Incredibly interesting article from Steve Pavlina last week.
When I was broke and deep in debt and about to declare bankruptcy, I asked myself what I’d want to do with my life if I knew for certain that I’d always be broke.
Isn’t that an AMAZING question? Because the question is not, “What would you do with unlimited riches?” but, “What would you do with your time if you knew your striving for money was pointless?”
What a fascinating idea.
That would change everything, wouldn’t it?
Once you became aware that you would never scrape together enough money to matter, you would quickly put all the things you’d want to spend your money on out of your mind and put your attention to what you’d want to spend your time on.
I’ve been around long enough to know that it’s not so much what you get, but what you do with what you get.
So as much as I like to learn, and if I gave up all hope of ever earning more than minimum wage, ever, I would probably read a bit more. But, I would also make sure I did something with it. Test that knowledge, or teach it. Write a book on it or something.
Because I know learning alone won’t fulfill me. I’ve got to do something with it. Even experience alone isn’t enough — I love to tell a good story as much as the next person, but if I can’t take something away from that experience and use it to enrich someone else, well — doesn’t seem to be much point in jumping out of airplanes and touring the Amazon.
Here’s what I suggest. Write down a little vision statement for yourself, perhaps a few sentences or a paragraph about how you’d choose to live if all of your expenses were covered.
I’m going to write more. I’m going to teach more. Using this metric, all the mentoring in forums I’ve been doing seems less like a waste of time and more like answering an unconscious calling. I’m going to take my eye off the long-game of financial security long enough to make sure what I’m doing in the present moment is exactly what I’d do with the rest of my life.
So tell me, my precious ones:
