Responsibility Labor vs vs Stress. How to Earn More Money.

Do you ever lie awake at night wondering how you can make more money? Or get that sinking feeling that you’re limited because you’re an employee?

Thoughts that may cross your mind at times like these are, “I’ll make sure to put in my full hours” or “I must get some overtime hours this week”.

A more advanced way of thinking about this is, “I’ll work quicker, get more things done and get a larger raise” or “I’ll brush up on my skills and become more valuable”.

The issue with these ideas is that the opportunity is limited. There are only so many hours per week and only so much that you can grow in value based on your skills. In other words, while it’s true that you can maximize your raise by brushing up on your skills or make more money by working overtime, there’s a limit to how much you’ll earn. At some point the company will be able to hire two people for the same cost…

I’m no genius, but what I learned is that the way to more money is more responsibility.

Taking on responsibility is different than doing more work. It means making sure that the work is done and that it is done to the specifications needed. It means understanding the necessity instead of just doing the task. It means passing over the humps that come up instead of reporting to your supervisor that there’s a hump.

However, more responsibility tends to stress people out. Many of you would rather live a more easy and free life and make a few dollars less. Who wants to sit at their desk all day dealing with issues, emergencies and mistakes?

The ultimate question is, does stress need to grow as the responsibility grows? Or can our financial future grow stress free?