The Real Reason You Can’t Slow Down
Read time: 5 minutes || Read on web browser
Welcome to Mind Over Money, a weekly newsletter where I share actionable ideas to help women solopreneurs transform your relationship with money to build financial confidence and independence.
Today's topic: the Worship Money Script
If you believe that more money will solve all your problems, you're not alone—and you're likely running yourself ragged in the process.
Last week, we explored how the Vigilant money script can wreak havoc on a solopreneur's journey. This week, we’re exploring the Worship money script—one of four unconscious money beliefs formed early in life—to help you identify whether it’s running your business and how to take back control.
The Money Worship script operates on a seductive premise:
"Things will get better if I have more money."
"If I just reach the next revenue milestone, I'll finally feel secure, valued, and at peace."
The problem is the goalpost never stops moving, no matter how much you earn.
For solopreneurs, this script is particularly insidious because you are the business. There's no organization to absorb the burden, no team to distribute the load, no structure between you and the pressure to earn more.
The Worship Money script doesn't just shape your financial decisions—it consumes your time, your health, your relationships, and ultimately, your ability to enjoy the success you're building.
Here's the irony: The Worship Money script drives entrepreneurship, but it also destroys it. You build a business to create freedom, but the script keeps you enslaved to it, unless you learn to name it and interrupt it.
Five Sabotage Patterns That Reveal Money Worship
These five patterns reveal when the Worship money script has quietly taken control. The more patterns you see, the more the script is controlling your decisions.
Pattern 1: Chronic Overwork as Your Baseline
You're working 50+ hours weekly without a specific deadline. This isn't seasonal crunch or a temporary push toward a goal—it's your normal state. You describe rest as "lost income", while sleep deprivation has become a point of pride ("I only need 5 hours a night"). What's worse, you can't remember the last time you took a full day off without anxiety.
The Worship money script tells you that more work = more income, and therefore more work = more safety, more love, more worth. Rest feels like laziness; boundaries feel like leaving money on the table. So you work. And work. And work—because stopping feels unsafe.
But the research is clear: chronic overwork impairs cognitive function, weakens your immune system, increases risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and depression. You're not building a business—you're destroying your health in the name of one.
Pattern 2: Moving the Goalposts (Revenue Goals That Never Satisfy)
You hit your revenue target—let's say $100K—and instead of feeling secure, you immediately set a new one. $150K. Then $200K. Each milestone was supposed to deliver peace, but it delivers only pressure to reach the next one. "Enough" always feels out of reach, and you pursue business growth because you fear what happens if you don't grow.
But while what you are feeling is real, it's not grounded in science. Research on well-being consistently shows that beyond a certain income threshold (often cited around $75K), additional money has diminishing returns on happiness and life satisfaction.
Yet the Worship money script insists the problem is that you haven't earned enough yet. In other words, it's not about the money at all—it's your belief system.
Pattern 3: Relational Damage and Isolation
Your family or partner is expressing frustration about your absence—not physical absence necessarily, but emotional absence. You’re physically present but mentally elsewhere. Friends have stopped inviting you because you always cancel. You feel like you're living a double life: the professional who's "on" all the time, and the person who's increasingly disconnected from the people who matter.
The problem is, the Worship money script positions relational time as a distraction from the Real Work. You tell yourself, "I'm doing this for us" (earning more), while simultaneously neglecting the relational connection itself. You're trading presence for provision, and your loved ones are noticing the difference.
Pattern 4: Health Neglect Disguised as Business Sacrifice
You've postponed sleep, skipped meals, canceled doctor's appointments, and eliminated exercise—all in service of "getting the business stable." The business will never be stable enough to give your health back because "more" has no finish line.
Why is this dangerous? Sleep deprivation directly impairs decision-making. Poor nutrition decreases your cognitive capacity. Stress hormones spike, weakening your immune system. The overwork that was supposed to protect your business is actually making you less capable of running it well.
Pattern 5: High-Risk Financial Decisions and Impulse Investing
You make emotional financial decisions—chasing "hot" business opportunities, investing in courses and tools that promise to "solve" your problems, overcommitting to projects or taking on too many clients simultaneously. It looks like ambition, but it’s actually fear in motion.
Three Strategies to Break Free
Now that you can see your patterns, here’s how to break them—without burning your business or your life down. These three strategies work together, and none of them require you to make massive life changes overnight.
Strategy 1: Values-Based Financial Planning (Reframe Your Why)
Instead of asking “How much should I earn?”, start with “What kind of life do I actually want to build?”
Identify your top five values (for example: freedom, health, relationships, creativity, impact).
Then ask: "What does each one look like in daily life?"
Translate those into money goals: not "$200K revenue" but "income that allows 40-hour weeks, family dinners, regular rest, and meaningful savings."
Notice where your money actually goes—and whether it matches the values you say matter most. Then use a simple rule: only pursue offers, clients, and launches that clearly support your stated values, not just your revenue line.
Strategy 2: Boundary Setting and Work-Life Architecture
Think of boundaries as business infrastructure, not personal indulgence.
Define 3–5 hard boundaries, such as: minimum 7–8 hours of sleep, one full day off weekly, set work hours, and at least a few protected blocks for movement and relationships.
Put them on your calendar like client appointments. Then create a five-minute shutdown ritual: note what’s done, name tomorrow’s top three, close the laptop, and consciously mark the end of work.
Practice saying “That doesn’t fit my current priorities” when opportunities conflict with your boundaries. Your nervous system will learn that you can stop working and still be safe and successful.
Strategy 3: Redefine Your Identity and Success Metrics
Money Worship fuses identity with income, so every revenue fluctuation feels like a verdict on who you are.
To counter, list five qualities that define you independent of money (for example: thoughtful, imaginative, generous, resilient, trustworthy). Let these become your primary identity statements.
Next, expand what you measure: alongside revenue, track hours worked, sleep, movement, time with loved ones, learning, and impact. Revenue still matters—but it’s no longer the only measure of whether you’re winning.
Finally, write a short "new story" about your life and business: your values, the kind of days you want, and how your business serves that life. Revisit it whenever the old "earn more to be more" script flares. It reminds you that safety doesn’t come from more money but from alignment.
Final Thoughts
If the Worship money script runs in your head, chances are you live in the future. Promises that the next milestone will finally bring peace mean you rarely feel safe in the present. But your business will not feel stable until you consciously decide what "enough" looks like and honor it.
Boundaries and rest don’t threaten your income; they protect both you and the business from burnout.
No level of revenue can create self-worth if you don’t already believe you are enough. The script will resurface under stress, so expect relapse and gently recalibrate.
Ultimately, you have the power to define success on your own terms—and to decide when enough is enough.
p.s. At a little over 1,000 words, this newsletter is on the longer side. Should I change it?
| Should future issues of Mind over Money be... |
|
|
|
|