Try this out. Find a quiet place. Get comfortable and relaxed. With pen and paper handy,

Imagine that your annual salary is $5K. How do you feel and what
are your thoughts?

• Now imagine that your salary is $25K. How do you feel and what are your
  thoughts?
• Now imagine that your salary is $50K. How do you feel and what are your
  thoughts?
• Now imagine that your salary is $75K. How do you feel and what are your
  thoughts?
• Now imagine that your salary is $100K. How do you feel and what are your
  thoughts?
• Now imagine that your salary is $250K. How do you feel and what are your
  thoughts?
• Now imagine that your salary is $500K. How do you feel and what are your
  thoughts?
• Now imagine that your salary is $1M. How do you feel and what are your
  thoughts?

This was an exercise from a teleclass I took on money beliefs, based on the book, Secrets of Six Figure Women: Surprising Strategies to Up Your Earnings and Change Your Life by Barbara Stanny. I have not read the book. The facilitators of the teleclass talked about the author’s findings after studying high-earning women–their beliefs, habits, and strategies. Not a lot it was new information for me—declaring intentions, moving out of your comfort zone, having a good support network, being fully committed, persistence, having what I call good “financial hygiene” (e.g., not spending more than you earn.)

What was eye-opening were the comments from the participants from the exercise above. People talked about not deserving the salary as it increased to larger and larger sums, feeling guilty, having to sacrifice other things for the money (e.g., time). This is all without a lot of context for the exercise other than “You have this salary. How do you feel?” It made me realize that what we believe has a tremendous impact on what we manifest. We make assumptions that may not have a bit of relevance to the situation.

If an individual unconsciously has a belief that they don’t deserve a specific salary, they will never create opportunities for that to happen. They’ll do all the right things so it won’t happen. Becoming aware of our beliefs is the first step to having choice in our lives. In case you are wondering how I answered the above questions, here’s what I wrote down during the exercise:

$5K—low self-esteem
$25K—starting to understand the landscape

$50K—sustainable business
$75K—yippee! success and more growth is possible

$100K—blessed, receiving fruits of hard labor

$250K—more than enough to live on, give back and create
more impact

$500K—same as at $250K

$1M—Big Impact on World

I wrote my comments in the context of being a solopreneur. At an annual salary of $75K, I felt like I could invest in my business to fuel growth. That’s a belief that I need to examine.

This makes me think of a long-time coach, Rick Tamlyn, whose mantra is "It’s all made up." If it’s all made up anyway, isn’t it better to make up something good?