Why you cannot increase your income?

photo credit: mtsofan

I found Adam Khoo's concept of "Level of Acceptance" rather interesting and true. But how is it related to the amount of your monthly income? He theorized that besides the level of acceptance, there exists a level of expectation. Level of expectation is what you aspire or dream to have while level of acceptance is the level that you are able to live with. For e.g., you dream to receive a $10,000 paycheck monthly but subconsciously, you are willing to live with $2,000. The problem with humans is that one will tend to gravitate towards the level of acceptance. This is because it is easier to achieve and you won't be too affected of not reaching your level of expectation. So you rather stay in this comfort zone and only complain about not getting what you expect - without taking any actions to increase your income because the pain of not having a $10,000 is not enough to drive you to action.

Now, take a different scenario - You are earning below your level of acceptance - $1000 per month! What would you do? You would find all sorts of ways to increase your income (change a job or add another income stream)! Because you simply cannot live with the amount! Hence, in order to motivate or push yourself to increase your income, you need to increase your level of acceptance.

How do you increase your level of acceptance? What Adam suggests is that you have to mix around with people that have income bracket which you desire. Research has shown that one earns 10% more or less of the 10 people he/she often socializes with. Hence, you need to find this group of people to motivate you so you can move up your standard. Adam used the analogy of a tennis player - to improve your skills to another level, you need to play with players better than you.

Take some time to think about it. I welcome your comments :)