If Money Didn't Matter

I saw an interesting short video yesterday that was posted on FB.  I rarely watch the video's on there, but if it piques my interest, I go ahead and give it a watch.  I forget the title of the video, but it was simply a montage of different cool video clips, strung together, and narrated by some guy.  One of the first questions he asks is, "If money didn't matter, what would you do with your life?"  This notion of being able to completely disregard money and follow your dreams has always appealed to me.  In essence, it means doing what you are passionate about and not worrying about how you will pay the bills.  It means following your inner voice, the one that speaks from your heart, and disregarding the your brains logical messages about living, making money, and creating a "good" life for yourself.   But what is a "good" life?  Is it one filled with money that could allow you to do whatever you want or is it one where you do what you really want to anyway and find a way of making money doing that?  I know when I was younger, part of me thought that I needed money to be happy, that I needed money to buy things to create a "happy" world around me.  That feeling never really sunk in, though, and it remained on the periphery of my brain, always there, yet never melding itself with who I was.  To me, I came to see the "good" life filled with money as what it truly was, a rat race that perpetuates itself, sucking you in, making you work and work and work with seemingly no end in sight.  The video that I watched said about as much.  It spoke about creating a world where we perpetually teach our young kids that we need to get a "good" job to make money to live and that if we do that, it will be a never ending vicious cycle that we would not be able to get ourselves out of.  Those who follow their passions, do what they want regardless of the money involved, will eventually make a living, maybe not with large reserves of cash, but with true happiness because they are following their dreams.  In the video, there is one part that says that if we do what we are passionate about over and over and over again, we will become masters of it and by doing that, will make a living of it.  I couldn't agree more.  If we are interested in learning about what we are passionate about, there is not stopping the human spirit, and eventually we will succeed at it. 

 

I often times look back at the decisions that I made that have brought me to where I am now.  I must honestly say, I don't regret any of them.  While I may have followed my passions a little more, disregarded money a little bit more, I have for the most part created a life that is based upon my passions.  I didn't stay in school to get a "good" job making tons of money sitting in an office.  I quit instead to start my own business painting houses.  I am passionate about writing, and I write almost every morning right here, on my blog, sharing my thoughts and experiences with those who wish to read about them.  When I want to go hiking, I go hiking.  I love camping and Vermont and my wife and I figured out a way of buying land up there almost 5 years ago.  Sure, I live in a small house on a small piece of land, but I have made it my own and I call it my home, because that is what it is.  Do I love traveling?  Absolutely, and I travel when I can.  I can't afford to travel everywhere I want to, but that's OK, my life is good.  I often times wonder how some people can sit in an office all day, punching a keyboard, dealing with information and data that they are not interested in only to get a bigger pay check at the end of the day.  Perhaps that is what some people are passionate about, but I feel that many are not.   Money is a big driving factor that keeps many people from doing what they are passionate about.  For me, more money would always be nice, but I would rather be happy doing what I am doing even if it means making less money.  But I work for myself, shouldn't I be making more money?  I could be, if I hired people and added stress to my life, but that wouldn't make me happy.  I put happiness first in my life and everything else comes second.  Even when I was younger, I did what I wanted to do regardless of the consequences because I knew at the time that it would make me happy and it was what I was passionate about.  What about you?  Do you follow your heart or your brain?  Are you doing what you are passionate about or merely working to try and live?  My biggest desire is to instill in my son the desire to follow his passions, whatever they may be, and teach him that money isn't all its cranked up to be.  I hope that he can follow that inner voice of his with complete abandon and create a life for himself that he is completely proud of and even more, a life that will make him happy.  Only time will tell now how things will go.