acquire, manage and grow our financial profile, especially as we grow our acting career.
Did any of those who conditioned you teach you the very basics of personal finance? Did they teach you how to balance your checkbook . . . the proper use of credit and credit cards . . . the basic use of cash management . . . how to budget and pay your bills . . . much less even think about teaching you how to invest or put money away so that it compounds for you. If you can answer yes to even one of these questions, you’re in the minority.
This month, we encourage you to take the time to actually write down some of the beliefs you have about money. Honestly examine the list and ask yourself which beliefs continue to sabotage you. Now, make a second list of what you would like your thinking about money to be. Start carrying those lists with you. Stop yourself when you find your mind on a thought from the first list and make a conscious decision to shift that thought to one of your new, empowering beliefs.
Will you be the one who makes the commitment to take control of your financial education, taking the time to learn and develop the tools you need to get to the financial place you want to be? Will you be the one who accepts the responsibility for changing your negative attitudes about money and who stops the pattern of a generational scarcity mindset? Will you help us to break through the concept that one has to be struggling in order to truly call oneself an artist?
The only way you can do this is to start right now, right here! In so doing, you create the opportunity to raise your financial consciousness and, in turn, have the ability to influence those around you. Our mission is to develop a community of artists able to pursue their creative goals free from the crushing weight of financial stress: please join us!
Miata Edoga is a working actor and founder of Abundance Bound, Inc, the financial education company for actors and artists. Click Prosperity for a FREE CD download and special report “51 Ways To Achieve Prosperity”.
