Some would say that “time is money” and that is true, but more true is that time is better than money, the time to do what you want.  Choosing to live more simply, to spend less time working and acquiring things, frees up our time, so that we have more time to live, to think, to spend time with friends and family building relationships, and to help those who need us.  

So much of what we spend our money on is a way of coping with our hectic lives, hectic because we work so much so that we can have the money to spend.  We are stressed out because our lives are so busy; our work unfulfilling; our homes filled with stuff that insists we care for it; our family are strangers to us; we don’t get enough sleep, exercise; don’t eat right and don’t have time to think.  In an attempt to feel better, to ease the frantic ache and nagging emptiness that we feel, we eat out, eat too much and watch too much TV; go on vacations that require their own special set of stuff; we buy CDs, books, video games, DVDs, bigger TVs, nicer cars, more clothes, etc.  We are trying to buy happiness, but what we are really buying is a ticket to ride the American Dream bullet train straight away from any hope of a fulfilling life.

Try this simple exercise. Make a list of the ten activities you enjoy most. Then make another list of the ten activities that occupy most of your time. Compare the two lists and try not to cry.  

© Salahub 2003