What Moves You?

It is possible to live a life of fulfillment, happiness, and success, provided of course that you set appropriate goals.

Financial success is a great start, but more is needed. Because no matter how much you earn, you are still you. Foster a lifestyle that turns your work into play. That enables you to survive off an activity that you love to do, that brings true value to the world, and has inherent meaning. This talk will act as a springboard to making that dream into reality.

Transcript

What moves you?

What do you enjoy?

What do you wish existed?

What puts you into a state of flow?

What do you do for fun?

Focus your efforts there.

Money,

Fame and rewards may come in time,

But don't let materialism drive you.

It's a fickle dream that can never be reached.

How much is enough?

Always more.

Thus,

You will never be satisfied.

Never truly happy.

Instead,

You should embrace the process.

You should embrace the process.

Let your actions speak for themselves.

Let the art take centre stage.

Open yourself to the muse.

Let it work through you.

Let it guide your hand and buttress you with self-imposed discipline.

Success is an internal state.

No level of external reward can replace your inner truth.

So have fun.

Lean into projects that bring you joy and make your work another form of play.

There is a temptation to make a financial figure the goal of all our pursuits.

To make a certain income,

Or a certain amount of money in the bank,

Or assets,

Or a lifestyle as THE goal.

There are multiple problems with this approach though.

If your goal is purely financial,

Purely a number,

And you have that goal because you think that getting to it will bring you joy or happiness,

You will very quickly find that the attainment of that financial goal doesn't.

And the reason is that after a certain point,

Money doesn't bring happiness.

Research puts the figure somewhere between $60,

000 to $100,

000 per year.

Varied of course for location and familial circumstances.

But why is this the case?

At around that,

Let's average it $80,

000 figure,

Money becomes not useless,

But it doesn't really give you anything more.

At least anything more in terms of functionality.

You've got a car,

You've got a house,

You've got the ability to eat the food you want,

To do roughly the recreational activities you want,

Take the occasional holiday,

And make some savings.

You have what you need,

So you are basically set.

Now,

This isn't to say that people at or above that level wouldn't want more money.

Of course they would.

But it is important to realise that a better car,

For example,

Doesn't do anything for functionality.

Once you have a car that works,

That gets you to and from work,

That enables you to shop and to travel,

What does a better car actually give you?

Whilst a better car would of course be preferable,

It does nothing to impact our functionality.

A Toyota does the same job as a Ferrari.

Both get stuck in traffic,

And both allow us to pick up the family and do chores.

Both cars,

Despite their difference in cost and quality,

Serve the same function.

You can apply this same logic to a house,

To holidays,

To gadgets,

To everything.

Once you have a certain level of attainment,

The functional changes are non-existent.

Yes,

With more money,

These things will be of a better quality.

But ultimately,

A home is a home,

And a holiday is a holiday.

The thing is,

You are still you when you go on that holiday.

You are still you when you're driving that car.

It's just that you're staying in the fancier hotel.

You're just eating a bit more expensive foods.

And herein lies the problem.

As your income rises,

So will your habits and expectations.

You will have more money,

So you will spend more money.

You can now afford the little luxuries,

So you will spend on those little luxuries.

The thing is,

Humans are very adaptable and rarely satisfied.

So you will very quickly get used to having a lower income,

Or getting used to having a higher income.

Once again,

Once you're past that $80,

000 mark,

The money becomes irrelevant to happiness.

Like I said,

I want to reiterate,

There is always a desire to want more.

This drive,

People will call it greed,

But really,

It's a survival mechanism.

Because money can be converted into almost anything,

We have a desire,

A primal safety mechanism of sorts,

To always want more.

But with all this in mind,

If a monetary figure is the goal,

If it is your drive,

You will find that as you get more money,

Your tastes will go up.

Your preferences will go up in value,

And you will find that all of a sudden,

That amazing figure that once seemed so out of reach and ridiculous,

Will quickly seem run of the mill.

And those goalposts will scale.

You might want an income of $100,

000 or $1 million,

Or whatever it is.

As you reach that goal,

You will set a higher and higher goal.

So either,

You will be left in a state where you can never attain your goal,

Or you will find that the attainment of the goal that you did set doesn't bring you joy.

Let's break it down here.

Let's say your goal was to reach $1 million in the bank.

Just an arbitrary figure,

Whatever.

And let's imagine that you are $1 away from that figure.

Are you now not happy?

Would getting literally $1 make you exponentially happier?

I think not.

After a certain point,

Money is no longer a motivator.

It just doesn't give you anything of extra value.

After you've got the necessities of life.

And you can look up countless stories of rich people who are on exorbitant amounts of money who are just not happy.

And similarly,

Find many stories of regular people on average incomes who,

Once they've got their needs met,

Are exceptionally happy.

