There’s a lot of focus, nowadays, on getting wealthy and whilst the archaic view of Scrooge McDuck from DuckTales depicting a miserly millionaire basking in his material wealth, have been replaced with a new idea of what “rich” means, thanks to the millennials, money remains a core component.
See, money is in many ways like oxygen in the sense that you take it for granted when it’s there but if money is in short supply then you tend to feel desperate for it, in a similar way to how someone becomes desperate for air if they don’t have enough of it.
That said, there’s a greater resource than money, and that is time. Unlike money, which is actually quite easy to obtain, particularly when trading on the stock market with companies such as CMC Markets; time on the other hand is genuinely finite.
You can’t make more time – you can only make better use of the time that you have.
Therein, lies the fundamental basis of the millenials definition of rich; which is to have the time and money to enjoy life on your own terms, meaning you can do what you want, when you want, where you want, with who you want. The new definition of rich is underpinned by a sense of ‘freedom’ and whilst financial freedom, of itself, will not create happiness per se, money is a great facilitator.
Therefore, in some ways, yes, money does equal happiness, however there’s an important counter argument to this – as some people rely way too much on their financial abundance with regard to feeling emotionally complete.
Similarly, a lot of entrepreneur’s will do this with success.
You might have already noticed that a lot of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world have managed to turn their pain into power; for instance, they might have been in a bad financial situation – but then used the pain from this experience as fuel to build a better life.
Now, this is a very positive thing to do, but “success” isn’t necessarily the answer to happiness, again it can a great facilitator, but we’ve all met people who have achieved a lot in business and have an abundance of wealth yet feel totally miserable and not good enough deep down.
Indeed, society is plagued with a feeling of not being “good enough” – and as humans we are, by our nature fundamentally insecure… and there’s nothing wrong with that.
In fact, this insecurity is what pushes us to achieve, improve, and evolve, yet, there’s a healthy range, and sometimes what people lack in self-love and deep internal self-confidence they try to make up for through the medium of achievement.
The challenge, with not feeling “good enough” deep down, is that if people are lacking in this area of self-esteem, self-worth and self-love it means whatever they achieve in the external world is unlikely to fulfil them.
Fulfilment and the ability to enjoy life comes from a sense of self-worth and self-esteem, that is an internal component; it doesn’t come from the success, wealth, or material props we use to assert our status.
Fulfilment, and therefore true happiness, comes from a deep sense of feeling good about who you are as a person – now what you have materially speaking.
Featured Image
