Let it first be known that I work an insane amount of hours each week.  I work so much that at one point I went to a psychic friend for counseling.  I wanted to know the timing of when this insane drive of mine would finally slow down.  He  laughed and explained my insane drive would never slow down and we then spent the rest of my psychic reading redefining what work is and what work isn’t so my brain, at a minimum, would be happy.

It helped.  We decided the following:

  • Teaching yoga is not working.  It’s fun.  I lose time.  I enjoy it.  So that doesn’t count.
  • Writing is not working.  It’s fun.  I lose time.  I enjoy it.  So that doesn’t count.
  • Creating and planning is not working….you get the drift.

Redefining working helps to justify the 10 – 12  hours or so I spend each day completely focused on this little company called Elemental OM.  If you own your own studio, I know you can relate.  Still, it may be too much work for the monetary payoff…(back to payoff at the bottom of the post).

Today I was teaching Kundalini yoga and came across something that Yogi Bhajan said about work, life, and responsibility.  I’ll paraphrase because English was not his first language and I had to reread what he said about 3 times before I figured it out.  Here goes:

You have two loads to carry in life.

Your first load is the day.  (pretty heavy)

Your second load is the night.  (pretty heavy)

Between 4 am and 7 am and 4 pm and 7 pm is twilight.   (read…light…as in not heavy)

Use this to help you carry your loads.

Yogis Bhajan is telling you to take about 6 hours to yourself each day.  Use these hours to move your body, rest your mind, meditate, reflect, have fun, be with your family, play, and enjoy your hobbies.  If you use the twi -“light”  appropriately, you can effectively do your jobs which are pretty huge jobs.  I mean, after all, you are expected to carry the entire night and day, right?

So if 6 hours are spent in twilight and 7 hours are spent sleeping, you have 11 hours left to carry the load of life.  It’s known that humans can only be creative for about 6 hours each day.  I’m classifying teaching, writing, and planning as creative and therefore NOT working.   So 5 hours is left for the mundane.  Mundane is accounting, marketing, managing, and commuting.

PAYOFF:  Now ask yourself, “Am i willing to spent 5 hours each day doing that cruddy job? and how much do I need to get paid for it?”  Well, let’s back into it.  Median income in the US (most recent data is 2005) is around $30,000.  (5 hours x 365 days = 1,825 of “work” or $30,000/1,825 hours = $16.43/hour.)  You should be paying yourself a minimum of $2,500/month to own your yoga studio or small business.  A “small business” can be defined as “teaching yoga for a living” and not necessarily owning a studio.

If you cannot make the median income with appropriate use of the twilight and owning your small business or teaching yoga, you have to consider if this is a hobby and if you should be doing something else instead.  Please also consider that 250 people will need to give you a minimum of $10/class each month (excluding overhead) to create that flow.  If you are teaching in a studio setting at about $35/class, you will need to teach 71 classes/month or 18 classes a week (burn out).

I’ll blog tomorrow about the ways you can up your revenue stream.

Om, Pamela

 

 

 

*The sole purpose of these articles is to provide information about the tradition of ayurveda, yoga, and meditation. This information is not intended for use in the diagnosis, treatment, cure or prevention of any disease. If you have any serious acute or chronic health concern, please consult a trained health professional who can fully assess your needs and address them effectively. Check with your doctor before taking herbs or using essential oils when pregnant or nursing.