I was watching a documentary about two guys promoting a minimalist lifestyle, called ‘Minimalism’. After watching, I took a moment to think about how we often spend our entire lives chasing money to either buy things or maintain and safely keep the things we have already bought. There is nothing wrong with wanting more and doing better than you did yesterday, but many of us take for granted what we have by always missing what we do not have and never quite seeing our blessings at present.
No matter how much we accumulate, it just never seems enough.
A lot of times, it is about competing with the rest of society to be the one with better, more expensive things, but to what end? Till you are in crushing debt? When you have lost valuable relationships because you were not present? What good is it to gain the world and lose yourself in the process? It is worrisome that much of the world has confined success to – or should I say perpetuated the notion that success is – the possession of money and material things. This breeds the idea that who you are and what you are worth are determined exclusively by what you have. This skewed view of our self-worth subsequently affects our happiness. Societal standards change so often that they are impossible to keep up with in any case. I look at the world-famous Kardashian family, whom girls the world over aspire to be like – rich, famous and successful. This family can afford just about anything money can buy. They live in mansions, can afford the best doctors in the world, travel anywhere they want and they probably have enough money to never have to work another day in their lives. Many think when you have all that money and material possessions, you could not possibly experience misfortune.
However, if you have seen their lives play out in the media, you have seen the many issues they have gone through; some things many of us have never dealt with, and all that money could not do a damn thing about it.
If you ask yourself whether money can solve every problem you have right now, the only honest answer would probably be ‘no’. Yes, money can help you acquire things and experiences that bring you joy. However, it is possible to be happy no matter where you are at in life as long as you are pushing. You need to find your own happiness and what the word means to you. If you wait for the day to have money to fully live or find your happiness, you may wait forever because you will probably never feel like you have enough money.
Take comfort that you have come this far – with or without money – and have faith that your heaven on earth is well within your reach. For most of us, there is already so much to be grateful for. However, because we are fixated on what we do not have, we miss out on seeing all that we do. When I say I am blessed, I do not mean half the things people think I am talking about. I mean I am healthy, I have genuine friendships, I can be my authentic self with the people in my life, and I am doing work I enjoy every day. I realised not so long ago that these are some of the things that give me my heaven on earth and make me happy.
Many will go through life never knowing how it feels to have some of these things because the only thing they know is to throw money at the problem.
If the money is not there or the problem does not want to cooperate, you quickly realise that in as much as it provides for some comforts, money really is not all that.
* Paula Christoph’s column concentrates on positive and inspirational write-ups.