What if money didn't matter?
For the past few weeks, this question has been floating around in my mind. Constantly popping up when I least want to think about it. Such as while I am studying for an exam or contemplating whether my summer plans will consist of either an internship or job.
What if money didn't matter? Would you still be studying the same major or dreaming of the same career? Would you still want the same hopes and dreams in life?
I realized that my life would be completely different if money didn't matter. If money didn't matter and you could live a happy life without the worry of having enough money, to live without fear of starvation or homelessness, it would be different. To know you can do whatever your heart desires without your mind having to focus on where the money is.
I have asked so many of my friends why they are studying the major they are. Very few answered with “because I love it," or “because I know what I'll be doing will be helping people and that's all I want in life." Instead almost all the answers were, “Well, I want to live a good life and in order to do that I need money." Or the typical favorite, “I want to make bank."
But why do we want to make bank? Why do we strive and work so hard toward accomplishing making so much money that we can do whatever we want with it. Because by the time we have the capability to make that money, we will be so unhappy in what we have to do in order to make that happen, it won't be worth it anymore.
I mean as cheesy as it sounds, money cannot buy happiness. And of course, there are those people that will contradict me and I will agree. Money can buy you temporary happiness but not long-term happiness.
I want to die with happiness that trails long after I am gone. I want to live a life where I go to sleep smiling and wake up smiling. Not a life where the only way to be happy is by buying something shiny and new.
There. I have pledged to myself that I will focus on my dreams and goals as if money didn't matter. Because at the end of the day, to live a happy life, I must love what I do with my life, and in order to do that, I must follow my heart not my mind.
Now of course I am not going to go “Hippie" and be completely carefree. I just want to get my mind out of the gutter when focusing my every day life on where or how am I going to make money. Because that's not how life is meant to be lived. It's just stupid to waste a good life on letting the idea of rolling in a bed of cash direct your goals and dreams.
All I am saying is get a job in something you enjoy. Make the money you need to survive and live happily. Don't overwork yourself just because you want a massive house, eight cars, and a yacht.
If you want to be a painter, be a painter. Whatever it is you dream of being, just go and do it.
Just stop saying you can't do something you love because of the money it doesn't bring in. You'll end up just living an ordinary unhappy life: spending money just to spend it because you don't know how to be happy on your own.
So ask yourself one night while you lay in bed thinking of your future: what if money didn't matter, would you still be doing the same thing you plan on doing with your life?
