“Most people would rather make a million dollars in their head every night than $5 in cash every day.” -George H. Larimer

Last month, I earned $4,000 from my writing. Much of it was Passive income, coming in while I slept and watched This Is Us with my wife.

That may sound incredible to you (it does to me). It’s the most I’ve made in a single month from my business so far. For comparison, I earned a total of $40 over my first 4.5 years of writing. (That’s about 74 cents a month.)

What’s even better is that the money is consistent. I can consistently count on my systems to bring in my income each month. I’d rather have a consistent $100 every month instead of a $10,000 jackpot I didn’t earn — one is a sustainable source of reliable income, the other is empty, unsustainable luck that often leads to more financial poverty.

As best-selling author Jim Rohn once said:

“After you become a millionaire, you can give all of your money away because what’s important is not the million dollars; what’s important is the person you have become in the process of becoming a millionaire.”

It’s taken me a long time to build this passive income system. And the most important lesson I’ve learned along the way is this:

You can’t earn $4,000/month if you don’t know how to earn $40/month.

Ordinary People Focus on the Outcome. Extraordinary People Focus on the Process.

“This is the process by which wealth is accumulated; first in small sums, then in larger ones as a man learns and becomes more capable.” -George S. Clason

Worrying uses up enormous energy.

I’m a professional worrier. I’ve been doing it since I was 6, when I worried whether or not my 2nd grade crush Kaitlyn Moore would like the love letter I wrote her. (She didn’t — guess I didn’t worry enough, right?)

Ordinary people worry all the time. They focus on the outcome, on trying to “make things happen” that they actually have no control over.

My old boss at my telemarketing job was a worrier, and he made the rest of us worry. “You can get them to buy, if you only say the right thing,” he’d reprimand me. “I expect 3 sales this week or you and I are going to have a talk.” I foolishly believed him — that I could “make” people buy, telling myself I had control over an uncontrollable result.

On the other hand, extraordinary people focus on the process. They don’t worry about the end goal — they just do what they need to do, today. That’s it.

Do what you need to do, today, one day at a time.

Passive income doesn’t start with next month’s income. It doesn’t start with your end-of-year money goals or even end of the week.

No, passive income starts right now, this hour.

What do you need to do today to make the next step?

What do you need to do right now to make the next step?

Years ago, I had the opportunity to listen to a man who had over 10 years of sobriety from alcohol. When asked how he did it, he simply said, “The people who get long-term sobriety are the ones who can keep stringing together another day. You just keep adding on another day. That’s it.”

The world’s most successful people aren’t busy worrying about what’s happening next year; they’re focused on doing what they need to do today.

Setting Goals is Fine, But Setting Up Systems Brings Incredible Results

James Clear opened my eyes when he wrote, “Forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.”

He revealed that in 12 months of writing, he had written about 115,000 words (that’s about 2 books in length). But at the beginning of the year, he didn’t say, “I’m going to write 2 whole books this year!” (doesn’t that sound exhausting?) No, he just wrote an article every Monday and every Thursday, without fail. That’s it.

A short year later, he had written 2 whole books in length.

This is how passive income works. This is how you earn a million dollars, run a 6 minute mile, write a best-selling novel, create a personal coaching business, and achieve every other major goal — put in today’s work. As best-selling author Steven Pressfield put it: do the work.

If you want to create a money system than brings in thousands of dollars a month in passive income, re-focus your efforts onto the process, onto what you need to do today, one hour at a time.

This is how it worked for me. I wrote, and wrote, and wrote. I became a student of my craft, buying courses and books and studying the greats. I slowly built my first online course, then another, then another. Soon, I was offered a book deal. I met influential people and learned more and more.

12 months later, I have a passive income system that earns thousands of dollars a month — and I did it by focusing on finishing whatever task, however small, was at hand that day.

I just kept stringing together another day.

Want To Earn Thousands/Month? Start With Flossing 1 Tooth.

Best-selling author Ramit Sethi once said that if you want to change any behavior, you need to start small; with flossing one single tooth, for instance.

