Time and Money

Now that you are clear about life and its purpose, let's discuss the most valuable resource you have at your disposal while you are alive. If you go around asking individuals to define this most valuable resource, you’ll get a lot of different answers. A capitalist might say gold, platinum, palladium, or paper money. An environmentalist might say freshwater or clean air. The answer will vary greatly from person to person.

But the truth is that the most valuable resource available here on the earth is time. Everything else is in relative abundance.

As I explained earlier, people tend to live their life as if they were here for eternity. Generally speaking, they avoid grasping the simple truth that every year, month, day, hour, minute, second, which passes by, brings them nearer and nearer to their end. Perhaps we shouldn't blame them for their ignorance; however, this world is artificially designed in a way that the common man is purposely deprived of his most valuable resource.

The common man becomes miserable if someone steals his material wealth, and he might go to great lengths to recover it. But he remains ignorant about the system he lives in and of how it is stealing his most valuable lifetime away.

In the life of a common man, assuming an average length of 80 years, a modern-day education takes away a third of his lifetime. A modern-day job takes away one half of his lifetime. What is left is 20% of the lifetime at his disposal, barely, and only if he is lucky enough to escape the clutches of the modern day’s world problems. Most people will never know where the last 20% of their lifetime disappeared to either. Life slips by in the busyness.

It's the same story in a typical day of a common adult man’s life. Assuming sixteen hours of waking time per day, about half (i.e., eight hours) is spent working at a job which he dislikes. Apart from his other daily duties and habits, social media and other modern-day distractions take away the remaining half. Giant corporations are spending billions, even trillions, to get a piece of everybody’s attention.

You might ask, Why are people so ignorant?

Again, the reason remains the same: fear of losing out in this rat race, which has no meaning. Greed and ignorance keep a common man entangled in this loop. If he were to understand the value of time and know that greed would take him nowhere, I am sure he would band together with other common men to redesign our world a little differently.

So what is the best use of my time?

It's simple. At every stage of your life, make sure your every waking second is spent following your heart, your passion, your joy and your dreams.

Money

You might say next, But how can I follow my heart? That won’t earn me a living.

Well, that brings us to an interesting topic. Let’s discuss how to think about money while you're doing your best to live purposefully.

Money is nothing but a means of exchange. Before the invention of currency, mankind exchanged goods and services for other goods and services—also known as bartering. Then, a few thousand years ago, people started using coins as currency, and that evolved into the paper (and now digital) money we use today for the smoothest possible exchange. My point is, money keeps changing its face depending upon the era in the history of mankind. But its purpose remains consistent: to facilitate an exchange with another party in order to acquire something more valuable to you. Money in itself (paper and coins) has no value.

The ultimate value you can offer the world is your gifts and talents, something that comes from your hands or your mind. If the economy collapsed or there were a solar flare, all people that make money from the stock market will lose everything they have, with no way to gain it back, but people who have cultivated their gifts will easily be able to trade them for goods and services and rebuild society. There are tangible gifts in all of us, and the money we receive for them should only be a side-effect of their sharing and not the main goal.

Understanding this concept will make it easier for you to make money as well as spend it carefully.

So how should I make money?

At every stage of life, make use of your capabilities, skills, and talents, whatever they may be, in service to mankind in exchange for a fair amount of money. Making money is about trading a valuable gift or talent you have, preferably something you are extremely passionate about, something you would do whether you receive money for it or not. That is how you know that you are making money for the right reasons (and not from the greed of it).

And how should I use it?

Understand your vital passions and earn money to help you fulfill those passions. Exchange your money for things that contribute toward your life’s purpose. These things might change with time, depending upon your interests and your life’s purpose at any given stage of life. But the most expensive thing that money can ever buy is time.

The Problem with Money

People sometimes say that money is the root cause of all evil. Not true. The problem with money only arises when you give it too much importance, when you make it your primary desire. Never fall for the trap of making money for its own sake. Remember what I said in Chapter 1: you arrived empty-handed in this world, and you will leave the same way. At the end of your life, it won't matter how much money you may have accumulated. Keeping this concept in mind, you will surely have lots of fun while playing the game of money in this world.

How can I make sure I don't fall for this trap?

It’s simple: always listen to your inner heart to ensure that you are making money out of love and compassion, in order to help someone else, in pursuit of a passion, to help move the human race forward, or out of curiosity to experiment with life. All these are great motives to make money.

But whenever you are driven towards money by fear and greed, you need to change track immediately. Allow me to give you some examples of how fear and greed might appear in your life.

Fear of money: a fear that you will lose your money at some point, so you keep chasing more and more of it. This might take the form of a fear of retirement, a fear of losing your job, a fear of supporting your family, and so forth.

Greed: an excessive desire to acquire more and more money so that you can afford material luxuries. Greed might involve a need to prove to others that you are rich and famous, or a need to satisfy your ego. Avoid greed of any source like a poison.

The best way to maintain a healthy view of money is to keep a check on your inner heart. Always operate from the feelings of love, compassion, kindness, and humility, and you will earn sufficient money.