Creating Passive Income is like Working Out

Have you ever started an exercise program, and the next day you were incredibly fit? I don’t think so. Along the same lines, have you ever learned a new method of making money, and the next day you were rich? Not unless you won the lottery.

As you may recall, I previously wrote about how I was using my new passive income streams to design my own lifestyle by getting back into the gym and actually hiring a personal trainer. I’m using the money I earn online, as well as the free time (because it’s passive), to design my own lifestyle and do things that would have been much more difficult to do while working a 9 to 5 job.

After my 3rd week of training 3 days a week, all I can say as I sit at my computer is…”I can’t move my legs…sweet.”

The Goal

The first thing my trainer did, after taking my measurements and running a few tests, was ask me this question:

“So, Pat. What is your goal?”

I simply answered, “I want to be in shape.” I could tell from his facial expression that he didn’t like this answer. So then he replied with:

“Well of course, but what do you want to be like? Do you want to be lean, do you want to be huge, ripped…what?”

And this got me thinking. He needed to know what I wanted to get out of my training sessions, because that’s how he would know how to train me to get to where I wanted to be.

When it comes to lifestyle design and making money, you have to ask yourself the same type of questions. Yes, we all want more money, but really, what to you want to achieve in life? That should be the primary question. Do you want to live in a mansion with 3 ferraris and an infinity pool? Then that’s ok – you’ll need to create a plan to get there. Do you want to live in a small home and spend most of your time with family? Then that’s ok too – you’ll need to create a plan to get there.

“How you want to live should drive how you work. How you work should not drive how you can live.” – Pat Flynn

You should take the time to understand what you really want. This way, you can really see your goals and devise a plan to get to them.

A real life example would be, if you wanted to take a vacation every year with your family. If that’s the case, then you’d create a passive income stream that would land you $4000 a year. That’s a lot, but is it? That’s only $333 a month, or $83 dollars a week. Sell an eBook that only sells 2 copies a week for $40 dollars, and you’re on a $4000 vacation every year. Just 2 copies a week! See what I mean when I say you have a goal and you make a plan for it?

In case you’re curious in regards to my trainer’s question, I want to be a little more muscular, but also lean in time for my wedding in February. I’m also joining a flag football team after the Honeymoon, and, for a lack of better words…I don’t want to die.

Getting to the Goal

I’ve never worked out so hard in my life, even when I was rowing for the Cal Lightweight Crew back in 2003. I’m on an intense training plan working out in the gym 3 days a week, and doing some sort of cardio the other 4 days. I’ve also changed my diet, after being advised to eat over 3000 good calories each day. I’ve never woken up and eaten an avocado as part of my breakfast before.

To sum it all up for you: it’s really hard work. So hard in fact, that I wanted to give up a couple of times because it was really painful.

This is another way I can say that working out is like creating passive income for yourself. You have to work for it, it’s not easy, and you’ll want to quit. I’ve experienced this in my own passive income streams, but I can tell you that it is so worth the effort, and I know the same will be for my workouts with my trainer.

If you put in the hard work, the results will come.

It took me 2 months to write my eBook for intheleed.com, 2 months where I didn’t see any income from it, and I wanted to quit a few times. Three month’s after it’s launch, I’m pulling in almost $9000 a month from it. I put in the hard work, believed in it, and now I’m seeing the results.

The Results so Far

Well, it’s only been 3 weeks, but I did get measured again and I want to share my results with you.

As you can see, I’m making progress, but like with creating passive income streams, it’s going to take a while before I reach my goal.

A perfect example would be how writing for eHow works. It takes a lot of time and effort to write a good amount of quality articles, and even then it takes time for Google Search to crawl through them and see the results on the search engine results pages.

If you go back and look at my post about my first month report of writing for eHow, you can see that the growth of my earnings increase over time. To reiterate, if you put in the hard work, you’ll see the results.

For the Readers

So the only thing I ask of you today is to really give some thought about what you want to accomplish in life. Write those things down. Where do you see yourself living, what would your daily life be like, and what kinds of things would you want to do? Don’t worry about how you’re going to get there, this is just simply to put into perspective what you should be shooting for.

Thanks again for all of your loyalty to The Smart Passive Income Blog. So far I have an awesome set of readers who I love dearly and will continue to provide creative and helpful information to. I getting close to my goal of 100 subscribed readers by the New Year, so if you’re already subscribed, thank you so much! If not, I would be honored.

Until next time.