Confucious Quote
"A gentleman worries whether he will find the Way, he does not worry that he may remain poor."
Although most people will argue that money is the not the most important thing in their life, many people treat it like it is. Some thoughts on why I think this happens are below:
- People have a belief that if they worry about money now, then they won't have to worry about it in the future. On the one hand this makes sense, but on the other hand I think that worrying about money leads to more worrying about money.
For example, last week was mid-term week at NYU, and students were very stressed out. However, in the midst of this, one student I spoke with made the statement that if she wasn't worrying about her mid-terms, she would be worried about something else. I think that this is very true. We all look forward to the weekends, winter breaks, and summers of life, but are those times completely worry-free? Are they what we expect? For me and most people I know, something else seems to always come up. Yet, like a donkey following a carrot, we seem to believe that a change in our external environment (ie - school, work) is more important than a change in our mindset.
I would argue that one of the best ways to learn how not to be stressed is to learn how to be calm in the most difficult situations right now, in the present-moment. If we can accomplish this, then we can be calm anytime. Similarly, if we can learn to not worry about money even though we may have little at a given time, we can tear apart the invisible shackles that stop us from focusing on what's most important in life, whatever that may be for each of us.
- Most people raise their costs lock-step with their rise of income. In other words, people buy more stuff when they make more money and still end up worrying about money. Why is this? Is this because of 'culture', advertisements, or something else?
In the city, when I have the opportunity to speak with somebody who immigrated from another country (usually a poorer one), they talk about how Americans focus too much on money and not enough on family or community, like people in their own country do. Even though we're the richest country, we seem to worry about money the most.
In the end, I think the easiest way to stop worrying about money is not to make it conditional. Don't say, "If I make $'x', then I can be 'y'". Instead ask, "What can I do right now to be 'y'?" If we shift the conversation to thinking about what's important in life and going after it, perhaps we could find our Way.
Posted at October 21, 2003 11:18 AM
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