This weekend I finished reading "How to worry less about money" by John Armstrong (Editions B). Very interesting and to ponder. For example, have you ever considered what “enjoying life” means to you? And in this case I do not mean the basic necessities or gratuitous pleasures. Since it is a book that talks about money, the author refers specifically to things for which you need money. Sometimes a taboo subject, but no less important for that.
For me, for example, enjoying life includes traveling when and where I feel like it, eating out or buying quality food in the market, delegating housework, taking courses of all kinds, going to hotels of a certain quality, to be able to take days off whenever you want…
Knowing this is more important than it seems, for example, to use your financial resources in what really gives you quality of life and not in random things. Maybe you are spending money on a fifty-inch television when you would be more satisfied if you used it to hire someone to help you with the house or to take a course that brings you closer to your ideal profession or where you learn to make paella, for example. Of course, the concept of enjoying life is very broad and there are no wrong answers, everyone likes one thing. Even within the same category there are differences. You may like to travel to exotic places and your neighbor to go to rural houses, in hotels of category or backpacker style. Only you know what makes you enjoy life.
This, like many other things, seems obvious, but it is not. Few people really stop to think about what they do with their life and how their resources are spent (and like money I also mean time and energy) and who feel frustrated or dissatisfied without knowing why. And another interesting and relevant topic arises for many of my readers and possibly for you, what is it worth spending your resources on? Here it is important that you take into account two things: your satisfaction and your prosperity, because after all that is what we are looking for, right? Be satisfied with our choices and actions and have a prosperous personal and professional life.
However, you have to be aware of something important: not everything that makes you enjoy life gives you more prosperity. Sometimes we can have both, when we have enough money, time or energy; but other times you have to choose. That is when you have to be fully aware of whether you are spending your resources on something that will give you prosperity and not just pleasure of a certain kind.. You have to decide between a short-term pleasure, or a short-term sacrifice that contributes to your long-term prosperity. For example: you can go on vacation or do that coaching course that you are looking forward to. You can spend the nights watching that television show that you love or start planning your business, you can renew your wardrobe for fall or hire an advisor to help you improve your business.
As the author mentions, you have to ask yourself not only what is most relevant to your prosperity, but which of the things you want is less relevant to your long-term well-being (and the answer can be painful when it involves stopping doing something you want). All this so you can focus your resources on what matters most.
You don't always have to choose, and most of the time you can have both or a little of each; but sometimes you have to do it and it is up to you if you want to invest in your prosperity or enjoy the moment.
