And looking back at my reply I am not altogether happy with the one I gave. I mean, how much is enough, or what is a right answer? Certainly my response gave some keys to what I was thinking.



And if there was no limit to what you could earn, what would your answer be? How can this be you ask? How could there be no limit to what I could earn? In those questions lies the rub. Here we look into our own preconceptions about the universe, what it is and our place in it. Do we, or have we set limits both on what is possible and what we ourselves can achieve? And does that explain where we are today?

To read people who have thoughts on this, we do box ourselves in with the boundary conditions of our thinking. And this has been a slowly cultured process for most of us. As children we tended to have these unlimited dreams. Slowly over time we are educated out of this, initially by others and then by ourselves. How?

Language

One way is in the language we were exposed to. The "we can't afford it" expression, "what do you think I am: made of money", "money doesn't grow on trees", "you have to work hard for money" etc. Most of us (surely all of us) have grown up with these expressions or a variation of them most of our lives. Heard repeatedly they tend to have the effect of becoming established truths. Soon we cannot imagine a world outsode of these confines. So we limit ourselves to them.

Modeling

What we see our parents and friends doing in relation to money also affects us. The way we were raised tends to almost put a recording inside of us. We follow these patterns that were modeled for us by those we respected and had to answer to.

For some people this was a limitation in expecting money, being able to meet the bills, or own a house, or to do so without a a struggle. Or some were raised in situations where it was either boom or bust as the parents' business went through these cycles. And we can either acquiesce to these situations and reproduce them in our own lives or rebel against them and head in the other direction. But depending on our motivation even this latter response can have either positive or negative effects.

Our Efforts

Then as we enter the workforce and begin to earn money our experience can further shape our mindset and expectations. We can find our wages fixed, or our prospects limited no matter how long we stay in the company or industry. And if we still nurse those childhood dreams what do we do? Usually we tend to lower our expectations and dreams to match our income. We are "being realistic". We have come "down to earth".

For some though there is a challenge to look for something better. Either looking at multiple jobs or entering network marketing people head off into a bright new hope. Then what happens? They find they are not succeeding. Or maybe getting to a certain level but then no further.

What is the problem? Is network marketing at fault? Is the world, or our government, or other forces keeping us down? Do they not want us to succeed?

Our Mindset

Usually the problem is us. Our mindset. The set of values, beliefs and experiences that set us down a certain path and caused us to react and live in certain ways and deliver certain outcomes. We can earn much more than our parents and yet not seem to be getting any further than they did. Is this the same for everybody? We only need to look about us to see this is not so. There are people who have come from much more deprived backgrounds than us, without the same privileges and education who can yet be much better off. Stupendously better off. Why?

These ingrained beliefs and systems keep dragging us down. Our mind, particularly our subconscious or unconscious mind, controls so many of our actions. It is the most powerful part of our mind. If it disagrees with where we say we are headed we are unlikely to get there.

Mindset Wealth Classes

We tend have levels of belief about wealth. Whether as a poor person just struggling to pay the bills. Or as a middle class person who just wants to be comfortable - this is where I fell into a trap of giving a figure for what I wanted to earn. Or you can have a rich or wealthy mentality which does not set those limits on yourself.

To see what we really believe and embrace we only need to look at where we and those around us are.

What Should We Aim At?

My question to myself is "How much could I earn?" And my answer when looked at after a night's sleep is unlimited. Why would I want to limit myself? Or, if I wanted to give a figure, why not something huge?

And if your mind is thinking "Impossible" or "Greedy" or something similar then just realize this says more about your unconscious mind's beliefs and habits than it does about me.

And is that why you, and I, are not achieving the massive level of success that is really possible in mlm. It is a highly leveraged business where we are not limited to the abilities and efforts of one or even a few. Likewise in looking at other businesses there is no need to accept a limit. How can this be? A real understanding of how we can utilize our unique gifts and bring on board others with their unique gifts will open this up for us. We can all achieve much more than we already have. The answer is in understanding our strengths, playing to these and utilizing the skills of others to achieve a level well beyond anything we have managed so far.