The world turns at the same rate every single day. Nothing changes day after day. Then why do we have good days and bad days? Or days where we get more done or less?
It’s a matter of consistency. No matter how we’re feeling, the world keeps turning and if you slow down, it stays the same.
Much of this world takes on the same concept as the physical rotation at the same time. Business carries on. People still get hungry. The world must go on.
So how does this relate to you? It’s all about consistency and finding your baseline.
There’s no question how fast the world spins. It’s the same every day, but not everywhere.
The earth rotates once every 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.09053 seconds, called the sidereal period, and its circumference is roughly 40,075 kilometers. Thus, the surface of the earth at the equator moves at a speed of 460 meters per second–or roughly 1,000 miles per hour. – Scientific Earth
Sure, you can burrow down deep and shut out the world. It might feel like everything slowed down for the moment. But when you climb out from the depths, the world is still spinning at the same speed.
The only way to ensure that the world doesn’t leave you behind is if you take the time to find your baseline, realize where that fits in with the rest of the worlds current trend, and work to adjust your baseline in the direction you need to keep up. The problem most people have is they simply don’t have a baseline.
A $0.50 raise is great for someone that’s only every gotten minimum wage. That might be where they stop and consider their next step up. Another $0.50. That would be great.
Until you start to realize that you’re unable to afford certain thing that other people your age can. Is it that they’re just lucky? Maybe. Probably in some cases. More often than not though, they took the time to realize what their baseline was, where that fell into the current direction of the world, and fought for a higher wage. All because they knew that a baseline average of $0.50 raises isn’t worth the skills they’re able to provide to others.
If this isn’t making sense, I have another article on how to frame your mindset regarding money. It ultimately comes down to resources and the impact your skills have on those resources.
Here’s a quick rundown, and I encourage you to read the article if it’s interesting to you.
If you want to change the way you see the world, change the way you get paid. As an hourly position, you have a completely different mindset than a salaried position or someone on a commission structure that benefits from their activities.
Each of these mindsets dictate the way you behave in a workplace and how you perceive your level of participation.
Hourly positions are usually given to accomplish a single objective, usually for by one person seeking to achieve a specific outcome. This benefits the person performing the work because they’re able to use their skills in exchange for money based on how long it takes to accomplish the task at hand. Most skills have an equivalent rate that you can be expected to receive for performing at a baseline level for that task. The bigger the task, the more specialized the skillset, or the fast it can get done all affect how many resources you will receive because of the direct impact you have on other individuals.
On the flip side, if you’re in a salaried position, you’re typically part of a team that has similar sets of skills all working toward a similar goal, often with no additional personal benefit for working long or faster.
And lastly, a commission pay structure teaches you to leverage your skills in a way that allows you to accomplish the most tasks in as little amount of time. These positions are the positions that are rewarded more for what they do. Rightfully so, because the commission should be dependent on the amount of people reached, resulting in an equivalent exchange of resources. They do a certain of things, benefiting from the completion of each, they get paid for how many things they get done.
Simple right?
Now why does this matter?
It matters because when you get your baseline figured out for the skills that you can provide you can receive equal compensation compared to the impact that you provide to the world.
If you’re interest in how to figure out your baseline, I’ve written a few guides on determine what skills you have and the baseline for those skills.
For now, I suggest starting with what you’re able to do.
There’s a great book by Steven Bartlett called The Diary of A CEO that talks about the stages that everyone goes through in life.
Ali Abdaal has even made a video about it. Must be good, huh?
Well in this book, Steven talks about how when we consider our professional success, we all have five buckets. You can decide to fill those buckets with whatever you want, but the order stays the same.
- What you know
- What you can do
- Who you know
- What you have
- What people think of you
As you go through your professional life, you start by gaining knowledge and learning. When you learn enough, you can then apply that knowledge in some form of skill. That skill will then lead to your networking growing as someone of value. Which results in gaining more resources. Finishing off with what the world thinks of you and your stuff, the people you know, and what you can do.
So, it stands to reason, that if you don’t know anyone, you likely haven’t provided any skills of value to grow your network, or at least to enough people to showcase your abilities. Either that or you don’t have any skills worth keeping in your back pocket as a trusted connection in their network.
It ultimately comes down to find your baseline level of skills, what the world is willing to do with those skills, and taking those skills to the world to benefit by receiving an equal amount of resources to the impact you deliver to the world.
Once you have enough skills, you’ll meet the right people, which results in getting the stuff you want. And hopefully you’re a good enough person that people think highly of you and you speed to the finish line.
And it’s right back to the direct impact you provide to the world.
Look at what you can do. Find out if that’s a good baseline for you. If not, make corrections to head down a new path and find a new baseline.
If you’re looking for more of a how-to on specific skill sets and what you can offer. Here’s a link to our pathway assessment.
We’ll help you get to the finish line. All paths have one.
Start with where you’re at and take it from there.
