I still want my MTV
"To make more money" is a miserable justification for human endeavor. More so if the desire is a transition from one middle class earnings level to some higher financial peak. I hear this often in relation to changing jobs, careers or earning college level degrees. It is based on the conjecture that generating larger monetary ingress will result in increased satisfaction. It will allow one to own a better car, bigger house or the latest Playstation One U console.
It is a lie. A false premise. A misnomer propagated by our culture. If you earn enough money to keep a home, drive a car and feed your babies, you are doing better than very large percentages of your human brothers and sister. What then do you think more income will generate for you? I find that collecting materialistically is an attempt to dam an emotional river. The soul is empty so one tries filling it with impermanent and cold possessions.
I would dare say this is true for people in poverty as well. The people I have met that truly escaped didn't intend to earn, they intended to support their families, help their mothers or aunties or cousins. They developed a hunger for human dignity and made every opportunity to succeed a personal statement of defiance against whatever system it is that previously held them down.
Money came as a side effect of that strong will tightly focused.
If you have a career you do not like, remember that you have a career. You have a path that some variant of yourself chose to walk upon. If you want to change what you are doing, for the love of your own heart, do not do it for money. You will end up right back where you are now. You will hate it, you will tire from it, and you will find the possessions you buy with that new money a source of deeper sadness and depression.
Instead of wasting your own time digging into a deeper void, expend energy exploring who you are. Find out why you are not happy in yourself and in that which you do. Ask painful questions. Find the thing which you are fevered to pursue. Discover a passion for creation, and never stop. The singular human condition is the act of creation. Children, art, science, communities and deep relationships. Creation. Everyone is a born painter, the trick is discovering your canvas.
Happiness comes from what you add to the world, not from what you take.
It is a lie. A false premise. A misnomer propagated by our culture. If you earn enough money to keep a home, drive a car and feed your babies, you are doing better than very large percentages of your human brothers and sister. What then do you think more income will generate for you? I find that collecting materialistically is an attempt to dam an emotional river. The soul is empty so one tries filling it with impermanent and cold possessions.
I would dare say this is true for people in poverty as well. The people I have met that truly escaped didn't intend to earn, they intended to support their families, help their mothers or aunties or cousins. They developed a hunger for human dignity and made every opportunity to succeed a personal statement of defiance against whatever system it is that previously held them down.
Money came as a side effect of that strong will tightly focused.
If you have a career you do not like, remember that you have a career. You have a path that some variant of yourself chose to walk upon. If you want to change what you are doing, for the love of your own heart, do not do it for money. You will end up right back where you are now. You will hate it, you will tire from it, and you will find the possessions you buy with that new money a source of deeper sadness and depression.
Instead of wasting your own time digging into a deeper void, expend energy exploring who you are. Find out why you are not happy in yourself and in that which you do. Ask painful questions. Find the thing which you are fevered to pursue. Discover a passion for creation, and never stop. The singular human condition is the act of creation. Children, art, science, communities and deep relationships. Creation. Everyone is a born painter, the trick is discovering your canvas.
Happiness comes from what you add to the world, not from what you take.