Money isn’t Everything
It’s the only thing! All kidding aside, money not being everything is very true and something that I have to remind myself of from time to time when I’m pursuing my goals. I have a few friends who have almost no money and seem to be almost content with not at least making a solid attempt to make more of it. Even on the surface when it seems like they could benefit from more money and they even act as if they would like to do something to get more, it’s quite obvious why they aren’t. It’s because they don’t WANT to. My friends are quite content where they are at and they are happy with how simple their lives are. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that either.
If you are at a point in your life and you have all the money in the world, or you have next to nothing but you are content with whatever you have then you shouldn’t be focusing on gaining more income. Really in the end it’s just a lot more that you can’t take with you when you leave this world. As long as your income is sustainable then you should focus on growth in the other two areas of your life. Your relationships and your health could benefit quite a bit due to the fact that you have the wealth side of your life handled. Put that focus and energy into them and see how quickly your life improves.
On the other hand if you are like me, you want more wealth and a lot of it! I am still tinkering with my finances. Recently trying to cut the fat where necessary and minimize unnecessary bills. I ask myself where certain products or services that I am using in my life have a diminishing point of returns on value for the amount of money I am continuing to spend on them. Also I am focusing on writing more and creating more value on this website and my other projects so that I can gain more value in the form of income long term from them. I am going to school so that I have skills I will immediately be able to transfer over to my current career, but that will also serve me as far as being able to get a job any time I need. I would also have more of a skill set if I chose to free lance, not to mention knowing computers much better will help me in my internet marketing endeavors.
I choose to pursue money because I know more money will allow me to do more in my life in the long run. Think about what you could do with more money. You will be able to buy more cool techno toys which give you a slight competitive edge over those who don’t use or aren’t exposed to the newest technology. You could travel more, meet more people, and ultimately learn more. Money is one of the best tools you can have for growth. Keep perspective when you are going after money in your life though. America is the land of excess. Realize that there a lot of people with a heck of a lot less than you probably currently have.
You don’t need a ton of money. Just enough to get you to the next checkpoint in your journey. Work on getting that much and sustaining it and you will find that your life is as complete and fulfilling as if you won the lottery. The cool part is that it will be even more fulfilling because you have the luxury and experience of the journey. Once you learn the powerful skill of creating value and trading it in exchange for money you will be able to do it for the rest of your life and you will only get better each time you do it.
Just Say No
Every day is a never ending battle against the time wasters in your life. People, things, email, errands, and all kinds of other little knick knacks are competing for your valuable attention. You have to decide where to focus it to get the biggest return on investment of your time. Ultimately, how good of a return you got will be up to you to define.
I played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for a few hours tonight after not having played it much in the last 3 weeks. That made me happy and feel ready to leave it alone again for a while. Now I’m refreshed and ready to get back to work on my marketing endeavors. Is the PS3 a complete mind-numbing time waster? You bet it is, but it brings a lot of people a lot of joy and they enjoy playing it for hours on end. Controlling the time I spend on it will allow me to enjoy it periodically but still make more time to do the things that get me results in REAL life.
Recognizing that I need to start cutting back on those things that steal my precious time is my biggest task for this year. Checking email less, playing video games less, and talking on the phone less are all things I plan on implementing. It’s hard to cut back if you’ve already accepted these things as the norm and are saying “yes” to them on a subconscious level. It doesn’t matter what Jim Carrey did in the movie “Yes Man”. It was just a metaphor for experiencing life more fully and not turning your back on what could become a great experience. In order to have those experiences, you have to say “no” to the things that are pulling the wool over your eyes and keeping you bogged down by a million pointless tasks that either can wait, aren’t important, or can be ignored altogether.
My question of the day is this: What can you say “no” to more often so that you can make more time for the things that deserve a “yes”?
