Make Yourself Rich by Making Your Wants Few

I always thought life was about finishing school, getting a killer job working 9-5 Monday through Friday, and eventually starting a family. Never did I consider anything other than that because to be honest, thats all I knew. We are raised in a society where everyone is competing with everyone else. Why though? For what, stuff? There will always be someone with a nicer car, bigger house, and more money. Sounds like they’re setting us up for failure from the start. Granted it is nice to have these luxuries if you can afford them, however I’ve found a lot more happiness in taking the alternate route. Let me tell you why…

“The less you own, the less things own you.”

Think about how much you have to lose if you spend all of your money on things rather than experiences. Your expensive car can get totaled, your huge house can be flooded and destroyed by disasters, your brand new iPhone could fall into a sink. All in a matter of minutes. We create anxiety and stress in our lives, willingly. The more we own, the more we have to worry about. And to be completely honest, no one cares about what kind of things you own, because they are too worried themselves about what people think of what they own. Its a horrible cycle if you ask me.

Now lets look at things a little differently. Im new to this whole thing so I’d love to hear others thoughts on it, but this is just an opinion based on my own personal feelings. Say we decide to spend our money on things like taking road trips with our friends or scuba diving lessons. Memories are the only thing we acquire throughout life that cannot be destroyed or touched by anyone other than ourselves. Im not saying don’t buy anything materialistic, however there is a difference between meeting your needs and overkill. One of the best purchases I’ve made recently was in a kayak. The beauty of it? Its simple, its basic, it serves its purpose. I bought it knowing it could break, get stolen or lost any day of the week. With that mindset, I’m already okay with the worst case senerio. Something nobody teaches us as kids… which I don’t understand why either. Anyway, after accepting the risks, it opened up a window to allow me to spearfish in entirely different areas of the island. The happiness it brings me daily is what makes it worth it. The memories it provides me with are priceless. And even if it were to get stolen, no one can steal what memories and feelings it has given me. It paid for itself after the first excursion if you ask me.

Buying things is OK. Spending money on things we enjoy is also OK. But make sure before grounding yourself to something of material value, it’s giving you something in return that cannot be taken from you. Experiences. Happiness. Stories.

If we all changed our mindsets to consider memories/experiences as our level of value rather than currency, what would you be worth? I think about that often.

The easiest way to figure it out? I think, if you were to stand in front of a room of 100 people and were asked to tell your story thus far, what would you be able to tell them? Would you do something to change the story?

That to me is someones worth