Our spending is making us unhappy.
We’re spending to get rid of our problems, to get rid of boredom. We go through the day trying to escape the present, live for the weekends, when really this moment right now is the most wonderful place we could be. We’re constantly fantasizing about that next adventure or our next new iPhone.
We live to be distracted.
We don’t need a guy with a knife to take our lives. Moment by moment, minds fixed somewhere else, we’re bleeding ourselves dry.
Spending helps us run from the present. In the rush to escape boredom and feelings of failure, we will do anything. We’ll spend hours on amazon with our eyes glassed over. We’ll open up our wallets as each swipe dulls the pain.
This is what meditation teachers call a “false refuge.” It feels good for a little while but in the long run leaves us as empty as before.
We become as busy as possible until the adrenaline is a river coursing through us. We buy big houses and fast cars. We volunteer for things we hate just to ‘keep busy.’ We feel happy, important, exciting.
The thing that terrifies us most is to sit still without a digital babysitter, listening to the stillness of the present. It’s hard to acknowledge that this present moment is good, that what we have now is enough.
Financial freedom is a difficult journey and a rewarding one. It’s about determining what is really real, what is wonder-giving in this life, what is really VALUABLE. It’s about putting away our wallets and rolling up our sleeves.
Like the kid backing up from the edge of the diving board, you can stand on the edge of your life. You can spend your life thinking about the next thing you will buy or the next place you will go, imagining that it will finally make you happy. That’s fine. Stay safe. Stay unhappy. Here’s the link to walmart.com.
Or you can take the plunge, try something at once scary and wonderful. You can learn badass skills, spend more time with loved ones, be outdoors, create life-hacks.
The choice is yours.