Is your stuck-ness inherited?

As a kid, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. The typical Friday night sleepovers and the weekly pickup from daycare was the standard routine. As a kid, your family is your everything; I looked up to my parents but I also looked up to my grandparents. My grandpaw who was quiet and reserved but who got things done. My grandmaw who was fun and playful and always let me win our coloring contest. 

What these people say to you, around you, and to others are important. You listen and you pay attention. You soak it in whether you realize it or not. 

My grandmaw had several mottos (or sayings) but one that has stuck around for a very long time. 

"Pad that pocketbook"

The saying was in relation to money, but more specifically, in relation to saving money and not spending it. I would get some money for a birthday and she would say, "pad that pocketbook". When I started working at age 15, she would remind me to "pad that pocketbook". When I graduated college and started working full-time, she would encourage me to "pad that pocketbook". 

Intermingled with this saying was her constant chatter about how much something cost and wondering if she needed it or not based on that. 

On the surface, this was very responsible of her to encourage her granddaughter to save her money and teach her to be frugal. Afterall, my grandparents were some of the most frugal people I knew. They carefully watched their dollars come in and scrutinized where and when they left. 

95% of all of our thoughts are unconscious, or put a different way, they are routine. Which leaves 5% of our thoughts coming from a conscious awareness. Staggering statistic! 

But taken one step further, of those routine thoughts, most of them developed when we under the age of 7. 

S-e-v-e-n. 

My grandmother's motto has stuck around in my head for 30 years and still pops up whenever I am working on money goals and business aspirations. The roots of "pad your pocketbook" are so deep that they show up automatically and without effort. 

It is so deeply wired and programed in my mind that retrieving it is a breeze. 

The dangerous balance to this is that her motto might not be helpful to me now. In fact, it might be more harmful because it keeps me stuck. 

Look around your home and take note of where you are stuck. What thoughts keep coming up when you think about letting go and simplifying your home? 

Are they your thoughts or inherited from a well-meaning family member? 

If they aren't yours by design, then I want to encourage you to begin the process of digging up the roots. Reprogram the wires that create the thought pattern. 

If your parents encouraged you to fix things before buying something new, then you might have a hard time ... well buying something new when your current whatever broke. 

If your grandparents talked about how special and how worthy this furniture piece was to them, then you might have a hard time releasing it even though you don't like it and you don't use it. p.s. I see you secretly holding on to it in the hopes of shifting it's ownership to your kids 

If your dad talked about how they didn't have much growing up and how it was a struggle to make ends meet, then you might have a hard time donating something that you spent "good money" on but never used because in doing so you feel oh-so-wasteful.

Insert a pattern break.

For example, a pattern break for my grandmaw's motto might be, "thank you MawMaw for that, it has been helpful in the past, but today I'm going to invest this money in me and my ministry and I have faith that it will all work out." 

Our stuck-ness isn't always of our own making. Where can you begin to uncouple and unravel from those unconscious thoughts?