A few days before the start of the year, I decided that 2015 would be the year I make six figures through teaching, writing and talking about yoga. I know some may scoff at the idea of a yoga teacher wanting to earn a sizable income but one huge step in taking action, is talking about it. Another step is letting go of what others think and setting our own example. So here we go!
It began with a blog post from author and spiritual teacher, Gabrielle Bernstein. She spoke about the most effective way to keep New Year's resolutions. Consistency and conviction were the magic words. Do something every single day to ensure the changes actually stick.
The night before, I watched a strange movie called Frank. It's about a musician that wears a huge fake head over his real head. The keyboardist, the protagonist of this freaky tale, gets the band notoriety by writing a blog and posting his experiences on YouTube and Twitter. I suppose one could say my road to six figures began here. But really it began way before.
As long as I can remember, I've wanted financial freedom. I wanted a life beyond my parent's struggle with money. When I was young, the only way I could conceive this success was to strive for an occupation I thought would guarantee it. So at the ripe age of 11, I decided to be lawyer when I grew up. From that point on lawyer was my focus. I took Latin for four years in high school, majored in English with a focus in Pre-Law in college and dreamed of being rich and socially accepted.
Then, during my last semester of college, weeks before I was scheduled to take my LSATs, hundreds spent on prep courses, I woke up. I decided I no longer wanted to be a lawyer. I pulled the curtain away from the façade and saw that my desires were based off of TV characters in shows like The Practice and a false understanding of how one acquires wealth. I bagged law school and decided to become a writer.
Thirteen years later, here I sit writing this blog. So I suppose I've succeeded but mostly for the last twelve years, I have been steeped in the illuminating world of yoga. When I entered this world, I gave up my plans to become wealthy. I identified occupations like doctors and lawyers as gateways to wealth, not yoga instructors.
That road took a detour when I found myself on the track to marrying a man who made more than ten times as much as I did. That man was a doctor. Once again my dreams to break the shackles of middle to low class identity were resurrected. That is, until we broke up.
Around the same time we broke up I completed my first 200-hour yoga teacher training. While I had already been teaching for five years, this was my first big training. With that training I finally accepted my fate as a full-time yoga teacher. And for the first time I started to see that it really doesn't matter what occupation I have. I can be successful and make money doing whatever I love. I pushed forward full steam ahead.
So for the past seven years I have supported myself as a full time yoga teacher and while I have yet to reach six figures, I can taste it. Not the money exactly, I can taste the freedom -- the freedom that comes with having money. Money has always fascinated and troubled me. It has always been my biggest struggle. Some people struggle to find love, some struggle with their health, some with finding their purpose. For me, those things have all fallen beautifully into place. But money has eluded me.
I find this fascinating because money doesn't have any real value. Money is paper but beyond that, it's energy. It is not really money that has eluded me, it is my relationship to it -- a relationship that was shaped by swimming in the muddied waters of lack during my formative years. With a lot of work I have come to see my relationship with money in all it's messy glory and when we can see something, we can change it.
Just like the clothes we wear and the homes we live in do not define us, I know the money I make will never define me. My desire to make six figures is not about definition. I know who I am -- I am infinite space, light and love. I am total potential. I am everything and I am nothing. We all are, no matter our upbringing, our age, race, class or intelligence. We all run deeper than any of those defining factors.
My desire to make six figures is purely about choice. Money gives us the ability to make choices that can influence the world around us. Think what could happen if more conscious people become wealthy. Think how our conscious choices could create massive change and benefit not just ourselves and our families but our environment, our local businesses and really anything we are passionate about.
A healthy relationship with money affords us the freedom to go after our wildest dreams, to connect with other cultures through travel, to support charities and projects of our choosing or to stay at home with our children if we so desire. And for me, I could pay off my parent's mortgage and support them in their later years.
So for 2015 I am committing, every single day, to doing one small act on my road to six figures. I am following Gabrielle Bernstein's advice and doing so with consistency, conviction and commitment. And like the protagonist in the movie Frank, I am sharing my progress via Twitter. Sometimes we are doing just enough to get by but we are all capable of more. For me, this is my more, not because I need to, but because I want to.
To stay updated on my adventures, follow the handle: @beyondasana and the hashtags #sixfigureyogi and #roadtosixfigures on Twitter. I'm going for it this year, every day. I hope you will join me. The more people that follow their dreams the brighter the Universe becomes. Let's do this. Together.