What’s The Right Salary for You? Ask the Salary Happiness Calculator.
You’re in sales and that means you’re money-motivated. You don’t shy away from challenges – you seek them out! After all, that’s where the big rewards are found! By rewards, I mean recognition, gifts, and most of all – money.
Given that you know yourself and what you want so well, I’m sure you wouldn’t hesitate to prove it by performing the following three-step excercise I call the Salary Happiness Calculator:
Step 1 – Beginning as early in your career as you like, add up your yearly salary up all the way up to today. Benefits? You can estimate their value or even leave them off if you like.
Step 2 – Ask yourself if you feel any lasting happiness as a result of all that money. Again, think about lasting happiness. You may remember how you felt the day you moved in your house or bought a nice car. I’m referring to how you feel today.
Step 3 – For Experienced Sales People: Are you surprised to see such a big number? Where did it all go? Kudos to you if you stashed a significant amount in savings. For most Americans, the lion’s share of the money in gone. Is it fair to say most of the things spent it on were intended to make you happy? Yet, they haven’t. Sure, you enjoyed them short period of time, but now you need more. In addition, your monthly bills have probably kept pace, limiting what jobs you can take in the future. Was it worth it? Consider letting go of your current lifestyle and pursuing something that you feel gives you a purpose.
Step 3 – For Newer Sales People: For you, this number may be no surprise. In fact, it may be an annoying reminder that you just aren’t where you want to be, yet. What may be a surprise is that even the older, more successful, sales people doing the same calculation aren’t any happier than you. Sure, they appear to be more confident. Inside, you’re both thinking the same thing: “If I could just make more…”. While you’re still young, consider replacing income goals with purpose goals. You will never have enough things or make enough money and you can find yourself feeling trapped by bills later on.
Should you be judged for wanting to have a comfortable lifestyle? Would being homeless make you happier? Of course not! The moral of the story: we blame our employers for not paying us more money while knowing, beyond basic comforts, the extra pay won’t make us any happier. We give our autonomy away by choosing the higher-paying, micro-managed sales job, over the interesting one.
But of course, none of this applies to you. A little more money is all you need. Feel free to lie to me, your friends, and even yourself. The number on your calculator tells the true story.
Sincerely,
Meaning2work
Ps. This post was inspired by the writings of Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus. They are authors of a book and documentary both entitled Minimalism. Learn more about the documentary by clicking on the following link:
Minimalism
Also, you can check out their website at theminimalists.com.