Making Money

Examine the beliefs that shape how you earn, charge, receive, and give.

When you think about making money, what comes up first?

Excitement? Guilt? The idea that it has to be difficult? A concern that other people will judge you if you want more?

Those reactions are worth examining. You can have a bank balance and a whole collection of thoughts about what that balance means. The thoughts affect how you feel and how you participate in earning, spending, and giving.

Separate money from your story about it

Money can support choices, experiences, and contribution. Your thoughts determine much of your relationship with it.

You may have learned that wanting money is selfish, that earning must be exhausting, or that receiving money makes you dependent. Before you continue repeating those assumptions, ask whether you want to keep them.

Also notice what you expect more money to do emotionally. If you practice worry at one income level, do not assume a different number will automatically teach you a different way to think.

Ask what earning means to you

Do you define earning only as hours worked? Do you include creating something valuable, caring for resources, or developing a skill?

There is no need to adopt someone else’s definition without examining it. The useful question is how your definition influences your choices.

If you believe every dollar must correspond to a certain amount of struggle, you may resist making your work more effective. You may distrust a result that comes from better thinking rather than more hours.

Look at value as well as time

For entrepreneurs, a strict hourly framework can limit the ways you think about a service. Ask what you help someone learn or create. What is the experience you deliver?

That question does not remove the work. It redirects attention toward the usefulness of the work.

Consider a class. How clearly do you teach? What can participants apply? How well does the offer fit the people it is intended to serve? Those questions help you evaluate the value you want to provide.

Examine your thinking about charging

Ask why it is acceptable for you to charge for your service. If you cannot answer comfortably, notice the thoughts behind that discomfort.

You might believe helping and earning cannot coexist. That belief may create guilt, which leads you to avoid making offers or explaining your price. The result may be that people who want your work never get a clear invitation.

The Model helps you see that relationship: thoughts create feelings, feelings drive actions, and actions create results.

One question I use when evaluating an offer is whether I would pay that amount for the experience and be glad I did. It asks me to consider both the price and what I intend to deliver.

Question the amount you call normal

Your idea of a normal income or a normal way to work may reflect what you have been exposed to. Familiarity is not the same as a permanent limit.

Write down what you think is normal for your work. Then ask where the belief came from and whether you want to explore another possibility.

You can also notice how you want to give. Generosity can be a choice about how you participate, rather than a transaction that requires praise or repayment.

Choose one belief to examine

Write your thoughts about earning, charging, receiving, and giving. Pick the one that most influences a decision you are facing.

Identify the feeling it creates and the action that follows. Ask whether that action serves the value you want to offer and the life you want to build.

Begin with clarity about your thinking. Then make a deliberate decision about how you want to show up in your work and your relationship with money.