Is It Really Possible for An Income Stream to Be Truly Passive, Forever?

Let’s talk a little more about what your expectations should be for your passive income streams. Can you really set something up once and benefit from it forever?

No, you can’t. Ongoing work and oversight will be required. You’ll need to pay attention to changing conditions and learn to adapt when needed.

You’ll need to tend to your passive income streams over time. It won’t take nearly as much work as it did in the beginning, but the work is still there.

It makes me cringe when I hear that someone has set up an amazing, awesome passive income stream that was really profitable in the beginning and then just let it sit there until the money slowly dwindled away to nothing.

Think of your passive income streams as if they were part of a garden. You do most of the work in the beginning. You tend to the soil, plant the seeds, and water them. They sprout and bloom and produce fruit and you’re happy.

If you never tend to that garden again, the plants might still grow for a while. But they will also be overtaken by weeds and slowly wither away from lack of water and attention. They’ll never be high producing and beautiful again and will eventually die out altogether.

If you take just a little bit of time to water your garden when it needs it and to weed it when it needs it, it will grow to be big and beautiful and will produce for many years to come.

It will grow while you’re sleeping and while you’re away for a few days. It will grow while you’re goofing around and doing the things you like to do. It will grow while you’re building another garden to double your reward.

But you have to come back to water it sometimes and pick its rewards so it can grow more. You have to weed it and tend to it and put loving work into it.

It’s harder in the beginning, when you’re setting the garden up. It’s so much easier and so much more passive once it’s gotten going. It’s so rewarding and so amazing that it does most of its work while you’re not even there.

Your passive income streams are exactly the same way. Think of them as a garden that you work hard to set up and return to tend to when needed. If you’re away for a few days, no big deal. If you’re sleeping, no big deal. If you pay someone else to tend to it a bit while you’re whipping around the world, traveling in style, it still grows.

The same is true for your passive income streams. You set it up and do the hard work in the beginning. You tend to it every now and again. You make changes when conditions change. You hire people to do the work you don’t like to do. You keep your eye on it and do what you can do to help it grow.

“Set it and forget it” is largely a myth. There are some passive income streams you have to tend to more in the long-term than others. There are others that are pretty much hands off that only need a tiny bit of TLC.

The work you do in the long term can be minimal. These passive income streams can help you enjoy your life so much more.

It really stinks for your only income to come when you’re actively working. That’s draining and I could never go back to working in a situation where if I didn’t work for a particular hour, I wouldn’t get paid.

I want to “get paid” even while I’m sleeping and even while I’m on vacation. I want to be able to enjoy life at my beach condo (paid for with my online income streams) and not have to work 24/7.

It’s a fantastic life, and I’m excited that you’re at the point where you’re serious about living it.

Get into the mindset of what a passive income really means. It means you can take a week off or even a month off if you want… but only after the income stream is set up and steadily producing.

Setting up passive income streams means you can travel, spend time with family and friends, and live life on your own terms.

It may not be a “set it and forget it” type of lifestyle, but that doesn’t exist anyway. The passive income lifestyle does exist and it’s incredible.

Are you ready? I think you are.

Setting Goals and Deadlines for Your Dreams

You’re a dreamer, which means you might not be used to stopping and setting goals and deadlines before plowing ahead. You dream these big dreams and you hope to achieve them someday.

You dream big, but how solid are your goals, really?

Maybe you know that you want to live in a bigger, better house with a lot of land, for example. But what, exactly, does that look like? By when do you want to be able to move into your new dream home?

You dream of earning a wonderful, full-time passive income — but what does that really mean? A full-time income to you might be very different from what a full-time income means to the next person.

You can’t decide that you want to earn a full-time income and not spell out exactly what that means to you. It’s important to set very specific goals that you hope to achieve. This helps put you in a mindset of success and gives you an exact target to reach.

Being specific dramatically improves your chances of actually achieving your goal. That’s because there is actually something to achieve! You have to have that target there so your brain can get to work on reaching it.

Not only is it important to set very specific goals, it’s also important to put deadlines on those goals. You know that you someday want to earn $10,000 a month in passive income. Do you want to earn that amount per month within 10 years or do you want to earn that amount per month within three months?

Soon, you’re going to create a roadmap for yourself based on your goals. The roadmap you would create for a 10-year deadline is extremely different from the roadmap you would create for a three-month deadline.

That’s why it’s important to be very specific and to put deadlines on your goals. This is an extremely important part of your success. If you aren’t specific, then you don’t truly have anything to aim for. If you don’t set deadlines, then you don’t know exactly what work you should be doing, how much of it you should be doing, and when you should be doing it, to achieve your goals.

Don’t just dismiss this is as something you don’t need to do. You need to think long and hard about your goals, make them as specific as possible, and put deadlines on those goals. Not only that, but you need to write those goals down.

Writing your goals down solidifies them. It makes them more real and tangible. In fact, I suggest you write your goals down over and over again. Many successful people write down their goals every morning or at night before they go to bed, or both.

Revisiting your goals often helps you keep going even when the going gets tough. Revisiting your goals helps you keep an eye on the prize so you can keep going no matter how discouraged you feel at that particular point in time. You have big things you’re meant to achieve and that you’re going to achieve. Your goals are at the forefront of this achievement.

Goals Help You Find True Success

If you don’t set deadlines and goals, you probably won’t ever do the work or live up to your full potential.

I know that’s a bold statement, maybe shocking to some, but I want to set the tone right away for you. Read that prior sentence again and again until you understand it, and believe in its importance. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck chasing bright shiny objects, trying to find the next hit of hope.

You’re beyond that now. You’re at the point where you’re ready to find true success, not just the kind of success that lives in your dreams. Setting goals paves the way for you to choose your business model and find success. Setting goals paves the way for you to set up multiple passive income streams.

Write Your Goals Down Now

Don’t just read this section about goals and dismiss it as something you don’t need to do or something that you’ll do later. In fact, get out a pen and a piece of paper and start brainstorming your goals right now.

Yes, right now. Or, if you prefer, open a fresh word processing document and start typing your goals, but for most people, writing them with pen and paper is a stronger action subconsciously.

Place these goals in a prominent place where you can look at them often. Incorporate these goals into your vision board or mind movie. You should have very specific goals related to your life and business.

Note that your goals might change over time. That’s okay and it’s to be expected. Keep up with your goals every day and remain flexible.

Make it so that every action you take in your business and in your life puts you one step closer toward your goals.

Slow and steady wins the race. I call this incremental progress. As much as possible, take a step forward every single day. Yes, there will be setbacks, but 2 steps forward for every 1 step backward will still get you to the finish line.

At first, it might seem impossible that you’re going to achieve your goals, especially if you’ve set your sights on the stars. I promise you that it’s not impossible at all. Set your goals, and make them very specific, and you’ll find success.