When I was reading “Your Money or Your Life”, the authors Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin connected with me when they talked about whether we are making a living or making a dying in our lives chasing after the rat race.
This was quite profound because I never really thought about life in that way. For some time I’ve always felt that money and going after material achievements couldn’t be the be-all and end-all of life. Why did I feel that way?
The Rat Race
Why is this daily routine of waking up, going to work, going home, spending money, watching television to get some mindless entertainment and “unwinding” after work seen as a rat-race?
Some of us are in jobs that satisfy intrinsically without factoring in the remuneration. Others of us are in jobs that are bearable but we want/need the remuneration it provides. Others of us are in jobs that are not so bearable but we don’t know of what else we can do.
Whatever your situation, it struck me as I got deeper and deeper into “Your Money or Your Life” that fulfilment, satisfaction and alignment to personal values doesn’t always need a lot of money. The simple things are the ones that satisfy and for too long I too have lived thinking that I must achieve a, b and c BEFORE I can find fulfilment, satisfaction and alignment to personal values in whatever I do.
We need our jobs to provide for our living and our family’s living. But making a living doesn’t have to mean we make a dying by wastefully spending our hard-earned monies into material stuff that brings no fulfilment to us in the long term. The endless chasing after the next Omnia, the next Louis Vuitton handbag, the next Mango fashion apparel or the next big ticket refrigerator, BMW 320 or Lexus RS400.
When I first started embarking on the steps shown in “Your Money or Your Life”, I realised the start of being frugal and living a simple life is to be aware of how for all of the money we have earned and spent in our lives, we tend to be vaguely disatisfied with our lives in one way or another. Instead of dealing with the source of this disatisfaction, we tend to go about getting this and buying that thinking that it is the solution to our deep-seated unhappiness. Unfortunately, the thing that we just swiped our credit card for doesn’t do it for us 2-3 days, weeks after we have got it.
Buying your way into happiness doesn’t last
Buying your way towards fulfilment and happiness in life rarely lasts long. Many studies have shown that it is the ability to connect with people through meaningful relationships and contributing to the lives of others in powerful ways are some of the true paths towards living a fulfilled life. No man is an island and so is no man built to be happy just purely by spending money on things that do not matter.
Making a living or making a dying – You Choose!
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then skip to my next post that may be for you. But for those of you who know that I am speaking right to you, yes you! You may want to pick up the book, “Your Money or Your Life” and read it from end to end. It may change your life.
I know it has for mine.
Be well and prosper.