Have you ever asked yourself what your highest income producing activity is? If you’re like most people, you probably go about your day-to-day business never really thinking about the momentto-moment activities that consume your day. I’d like to walk you through an exercise that has helped me and my clients really stay focused on earning their highest possible revenue per hour.
Let’s assume that we each start with 365 days in a year. If we take away the following:
104 days-weekends
5 days-major US holidays
2 weeks-vacation
3 days-personal religious holidays
That leaves each one of us with approximately 238 days in order to earn the income we desire. Of course we can add or delete days based on our own schedule and desires. If you multiply these 238 days times an average of 10 working hours per day, you are dealing with 2,380 hours of real work time for the year. So let’s do some math. If your yearly income goals are as follows…
$25k = you must be earning an average of $10.50 every hour of work.
$50K = $21 per hour
$100k = $42 per hour
$250k = $105 per hour
$1M = $420 per hour
$5M = $2100 per hour
$10M = $4200 per hour
In order to earn the income per year that you really want, you absolutely must be doing activities every hour that line up with this chart. If you catch yourself doing anything that isn’t your absolute highest producing income activity all the time, you are in effect making it much harder to achieve your desired financial goals: What activity or activities generate your highest producing income?
What are you spending your time doing? Are you focused on the real money makers or the real time wasters? Are you making it easy for yourself to be a high income earner or are you doing the things that can be done by someone whose income goal or ability may be less than yours?
I can tell you that when you start to look at each hour this way, you’ll stop doing the small stuff that can be hired out and you’ll start doing the real high producing stuff that yields big results. Just look at your most recent 3-5 days and count the number of hours you spent really making the big bucks vs. all the stuff that you’ve done that creeps up on all of us. What you discover will amaze you.
I’ve often said that it’s not the smartest among us that makes the most money, it’s the ones who do the smartest things consistently that win big!
6 Responses to “How Much Do You Really Need to Earn Per Hour to Achieve Your Yearly Financial Goals?”
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I remember when I was younger and in school, fear stopped me from asking out a girl I wanted to date. I can remember all the thoughts of different things I wanted to say and how I would ask her out. As quickly as the idea to ask her out popped in my head, I came up with all the reasons why she might say no. I remember the “feeling” of rejection and embarrassment even though I didn’t even pick up the phone! It’s as real in my mind right now as it was then. I didn’t understand it then but I certainly do today.
Have you ever had thoughts of fear that have caused you not to move ahead with any of your dreams or goals? Every human on earth at one time or another feels this “fear” and reverts back into their “safety” or comfort zone. The system was created to protect us in times of real danger, but we must learn when danger is real or caused by our imagination of what may happen…again.
What ability causes one person to face and overcome possible rejection at work, in school or in a relationship easier to handle, than someone who is paralyzed by the mere thought?
A man who goes after business like a tiger may be uncomfortable with women and therefore not be able to approach a woman for fear of rejection. A woman who is miserable in a relationship may be petrified at the thought of saying anything to her spouse in fear of the potential discussion or backlash. A child may not seek out other children to play with at school in fear of rejection. The list can go on and on from fear of leaving your job to fear of hurting yourself if you try something new.
So what is really going on and how can we stop this once and for all?
First and foremost understand that fear is a very common feeling and we all have one fear or another. The “feeling” of fear is almost solely based on what we think may happen if we try and fail. It is different than actually knowing that we will hurt ourselves if we fall 20 stories from a building.
Most fears are illusions we create in our own head based on past conditioning and not based on what is possible. As children, we are natural-born risk takers and for the most part we are fearless. The meaning we give an experience when we do not achieve the result we want determines how we “see” and “feel” the next opportunity that seems like the one we’ve experienced in the past.
If we experience rejection more times than we care to, we tend to mentally label the experience a negative one. Over time this becomes our belief and our beliefs, as you already know, become your reality.
What would happen if we changed the meaning of an experience we didn’t like? What if we learned to label our experiences as “learning” or “interesting” experiences? Do you think your tolerance level would increase for trying again?
I have learned that people who really succeed in various areas of life often frame their experiences differently than those who quickly label the experience as a negative one.
When we feel fear, we are playing a mental trick that is not conducive to growth. All growth comes from stretching oneself past the comfort zone that limits us. Risk is a necessary part of the reward. You cannot have one without the other.
Let me suggest that you start to label your experiences in ways that serve you rather than limit you. We have very few limits except the ones that we set on our selves. And those are mostly out of fear from the past. Do not let your past control your present thinking. Step out and grow. Step out of your comfort zone and be free again!
