Do you live the Life You Want or the Life Money Shaped for you?
What’s money? Why people work? What’s life?
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Our survival today depends on money. This is how society evolved and how it shaped us. Almost no one today can live a normal, healthy life without money. I say “almost”, but there’s very little chance that anyone lives entirely without money.
In reality, what humans need for survival is food and shelter, not money. Those are our basic needs, but we are no longer hunter-gatherers. To get food and shelter we need money, so our existence, therefore, depends on money.
Money shaped our behavior and the actions we do on a daily basis in such a way that these behavior and actions seem like the normal course of life. Nobody really questions the work they do for money even if it is against their will or if it makes them feel bad.
Surpassing our behavior, the entire society is built on and around money. And we very rarely question anything at all, instead we take things for granted. What is the purpose of life? We are all blinded: we eat, sleep, wake up, work, repeat and do the entire routine and we don’t see anything else.
This is LIFE. A paradigm that we follow rigorously. Or is it? When everyone is living life this way it is pretty hard to question it. In fact, most of the readers will not even be able to cope with the thought of this and will probably close this page soon if they haven’t done so by now.
The education system shapes us this way for 20 years or more and from inertia, we tend to blindly follow this path afterward. Everything, all the society’s institutions, all the people around us are doing this and seem to support this behavior. For most of us, this is the way of living and few challenge this routine.
This behavior is so deeply imprinted in our lives, that the thought of breaking the habit makes us feel lost or alone. Because we don’t know other ways of doing things or, better said, other ways of living our lives.
Most people work through the best years of their lives and barely get to live the life they want when they are old and retire. What if when you retire at an old age, and you finally get to do the things you always wanted, a pandemic starts and you can’t do them anymore? Yes, this is happening today, and I strongly believe that we should learn from it and not repeat the mistakes most of our parents have made. What is it that you really want, but you never find the “right moment” for?
While traveling around the world, it’s almost depressing to see and meet mostly older people. Most of the time during our travels we’re making friends with older couples because younger ones are too busy working. I doubt I will be able to hike a glacier or a volcano or learn how to surf in Australia in my 60s, will you? My passion is travel, that’s why my example is travel related. Feel free to replace my example with whatever resonates with you.
Society is what shapes our life purposes, not us: go to school, get a job, earn money, be successful and we adhere to these beliefs unconscious. Take a moment to pause. Look around you and observe. What is everyone trying to achieve? A better career? Reputation and society’s recognition? Be honest with you. How many of the things you are doing you chose to do because this is how society works and you are playing its game by its rules? Do you really want all of them personally? Be true to yourself and be willing not to go with the crowd. It’s time to start playing by your own rules!
My mother used to say to me when I was a child: “Play now because you will work your entire adult life.”. Adulthood sounded like the end of life and I was terrified to get there. Her words got stuck in my head and they will remain so for my entire life. The challenge I have for anyone reading this is to change your perspective: look at your present self through your eyes as a child. Would you put off the fun you could have back then for what you are doing today?
I want to be free to travel the world and live the lifestyle I love. I want to be young when I do this. I want to simply be free. I want control over my time and my life.
Society was invented by people, people just like you and me. Why not invent your own life instead of living the life others chose for you?
The way we live is shaped by money. But money comes and goes, while time doesn’t. Time is the most important asset that we have. It is limited and it degrades as it passes. Spend it wisely!
