5 Fears That Hold You Back From Building Wealth, According to Ramit Sethi
Written by
David Nadelle
Edited by
Amber Barkley
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While it’s normal to view fear as a negative emotion, it can also be highly beneficial, as it helps to keep humans out of danger. However, when fear keeps you trapped in an unhealthy situation and prevents you from enjoying things and getting what you want in life, it can be one’s worst enemy.
According to Ramit Sethi, entrepreneur, media personality and author of “I Will Teach You To Be Rich,” fear is a toxic influence that can hold you back from building wealth, or achieving your “rich life.”
In a recent newsletter to subscribers, Sethi identified five unhealthy fears, but they’re all part of the bigger fear of failure that prevents people from working on goals to reach their dreams, resulting in years of inactivity and regret.
Here are the five fears Sethi wrote are keeping you from the life you want — and how facing them is the first step to financial freedom.
Fear of Financial Failure
This isn’t about fretting over money worries. Everyone gets anxious about bills and expenses, especially when the money you make covers less and less every day. This is about fear of making a financial decision and losing money. As with any fear, the way forward is to take action.
“Take a small step, even if you’re not 100% sure,” Sethi wrote. “You’ll learn so much more from doing something imperfectly than you would from sitting on the sidelines.”
Fear of Asking for Opportunities
Just as asking for help is a sign of strength — not weakness — the capacity to ask for what you want, even when you’re terrified, is the ultimate sign of someone who is successful in their job and in life.
Underselling yourself will make others believe that your capacities are less than they truly are, and underestimating yourself can seriously hinder your actions and decisions in your daily life. As Ashley Stahl wrote for Forbes in 2020: “One thing’s for sure: You don’t get what you don’t ask for.”
In his newsletter, Sethi wrote, “If you’ve earned the right to more, then the first step to getting it is overcoming the fear of asking for it.”
Make sure you’re asking the right people, be clear what you’re asking for, and be don’t be afraid to show your authentic, vulnerable side.
Fear of Change
Fear of change is a common human experience, but if left unchecked, it can not only keep you from living the life you want, but wreak havoc on your financial well-being and mental health.
Speaking to CNBC Make It in 2017, life coach and motivational speaker Adam Smith said, “Worrying about change ahead does nothing but rob us of the present joy we could and should be experiencing. Yes, life is ever-evolving, so we do need to prepare for the future, but this should also remind us of the need to take life as it comes, one day at a time.”
To overcome this fear, Sethi recommended changing your mindset: “If you can shift … from ‘This is too hard’ to ‘This is the price of a better future,’ you’re on the right track.”
Fear of People’s Opinions
The fear of what others think is common, too. So much so that it has its own acronym: FOPO, the fear of people’s opinions, as coined by psychologist Michael Gervais, author of “The First Rule of Mastery: Stop Worrying about What People Think of You.”
It takes guts to zig when others are zagging, but focusing on purpose rather than performance will give you freedom from other people’s opinions and bring your best self forward.
As Sethi wrote: “Defining your own Rich Life means ignoring everyone else’s expectations and designing the life you want.”
Fear of Not Knowing Enough
Nothing smothers achievement like the pressure you place on yourself to accomplish things flawlessly and eliminate the prospect of failing.
Not feeling skilled enough “comes up all the time,” Sethi wrote. “People want to start a business, invest or negotiate better pay, but they freeze because they don’t feel like an expert.”
Waiting to start any financial venture until you know everything is self-defeating; you’ll never know everything. Start, and learn along the way.
Ramit Sethi is part of today’s swarm of financial mindset coaches, but what distinguishes him is his attitude toward spending, inviting his readers and “Money for Couples” podcast audience members to figure out what they want to spend their money on and how they can get there.
“It’s OK to spend extravagantly on the things you love,” he told The Guardian. “That was something I didn’t learn growing up. We didn’t spend extravagantly. We couldn’t. And then as I got older, I learned, ‘Oh, you actually can, but you have to cut costs mercilessly over here.'”
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