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Growing up in Costa Rica, María Jose Flaque was always taught that making money was difficult. 

That mindset was ingrained in her from a very early age, and it was ever-present when she enrolled in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition’s Health Coach Training Program.

Flaque was borrowing money from her dad, wasn’t making any income, and admittedly had very little confidence.

“If I don't make it as a Health Coach, I don't know what I'm going to do,” the bestselling author remembers telling herself. “All my eggs were in this basket. But because all my eggs were in that basket, I had to make it work.”

Read More: María Jose Flaque Inspires Women Throughout Latin America

After graduating from IIN, Flaque launched her coaching business, Mujer Holística, but she found it difficult to gain traction and support herself financially.

She knew something had to change: not only her approach to business, but also how she viewed money and wealth.

“I realized I needed to do the money work,” she says. “I needed to change my mindset and really become an entrepreneur and think like an entrepreneur. I needed to understand that money and wealth is not just for certain people. It can be for everyone.”

Over the next two years, Flaque dedicated herself to really understanding (and believing!) this concept to go beyond her limiting beliefs and achieve greater success.

María Jose Flaque’s Tips for Building a Wealth Mindset

In taking this crucial step, Flaque has achieved financial independence and built a booming business. These are the four principles that she implemented (and now teaches to clients) in order to not only become financially successful, but grow a wealth mindset.

1. Trust That You’re Worthy of Receiving

It’s so imperative to believe in yourself, build self-confidence, and understand just how worthy you are of making and holding onto money.

It wasn’t easy for Flaque, but over time, she learned to believe that she was worthy — worthy of receiving opportunities, money, gifts, and anything in life.

Open yourself up to receive so it starts to feel natural.

Read More: 21 Tips to Take Care of Your Financial Wellness

2. Clear Your Belief Systems From the Past

Flaque looks back fondly on her childhood, but she certainly didn’t grow up upper class. Her parents had to work extremely hard to support the family. Money caused arguments between her parents, and Flaque developed a negative connotation with money. As she got older, she maintained the belief that earning money was a painstakingly difficult task.

Flaque put in the work to clear all of those beliefs. What mattered was what money meant to her, not to her parents. They were two very different things.

“Redefining money, and what it meant in my life and to my story, was crucial to changing and helping other women,” Flaque says. “One thing we need to understand is we cannot carry our parents’ story around money into our lives. We get to redefine that. We’re free to redefine that."

3. Reframe How You Think About Money

Making and managing money is so difficult!

I don’t make enough money!

It’s so much easier for other people to make money!

Do you find yourself repeating these questions to yourself? If so, you’re not alone. But when you catch yourself speaking to yourself in this manner, immediately stop, pause, and reframe. Instead, talk about how you’re actually feeling in that moment.

Are you feeling frustrated? Fearful? Limited? Angry? Identify those emotions and separate them from money. Then focus on working through those specific emotions.

4. Treasure and Nurture Your Relationship With Money

Your relationship with money is no different than your relationship with anything (or anyone) else, and you need to treat it as such. You can’t expect to speak badly about it and expect a good result.

If money was a person, and we criticized and talked poorly about it all day, we wouldn’t expect it to be there for us, right?

It’s important to treat your relationship with money like a real, living, breathing relationship, and change the way you relate to it.

Take the time to rewrite the story about your relationship with money.

“Make the decision that you are worthy of receiving money, and that this will be your new story,” Flaque says. “If we don't make the decision that we're done with the old story, it’s not gonna happen. Claim it. Claim your desires. Claim what you want in your life, and make a decision that you will change the course of your life. 

“What makes the biggest difference in our lives is just claiming our desires unapologetically.”

Learn from 95+ of the world’s leading holistic health, coaching, and business experts in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition’s comprehensive Health Coach Training Program. Discover how to nourish your body and mind, on and off the plate, and how to empower others to do the same as a Certified Health Coach. Enroll now.