The Key to a Six-Figure Income: Follow Your Heart and Soul

Excerpted from
The $100,000 Club; How to Make a Six-Figure Income
By Debra A. Benton

Of all the excuses people use for not going after six-figure incomes, the most prevalent one is "Money won't buy me happiness." You're right, but then again, neither will poverty.

A balanced life gives you happiness . . . and money is part of that balance. Just as money is part of quality of life. So is work. So are family, community, health, achievement, and all other aspects of living that are valuable to you.

It's important to note that money can be a part of a well-rounded life, and that can mean six-figure money.

People mistakenly sell themselves on the singular notion: Do what you love and money will follow. It's too simple an idea. If you love being a kindergarten teacher, a policeman, or a military officer, that is great. Doing the work because you love it is fine. But don't count on big money to follow. Your income will be largely psychological.

If your thinking is one-dimensional-"I just want to do what I love. I don't want money"-you will severely limit the potential for a truly balanced life. Remember, I included money as part of the balance. In today's society, you are missing out if you don't include money also.

In our parents' time the choice was work hard to make money or love what you do to enjoy life. Today you can do it differently. You can and must have it both ways to have it at all.

Having money and happiness is becoming less of a rarity. It is the realistic, modem ideal to strive for.

Like most things, the earlier you work on the ideal, the greater your chance of getting it. Starting on it early, or at least at this time, won't absolutely guarantee you'll make your target, but not starting on it now does guarantee you won't make it.

You Can Have It All!

Be prepared, though, for the fact that a balanced life takes a lot of effort. For example, earning big bucks in your lifetime and having a satisfying personal life will take a lot out of you. Make sure the effort expended is worth it: Follow your heart. As comedian Tim Allen says, "All the energy it took to get here, I don't think I'll have it again."

Beginning now, don't waste any more time or energy not using your all in pursuit of big bucks. What do I mean? Set your mind to having it all-which means whatever is "all" to you. All can be family, health, children, friends, recreation, service, integrity, security, home, making a difference, and personal growth, both spiritual and financial.

ALL is important. You can't be a happy $100,000 Club member if you aren't healthy. Your daily to-do list must include exercise. You can't be a $100,000 Club member if you are in debt. If you can't afford to lose your job, you won't be able to stand up to wrong and bad tilings that happen in business.

There are as many different ways of living a dream as there are different people. What motivates a research-and-development person may not work for the salesperson. Where the salesperson might want the instant gratification of a done deal, for example, the R&D person wants a discovery. Everyone's all is different. The important thing is to find out yours.

Stop and think about what makes up your all. Honestly ask yourself if what you're doing fulfills your all; consider what you need to change, what's lacking, and do something about it. Scrutinize and synchronize what's valuable to you.

The more you can clearly pinpoint what you need and want for personal and professional fulfillment, the easier it is to achieve. People don't fail because of skill level. They fail because of fit: They don't fit all their interests, including their money interest, into one package.

And it's a matter of desire, as I said earlier. If you desire balance, it's worth working to achieve it. Why work and earn anything at all otherwise? If you forget to live, why bother?

Metaphorically speaking, I hope you are singing in your heart, every day, at your tasks. As some sage wrote, "Every man dies. Not every man lives."

When I talked with $100,000 Club members about loving their work, I learned something very interesting. Unless you know and work on your alls, not a lot of money will stay with you even after you earn it! If people don't enjoy how they make their money, they can't seem to keep it. They lose it.

If you aren't content with what you have, you won't be content with getting more of it. But you don't have to be content with where you are. Contentment won't improve your position in life if it causes you to stop stretching. Just don't confuse who you are with what you are and what you have.

An interesting thing about pure happiness: If you find it in some things, it becomes easier to find in a lot of other things too.

Don't let one aspect of your all become a larger piece of your life than it needs to be. Take your job, for instance: If the job alone becomes your all, it leaves you no opportunity for release and growth.

Don't Delay the Discovery and Determination Of Your Alls

The early years of a career are the toughest time to maintain balance. When you are young you have lots of unfocused energy; you are typically single, without children and the various tugs at your time. And worst of all, there isn't a clear picture of your alls.

Determining what does and doesn't work for you, in making yourself a well-rounded person, takes lots of testing, guessing, and retrying. If you don't start this trial-and-error process early in a career, you may regret it in your later years.

I hope that you do not experience financial success before inner togetherness. You might just stick it out and endure imbalance in your life if you get big money early; it's a form of golden handcuffs. The joy that will come to you from making six figures will cloud the not-yet-personally-together mental side and thwart individual development. Far better to get it together first and then get the money. But don't wait too long! Go after balance as if it's a horse that has to be roped before it gets away.

People who don't aggressively pursue a well-rounded life end up in news articles describing people with high-flying positions quitting to spend time with their family. Trouble is, it is already their third family because they've spent numerous years not scrutinizing and synchronizing their alls when they should have been.

To compound the problem, it is often downsizing, global competition, demands from boards, and increased office pressures that finally force people to look to their personal life. Unfortunately that can be too late.

There are few reasons that justify real long-term, personal unhappiness for people living in the United States in this day and age except self-imposed misery. It goes back to upbringing and how you choose to deal with things. Regardless of the experience, you can choose to be happy this day.

I think about one female company president who said to me, "I grew up in the projects. By the time I turned eighteen I was supporting myself and my family by taking in laundry, cleaning houses, even picking cotton. It was also at age eighteen that I decided: I always want to be happy. That was my goal. Twenty-two years later I still am."

If people with harder lives then most of us have experienced can do it, well then, so can we.

People spend their whole lives looking for shortcuts. There are none. If you follow your heart, you will discover fun ways to make the exertion feel like a shortcut. But the reality is that you have to work at finding that equilibrium among all of your alls.

Unfortunately, there are far too many rich, unhappy people out there: three and four marriages down the drain, their kids on serious drugs, personal security problems, huge tax liabilities, multiple mortgages, constant keeping up with the Joneses, ulcers, and stress, name just a few of their problems. These people set bad examples to aspiring $100,000 Club members. It's important to note: Those same people would be miserable without money also. Don't join their ranks.