If I had a lot of money, I would do what I want to do.
It's such a romantic idea... "Doing what you/we want to do"
But more often than not, that's just what it is. A romantic idea... That's all.
Most people don't even know "what they want to do".
Most people relate what they want to do as... entertainment.
"Oh if I was super rich, I'd be going out all day, travel the world, eat and drink, buy stuff play..."
Like a weekend. People enjoy public holidays and weekends... well... COS THEY ARE RARE AND SPECIAL
What I'm going to say is going to be right against the grain.
And many people won't like the sound of it.
And it's not that ALL people don't know what they want to do, but MOST or A LOT OF people don't.
You see. Humans love stories... ideas... they love to buy into ideas.
When we go shopping, we look at a pretty tea set and we imagine ourselves... sitting down with some cakes on a weekend afternoon drinking from a pretty tea set having a luxurious afternoon tea... Oh such a pretty romantic idea. So we buy the expensive tea set.
Most often than not, we don't have the time, effort, energy to prep up the tea and cakes and sit down slowly for 2-3 hours having a nice afternoon tea... we just aren't in the habit of it. And maybe we do it once or twice then we get lazy and don't do it anymore.
This happens in a lot of other sales tactics.
Insurance agents/financial advisers know this. They paint a story. Imagine yourself at 50, wouldn't it be nice if you had a lump sum of money to fund your next holiday, or pay for your kids education, etc etc...
Real estate agents know this, they try to make the buyer imagine living in the place, and of course they will imagine the nice things, so sellers are sometimes encouraged to bake some cookies or bread to create a "smell of home" so that the buyer will have nostalgic feelings when they view the place.
The human brain is like this, it likes to imagine a lot of nice things.
Fantasize...
But more often than not, it isn't real. Not all the time, sometimes it's real. But more often than not, it's a fantasy. The romantic idea that sells well.
The idea that it's unattainable is beautiful.
Cos many/most people will not have enough finances to "do what they want to do".
So it's nice to have that dream that there's something better out there.
Having money or financial independence, or taking a sabbatical...
Doing "what you want to do..."
These things don't just fall upon your lap. Most of the time, we don't even KNOW what we want to do when we have money, or have too much free time.
We cherish our weekends and public holidays COS most people work 5-6 days a week.
So on weekend, most people will go out and spend the money they made during their 5-6 days of work. To enjoy the fruits of their labour, as they rightly should.
But when it comes to the day that they are really financially independent, or have a lot of free time, they usually don't know what they want to do.
Most people relate "what they want to do" as what they do on weekends. Play and entertain themselves.
BUT, if we live a life of entertainment and play when we are financially independent, well, we'll be out of money real soon.
I had a friend who took a 6 month sabbatical... usually people think about life during their sabbatical, what they want to do with their life, how they want to grow old, their direction, etc... for her, she went on a 6 month travelling binge. I'm sure it was fun, it was expensive. She could afford it. No problem there... But at the end of it, that's what it was. A 6 month holiday.
Cos... she wasn't used to having free time and exploring other interests. After 6 months, life went right back to normal, she just went back to work and life goes on again. No special enlightenment or goal in life. Just work til old then retire.
Nothing wrong with that... (I'll highlight the point below)
OK BUT for some people, they may have specific interests, some may want to be a musician, maybe set up a band and play at a bar or something. Sure... if they had financial independence, they could pursue such ambitions.
However, I would say for most of us, most people, really have no idea of what to do when we have all the time in the world and enough money, enough but not a lot of money.
Ok if you're rich, you can probably live a life of entertainment. With enough finances, one could play golf and travel and take care of grand kids. That could be a nice retirement with sufficient finances. And that's all fine.
Although that's hardly what most people mean when they talk about "what they want to do". Most people talk about "what they want to do" as ambitions, dreams. Things that they could be doing instead of working in their usual mundane job.
So what's the point of this post...
Well... "What you want to do" really isn't what it sounds like.
For most people...
"What you want to do" is an illusion. A beautiful illusion no doubt. Cos it's unlimited possibilities. A blank canvas that could be anything.
But yet when it comes the time to actually draw something. Most people wouldn't know what to draw or even how to draw.
If you don't agree with what I said.
Then I'd ask...
Ok then... IF you didn't need to work, then WHAT would you rather be doing?
"Anything" isn't an answer. Cos "anything" could be anything, cos you don't know. That's the point.
Most likely, the next available answer would be <insert anything that you would do on weekends or for entertainment>.
Or people would say they would go and travel. Well... how much can you travel?
365 days a year? For 20 years? Doubt that's possible.
Even entertainment gets boring after a while. It's only fun cos it's rare. Weekends are fun cos they are 2 days out of 7.
So for today, my question to you is... Ask yourself... Do you really know "What you want to do?".
Or is it that... actually you don't know.
Ends up, most people just know they don't want to work, but they don't know what they want to do.
A lot of difference between the two.
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