Get OUTTA Here!

Dec 18, 2007 - 15:14 PM PST
The following is an excerpt from an article a friend forwarded on to me. You can read the whole thing here:

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/66/mylife.html

It turns out that having the financial independence to walk away rarely triggers people to do just that. The reality is, making money is such hard work that it changes you. It takes twice as long as anyone plans for. It requires more sacrifices than anyone expects. You become so emotionally invested in that world -- and psychologically adapted to it -- that you don't really want to ditch it.

I met many people who had left the money behind. But having "enough" didn't trigger the change. It had to get personal: Something had to happen such as divorce, the death of a parent, or the recognition that the long hours were hurting one's children. (One man, Don Linn, left investment banking after he came home from a business trip and his two-year-old son didn't recognize him.)

The ruling assumption is that money is the shortest route to freedom. Absurdly, that strategy is cast as the "practical approach." But in truth, the opposite is true. The shortest route to the good life involves building the confidence that you can live happily within your means (whatever the means provided by the choices that are truly acceptable to you turn out to be). It's scary to imagine living on less. But embracing your dreams is surprisingly liberating. Instilled with a sense of purpose, your spending habits naturally reorganize, because you discover that you need less.

This is an extremely threatening conclusion. It suggests that the vast majority of us aren't just putting our dreams on ice -- we're killing them. Joe Olchefske almost lost his forever. Joe started out in life with an interest in government. In the early 1980s, he made what seemed like a minor compromise: When he graduated from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, he went into public finance. He wouldn't work in government, he'd work with government.

DAMN IT! Does anyone else freak out when the read stuff like this? I feel like this person was talking DIRECTLY to me. It really appeals to the small self that is always screaming "GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! PURSUE YOUR STUPID, STUPID DREAMS! YOU ONLY HAVE FIVE MORE YEARS OF YOUR 20s LEFT!!"
xo amber

Get OUTTA Here!


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1 Comments

Dec 23, 2007 - 16:56 PM

ThePretender on
It was society who said we all have to live out or lives in borderline misery all for the sake of the allmighty dollar. Money is not, nor will it ever be happiness. Live your dreams, love with no regrets, run with all your strength, and happiness will find you. Life is about experiences...so go make some memories.