I recently watched a video on YouTube of a lecture by a brilliant British philosopher, Alan Watts, his thoughts are titled: What if Money Was No Object?

Well, what if it really wasn't?

The truth is that we live in a capitalistic society. Everything revolves around money; Making money, what we spend our money on, how much we have, and how much we don’t. We don't have control over this fact, but what we do have is the power to choose whether we will follow this trend or to stray away from it. It may seem difficult because it's so hard to escape, but if we simply do what we love regardless of the money, then we're truly living.

There are people who care so much about money that they are willing to give up what they are most passionate about because pursuing it won't make them "rich," or catch people's attention.

How many times have you been home on a break from school and been asked by a family member or a friend what job you plan to pursue or what major you've chosen? How many times did you answer the question honestly, and receive the "Seriously? There's no money in that" look on their face? I know I have and it infuriates me because I'm truly happy with my decision to become a teacher.

But the real question is: why do we even care what others think about what we want to do with our lives? They aren't the ones that are going to be living it.

You are.

People are simply judged based upon where they work or what college/university they earned their degree from or even what type of degree they have and that's what scares us. We are afraid to be judged and thought about lesser than we deserve to be, because being a local musician, a poet, a painter, just doesn't cut it. So, what we do is we choose a path that is the most prestigious, a path we deem successful, a path absent of passion.

Many young people choose to pursue a certain job just because they are in fact “smart” enough for it or because their parents want them to follow in their footsteps. This sounds great and all because we need intelligent people to hold these highly paid positions at certain jobs, but knowing that they are studying to pursue a career just because they "have" to or because they will make the most money doing it is upsetting.

Ask yourself: Do you truly enjoy what you're doing? Is it what you are truly destined to do? These are the most important questions that we must ask ourselves to make the life that we are living worthwhile.

"When we finally got down to something, which the individual says he really wants to do, I will say to him, you do that and forget the money, because, if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time." -Watts

Forget the money. Think about those who waste their lives. The ones who spend countless amount of hours studying for classes/tests and spending money towards a career that simply doesn't suit them and, more importantly, doesn't make them happy. It's okay to think that you'll enjoy something and realize later on that you want to switch paths, because there's a true difference between doing that and sticking with a job just because it pays well.

"And after all, if you do really like what you’re doing, it doesn’t matter what it is, you can eventually turn it – you could eventually become a master of it. It’s the only way to become a master of something, to be really with it." - Watts

I've really always known that I wanted to become a teacher. I've always had positive experiences at school and was really fortunate to have had teachers, as well as many coaches, who have inspired me. Becoming an educator isn't as easy as some people may think and I know that there's not a whole lot of money in it. However, it isn't about the money for me. It's about loving what I'll do and about enjoying what I'm doing so much that hopefully, I'll become a master at it.

Many people in my life have always given me this piece of advice: "You should wake up each and every morning wanting to go to work and leave each day feeling somewhat satisfied because you know that you've made a difference." Teaching always appealed to me and stuck out in my mind when I was given that advice. Every single day I know that I'd have the opportunity to teach someone something new and I know that I would enjoy doing it.

If money were no object, everyone would do something every day that they enjoy doing and that they love. They'd spend each day happy and never wanting their lives to end. Maybe people would be less stressed and live more carefree. They'd become the master at their craft.

"But it’s absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don’t like, in order to go on spending things you don’t like, doing things you don’t like and to teach our children to follow in the same track." -Watts