The majority of us work for a living, and in return we receive payment. So far so obvious I know but hear me out.
Imagine, if you will, that these payments amount to a pot of money and sometimes, if we're able to make a really good go of things, we can score ourselves some fancy assets and treats, like cars, holidays, and of course, an air fryer; because what's life without an air fryer? Now please combine all of these things into one collective term for simplification's sake: abundance.
So, please imagine being out in the wild living your life, and you happen upon a non-essential widget that you'd really like to buy, but it costs £100. It's not controversial to suggest that many of us would pause and evaluate whether we really want or need the widget, and then if we have the funds to pay for the widget. It's the pause and evaluation that I'd like you to focus on.
My point is, the majority of us would stop and mentally calculate the transaction before committing to a course of action, or not. For sure, the super wealthy would do this too on a grander scale, e.g.: "Can I over-pay for this social media platform at $44 billion and then run it into the ground purely through hubris?" You get the gist; everybody does it to some extent or another.
This is where your homework comes in, should you like to accept the challenge.
What if you were as careful and mindful about where your energy went as you were about where your money went? What possible difference could that make to your life?
Think about it for a second and imagine yourself in e.g.: a car showroom desiring a new model costing £25k. It's fair to assume - if only for illustrative purposes - that you're going to have to carefully evaluate your actual need for this particular £25k car, versus the long-term costs, due either to finance repayments, or depleted capital reserves. Okay, well now let me ask you this: would you march into the showroom - with a head full of steam - take one look at the £25k car and commit to its long-term ownership and upkeep, solely on face value? I doubt even a Bezos would do that. A Musk might, but probably not a Bezos, Gates or Branson.
Using the same model, now think of a time when you've marched straight into a life situation - with an equally full head of steam - took one look at whatever it was at face value and committed yourself to the long-term consequences and ramifications. We've all done it, this isn't judgement from me, it's a knowing and sympathetic pat on the back. What's important is that we learn from it, so now maybe ask yourself: why didn't you stop to evaluate whether the circumstances were worth your energy expenditure, or not? Why did you rush in and give away your finite life equity so freely and expensively, and for how much reciprocal value?
If this is resonating with you, please welcome it as a timely wake up call, and start calculating your energy expenditure in exactly the same way you would consider a monetary expenditure, simply by asking yourself: is it worth it? Start valuing your energy in at least the same terms as you value your money and assets - and even more so, if you can muster it. Why?
ENERGY TRUMPS MONEY EVERY TIME
Because your energy is worth more than money, it's as simple as that: all the best things in life are free - and aren't even things for that matter. Your energy can generate money and stuff, but money and stuff can't generate energy and your precious, unique life force; billionaire Steve Jobs is a tragic case in point, who said this shortly before his death of pancreatic cancer in 2011, aged only 56:
"I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. In the end, wealth is only a fact of life that I am accustomed to. At this moment, lying on the sick bed and recalling my whole life, I realize that all the recognition and wealth that I took so much pride in, have paled and become meaningless in the face of impending death."
The thing is no one can do the push ups for you. In life, there are some things only you can do and be responsible for, and where you choose to spend your essential energy is one of them. Steve Jobs had all the money in the world, and no doubt the best medical attention money could buy, but in the end all he had was his slowly ebbing life force. This is why energy trumps money every time.
I'm going to resist jumping down a materialism-is-bad rabbit hole. Well, today at least, but there is a materialism-is-bad rabbit hole to be sure. My priority today is to try and persuade you to value, and carefully exchange, your finite life equity only for what's worth it, so the petty squabbles and drama-for-the-sake-of-it histrionics can be consigned to the It Ain't Worth It! bin, forever.
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT: DELAYED GRATIFICATION
If someone offered you a common paper napkin - the kind handed out for free in McDonalds - and asked you to pay £50 for it, would you pay it? Of course not, because the paper napkin is objectively not worth £50. Great, we're on the same page! Then why do you expend your finite life equity on equally cheap and meaningless nonsense so freely and expensively? The cumulative costs upon your mental health could quickly become exorbitant.
Sure, you may answer something along the lines of: "Because it makes me feel good in the moment. It scratches an itch and makes me feel better, rather than having to control my impulses". Okay, I get it, but now let me ask you this: where is your ability to delay gratification and why aren't you using it? And, for what it's worth, why should you delay gratification at all?
In the first instance, it's possible your delayed gratification "muscle" is weak from underuse, and/or simply never having been taught how to develop it. Again, this happens to us all, it's not exclusively a 'you thing', and no judgement is implied. How many of us have thought: "I'm worth it and I deserve this"? All, I'm sure, but delayed gratification and self-mastery is quite simply the single biggest characteristic of success; to habitually act without seeing the immediate result of your actions, is to ensure a successful life. Admittedly, this is simply said but excruciatingly applied but is true, nonetheless. You may want Thing A badly (e.g.: to stay in bed and not train in the rain), but when you want Thing B more (e.g.: to raise money for charity running the London marathon), well that's when your growth-through-resistance really kicks in and makes the right energy transactions happen.
Anyone who goes to the gym understands that forgoing the short-term pleasures and comfort of home is seriously worth the long-term health benefits of getting your sweat on. Sure, you can stay home, it's a free country, but self-mastery and delayed gratification means knowing you can (stay home) but deciding you won't - and that's character building: seeking to always do what is right, and not just what is easy.
So, when e.g.: you're next invited to an argument, practice the pause, evaluate whether this incitement to discord is worth the energy you will spend on and after it (because we all do post-argument post-mortems) and then choose not to engage if it's going to have been forgotten 5 years from now.
BIG EGOS ARE SHIELDS FOR LOTS OF EMPTY SPACE
Ask yourself if it's only your ego that has been offended during a disagreement, and whether that's really enough reason to spend your finite life equity defending it. Please consider learning how to neutralise your ego as quickly as possible, because no good will ever come from it. It's like having a gobshite younger cousin, who runs his mouth off at the hulking great bully, leaving you to face the inevitable consequences when trying to save him from himself. Shut your ego down whenever it is roused because you're only announcing your lack of self-awareness to the world, and who wants that?
First and foremost, you are pure energy and a spiritual being having a human experience, so when you consider how vast this realisation actually makes you, why in the world would you ever succumb to wrestling with mere pigs?
"Never wrestle with a pig. You'll both get dirty, but the pig likes it" - George Bernard Shaw
The purpose of this blog is to encourage you to fully realise and appreciate who and what you are, and then to unconditionally love, cherish and protect who you are. You are nothing less than pure infinite potential, so please start believing in your own true magnificence and stop wasting your energy on anything less.
Spend your energy as mindfully as you spend your money and watch in awe as the benefits continue to mount up.
