How Most People Hold Themselves Back From Earning More

[Brian Ellwood]

If you’re a DIY person, because you like to save money, allow me to challenge you on that for a second….

Let's say you need your cabinets painted. You get a quote for someone to do it, and it comes out to $14/hr.

Instead, you think “I don’t need to spend money on that, I’ll just do it myself and save money”

It takes you 20 hours to paint the cabinets yourself.

If you had paid someone $14/hr to do it, you would have paid them $280.

Since you didn’t, you saved $280.

That means you worked for 20 hours…

And your bank account has $280 more than it would have otherwise.

So what you essentially did was work, for $14/hr, for 20 hours.

It’s the same net result either way you slice it, +$280.

When you decided to “save money”, what you really did was decide to work for $14/hr.

Now, are you hopping on Craigslist pretty often, looking for $14/hr work?

No? Then why are you creating $14/hr jobs for yourself, and then signing up for them?

I hope you can see that there’s no difference between the two.

Yes, if you enjoy the work, that’s different. Go for it.

I’m not saying you should never swing a hammer.

I realize that our upbringing plays a role in this as well.

Many of our parents and grandparents lived through harder times than we have.

The mindset about money was VERY different back then, compared to today.

The problem is, many people haven’t made the mindset shift - and are still clinging to those old values.

So how do you raise the value of your time?

First, start acting like you are worth more.

Next, identify activities that have a much higher earning potential, and begin to prioritize THOSE every single day.

The first time you earn at $100, you can never look back.

Then one day you’ll have a $1,000 hour, and you’ll never view the way your time is spent the same.

But for now, remember this:

Your time will never be worth more than you ALLOW it to be.

[Calvin Thomas]

You must be a really slow painter if it takes you 20 hours to paint cabinets. It's always best to do things yourself; if you can. You always learn from it and it builds discipline. So, in your example, that would be a well earned 280.00 if one had nothing else to do at that moment.