Many people think they need a side hustle, they don’t. What they need is a main hustle that pays well. Many of these people already work hard and long enough. They don’t need to work more hours. More work will only take a toll on their physical and mental health.

Most people simply need to earn more for the work they already do. They need to increase their earning potential, which could be their daily rate or the value placed on of the kind of work they do.

A very important part of career fulfilment comes with financial satisfaction. When your work doesn’t pay your bills, it’s easy to feel frustrated and even depressed.

When I was 21 years old, the only career goal I had was how much I wanted to earn by the time I was 25. And when I was 25 years old the only career goal I had was to be in senior management by the time I was 30.

I hit the first goal by 23 and the second just on time.

It seemed shallow at the time, to focus on just earning, but now I see how instrumental it was to ensuring I built capacity very early on. I soon found out that there’s one sure way to earn more, and that’s by acquiring skills, so the interim goal to earning more was actually to focus on acquiring skills that earn well.

As you set goals around the profession you want to be in, it is very important to set goals around how much you would want to earn in that profession and even in business.

When you earn more, you can easily invest in other businesses and build more income sources without working more hours.

So, rather than chasing multiple streams of income consider, having just one focus initially; to secure a job or do work that pays well.

To earn well, we need to set clear goals on our earning desires. However, you can’t just earn well just because you want to. You need to do what it takes to qualify for earning well.

Here’s a plan of what you can do.

1. Decide how much you want to earn in clear terms e.g. $5,000 per month.
2. Research jobs or work that pay as well or more than what you wish to earn.
3. Identify the skills required for the jobs that pay well.
4. Set clear goals and plans to acquire those skills.
5. Execute the plan.
6. Secure a higher paying job or higher paying work.

Remember, if you change nothing, nothing changes.

We can moan all we like, if we don’t take action to upskill and reskill, we remain in the same spot, year after year.

Skills are the key to increasing your earning potential.

I use this method myself. I set goals on how much I want to earn, at any given time. It works. When it works for you, remember to circle back and tell me how it went.

Your thoughts?