That’s all you need to commit to at first. Frankly, that’s all most of us can commit to. Over time, since you’re already flossing one tooth, you’ll start to floss two teeth. Then a few more. Then the snowball has started rolling, and you’ll build momentum.

• You can’t earn millions a year without first earning $10 in one month.
• You can’t open a business if you haven’t made your first sale.
• You can’t write a book if you don’t write 100 words on a page.
• You can’t consistently wake up at 5AM if you don’t consistently wake up at 7AM first.

Belief without action is useless. If you want to achieve a truly enormous goal — the kind of goal most people have never done — you need to learn how to finish 1/100th of that goal first. Maybe even 1/1000th. I needed to know how to earn $40/month before I could $400, then $4,000.

Most people want to end result now. They want to jackpot, the 6-figure signed deal, the best-selling book, the 6-minute mile time.

They don’t care that they haven’t ran a 9-minute mile since college. They don’t care if they haven’t written a blog post in months or ever made a real sale for their product. They want success, and they want it now.

Desire without action is dead.

Old habits are hard to break. Information alone isn’t enough — you need to take action to change your old ways. Even if that action is a tiny, seemingly insignificant action that makes you feel silly for even doing.

Best-selling author Darren Hardy once wrote:

“Small, seemingly inconsistent steps completed consistently over time will create a radical difference.”

How do you earn millions, write a full-length book, open a business, and wake up early?

By earning a few bucks, writing a few words, making your first sale, and waking up a few minutes earlier than usual.

Momentum will take care of the rest — if you can commit to action.

How To Earn $1,000,000, Open Your Own Business, and 6-pack Abs…Starting Today

“You can’t make $5,000/month if you don’t know how to make $50/month.” -Mj Demarco

I spent a long time wishing I could make that kind of money. Much of my time was spent wishing; through “dream boards” and journaling and writing down my goals and reading them every day because that’s what the self-help gurus told me to do.

But faith without action is dead. Dreaming with action is pointless, aside form the mild high you get for a minute or two. But then reality shows up, reminding you that you have less than $1,000 in the bank and that $30,000 in student loans hasn’t gotten any smaller.

If you want $1,000,000 dollars…you need to know how to make $10/month first.

If you want to open your own business…you have to make a sale first.

If you want 6-pack abs…you have to do 10 crunches first.

If you want to wake up at 5AM consistently…you have to wake up at 7:30AM consistently first.

Most people want to end result now. They want to jackpot, the 6-figure signed deal, the best-selling book, the 6-minute mile time.

They don’t care that they haven’t ran a 9-minute mile since college. They don’t care if they haven’t written a blog post in months or ever made a real sale for their product. They want success, and they want it now.

You can’t earn $5,000/month if you don’t know how to earn $50/month first. Most people want to skip the lessons and jump straight to the reward. They want a soulmate without putting in the work on how to sustain a great relationship.

Most people aren’t willing to do the work. But if you can commit and truly become a student of your craft, your numbers will grow and grow until you finally achieve the success everyone around you has been chasing.

In Conclusion

“Tiny steps will get you much farther than infrequent home runs.” Niklas Göke

My money journey started small. For years, it was a trickle of a stream that was usually bone-dry.

But then, I decided to actually learn how to make passive income. I bought books, and for once, actually listened to all those Internet writers who I was convinced were sleazy salesmen. I applied what I learned. I became a student of my craft. I made my first sale. Then another one. And another one.

I learned how to make $40 a month, and that’s what I made for a while. Then I expanded, learned more, did more tests, and started making $400 a month. Then $1,000. Many months later, I made $4,000.

Making passive income isn’t easy. It may seem impossible to you. Maybe you’re convinced people like me are just out to get your money, and that this stuff won’t work for you, and how this only happens to other people.

Choose to learn. Commit to making $40 this month. Start small. The process in which wealth is created first starts out small, forcing you to learn the small lessons on the way.

Eventually, the big numbers will come.

“The process is testing you as well as teaching you. If you pass the test and learn the lessons, you get to go on to your next process. If you fail a test and quit rather than retake the test, the process spits you out.” -Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad

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This 1 Lesson Teaches You How to Consistently Earn $1,000’s of Dollars/Month in Passive Income was originally published in The Ascent on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.