One Response to “Crossing the Line of Fear”
3 of us wanted to offer a workshop – 1 always criticised the lessons I offered – even though i had had tremendous success with these lessons b4, I evetually got too scared to reherse our workshop together and pulled out of the group because before i was to offer my work I heard what he had said before ” I would be embarassed to offer that” his words were now stuck in my mind and I expected them and couldnt move forward for fear of hearing them again. MY FEAR & lack of self belief led me to flee what may have been a great experience……thank you now for letting me understand my actions better – knowing the part i let my fear play. I need to decide whether i want to move forward with people who put me down- or not….but if i dont let them affect me, i will give myself more opportunities. Oh thank you for letting me see this clearly now, what a blessing this read – has been.
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When I was 21 years old a gentleman asked me what I thought the value of an hour was. At that point, I honestly did not know how to answer the question. He went on to teach me one of the most valuable lessons I have ever learned.
He suggested that the value of an hour was priceless. When this confused me some, here is what he went on to tell me this:
If you invest one hour each day in understanding yourself and your environment better, you will accumulate nine 40-hour weeks over the course of a year! As you can imagine I was blown away when he put it to me that way. Nine 40-hour weeks? This seemed impossible until I did the math. 365 days multiplied by one hour each is…yep, nine 40-hour weeks!
He went on to ask me how well I would be able to do something if I did it all day, every day for just over two months. Well you already know the answer to that…I could be awesome!
He went on to tell me that over the course of just five years I would have invested the equivalent of 1825 hours of focus on whatever I desired to accomplish in my life.
Imagine for a minute how incredible you could become at anything you did for one hour each day for the next year.
How physically fit could you get? How much more love could you give and receive? How much more money could you earn?
Let me suggest that one hour is a small price to pay in comparison to the payoff.
Just one hour each day may just be the razor’s edge you need to really get the results you want in your life.
For me the decision was easy. I have been studying human potential and the mind for over 20 years. Each time I think I’m getting a good handle on it, I am gently reminded of how much there is to observe and learn.
Is getting what you want in life worth one hour a day? I certainly hope so.
Regardless of the success I have achieved in my life, I still manage to set aside my hour to read motivational stories or listen to inspirational people. They are the fuel for my mind and it keeps me learning and yearning for more.
Please adopt an hour a day for yourself!
Pick one area of your life that you want to improve and commit the next 90 days to that one thing.
I assure you that the results you achieve will be well worth the decision!
And remember…you can’t get out of this life more than you put into it.
11 Responses to “What’s the Value of an Hour?”
Such a simple concept with such a huge pay off! Thank you for this post!
thank you John..
A speaker from the 60′s
,I believe was Earl Nightengale, this was his idea for the key to sucess!What’s an hour compared to the stress you are eliminating from doing this.
This is something I have been seeking for a long time…God bless you and thank you for sharing!
Great way to break this down. It’s always the simple concepts that make the most impact. Great article!
With all that there is to be done in a 24 hours period, I absolutely find it important for my personal development to commit one hour a day to myself! It’s my ‘Hour of Power!’ Can’t remember where I heard that phrase, I think Tony Robbins… but it has always stuck with me!
interesting concept thanks John
John you have some of the best information out there…always quality! Thank you.
Great tip John… fitness is definitely one of my one hour focus points for this year. Thanks!
I am mother of three small children just got divorce,never worked,i want 5mln, dollars as annual income.I have no idea where and how to start.
my name is ass hole n i blow ass
kiss my ass bitch n suck my dick how n comment back or i will beat yall ass
bitches i will slap da shit out of yhu hoes n who gone do sum bout it
I am not doing anything that would fetch me $500 per hour. I have the goal of making more money. I am thinking lot of ideas but none of them seem to make more money.
It would be really helpful for all of us, if you write something on this subject. “I have a goal to make a million, but NO ideas. What should I do?”… some practical guidelines would make sense….
Thanks a lot for this post John.
Hi John,
This simple exercise is so eye opening! Thank you for sharing it with us!
Best regards,
Chantal
Wow, the calculation looks worse in South Africa.
104 days weekend
12 national public holidays
21 working days leave (if employed by a boss)
? religious holidays
227 actual working days per year
8 working hours per day (if employed by someone else)
1816 hours per anum!?
And we need to earn $x7 to get to the Rand equivalent
For $25000 we’d have to earn R96.37 per hour (or $13.77)
No wonder half of the nation is on Prozac (the half who gets paid by someone else, the rest of us work until we drop)