Wealth vs Worth
Friday 15 January 2016
The idea of wealth seems to be an ever growing factor contributing to how an ever increasing number of people in this world seem to determine their self worth, happiness or social status within society. It has almost become a way of life to spend all of the money you have on luxury items such as cars, clothing and technology simply for external validation, to impress others and increase social status rather than for your own enjoyment or happiness.
When you're starting out working life in your teens and into your early 20s, you begin to start thinking about which pathway that you are going to follow in life and the career that will ultimately determine how much money that you go on to earn as a result. As you gain more and more responsibilities, bills and contracts, the amount of money that you have in contrast to others begins to take a hold of your life. Friends, colleagues or even celebrities may earn more money than you, able to afford flash cars, twice yearly holidays and designer clothes while you're just dreading the struggle to scrape together enough pennies for that next pesky rent payment. I think it's important to remember, it's not about how much money you make, but the life that you choose to lead with the money that you do have. As much as some may disagree, I am pretty much certain that money does not guarantee happiness. Life is therefore all about the experiences and what you make of them, after all some of the best moments come at no cost at all. Money is not required to possess traits such as passion, creativity, positivity, perseverance, or to endlessly express emotions such as love, true friendship and laughter.
There is so much more to life than money. I am a person who tends to value personal experiences and achievements much more than material items. Some of the fondest memories I have are my first time experiences like riding a bike and learning to drive, little travels along the beach and through the countryside and fun/adventures with all of the people that I have met along the journey, not the presents that I received for birthdays and Christmas each year or how much pocket money received compared to my friends.
The harsh truth is that not everyone is born equal. I grew up alongside people who were considered a whole lot more wealthy than I was, which there is absolutely nothing wrong with. Being completely honest I would be exactly the same as a parent, I want to treasure and spoil my future kids, give them everything that they dream of, but at the same time I wan't them to know what it feels like to earn something that you want and to learn that money and material items are not the be all and end all of life. That feeling of satisfaction when you finally save up enough money to buy that one special thing that you have wanted for ages means just as much as the ecstatic joy when you receive a good grade in school for a test that you revised so hard for. Being able to proudly say 'I achieved this all by myself' despite the obstacles that I had to overcome. I'm not going to lie, in hindsight I did spend a lot of my childhood feeling jealous of how lucky I considered my friends to be, but as I have grown older I have begun to realise that I had everything in abundance that I needed at my disposal for the best start in life. It is not your starting point that defines who you are as a person, it is what you do with your life and a measure of how far you have come as a person along the way that truly matters.
I think what I'm trying to say is that the only thing holding back your happiness in life is your frame of mind and how you choose to live your life with what you have, not how many zeros are before the decimal point on your bank balance. I am a firm believer that the key to happiness is accepting where you are in life and making the most out of every day, whatever situation you find yourself in, or however little money that you have. You only get one chance at this existence, so you may as well spend it doing things that make you happy.
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