So how do we make sure that we are living a happy and fulfilled life?

Because the question is,

Would you prefer to be rich and unhappy,

Or just be getting by but very happy?

I don't know about you,

But I choose the second option.

Because what's the point of money,

Or stuff,

If you're not happy to enjoy it?

Just to drive home this point once more,

Think of the last major purchase you made.

It might have been a phone,

Or a laptop,

Or a car,

Or some other physical purchase.

You were looking forward to it,

Excited.

And when you got it,

You had this elation feeling.

You'd finally gotten the thing.

But very quickly,

Potentially immediately,

Your mood drops.

You are now worried about the thing breaking.

You are now worried about maintaining your status.

You are now worried about getting the next thing on your list.

So now you realize that there's always something more to go for.

There's always more to get.

And getting stuff is not the way to happiness.

At least not lasting,

Real happiness.

A better approach would be to look at yourself as a process.

Look at yourself as the actions you take.

Start moving down a path that makes your work feel like play.

Consider the things you do for leisure.

Consider the things you would do if you had an infinite amount of time and money.

What would you commit your mind to?

Is it possible to make that sort of thing a job?

Is it possible to go down that path and earn money?

There is a Japanese saying called Ikagi.

It basically suggests that you will find happiness and meaning if your work has the following four things.

Can you find a task that is something you love,

Something the world needs,

Something that you are good at doing,

And something that you can be paid for?

That is,

Something you love,

Something the world needs,

Something you are good at doing,

And something that you can be paid for.

Now,

Don't get me wrong.

I know that this is obviously sounding idealistic.

And of course,

No matter what you do,

There will be parts of it that you don't like.

So the real question becomes,

Can you reduce that as much as possible?

Now,

Yes,

This may come at the temporary cost of a loss of income.

It may come with risk.

But I ask you this.

In one year,

Five years,

Ten or twenty years,

If you don't take this risk now,

If you don't take a chance and move towards something that you want to be doing,

Where will you be?

Likely in the exact same position you are now,

Looking back,

Wishing you took action all of those years ago.

Remember,

Money,

Titles,

And things are great.

But they are more like the condiments on top of an amazing meal,

Right?

You are not going to just eat those things and be satisfied.

Don't get me wrong.

They improve the meal and make it better.

But alone,

They are a little substance.

I would prefer to have more money than less,

Provided that the way I earn money can itself bring me joy.

It is important to realize that no matter where you find yourself,

No matter what your enjoyments are,

There will be a career path out there for you.

You just need to think a little bit outside of the box.

But in today's online interconnected world,

It's certainly a possibility.

Think about what you do for leisure.

There will be ways to make an income in that area.

Can you compete in it and earn a sponsorship?

Can you commentate,

Blog or podcast about it?

Can you coach or teach it in person or online?

Can you sell it or supply it?

Are there related supplementary industries around it that you can get involved in?

If you or other people pay money to do a thing,

There is money to be made in that thing.

It means that there is money there,

Provided that you are willing to take a risk and act.

So the real question is,

How long will you go down the path of unhappiness just to earn money?

I suggest that you find something that moves you and take action down that path.

Make your work play.

Make your work play and you'll be infinitely happier.

And it won't matter how much you are getting paid,

Because you'll be doing it for fun.

You'll be doing it for free,

But now you just happen to be getting paid for it as well.

It may sound like a pie in the sky dream,

But you can take actions towards your goals.

You just have to risk that first step.

You just have to eat the cost of your actions.

Because at least initially it will cause a drop of income,

Prestige and possibly external respect.

But you need to try,

For your own sake,

For your happiness.

What moves you?

What do you enjoy?

What do you wish existed?

What puts you into a state of flow?

Focus your efforts there.

Money,

Fame and rewards may come in time,

But don't let materialism drive you.

It's a fickle dream that can never be reached.

How much is enough?

Always more.

Thus,

You'll never be satisfied,

Never truly happy.

Instead,

You should embrace the process.

Embrace the process.

Let your actions speak for themselves.

Let the art take centre stage.

Open yourself to the muse.

Let it work through you.

Let it guide your hand and buttress you with self-imposed discipline.

Success is an internal state.

No level of external reward can replace your inner truth.

So have fun.

Lean into the projects that bring you joy.

And make your work another form of play.

Reviews

An excellent, inspiring talk. Thank you 🙏

Hi Zachary,
what a great idea to “let it work through your” and “make your work a play”!
I would fully subscribe to what you are saying.
Only one point I would see differently: I would not try to make a loved hobby my work and try to earn money on it.
For example, I love to dance Tango, but I would never want to become a Tango teacher ...
Best, Joe

good message advice for any transition one is contemplating. Thanks for posting