There’s a question people almost always ask when they start thinking about earning money independently:

“How much can I make?”

Perfectly reasonable question.

But I’m increasingly convinced it’s the wrong place to start.

Here’s the question I’d rather have you answer:

Not your dream vacation.

Not the week you spend in Tuscany.

Not Christmas morning with the family.

Just a perfectly ordinary Tuesday.

Where do you wake up?

What time?

Do you work that day?

If you do, is it for two hours? Four? Six?

Are you finished by noon?

Do you spend part of the afternoon outside?

Are you working with people you enjoy?

Are you learning something?

Creating something?

Helping somebody solve an interesting problem?

Or maybe Tuesday is simply your day off.

That question may tell you more about the kind of income you should create than starting with a number like $50,000 or $100,000.

For most of our careers, the job came first.

Then we fitted our lives around it.

The company decided where you needed to be.

Someone else decided when the meeting happened, when the budget was due, when you could take vacation and sometimes where you needed to be tomorrow morning.

I remember being home in Los Angeles one Sunday afternoon when I got a call telling me I needed to be in Washington, D.C., at 9:00 the next morning.

And I needed to prepare the presentation before I got there.

So I found a flight, booked a hotel, put together the presentation, flew across the country and got myself up at what felt like the middle of the night to go give it.

That was simply part of the job.

But it certainly wasn’t control over my time.

One of the great opportunities available to us now is to reverse that equation.

Instead of fitting your life around the work, you can begin fitting the work around your life.

We did an interesting exercise this week.

Instead of asking people what they wanted more of, we asked what they would be perfectly happy doing less of—or never doing again.

The answers came quickly.

Commuting. Office politics. Reporting. Busywork. Someone keeping tabs on you. Being available 24/7. Sitting in somebody else’s office. Overtime. Water-cooler conversation.

But sometimes the next chapter gets better because of what you decide to leave behind.

By this point in life, most of us have had enough experience to know there are certain things we simply don’t want to repeat.

That’s useful information.

And on the other side? More travel. More creating. More time outdoors. More artistic pursuits. More quiet.

Once you know what you’d like your week to look like, the income question changes.

Suppose you really want to work two days a week.

Or ten hours a week.

Or take on one worthwhile project a month.

Now compare that with the question many people automatically ask:

“How do I replace my old salary?”

Maybe you need to.

But maybe you don’t.

That old salary may have supported a completely different life.

A commute.

A car.

Gasoline.

Office clothes.

Lunches out.

Business travel.

And a five-day workweek that consumed a significant part of your waking life.

Your life three years from now may have very different economics.

Maybe another $800 a month makes a meaningful difference.

Maybe $10,000 a year pays for a couple of terrific trips.

Maybe $25,000 earned doing interesting professional work gives you exactly the right combination of income, stimulation and freedom.

There isn’t one correct number.

There’s your number.

And it should support the life you actually want.

There’s another part of this that I think people overlook.

Creating a different kind of working life doesn’t necessarily mean learning an entirely new profession.

You may already have decades of experience solving problems, making decisions, managing difficult situations, communicating with people, teaching others or understanding an industry.

You don’t necessarily need to throw all of that away.

But you also don’t have to recreate the job that came with it.

The executive can become an adviser.

The manager can become a coach.

The technical expert can become a trainer.

The physician can become a specialized writer or reviewer.

The person who has spent 30 years solving the same kinds of problems may be able to help somebody else solve them in a fraction of the time.

Keep the expertise. Change the role.

That’s where some very interesting possibilities begin to appear.

You don’t need a business plan.

You don’t need a spreadsheet.

Just take out a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle.

On one side write:

MORE

On the other:

LESS

Put five things under each.

Don’t worry yet about whether they’re practical.

And don’t worry about how much money they produce.

Just describe the life.

Then ask yourself one more question:

What kind of work might fit into that life instead of taking it over?

You may be surprised by where that question takes you.

Because the goal at this stage isn’t simply to find more work.

It’s to find the right amount of worthwhile work—work that uses the best of what you’ve learned while leaving room for everything else you’d like your life to contain.

Three years from today, I’d like you to be able to look around on an ordinary Tuesday and think:

“Yes. This is pretty much how I wanted it to turn out.”

That seems like a pretty good definition of success to me.

Best,

Winton & Heidi

P.S. If this idea of designing the life first—and then figuring out the income that fits it—struck a chord, that’s exactly what we’re working through right now in our 6-Week Freedom Protocol Challenge.

We had our first Tuesday session this week, and Saturday at 10:00 AM Central is the hands-on workshop portion, where Heidi and I will work directly with participants on their questions, ideas and next steps.

If you missed Tuesday, that’s fine. Every Tuesday and Saturday session is recorded, and you’ll have permanent access to the recordings inside your Freedom Protocol course.

The complete 6-week Challenge is $197, or 4 monthly payments of $49.95.

Join the 6-Week Freedom Protocol Challenge →