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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Are You Causing Your Earnings Plateau?

Have you been stuck in the same earnings bracket for weeks or months ... or even longer? Is there a monetary ceiling that you just haven't been able to crack? Whether you earn $500 a  month from your articles and blog or $1,000 in residual income every week, if the numbers don't change much from month to month ... you just might be the reason your earnings are stagnate.

In Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, author T. Harv Eker posits that each of us has a "money blueprint" that determines more or less our earnings potential and our spending habits. Some people have relatively high blueprints and thus achieve wealth more readily than others. Others might have a poor financial blueprint, created by a variety of factors throughout their lives, that predisposes them to spend every penny they earn, never getting ahead of the bills. Still others neither earn nor spend very much; it's just how they are wired.

Reading this chapter resonated with me -- I realized that I had set my blueprint for online residual income at about $2,500 a month and there my earnings sat, fluctuating slightly, for over a year. You see, I was subconsciously satisfied with that number. It was far more than I ever thought I would earn online, and just what my family needed to make ends meet every month, with a little extra for getting out of debt and for savings. It was all I needed to earn, all I intended to earn, and so it was all I earned.

Reset Your Money Blueprint

It's incredible how powerful your mindset is in determining everything from your mood to your character. It affects your interpersonal relationships and determines the kind of person you will become. And, it seems, it predicts how much money you make. (Of course, money seems trivial when juxtaposed with things like virtue and character, but it is simply one aspect that is influenced greatly by mindset and more to the point of this blog than the others.)

Steps you can take today to reset your money blueprint and increase your monthly income:
  1. Make a higher income goal than the last one you achieved. Don't pick some lofty number you secretly  think you'll never make. Decide how much you want to earn, a number you will actually work toward, and write it down. Commit to this goal.
  2. Change your negative thinking processes. You know, the ones that say you can't do it, or that you're getting in over your head. Believe in your abilities to succeed and to help make the world -- or your corner of it -- a better place.
  3. Calculate your net financial worth and update it every month. This simple process is highly motivating as you get out of debt and build wealth.
Have you subconsciously been satisfied with your level of earnings and seen a plateau? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic.  

Recommended Reading: Making Goals and Setting Tasks

Recommended Resource:  Wealthy Affiliate University

6 comments:

Join The Office Revolt said...

Really smart post. So many of us, including myself, create our own problems and don't realize it. I love the idea of calculating my financial worth monthly. This should really help me zero in on my lifestyle, and the direction I want it to be going in. So many of us are obsessed with numbers, like visits to our websites :), and yet we don't always focus on the numbers that matter. Thanks for the quality read!

kim @ free cash back said...

I'm just finishing up reading the same book. One thing that really resonated with me was the point made that "What you focus on...EXPANDS". The exercise of tracking your net worth on a monthly basis makes you aware and focused on it! And therefore, it EXPANDS!

Sharla said...

What you say is absolutely true and yet, it is a trap that most of us fall into. I can see it especially being true in a case like yours where you are happy about the amount you are earning. My goal for September (my first month of online writing) was 25 cents. I achieved exactly that goal. Today, the last day of the month, I have made $0.25! I think I need to have higher goals for next month!!!

As always, thank you for sharing what you are learning so that others can benefit from it.

Dave Ward said...

Always inspired by you Maria. You helped me reach $1000 a month on eHow starting two months ago. Thanks! Well... apparently now I have to up that goal. That was really all I wanted. Couldn't just leave me happy and content could you? ;)

Moti said...

It's very important to take a realistic number and not a lofty number.

By the way, I love your blog.

Elena said...

You should try Bukisa and eHow.