Have you ever asked yourself any of these questions?

“Why can’t I earn more?”

“Why does it seem as though less capable people wind up making so much money?”

“Why do I feel stuck?”

I’ve been asking myself an associated question lately: “How do I help my high-performing, highly capable entrepreneur friends break through their money-making and self-improvement barriers?” It simply amazes me how often I see creative and hard-working friends struggle to generate the kind of income they are deserving of.

So I tasked myself to help and came up with actionable pieces of advice that not only identify problems but offer ways onward and upward.

Here are a few I considered particularly pivotal in addressing the divide between abilities and success.

1. Go to the source of money-making problems
   You have likely heard a “villain origin story,” that trajectory-defining point in the life of a wrongdoer that put them on that path. Well, those of us who struggle with making money often have a negative story of our own.

Dr. Trivedi explains: “Most individuals’ brains have default wiring that needs to be overcome to find greater success. This typically comes from earlier in our lives (it may be a moment or a string of moments) that created a pattern (or patterns) that ultimately becomes our behavior. Sometimes, this default wiring has created fear, paranoia, anxiety and/or chaos. Perhaps it was a divorce. Maybe it was bankruptcy or the way we were raised. Whatever the case, this wiring has resulted in an emotion, typically one of resentment, which plays out as our primary expression towards money. Because of this resentment, we’ll push away deals, opportunities or work, thus creating a money-making barrier.”

Trivedi adds that the best way to know if you have such default wiring is to analyze your feelings and circumstances. Do you feel stuck? Have you hit an income plateau? Do you fear the future? These are all dynamics that need to be taken seriously, and once they are recognized, it’s vital to search for related past experiences. Typically, you can identify these on your own, though it may be wise to seek out a professional’s assistance.

2. Find clarity
   Once you’ve identified what’s created negative wiring, it’s time to confront it. While this can create uncomfortable feelings, that step is critical to begin the process of change.

“Once we’ve identified [that] source, it’s time to get clarity,” Trivedi says, “and we get that by looking at both sides of the experience, positive and negative. We must ask ourselves these questions: What negative feelings have I been holding onto as a result of this experience? How [has] this resentment actually helped me grow in life (if at all)? What good may have come from it? It’s incredibly important to realize that these experiences can be just as much a good thing as bad.”

If we can examine past events in this way, from both sides, we give ourselves perspective, which is a key element in helping our brains rise above emotions — detaching them from the fallout of experience.

3. Gratitude leads to action
   This step may seem odd initially (it did to me at first), but a powerful question to consider is, “Should I feel gratitude for these sources of resentment?” The more I understood the power of gratitude, the more I appreciated it as a catalyst that allows us to move on to money-making goals.

“Finding gratitude quite literally changes our DNA,” Trivedi says. “It begins with our emotions, which are freed from whatever negative pattern they’ve been in — but only once we find and feel gratitude. This changes our beliefs — moving our brains out of the amygdala (fight-or-flight center) and reconnecting them to the executive center of the brain. The moment this happens, a switch flips and organization occurs: We begin planning, creating and changing. The future suddenly looks bright, and we understand what path we need to walk to get there.”

This is the beautiful process, Trivedi adds, of rewiring the brain through integration. Once this is done successfully, old patterns end, and new ones start. And, hopefully, your new pattern will be one of creativity, wealth creation and ceiling-shattering.