Expand Your Potential

This post is #15 in a #17 post series about workcations. The learn more about workcations and see the full eBook, check out Workcation. Have the best life now! on Amazon. It's free to borrow, if you have a Kindle device or Amazon Prime. 
   
  If you are looking for ways to enjoy more luxurious or cost-intensive workcations that are outside of your budget, there are two ways to create additional income: 1) reduce your monthly expenditures or 2) create additional income streams. As you divide you list into two different categories listed below, determine which ones you can revise, add or subtract to help you make the most of your lifestyle.

1) Reduce Expenditures
        From enjoy a Starbucks latte to paying for cable TV, there are one-time and monthly expenses that can overpower our lives. At times, our expenses can overwhelm us and make us feel like we can never get ahead.  In order to reduce your monthly budget, it’s important to divide your expenses into two categories: one-time and recurring expenses.

                One-Time Expenses: These expense typically are lifestyle charges, such as new clothing or dining out at a restaurant. Sometimes, these feel as “must-haves” and sneak into our budgets. It can be helpful to always sleep on it for a night and not feel pressured to buy on a whim. There will always be a deal around the corner and realizing that spending to save, actually doesn’t make the spender the winner is a good strategy to follow.

                Recurring Expenses: These are monthly expenses that take away from our income. Expenses, such as a mortgage, cable bills, car insurance, gym memberships, and cell phone bills, are all monthly expenses that fight for a share of our monthly paycheck. Some of these are billed monthly and we may not even be aware for the details of our bill or don’t use all of what we are paying for. If we spend time looking at ways to reduce or bills – either by reducing a service or possibly evening removing a service, such as cable TV, we will find new ways to have additional income.

2) Create Additional Income Streams
        Let me be frank. Most, if not 99% of all “get rich” schemes are not overnight successes. For every, “once in a lifetime opportunity,” there are tens of thousands of individuals who are either trying to create the same “once in a lifetime opportunity” or did not reach success working towards it. Most online people who share the secrets of achieving great wealth have very little practical information to implement into your own ventures.

        That being said, there are opportunities that are you can explore to help create additional streams of wealth. Today, more and more online marketing gurus are sharing their success and building resources and communities dedicated to helping people achieve their own online success. Although there are several of this “industry leaders,” it’s important to focus on individuals who are 1) transparent with how they make money, 2) interview other successful entrepreneurs and 3) if possible, provide this information for free. It can be easy to be curious and purchase additional information from some of these industry gurus, but some of the best individuals share their advice for free (yes, FREE!) with the hope to make additional income through affiliate purchases or advertising revenue.

        One of the best, online areas for knowledge, is Smart Passive Income (http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/). Established in 2008, Smart Passive income chronicles the personal successes and failure of Pat Flynn as he tries to increase is the revenue he earns passively each month from online ventures, such as creating mobile applications, websites, or eBooks. Additionally, Flynn interviews successful online entrepreneurs, such as Tim Ferris, and shares their success and industry secrets on a weekly podcast. The podcast is extremely helpful and allows individuals to learn some step-by-step approaches that they can incorporate into their own personal lives.

        It took Pat several years to create a successful online empire, which currently earns between $50,000-60,000/month “passively” from various online projects. Although extremely successful from today means, Pat’s road to success was paved slowly and through necessity. He will be the first one to tell you that we was not fired from his architecture job, but laid off. After no success finding a job, Pat was determined to build his online empire by writing about the experiences he had attempting to create revenue online. It took him several years, before he earned a monthly income of a few thousand dollars a month, which help him support his wife and eventual two children at the time.

        Pat’s journey is inspiring, because it shares the value of hard work, built over time. Implementing similar passive income channels may help you to slowly expand and evolve your passive income opportunities. Overtime, I have learned to embrace these passive income generating opportunities, both as learning experiences to expand my professional skillset and ways to earn additional cash for workcations and vacations. For example, after reading about how to publish an eBook, I decided to turn my photographs into calendar. I spent time learning how to create an eBook, refined my knowledge, and ultimately published my eBook online. Overall, the calendar doesn’t make me rich, but it earns a small amount of passive income each month to help support a mini-workcation each month.


Now imagine if you have a few different sources of passive income? How many doors would open for you to expand your current lifestyle? As you start to think of additional revenue generating ideas, make a list of your creative passions. If this includes taking pictures, writing, or singing, making your list will give you can idea about what to explore. Knowing your passions first will help you translate these into revenue generating ideas. For example, if your passion is singing, maybe you could record some of your songs and submit them through iTunes or Pandora Radio for distribution. If you passion is writing, maybe you start a blog about a topic close to your heart and you display banner advertisements on it. No matter what the end goal is, it will be your passion that helps fuel your determination and success.  


To learn more about how you can enhance your life, check out Workcation. It's available to borrow for free via an Amazon Kindle.  


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