I am so fortunate and incredibly smart (if I may say so myself) to have chosen a career that I like.
Actually, I don’t just like it. I friggin’ love it.
I love opening up my MacBook and checking my email. I love a full inbox. I love my clients. I love writing my blog. I love the students I train. I love answering emails. I love reading new material. I love creating classes. I love working on my website. I love invoicing my clients. I love “Notification of Payment Received.” Best. Subject line. Ever.
To tell you the truth, I would do this job whether or not I was paid, because I love the work itself, but shhh… don’t tell my clients that.
I love to kick ideas around with my colleagues. I love the challenge of a difficult thought. I love working from home in my yoga clothes. I love that I don’t have to be pretty, have my hair brushed, or even have shoes on to make money.
I’m pretty sure I’ve made my point. But, for clarity, let’s just say: I love my job.
After reading my little rampage, I’m guessing that you’re either happy for me or entirely nauseated by me.
Either way, I want this love-fest for you, too.
Because if you don’t friggin’ love the way money comes to you, you’re never going to reach your full earning potential.
How we feel when we earn our money has an enormous impact on our financial results.
We probably have 50,000 thoughts (I really don’t know – I just made that number up) about the way we earn our money. What we think about our work, our job, our paycheck, the hours we keep, our bosses, our clients, our commute, our industry, has a giant effect on how and what we earn.
Our specific thoughts create feelings. The way we feel determines the type of action we take. When we feel neutral we take actions and create neutral results. When we feel scarce, we create scarce results. When we feel abundant we create abundant results.
To classify our earning, we use the Three Types of Earning. This tool helps us determine why we earn what we earn. It helps takes the mystery out of our income. It helps us figure out why we ended up here in the first place.
Determining the Type of Earning strengthens your relationship with yourself and with your money. It’s a tool that gives you an access point for cleaning up stressful and painful thoughts… even ones you never knew you had. It helps build self-awareness as well as financial awareness.
The Three Types of Earning are Abundant Earning, Neutral Earning, and Scarcity Earning. Each type of earning leads to drastically different results.
Abundant Earning:
This is money earned from the abundant zone on the Abundance Scale (+2 to +10). Thoughts about this earn are abundant, generous, plentiful and positively charged. You feel good about the amount earned, feel good emotionally, and feel good about the way you earned this money. It is an action that is taken from abundant and positive feelings and thoughts.
Neutral Earning:
This is money earned from the neutral zone on the Abundance Scale (-1 to +1). Thoughts about this earn are neutral or peaceful, and without emotional charge. You feel neutral about the amount earned, feel neutral emotionally, and feel neutral about the way you earned this money. It is an action that is taken from neutral feelings and thoughts.
Scarcity Earning:
This is money earned from the scarcity zone on the Abundance Scale (-2 to -10). Thoughts about this earn are scarce, resistant and negatively charged. You feel bad about the amount earned, feel bad emotionally, and/or feel bad about the way you earned this money. It is an action that is taken from a scarce and negative feelings and thoughts.
The Type of Earning is not amount or job dependent. Many of my clients confuse this in the beginning. They think that the higher the dollars, the more abundant the earn. They think that the lower the dollars, the more scarce the earn. But, any time money is exchanged, it has the capacity to be any one of the Three Types of Earning. The Earn is determined by your score on the Abundance Scale (thoughts and feelings).
For example, let’s look at how my income can be each of the three different Types of Earning.
Scenario #1: I can’t think of a current example, so I’m going to go back to college days when I worked at a cheap hotel. I worked the night shift – the worst hours for a 21-year-old’s social life. My uniform was a nasty-polyester-flight-attendant-thing with a burgundy bow-tie. Boring doesn’t even come close to describing this mind numbing work. I would stand (we weren’t allowed to sit) and stare at the elevators for eight hours straight and stress about how much homework I had waiting for me at home (of course I wasn’t allowed to do it at work even though there were stretches of hours without seeing another human being). I had a certifiably crazy boss who was convinced that I was the daughter that she had put up for adoption when she was 15. (Even though I told her that I’m pretty sure I’m my parents’ biological child. She never quite believed me.) Iwish I was making this up. My paycheck was never enough to offset how much I hated this job. I hated the work, hated what I was paid, and felt totally stuck. This is Scarcity Earning.
Scenario #2: Every month I receive statements from my financial advisor. They are full of charts, graphs, and details about each retirement fund that I’ve invested in. I look through the pages and I see that some of the graphs went up. I’m not emotionally invested in this money. At least not yet. It’s kind of interesting to look at, but at this point in my life, the gain doesn’t have a lot of meaning to me. I have a neutral story about this earning. I don’t feel emotionally charged about it. This is Neutral Earning.
Scenario #3: Amber is a super-fun client. She’s funny, smart, and keeps me on my toes. She’s sarcastic and quick and challenges me at every turn. I love working with her. She puts a lot of thought into her homework and asks great questions. When I see a response from her in my inbox, I’m always excited to read it. When I invoice her, she pays me immediately and with ease. I feel lucky to have her as a client. I am proud of the services I offer her. I am proud to be her coach and know that I am well worth the price she is paying. My thoughts and feelings about my work with Amber are abundant, positive and grateful. This is Abundant Earning.