This is my working room. I printed out my goal, put it in a frame and placed it where I can see it often. Not to the fridge door where I would see it only a few of times per day, but to the place where I spend a lot of time and where am when I might get distracted from my goal. I wrote and undersigned my committed passive income goal in both English, my working language and in Finnish, which is my native language. I feel it is important to pay attention to how the goal is phrased. You may want to skip all this, but I assure you this is important to success. I have used similar motivational and focusing techniques for many projects and they really work. So let's analyze my goal a little more.
"I am successfully creating a new stream of passive income by December 31st, 2012, that generates at least 1000€ per month on average and endures for a minimum of 5 years. I'm doing this in a way that delivers value to others and I'm having fun. I'm healthy and have plenty of time to relax".
If you look at my goal you will see that it follows quite closely the phrasing Steve has in his goal. That is no coincidence. Steve is an expert in phrasing his goals. Why should I invent the wheel again?
It is important to include the word "successfully". It does not matter what the goal is if I don't believe I will succeed in achieving it. When I have that word in I will increase my chances in succeeding. The tense is important too. If I would be using future tense, it would not motivate me to act and succeed now, but somewhere in the future. These are little things, but they can make a huge difference on how the goal makes you feel and act.
You may have already noticed that my schedule is different than Steve's, who is planning to have his $2000 per month stream up and running at the end of the September. I wanted to give myself a bit more time because I am prepared to create at least two income sources. I also want to have a long nice summer vacation. I have much to learn in quite a short time even with this schedule. I'm planning to follow along at Steve's speed until my vacation and then catch up afterwards. And when the first stream is up and running I'll rinse and repeat - but with my new skill set.
I picked 1000€ ($1300) as my goal. When I have received it for 5 years I have earned a total of 60000€. If I split that over the 6 months I have ahead, it is 10000€ per month. I was tempted to set the goal to 500€ per month for 5 years, but I had a belief that I now think is wrong. I used to think that I need to work really hard to earn big bucks. And it just happens that 5000€ is about my worth per month if I would go freelance and earn active income. I feel 1000€ per month is a challenging goal for me, but I want to prove myself that it is possible.
What I am after is not the money itself, but the lifestyle that passive income enables. I am not interested in leeching income. I want to do things that I am comfortable with. Not comfortable like staying in my comfort zone all the time, but comfortable like doing things that are aligned with who I am. I would not feel good about myself if I would be lying to someone or ripping someone off. I'm not looking for and early retirement either. Instead I want to find a way of working that I will enjoy continuing until the end. I love to create new things and I enjoy programming and learning new things. But I want to work on projects I love. And I want to have fun while I am doing it.
I want to feel that I have earned the money that I get and that the work I do brings joy and happiness to someone.
My last passive income stream creation process was an emotional and physical rollercoaster and I realised that I am a work addict. That is why I added the last clause. This time I will only work on this 4-5 days per week, about 8 hours a day. I will buy a good alarm clock to notice me when I have to eat and I will make sure I am living a life that is sustainable in the long run. It will not do my any good to waste myself, when I can choose to have the same results with different attitude.
The last clause also works on some of my fears. I was afraid that my husband would not love me anymore if I would work so much that I would end up looking like the hunchback of Notre Dame. I was afraid that we would get deranged, since I am going through different experiences than he is. But the last clause tackles those fears. I will use my extra time to be with him and share my experiences with him so that he stays in contact of what I am going through.
I used quite a lot of time in creating my goal and I did it together with my husband. However, the goal is mine to reach. I am happy how it looks now and I think it covers what is needed. When I look at it, it makes me smile and think of all the things I can achieve.
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