Kevin Kelly argues that money is usually not the main constraint on following our dreams and offers some tips in his post.
I also value becoming over acquiring. That said, what we can become is constrained by different phases of life. When we are young, we tend to have more time and better health but less wealth. As we get older, we might have more wealth but less time. Since my health will likely decline with age, I’m prioritizing sports and athletic pursuits over hobbies I can still enjoy later in life.
Eventually, as we approach the end of life, perhaps becoming gives way to being: being content, being present, and savoring the little things.
Excerpts:
The point of my exercise is that most people’s dreams are not gated by money. Sure you need some money, but you probably don’t need as much as you might imagine. You most likely don’t need multi-million dollars to start your dream.
The bottleneck for most dreams is not financial. It’s a lack of confidence, willingness to take a risk, and face failure, or a lack of imagination of what is possible with current resources. If you want to write a novel you don’t need capital — you need discipline and 1,000 words a day…
Money is the fuel you need for a trip – but it is not the goal of the trip. You most likely don’t need moremoney to accomplish your dream. You need time, skill, relationships, courage, and perseverance.
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Focus on being valuable, helpful, interesting, weird, rather than on being rich.
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The goal is not to acquire, but to become. At your funeral people will remember what kind of person you were, not what kind of stuff you had. Your everyday life will need money, and no matter what you do, a fair measure of it will flow through your days. But beyond some minimal amount (way less than a billion) money is not important to who you become. Other assets like your character, your ethics, your work, your relationships, your word, your spirit, your drive – these are your real treasures. Use them to achieve your dreams.
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