Before You Try Another Money Strategy, Read This
“I’ll finally be okay when…”
There’s a quiet myth that many intelligent, creative, heart-led women carry unconsciously, and it sounds innocent enough:
“If I could just get through this hard season, I’ll feel ready.”
“Once my money situation feels secure, then I’ll finally exhale.”
“When I’ve done a little more work, earned a little more trust, fixed this one more thing… then I’ll be able to rest, create, or go after what I really want.”
At first, it sounds so reasonable, so responsible. But beneath that lives the scarcity wound, softly whispering that readiness is something we have to earn.
The scarcity wound isn’t a thought pattern to change or a mindset to reframe. It lives in the body — in the tension across the shoulders, the tightness in the chest, the endless, anxious, list-making. It’s what keeps so many women in constant motion, chasing “enoughness” like it’s a finish line we can finally reach if we just reach that one target.
The Hungry Ghost of Scarcity
In Buddhist teachings, there’s an image that captures this feeling perfectly: the hungry ghost. These beings are depicted with large, empty bellies and tiny mouths — always hungry, never full. No matter how much they take in, satisfaction never comes.
Scarcity wounding is like that. It promises fulfillment just one effort away. It tells us that after this next project, this next level, this next round of proving ourselves, then we’ll feel complete. But what it really does is keep us forever circling the same story — one of almost, but not quite.
Healing doesn’t happen when the ghost finally gets enough; it begins when we turn toward the part of us that’s starving and listen to what it truly needs.
In this piece, let’s explore why it’s so easy to believe that enoughness has to be earned, how that belief quietly shapes our choices, what’s actually true beneath the myth, and what becomes possible when we begin to live from a deeper sense of sufficiency.
Why You’ve Been Taught To Wait
Scarcity is real for many humans across our planet. I’ve seen it in its most tangible form — in Zambia, across parts of Africa, in pockets of the U.S. and Europe — where clean water, food, healthcare, and safety are not guaranteed. The lack of resources isn’t theoretical; it’s visible, urgent, and deeply human.
But alongside this material reality lives a more insidious form of scarcity — one that taints the most stable lives. It’s the internalized belief that there’s never quite enough: not enough money, not enough time, not enough support, not enough rest, not enough love. And underneath all of that: not enough you.
Even women with strong incomes, meaningful work, and full lives carry this imprint. It shows up in the nervous system that doesn’t know how to rest, the mind that’s always braced for loss, the reflex to over-give, over-do, and over-earn.
When you grow up in a family or culture that ties your worth to productivity or performance, the idea of feeling resourced as you are can feel foreign — even dangerous. This conditioning is not personal. It’s the water we swim in — shaped by capitalism, colonialism, religion, and patriarchy. It’s a story as old as time, and it’s one we’ve all inherited.
So if you find yourself in the cycle of “never enough”, know this: it’s not a personal failing. You’re simply living out a myth that was never yours to begin with.
How the Scarcity Wound Runs the Show
Scarcity doesn’t usually shout. It’s subtle — a low hum beneath everything. It’s in the way you postpone what you truly want, telling yourself you’ll start when things calm down. It’s in the guilt that rises when you rest, even though your body is screaming for stillness. It’s in the generosity that extends outward so easily, yet rarely, if ever, includes you.
The scarcity wound is insidious - it disguises itself as discipline, humility, or prudence. But its true effect is a quiet exhaustion — the sense that life keeps asking for more and you keep giving, yet never quite arriving at enough.
The hardest part is that it feels familiar. It feels safe to stay in motion, to keep hustling, to keep giving, to wait until the stars align before choosing yourself. But the truth is, no moment in the future will make you more worthy of the life you desire.
What’s Always Been True (Even if You Forgot)
Here’s what’s real: your worth has never been conditional. It has never been earned through labor, loyalty, or sacrifice. It doesn’t increase with your productivity or shrink with your rest.
Your worth simply is — steady and untouched, even when you forget.
You don’t have to perform for your enoughness, you don’t have to prove it, and you certainly don’t have to wait to deserve it. Your body, your heart, your wisdom — are not waiting for you to be fixed. They are waiting for you to trust yourself.
The scarcity wound tells you the solution lies somewhere out there — in the next course, the next launch, the next self-improvement plan. But healing begins here, in the pause, in the breath that softens the push, in the quiet remembering that you were never broken to begin with.
I know this not because I read it in a book, but because I’ve lived it — and because I’ve walked beside women who have lived this as well. Women who were brilliant, capable, and tired. Women who had built entire worlds through strength and care, but who had forgotten what it felt like to rest inside their own lives.
And when they begin to reclaim that trust — to live from sufficiency instead of scarcity — the ground shifts. Their choices become less about earning and more about alignment. Less about control and more about connection.
They begin to say yes to what nourishes them, even when it doesn’t make logical sense. They stop apologizing for their voices, their boundaries, their prices, and their desires. They begin to live from the truth that they are already enough.
Please Stop Waiting
You don’t have to wait until you feel fully healed to start living differently. The act of living differently is the healing.
Healing happens in the small, brave disruptions — the moments you pause before saying yes out of habit, the decisive “no” that once felt impossible, the morning you decide to take a vacation and leave your laptop at home.
And one of the most tender places to begin this shift is in your relationship with money — because money so often carries the deepest roots of the scarcity wound.
That’s why I created Get Right With Money® — not as another system or money hack, but as a grounded, sacred space to heal your relationship with money from the inside out. It’s where we trace the stories you inherited, the ones that live in your body, not just your thoughts. You will learn to move from the fear of scarcity into trust and alignment of yourself and your money.
Because when you begin to trust your own enoughness, you and your money start to relate in a different way.
But What If It Really Is That Hard?
You might be wondering, “What if my current situation meets the criteria for true scarcity? What if I’m not earning enough, or don’t have the support I need right now?”
That’s an honest question. The scarcity wound is not about pretending hardship isn’t real - it’s about finding another way to be with it.
When we’re in scarcity, the body wants to panic or shut down. But healing invites us into a different posture — one of presence and power. It doesn’t deny what’s hard; it gives us capacity to meet the challenge differently.
The kind of healing we do in Get Right with Money® doesn’t erase challenge, but it does change how you hold it. It opens space for grace in the middle of the tension, and for choice where there once was only reaction.
A New Way Forward
Healing the scarcity wound isn’t about reaching a final destination. It’s about remembering — again and again — that you already belong to yourself. You don’t have to wait for “ready.” You can begin now, in this breath, in this choice, in this small act of trust.
You don’t have to get through one more season or fix one more thing. You are already here. Already ready.
Your First Step to Get Right with Money
You don’t have to get through one more season or fix one more thing before you begin. You can start now — with one small step toward healing your relationship with money.
If this post resonated with you, I created the Get Right with Money® Quick Start Guide as a gentle first step. Inside, you’ll explore the four foundational steps of my Get Right with Money framework — simple, grounding practices to help you feel more resourced, clear, and capable with your money right now.
