For Petrol's Sake
For a long time, I found it weird that when you try and convince people that they can be happy without money, they selectively interpret that statement as an argument against making money…which it is not.
Rather it is simply stating the obvious truth that happiness/fulfilment/ purpose is wealth, and wealth is not money. Let me try and explain.
Most of us wake up in the morning and go to a place called 'work' to earn money.? And most of us surely spend money every day. In essence, money is a medium of exchange that helps us get the things we want and need.
In other words, you provide your labour in exchange for this medium called money, which you can then exchange for the goods or services you want. However, it’s important to note that money has no intrinsic value.
Is money, then, really the thing we want?
It seems fairly obvious that most of us would prefer to have more money as opposed to less. In some ways, this is merely a truism.? After-all, who wouldn’t want to be able to buy more goods and services?
All things being equal, I’d certainly rather have more money in my life! I’m not here to deny that material well-being can improve happiness because I believe it certainly can. However, the quest to acquire money can come with hefty spiritual costs that are often ignored.
Money is not the root of evil, but it is the most common means of losing oneself.? When identity is found in money, and in things purchased with money, the ego seeks and finds the means to perpetuate and strengthen this false identity; the authentic self gets covered.
More is not always better but social conventions teach it. The total well-being of an individual, and of a nation, is only?partially?dependent upon financial wealth.? The majority of one's true wealth is self-created.
As such, I think most of us, when we say we want money, really mean that we want wealth. So what, then, exactly is wealth? Being wealthy means having the actual things, both tangible and intangible, that we want in our lives.
An eclectic array of things can make us wealthy (and in many ways), e.g.,: a place to live, leisure time, a loving family, wonderful friends, gadgets, a creative outlet, and travel.?
What's interesting to note is that you can be wealthy without having money. True wealth is not measured by financial means. However, money is needed for some of these things (unless you are bartering) and so to say that money doesn't matter at all is to be intellectually dishonest.
Most of us want the things that money can buy, but often what makes us happiest are the things that money?can't?buy. Having a healthy balance between these two is the key to being wealthy and it's a different balance for each of us individually.
I think pursuing wealth is the more important thing than pursuing money, but we usually only hear public discourse surrounding money. If what we really want is wealth, why do we waste our lives chasing money?
Starting at a very young age, society bombards us with the message that money makes people happy and successful. As you can see, however, this rests on the mistaken assumption that wealth and money are synonymous terms; they’re not.
The pursuit of happiness (wealth) is not an argument against making money, rather it is a reminder that true wealth is not measured by monetary means; it is by the richness of one's perspective.
Given a healthy perspective, the simple things in life—the small pleasures—are easy to obtain; what appears terrible is easy to endure; a life with few and small worries and wants is one of tranquillity and contentment—one of peace—one of wealth. That is all.
I’m fond of how Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media, thinks about money. He said, "Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations."
Wealth is a Mental Process, not a Physical Outcome. Nothing changes until I do. It's just me versus my mind daily.
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