I have been known to say, “No amount of money is worth my happiness” and often I have heard this maxim playing in my mind when looking at a project, job or situation that is not in alignment with what I believe in or want to create in the world. I have sometimes wondered if it is selfish or arrogant to think I will only participate in things that make me happy or are somehow are an expression of my true purpose. Although more than anything, my maxim is about me not selling out to the man for a dollar. I just seem to be wired like that, and while I am GenX I think many of the GenY and Millennials crew feel the same way. I just want to know what my purpose is and I’ll do it. It's simple really.. ;)
Deep down in my psyche I also have a pattern which says, you need money or you will die. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs level one. Survival! Growing up in South Africa, where there is little or no welfare, it is pretty much true and you really have two survival options: work or crime. (Or I suppose you could just marry a rich guy, and in a way that could fall into the first category.) I find South Africa an extremely entrepreneurial culture because primarily the only work available to many people is getting out there and making a buck for themselves. There is a primal drive to survive which we all carry, and in some situations and countries that drive is closer to the surface and more obvious than others. So to this end people work the jobs to get the money to pay the bills. And I know this is a very real part of life on Earth. When we are in survival mode our purpose is to survive, and when we have our survival handled we can move onwards towards new purposes. I also think that every person no matter how poor can still dream and follow their heart and succeed.
In fact I think if we all learn to succeed following our heart’s desire it is the very thing that will turn this planet around.
And I also love love. I believe in love. I want to be surrounded by love and do things I love always. And I want everyone to be doing what they love too. If I believe all the books and ancient teachings out there which talk about our unique ability to create what we want in life, then I want loving to be infused through my whole life experience, and I want that for everyone else too. So if we indeed can get what we want, I say fuck doing things for money, let’s do them for love! And let’s make sure we succeed doing them.
More than anything we have evolved and we are seeing the shedding of the old ways for some time now, all around the world, from the GFC to the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street to Save The Oceans and the Non-GMO Project, Collaborative Consumption, a move towards experiences instead of things, Veganism, and now the Corona Virus Era is shaking the system. People are evolving and like a snake sheds it’s skin that no longer fits, so are people on earth shedding things which don’t fit inside their new consciousness and their emerging ideas of the world.