Life

Start Doing Those Things That Really Matter Most to You

Last week, I was posed with a rather interesting question by Sahil Patel. Although I was hoping to respond to the question last week, I took another week to think about it.

The question was:

“Have you ever thought about your goals and purpose in life without money?”

Funny enough, I have thought about this for quite some time. Coming from a poor household, I was always discouraged from pursuing my passion for writing because I was told I would make no money.

Then, I was pushed away from my passion to inspire young people through teaching. So for a long time, I pursued a career in engineering and managed to get a good job.

Despite knowing that I would love to be a professor, I still pushed myself to pursue engineering. My family hardly have anything, and I feel a burden on my shoulders to build some amount of wealth for them.

Thankfully, my decision to pursue engineering has not had a drastic effect on the overall quality of my life. I enjoy the people I work with, and I have learned a lot in my career. However, it has had implications on how I have pursued the life I want to live.

I now come home every day from work to write, and my journey to becoming a professor has become prolonged. The reason why I took an extra week to think about this question is that it made me think,

“Were my decisions to put my dreams on hold worth it?”

In essence, my choice to pursue a career that could potentially pay me more in the short run was me prolonging the life I wanted. And although I do think ageing will help me become a better professor, I am not sure choosing this path was worth it after all.

In this article, I will highlight why prolonging the life you want to live may not be as beneficial as you think.

Delaying Gratification Only Works When We Pursue Flourishing

I see a lot of articles on this platform about productivity. The world is moving quickly, and our inability to act could lead us further behind than we think. So, many of us are attempting to live more productive lives in response to the ever-growing reality of doing too little too late.

We are constantly told to delay instant gratification. And we now have a range of techniques to battle it. However, I have found that once I began pursuing what I always wanted, I found it easier to put off those things that were less meaningful.

Scrolling through Instagram becomes appealing when my tasks are less connected to my flourishing. My idea to forgo my dream career for money only led to a less productive me.

I found myself struggling to have the desire to do anything, and most of my time was spent reading about how I could become more productive. However, the key to a better me was not in my inability to control my need for instant gratification. Instead, it was my inability to have the courage to pursue what I really wanted despite my financial situation.

Although I would like to think I was the only person trapped in this problem, I was not. Many of my friends were pursuing careers and jobs that they knew would leave them less happy than if they did something else. However, for the monetary gain, they put as much energy as they could into it.

When we start doing the things that matter most to us, we become more productive. As a result, we feel more beneficial to society and contribute to our internal flourishing.

The Function of Money Is to Serve

It is essential to remind ourselves that we should not serve money. Although it can sometimes feel like money is in control of our lives, we must remember that money is a tool.

The purposes of money are to help us trade, store and value things for what they are. When we turn money into something we strive towards, we make money our priority. And this can lead to many problems.

In all aspects of our lives, our tools are essential, but they are there to serve our purposes. And our tools have a purpose because there is something we need to get to the desired goal.

Fixing a door may require a new set of screws. In this case, a screwdriver would be a great tool to assist you. However, having the screwdriver alone adds no value to your life unless the door has to be fixed.

It is the same with those things that mean the most in our lives. Focusing on accumulating money is not necessarily a bad thing. However, without a purpose for doing so, even money can become pointless to have. And that is why some who accumulate huge amounts of wealth still feel less happiness than a family on a humble income.

When we understand that money was created to serve our purposes, it allows us to see it for what it is. Money is a tool that should be used to assist the things that matter most in our lives. That may be playing an instrument, travelling or learning. Whatever it may be, money is not here to replace it. It is here to assist your progress towards it.

In Closing

So, what would my life look like if I did not have to worry about money? Well, I would be finishing my MSc in behavioural economics and going on to study for a PhD in organisational behaviour.

I would have hopefully written two books by now and had some of my research work published. Also, I would have started my own think tank. This is where I and other thinkers in my field can contribute to the world through the ideas we create.

Even though I do not have the ideal picture I painted above, life has a funny way of leading us back to what we desire. So, as I journey on my new founded path to pursuing the things that matter most to me, I encourage you to do the same.

We can live a life where money does not dictate our every move. And we do this by focusing on our flourishing and remembering that money is a tool.

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