Earn less money... & live a better life?

A ton of people make a ton of money doing things they don't like. Who cares if you make $250,000 a year if most of your every day is spent doing something that doesn't fulfill you or bring you peace? I would rather chase not money, but the ability to make money doing the things I enjoy or am interested in. Setting this as the baseline of where I want to go in life has done well so far. Now I want to share with not only the idealistic side of this line of thinking but the practical side too.

Working your life away

Most people in the US work 40 hours a week.

Given you’re awake for 136 hours a week if you sleep for 8 hours each night, this means you’re working for around 30% of your time awake.

— & since most people in the US work until an average retirement age of 61, over half your life is spent in this era where 1/3 of your time is spent working. Never mind that the years you spend so much time working are likely your most prime & healthy years… You can see clearly how it may be beneficial to actually enjoy this thing we call “work” or restructure our approach to work entirely. By following an approach of either: A) Finding a way to work less or B) Finding a way to enjoy time spent working more. You can make this mystical 1/3rd of your life better. & today I’m going that’s what we’re here to dive into.

Money is not everything, but it is important

“250k/ year is such good money though, I could buy a house with that in a few years!” Yes, a higher salary is a nice thing to think about, & if you’re doing something you enjoy then even better. Most people salivate all day long at a number like this, without thinking about or asking the more important questions like: ”Would I still get time to spend with my family?”” How much mental strain would taking this job add to my life?” ”Would I enjoy this occupation at all, or am I just tricking myself?” ”Does this salary still allow me to follow what’s most important to me in my life?” ”Can I picture my ideal self in this occupation, or am I chasing another golden goose to no end? ”In short: People do not ask the questions that make them contemplate their reasoning for what they want out of life. They see a big number & think about what they can buy. In many ways, more money does mean fewer problems, financial freedom is a very real form of freedom… but not weighing the odds, or looking for an alternative path is the root cause of many people’s misery later in life. Money is not everything, but it is important. You can’t live on no money, but you can make more money in more ways than just finding a higher-paying job.

Life-work philosophy

Reasons to work for most people are purely driven by making money, this is the traditional scope of our world. And it makes a ton of sense since we all need money to buy food & shelter. The current dynamic is set up for people to create a “Work-life” balance. Notice how work comes first in this equation…It’s a bit bizarre but that’s the reality of traditional work especially in the western hemisphere of the world people are putting work first, before the rest of their life. Before family, before leisure, before enjoyment, before self-actualization, before everything else… work is priority #1, and no one stops to ask the question why life must be this way. My own philosophy as you can probably guess, is against the norm. Currently, I’m a 23-year-old who runs a solo media corporation out of my mom’s basement. The life-work philosophy that got me here working for myself full-time and having a lot more freedom of my time goes something like this:

Time freedom to me is the ultimate goal, at the end of the day I want to have my time available to do what I want.

I will work my own hours even if it means I make less money, but I also know that working for myself I can scale using the internet to make more money than I ever would working for someone else anyways.

I would rather miss out on a ton of money than have to work under someone else.

Work is a means not only to make money, but to add value to the world in a meaningful and fulfilling way.

Money is earned through creating value, not the amount of time you spend working

What matters most to me is to be able to make a living adding value to the world in a way that is most true to myself.

Everyone’s ideal life is much different, so right now I challenge you to draft up your own personal philosophy to work in your life and don’t worry you can change it as you go so nothing is set in stone. Once you have a personal philosophy on this (feel free to take bits from mine) — try applying it to your life, see where it takes you, and explore a bit into the unknown. If you want some more insights into my path & personal philosophy, I’ve outlined it in this article about How I make a living from my mom’s basement. This article may open your eyes to a new approach as well.

Idealistic VS Practical

I’ve run into people that have told me my personal way of life & work is far too idealistic. I see that in many cases, people saying this are not unhappy necessarily, but have given up on creating a unique path for themselves. There is some truth that this line of thinking I’ve taken on is very idealistic, not everyone has a loving and supporting family like me, people have larger responsibilities, children, & much more to consider when making big changes in their approach to life. There may be times when parts of our ideal philosophies are not attainable, & we need to take a new approach or reassess our standing in a life-work balance. However on the more practical side of taking the stand that you should find work you enjoy lays some simple words: If there is a will, there is a way. People who have given up on enjoying their occupation or current path of making money are settling in my eyes.

You can go for a higher-paying job and still explore ways to escape something you hate, maybe you need to work for yourself, or maybe you need to change careers, the answer is there but only you’ll be able to find it. How? By asking the hard questions. What do I want out of life? What is most important to me? How can I follow what I want out of life & what’s important to me?

Creating a plan by answering questions like these are practical steps to making progress towards your ideal version of a life-work balance.

My past realizations (Failing is good)

I used to have a youtube channel about making money online trying all sorts of methods to make money Dropshipping, print on demand, Amazon KDP, Etsy stores, etc…it was fun, and some of them kinda worked but at the end of the day it was chasing money for money's sake, and losing the point of life along the way (to me) I made 300 videos on that youtube channel before I realized this. Although I may have “wasted” a bunch of time according to my own personal philosophy, I was finding out how to make it on my own.Where I’ve gotten to today is only possible to all the mistakes I’ve made before now, & I will make a lot more.Humans are constantly evolving & so is my personal philosophy on everything around me. We fail, we learn, and we live.Failing is a must, & everything you do is a part of learning what parts of life matter most to you. (& how you can work towards improving the parts that matter most)

If you want more tips on freedom, making money on the internet, or just trying to figure out life then click the subscribe button below :)

Subscribe now