You don’t need to earn more money to be rich. And even all the money in the world won’t make you feel rich. It would help if you had something more.
Being rich or having wealth is relatively simple — you need to earn more than you spend. The bigger the ratio between those two, the richer you will become.
And there lies the caveat:
Hidden behind your desire to be rich lies something else.
Money can be an excellent indicator of how well you’re doing. To an extent. After a certain point, more money simply doesn’t mean more success — it’s just more money.
If money is the only measure of success you recognize (and money can’t buy success, unfortunately) — you’re doomed to suffer.
So, you’re not buying any fulfillment, and you aren’t getting in on Facebook. But you still:
You need more, more, and more
Everyone needs more, more, and more. You do too. Society programs us all like that before we can add 2 and 2 together. Salespeople do, to be more specific.
Before my time, salespeople went door to door or had a stall in the market. Today, that’s not the case; salespeople are online now — on social media, blogs, and so on.
But that’s not even the fun part. The fun part is:
For the most part, you’re not even paying with your money — you’re paying with your attention.
I’m selling you my blog. I want you to read more.
Your best friend is selling you her vacation pictures on Instagram. She wants more likes!
Your brother is selling his funny Tweets & he works hard for retweets. Even I retweeted him once or twice.
You’re also selling… on Facebook, even though you aren’t very successful lately.
(that’s obviously because Discord is far cooler — join ours now!)
All that drills a habit in your head. The habit consuming on a whim.
The result is simple yet terrifying. You never get bored.
You never get bored.
Doesn’t sound so bad, does it?
But it is!
Your brain requires a lot of energy to function. Especially the thinking part — that takes even more. So, you default to picking the easy and efficient options that require as little of that as possible.
Creating things is one of the most interesting things you can occupy your time with and one of the best things to spend your energy on.
But it is pretty damn hard.
It’s not sustainable for your brain to keep you entertained forever and do something so hard to do so.
And there’s an easy alternative. Browsing social media or clicking a few buttons on Amazon requires no effort at all. It’s just an easy burst of pleasure.
Unfortunately, that pleasure is soon replaced by an empty feeling. You quickly realize that you lack something else, something long-term. Something to make you better.
More on that in a bit, let’s explore the physical aspect of buying first.
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Someone wants you to want (and buy) more and more
The more you want, the more someone becomes rich.
Maybe “a big evil corporation” or just whoever you’re giving your time and attention to.
Take a look at advertisements. People can sell you exactly what you want even before you want it.
If you want to consume, there are plenty of things to consume. And they’re always just a click away.
The whole world is crazy about cool cars, I’m not.
I’m crazy for high-tech gadgets, magic tricks, and awesome games. So, I’m not seeing any car ads. I’m seeing ads for all the gadgets and cool magic tricks I can buy. And sometimes I do buy them!
This begs the question:
How am I supposed to get rich while surrounded by temptation?
More importantly:
How I’m supposed to make you rich if I’m having a hard time myself?
The answer is simple.
Passion
Get passionate about your work, personal life, or an awesome hobby. Build something that will change the world in a small (or in a big) way!
Getting that new gadget, a new car, or a hundred likes makes you happy and excited, yes. But, in only a few hours the excitement evaporates and your happiness is the same as before; maybe even lower. While this is not terrible per se, you’ll be better off finding something else that makes you happier in the long run.
Passion will not only make you happy in the long run, but it’ll also help you leave your mark in the world.
My Story
A few months ago, I completed a game for a client.
I hadn’t started the blog yet, and I had a ton of spare time. “This project was rather long, I should rest for a while”, I thought. Mind you, I was making games on the side for fun and still had my day job. So, I took a break from my hobby.
After 3 weeks, without a hobby, I was obsessed with Reddit. I spent 3, maybe 4 hours a day in there. Unfortunately, I rarely had that kind of time, so that started damaging my life. I found an effective short-term replacement for my passion, but I had to take a whiff every few minutes to keep me going.
Luckily (or not), it wasn’t the first time I was getting way too obsessed with something. In the past, I had obsessive periods with social media, games, buying magic tricks, and work before. I knew what to do. I blocked Reddit for 22 hours a day and made it pretty hard to unblock it.
And that worked! I was off the hook from Reddit… but I felt like crap. My days were rather empty, and while I wasn’t working I was always missing something. So, I started this blog you’re reading right now.
What passion leads to
The more I write here, the more passionate I become about writing, so I spend more of my time here. The passion for my blog unintentionally led me to:
- Spend less time on social media
- Waste less time
- Buy fewer things (& waste less money)
- Want fewer things
In a nutshell, feeling self-fulfilled and passionate beats the hell out of buying junk and getting hearts online. You’ll waste less time and money. Passion will make you be both emotionally and financially rich.
How to get there
Passion is rarely love at first sight. To be passionate about something you need to invest some time in it first. A bad first impression can stop you from exploring some of the things you’ll become most passionate about.
Yes, you can be passionate about physical things, but we’re focusing on activities now. Doing makes for a stronger passion than getting/buying. Collecting rare (and expensive) coins is nothing compared to a creative activity like drawing. The latter will make you feel much more fulfilled.
If you haven’t found something you’re passionate about, try to:
- Try a lot of different activities & make a list of them.
- Try all the items in your list a second and a third time; give them a few chances to win you over.
- Gradually narrow down the list until you’re left with just a few items.
- Start dedicating daily time to one of the activities in your list.
But why just one activity? You might have 5 or even 10, why waste all the others?
The goal at the beginning is to build consistency. Consistency will gradually make you better in anything and that brings more passion. First, establish one activity’s practice as a habit, then pick another one from the list and do the same thing.
A passion project
So, now you have some activity you’re passionate about – helping people, writing, making games, doesn’t matter. Now it’s time to frame that activity in a project.
If you want to help people, your project can be to collect a 10,000$ for a charity that you love!
Is writing your passion? Write a book of 50,000 words!
Want to make games? Make one game a month for a full year!
Set an ambitious goal and start making baby steps toward it every day. Put it on your wall and stare at it every day. Then, do something about it. Also, in the beginning, keep the idea to yourself.
After a few months, you’ll find you no longer fill your time with buying stuff or getting likes. You fill your time with your project. And that’s making you rich, rich with happiness and fulfillment (and saving you a lot of cash).
How to become rich
So, is selling things bad? Are all marketers evil?
No, that’s not the case. Some things you can buy can bring utmost joy and enable infinite creativity. You can also buy experiences or find investment opportunities. Both can help fire up your passion even more.
The question you should ask yourself is:
Can you trust yourself to buy just the right things?
If not, continue learning and being better every day!
In summary, you don’t need more money to be rich. You need passion. That will stop you from buying useless junk, but that’s not the point. The point is you’ll feel amazing.
To be rich replace your need for more things with the need to work on your passion.
That’s about it.
Also, don’t underestimate the power of what I shared because of its’ simplicity. It can be life-changing. Not only it can be, but it is — it changed my life.
Give it a shot yourself and share your story!
Stay Awesome,
— Jordan
